Removing Tank Heat Pads

[Ontario Don]

Hi - Has anyone removed the adhesive backed tank heat pads that Winnebago installed on your black and grey tanks?

If so, how did you do it? Heat gun? Alcohol on the adhesive? ?

Our Therma Heat tank pads have never worked in sub-zero temperatures - they only pull .6 amps apiece, instead of the advertised 5 or 6 amps.

Thanks,

[bigb]

Originally Posted by Ontario Don

Hi - Has anyone removed the adhesive backed tank heat pads that Winnebago installed on your black and grey tanks?

If so, how did you do it? Heat gun? Alcohol on the adhesive? ?

Our Therma Heat tank pads have never worked in sub-zero temperatures - they only pull .6 amps apiece, instead of the advertised 5 or 6 amps.

Thanks,

One of mine nearly came off so I wouldn't think they are too hard to remove. I re-installed it with some 3M 8090 and put an edge border of foil tape around it.
I wonder how you are testing? The pads will not come on until they sense the colder temperature, if there is liquid in your tanks it could be warm enough to prevent the pads from coming on for a long time. The elbow heaters are not thermostatically controlled though, they will come on whenever the switch is on. I could not get mine to work even with ice until I got some dry ice from Safeway, pressed that on the little bulge where the thermistor is located and they came on in seconds.

[Ontario Don]

bigb - Thanks for your info.

We are just starting our third season of cold temperature camping in our ‘21 View, so for my troubleshooting this year I’ve been using the real thing: sub zero temperatures. I’ve run the wiring all the way through the system, including the Winnebago tank heat relay powered by the water pump circuit, rewired things downstream of the relay, and finally installed an ammeter in the circuit to see what was going on. The relay is good, tank heat circuit power is getting to the pads, but at temps less than the advertised 45F the pads are not meeting the design wattage. I finally just cut the Winnebago wires and tested the pads independently, and confirmed the low amperage that both my battery monitor and my circuit ammeter were giving me - about a tenth of what they are supposed to pull. I had not guessed that both pads would be bad - I could have saved a ton of time if I had tested the pads individually when I started this process a long time ago.

If and when I get them off in the spring I think I will have a look at bypassing the thermostat or checking the elements themselves. If I can get them working, I’ll look at gluing them back on. The Web is full of reports of “out of the factory double, and even triple, failures that take dealers and owners months and years to figure out. Premature failures are being reported routinely as well. Sounds like you have got two of the good ones!

Another winter camping season with pink stuff in the tanks for us …

Cheers,

[bigb]

Mine are Ultra Heat brand and once registered online they carry a lifetime warranty https://www.ultraheat.com/warranty-registration (3rd paragraph of warranty statement)

[Ontario Don]

Ok thanks. I’ve got Ultra Heat products on our dump valves, and we’ve had no issues so far. I’ll give the Ultra Heat tank heaters some thought; the company was very helpful when asking questions about the valve pads.

Cheers,