How To Install RV Tank Heaters - 4 Season RV Upgrade
Everything I used in this install can be found here https://fullmoonadventureclub.com/col... Installing RV tank heaters is simple and cheap if you can do it yourself. This video will show you step by step how I installed mine. If I can do it then so can you. You need some basic tools and about half a day for this install.
Getting Started And Finding Your Tank SizeThe first thing that you're going to need to do is figure out how big your RV tanks are so you can get the appropriate heater pad for those tanks. You can do this very easily by getting underneath the RV and then measuring the distance of the heater so you wanna take Height times width times length and multiply those together. Once you have that number you're going to divide it by 231 which will give you Gallons. So for example 40 inches times 20 inches times 20 inches equals 16,000 inches then you divide 16,000 inches by 231 and that will equal 69 gallons. So you can approximate that the tank that you just measured Has a 69 gallon capacity. Now you just get the appropriate tank heater that will work successfully with the 69 gallon tank.
RV Tank Surface Preparation
In this video I'm going to be showing you how to install tank heaters for your RV black and grey water tanks. This will get you one step closer to having a 4 seasons RV that you can use during snowy or cold conditions. This is not really a hard install and I was able to complete it after about a half of a day . Step one is going to be cleaning the surface area of the black tanks that you're going to be installing the heating pads on. To do this you can scrub them with a wire brush and then using hot soapy water clean the entire surface area where the pad is to be installed. The last step of the cleaning process is to use rubbing alcohol to make sure that all the fine particulate matter is off of the tank and make Sure is nice and clean and ready for the pads.
Attaching The RV Tank Heater Pads
Make sure that you attached the pads is close to the outlet of the tank as possible. what I mean by that is the outlet of the tank where your pipes go for the sewer connection. This will make sure that your pads are located on the lowest point of the tank and will also help to keep your pipes from freezing. Now you just take your pad and start to remove the film on the back. And then position the pad exactly where you wanted and begin applying pressure from one side all the way to the other. Now that the pad is securely in place where you want it you need to massage the entire pad Pressing down with a lot of pressure to activate the adhesive. You should make sure that the pad is in full contact with the tank at all points or else the pad itself could overheat. If you have a bevel in your tank which is a large square dip You can form the pad into that bevel By slowly working it down Inside the bevel. Now you just repeat these steps for the second pad and we're ready to wire up the system.
Wiring Installation
Now you need to come up with a plan of attack for running your wiring. Make sure you plan your roots and figure out the best ways and pathways to run all of your wiring from your pads to a 12 Volt power source. I'm going to be using 14 gauge wiring Because it is rated to handle up to 15 amps Of DC power . Each one of these tank heaters draws under 5 amps while active. So this wire will enable me to run all 3 of those pads off of this wiring . It's important to note that you can just ground all of these pads to the frame of the RV in that will work just fine as a ground and will save you some wiring in the process. However, I am not going to do that and I will be running my ground wire all the way from my pads to the electrical system. So now I'm going to take my yellow red and black wires black being the ground, yellow being a positive, and the red also being a positive, and I'm going to take enough length of wire to make sure that I can complete my install. Make sure that you leave yourself a little bit of extra wire as it is always better to have too much rather than not enough. Now you need to protect all your wiring using a PVC protective sleeve so that the wires don't get rubbed or damaged being exposed to the elements. Once you have connected all the wires appropriately it's time to make sure that you use electrical tape to tape everything off and make sure no water or dirt and debris is gonna get inside of your PPC protective sleeve. The last step is to go ahead and zip ties the entire length of wire 2:30 structures underneath the RV making sure to avoid pinch points like Springs or any other moving parts. We can now move on to the second video where I will show you how to wire all of this into your power and switch plate.