Heater

[jimmoore13]

The furnace in our first PUP was loud, and we used to camp at RV parks, so I bought a ceramic cube style heater, and I even added a second hookup and a dedicated 20 amp outlet for the heater under the dinette (to keep it out of the way).
Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Brightown-Por...ag=googhydr-20
No oscillation or other monkey motion. Just a dead simple, very compact heater.

The beauty of one of these is that the fan circulates the heat throughout the cabin far better than convection from an oil-filled heater does. Meanwhile, there is a thermostat to cycle the heater element on and off to maintain the proper cabin temp. The fan is not silent, but it is continuous, so you don't get startled in the night with the starting and stopping of the conventional popup camper furnace. These are FAR more compact than an oil filled heater...an important consideration in a small popup.

When we got the next, larger PUP, we stopped park camping and boondocked exclusively. No more electric heater, because there was no shore power. But, I still used the heater at home when temps are close to freezing. There is NO underbelly in a PUP, and with the camper folded up, it could heat the interior to 80 degrees or more to ensure the peripherals were not in danger of freezing on a cold night. In rough weather, all I had to do was open the low point drains, the fresh tank drain, and turn on the heater.

The rest of the time, it fit nicely in a cabinet, out of the way.

[440 scout]

Originally Posted by RichCarter

Our roof mounted AC is supposed to have an option for an electric heater. It doesn't reverse the AC cycle. It's just a heater coil. I scanned through the owner's manuals and poked my nose in the AC unit to see how I might hook one up, but it appears that the digital thermostat is not setup to make use of the option. Our camper, and probably many of the late model Jayco RVs, has a single thermostat to control both the gas furnace and AC unit. I see no way to control the optional AC heater element. Has anyone else looked into this?

Rich, I think I have what you're talking about, some people call them a chill chaser. Its an electric heating coil, approx 1500 watts and mounts onto the condensate pan at the air inlet to the cooling coil of your A/C from inside the camper. In this case its Coleman Mach that has the 2 controls mounted to the unit itself. If your A/C is a Coleman Mach, verify that the heating coil can be added by removing both plastic covers from the ceiling and look for the yellow label that tells you about the coil. If so, its pretty much a plug and play install. On my 5th wheel, it had an A/C only t-stat but it had the extra wire in the cable for heat so I bought the correct t-stat and can select the different modes. I think if your A/C will accept the chill chaser then you might be able to add a switch to select between the 2 different heating modes. The chill chaser has been discussed before and if your camper is under 20' it can keep you warm down to the teens. It keeps our Jayco 195RB warm but its small at 19' with no slides. Good luck!

[wabirch]

Lasko, with a 12 gauge extension cord.

[SmokerBill]

Last night it got down to 27 degrees. I had both my electric heaters set up, and woke up at 1AM with the temperature at a hot 78 degrees. I think the 6 inches of loose snow on my roof added a bit of insulation. LOL

[RichCarter]

RE: Chill Chaser
There are no controls on my AC unit. Everything is controlled by the wall mounted digital thermostat. This thing assumes a gas furnace and electric AC unit. I think it's a Dometic unit but I can't be sure. The instructions that came with it reference an optional heater element, but they are generic instructions for the product line. I haven't opened the unit to inspect for a heater harness. I suspect that if this could work, a change would be needed in the thermostat to select gas/electric heating. This probably implies more wiring from the wall to the ceiling. I suspect that Jayco didn't install extra wire. A google search on the subject doesn't show any results.

[TomTerrific]

We have an electric fireplace in our 31mls which draws 12 amps (1500 watts) and we bought a little 750/ 1500 watt floor standing unit (Walmart) which compliments in living room keeps us warm without the propane heater into the mid '20s. We turn it off for microwave, hair dryer, toaster use. We move to the bathroom shower at night so we can turn it on in early morning before we get up.

[Elefantdude]

Thanks for the info Kirkelli. I used to live in AZ for 30 years and now about the Monsoon Season there :-)
I am in the Bay Area now (East Bay) and it isn't as humid here. Love my Mr. Heater!

[Jay2504]

We use 2 cheap Walmart ceramic heaters. Either run one or both on low 750 watt setting. I have found out over the years that a lot of use at the high 1500 watt setting eventually causes an internal circuit breaker to start popping, at least on the different units that I have had. On the Lo setting they seem to last forever. One of ours will pop it’s internal breaker in about 5-10 minutes on high but will run for days on Lo. Jay