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luv2rid · 10-28-2010, 06:41 PM

The heater in my 98 Tropical constantly kicks on and off and will drain the house atteries in no time. I spoke to the original owner and he said he always used an electric heater when he camped in the winter because of this.

My question is, do most people use a portable heater to keep the MH heater use to a minimum or is there an issue with my heater. It only kicks off for a few minutes then back on again. It kills the batteries in no time. I have the original 4 button thermostat, which is having some other issues, and may be causing this also.

Thanks

GENECOP · 10-28-2010, 06:46 PM

If I am plugged in my batts do not drain although the LP heater will kick on and off during the night. Boondocking is different, my house batts do drain quickly while my LP heat is on with no electrical hookup. G....

two slides · 10-28-2010, 07:45 PM

while a propane furnace will drain a battery in a short time, it should last last overnite. my National RV has 2 Trojan Brand 6 volt golf cart batteries
(125 series I think) & can last overnite. if I am hooked-up to electric, I also use 2 ceramic heaters. but remember, your furnace also heats your holding tanks, so if it's really cold it needs to keeps cycling on & off to keep tanks from freezing. made that mistake several years ago in Bozeman, Montana--relied on ceramic heaters too much and took several hours of furnace running to thaw out fresh water tank.

luv2rid · 10-28-2010, 08:44 PM

Yeah, from what little I understand so far, if you have a converter and are plugged in, it should be no problem. I don't have a converter anymore. The previous owner didn't replace it when it broke and just put a battery charger/maintainer in instead. So anytime I use 12 VDC, it comes straight from the battery with hopes that the charger will maintain the battery. This is something I think I am going to have to remedy pretty quickly. Especially since my wife figures if we're connected to shore power, EVERYTHING can be turned on!! It will last overnight, but that's about it.

Thanks for the info on the heater keeping the holding tanks, and I assume plumbing, warm. That could have been a bad experience.