Grand Experiment #2 - Winter camping

[pconroy]

We really enjoy winter camping. But two years ago, the wind picked up and the weather dipped into the mid-teens at night. We woke up to frozen pipes. I'd already crawled underneath and used pipe wrap on all of the pipes I could find. But we still froze up.

Last winter, I just winterized with The Pink Stuff before going to bed. It worked, but it's been nagging on me to see if I could improve the situation.

Over the year, I'd been wondering if it was possible to keep the pipes warm. In February of 2020, I experimented with some roof deicing heat cable:

- The Quest for a Slightly Less Dumb Home

and

- The Quest for a Slightly Less Dumb Home


Today I decided to give it a go. Crawled under the thing and tried to get 20 feet of heat cable as "next to" the pipes as I could. There were a few places where no hand could reach. So I put the heat cable in pipe wrap and kind'a pushed it down the pipe best I could.

I'm sure I didn't get it all. And I'm sure that the 10% of the places I miss will probably end up being critical to stay thawed. We'll see. I was under the RV for probably three or four hours for just twenty feet. It was not fun...

But come winter, I'll give it a go.
We'll see if I'm able to keep the pipes thawed and water flowing when the temps drop into the teens.

[GM'sEnvoy]

Hey neighbor! Admire your tenacity. Hope it works and I may try the same approach. Have thought about it but never attempted. Will be looking forward to your results.

[Jagiven]

Good for you. It is surprising the reach heat tape has. I have a strip of it under my drip edge on my house. I get a bit of ice build up that rolls over the leaf gaurd gutters(metal caps), and will get icicles. When I turn it on, within a day or two, there is no ice within a foot or so of the cable.