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Heated holding tanks

roborauroborau Member Posts: 7
in Camping & Travel
Just purchased a new 2025 tab 320 that has the tank heaters on it….. Trying to figure out how to use them…. If they are used keep the fresh water tank and grey tank freezing, but what about rest of plumbing during freezing temps? Does the Alde system help keep the pipes from freezing? If no, unsure the benefit of having them.  Thanks!
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  • pthomas745pthomas745 Administrator, Moderator Posts: 4,437
    The water tanks would be difficult to "freeze" enough to cause any damage. Unless, of course, you live somewhere below freezing for months at a time.  They sound nice as a selling point, but if you are already in the trailer camping in cold weather and using the Alde, your trailer would be warm enough already.
    There are places in the trailer that the Alde cannot help, such as the gray tank drain valve.  
    Whenever the conversation gets around to "what can I do to keep the trailer from having freeze damage" the best answer is always "drain the trailer and winterize".  

    But, that answer is still very much "weather dependent".  If you happen to be out camping and suddenly the weather is forecast to be well below freezing and you are not prepared to winterize, I'm sure I would use the tank heaters.  
    There are a lot of threads about the heaters that might answer the question better than I can.  Some owners really do "push the envelope" on winter camping, so there tank heating mods really help them pull it off.  

    An owner on the FB pages the other day told me he has some basic heated tank mods, but he also has installed "k type digital temperature sensors" on the fresh and gray tanks.  He gave me this basic information on his 2022 400 and what he learned from watching the temp sensors.
    "I have made several modifications to our 400 such that we have successfully camped with full water systems in use down to 17F at night get and daytime highs in the upper 20’s.
    I have a low cost thermal couple telling me the temperatures at 4 different locations on the camper. It is surprising just how warm the water remains in the fresh and grey tanks. They have remained over 45F when the outside temperature is at 17F. Very happy with that.
    Note: ( I have added 3 valves to the Pex lines upstream from the existing 3 low point drain valves. I then leave the 3 factory valves open as they are not holding back any water.
    I have found the weakest link to be the grey water dump valve.
    Regarding this valve, I did add a very low energy use 12v heat tape around both the black and the grey valves and then wrapped both with thin flexible foam insulation followed by black electrical tape. They look almost original and have served us well all while camping off grid.



    2017 Outback
    Towed by 2014 Touareg TDi
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  • roborauroborau Member Posts: 7
    Thank you so much for your insight on this topic….. We live in Georgia so winter camping is our favorite time to camp, so definitely will work to find ways to keep things warm when we fet freezing temps.
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  • BinghiBinghi Member Posts: 395
    We’ve done outside temps as low as 20F without freeze damage. I would set the Alde thermostat at 65F or above at night to keep the water supply lines from freezing.

    In freezing weather I fill the fresh water tank and put the Nautilus in dry camping mode, then disconnect the water hose from the City Water inlet. Don’t want a frozen hose or hose connection to the trailer. I also stuff towels in the Nautilus compartment to ward off the cold.
    2021 400 BD / 2016 VW Touareg / Austin, TX
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