Heater in van in winter?

grumpy2

Guest
Advice needed please, We are new to motorhoming the vban will be usedon odd occasions through winter But=

Should i put a heater on low in the van when it is layed up or a dehumidifier?

Blinds shut or open?

Internal silver screens up or not?

Sorry if this has been asked before but i can not see a posting for it , thanking you all for your input,
grumpy2 aka Ron
 
Main problem to solve is how to keep all the water lines and tanks and traps from freezing up - either when parked or on the road.
You will either have to drain all water and leave it drained and get your water from containers carried with you, or make sure nothing gets cold enough to freeze - again, either on the road or parked up.

Even if you have substantial heating inside the van and leave cupboard doors open to let heat get to the lines, many vans have external water and grey tanks and water lines which are just about impossible to stop from freezing. Insulating them all does no good at all unless there is some sort of heating inside the insulation as well.

All it takes is for an internal water line to be resting up against an uninsulated bit of cladding and even having a decent winterised van won't stop the line from freezing
 
heat or not

Will be interesting to read comments on this topic I leave a nite storage heater in van thru winter months and take it out when we use van. I leave external screens on
 
in winter its best to winterize your van in spain or morocco . found it works best. no damp and lovely and warm. unless you go up mountains etc . portugal can be a bit wet but far better than uk.
 
I have the van on the EHU at night to keep the batteries fully charged and the Webasto blown air heater set to a low
heat setting. All the tanks are empty and hopefully so are the lines and fuses pulled so fiddly passengers can't switch
on the hot water heater. (Drilled a hole under the front door and ran out a dedicated EHU lead which stays in situ).

I also bought a £30 ceramic tabletop heater from Argos which has frost protection from 5C and when the weather goes
really bad that will be going into the van as well as a backup should the Webasto 'hickup' and fail to startup in the middle
of the night.

Hopefully those measures will ensure that the van remains warm and dry all over the winter when parked.

I use the van everyday as my main vehicle so daytime isn't a problem, and as someone else mentioned I just carry a 5litre
container of water should it be needed....if I'm going to use the van for a stayaway then I will refill the water tanks. I don't
put the internal screens on.
 
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I have one of the following from Screwfix, part number = 80336 Winterwarm Tubular Wall Hung Heater 60W | Screwfix.com

It is only 60w so doesn't use a lot of electric and can be left on from the start of winter right through till spring and not cost the earth.

Mine is actually fixed under the 'fixed bed' so if we do go on a site with electric in the winter I have this on and it keeps the bed warm !!
 
Thanks all, will drain water and put heater in on low. OR i could go to spain!!! oh forgot got 2 work bugger.
 
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