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Old 03-28-2007, 03:30 PM   #1
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I have a 2005 Itasca Meridian. This winter, the basement water lines froze at outside temps around 25 degrees, and with the LP furnace running. Any suggestions on allowing colder camping?
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Old 03-28-2007, 03:30 PM   #2
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I have a 2005 Itasca Meridian. This winter, the basement water lines froze at outside temps around 25 degrees, and with the LP furnace running. Any suggestions on allowing colder camping?
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Old 03-28-2007, 03:48 PM   #3
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I have camped in freezing weather and not had my water lines freeze, though I'm not sure how cold I have camped in. Your coach should be able to handle 25F with the LP furnace running.

I would suggest you look for air leaks in your basement compartments. This is the only explanation I could think of, assuming your heater vents are plummed into the basement compartments as designed.

I would also suggest a call to Winnie customer service to discuss, as they could tell you what temps you should be able to encounter w/o freezing.
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Old 03-28-2007, 03:56 PM   #4
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Eric:

Welcome to the forum . You will find lot's of helpful folks here.

I have a 2002 Journey, sister to the Meridian. If your water compartment is like mine, the pump and incoming water lines are not well protected from cold and it does not appear that compartment gets much heat from the furnace. I had the pump freeze (without damage ) on a very cold night. I put a small space heater in that compartment and had no problems. The compartment bottom is thin metal with no insulation. I've heard other folks adding some insulation to the compartment floor and it helps if you add a 100 watt bulb (can use a trouble light).
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Old 03-28-2007, 04:19 PM   #5
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IVE NEVER HAD THAT PROBLEM BUT THEN I LIVE IN FORT MYERS FL TEMP TODAY WAS 88 I SUGGEST YOU MOVE ...BUT NOT HERE WE ARE FULL
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Old 03-29-2007, 12:27 AM   #6
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Eric Hennen:
I have a 2005 Itasca Meridian. This winter, the basement water lines froze at outside temps around 25 degrees, and with the LP furnace running. Any suggestions on allowing colder camping? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Eric,

Did you have a good seal around your shore power cord, sewer and water hoses comming out of your service compartments? If these are opened or have large enough gaps to let in a draft you will have more trouble keeping things from freezing.

At 25 degrees there should not be a big problem with freezing unless you are talking about a high temp of 25 degress during the day and sub zero at night. Many then find that hanging a 60 or 100 watt drop light in the sewer compartment is all that is needed even when it drops below zero at night.
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Old 03-29-2007, 04:08 AM   #7
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Man having just come from Ft. Myers Fl. I can attest it is full to overflowing.
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Old 03-29-2007, 05:34 AM   #8
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I have used "60 watt trouble lights" in two places in my coach when I thought there was any danger of freezing ... namely next to the water pump and next to the dump valves

I know of one person that bought a Honeywell thermostatic outlet (TrueValue Hardware) and set it for 35 degrees ... and plugged a trouble light into that so that it came on whenever the temp in his storage bay fell below 35 ...

I just plugged and unplugged mine manually ... generally just overnight
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Old 03-29-2007, 05:40 AM   #9
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Eric, After dealing with the freezing problem for a year, I came up with this fix. I installed an electrical outlet in my water compartment. I then plugged a thermostat and 60 garage door light into the receptacle. It comes on at 34 degrees. See the photos
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Old 03-29-2007, 06:15 AM   #10
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Hello;
I aggree with Eric, I put one of those cerramic heaters from WM. I ran an extertion cord. set it to app. 45DG.
Camped/lived in tempts at 19 this winter, Fallon NV. for about 10 days.
I also put a wireless temp sensor in the compartment to to keep an eye on it.

c'ya
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Old 03-29-2007, 10:26 AM   #11
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Thanks, LK23! Elegant solution. I'm going to do it! Ebay has "Thermo Cubes" for $14 each.
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