Heating Pads for 50 Gallon Fresh Water Tank

Question:

My 50 gallon fresh water tank is very long and shallow. It is 5 foot long x 3 foot wide x 5.5 inch deep. Would 1 of # 277-000163 25 inch x 7-1/4 and 2 of 277-000161 13 inch x 3 provide adequate heat for 50 gal? What is the optimal placement of the pads centered on the tank near the pump hose outlet, or near the edges? Can it be effective when applied to an exposed, non-enclosed tank? Or would they just run constantly and the tank would freeze anyway because with no enclosure , the heat would just disapate, because the pad cannot heat the whole outdoors?

asked by: Daniel

Expert Reply:

For your 50 gallon fresh water tank you will want to use two of the ThermaHeat RV Holding Tank or Step Heater Pad w/ Thermostat # 277-000163 wired together. You can use the ThermaHeat Elbow Heating Pad # 277-000161 as well, but this is a pad for 3 inch pipes so you will want to put it there as opposed to your tank. You can wire these together in parallel by "daisy-chaining" each of the red wires together and connecting them to your RV's battery; you will then also daisy-chain the white ground wires from the pads. They can be turned on and off with a rocker switch such as # PK34310; you can use the accompanying diagram to see how they would all be wired.

The pads should be placed on the bottom of your tank and there isn't an optimal position on the tank; since you are using two of these you can spread them out a bit and that will give you adequate heating for your entire tank. As for effectiveness when applied to an exposed tank, the # 277-000163 pads have a thermostat which reads the temperature of the tank and not the outside temperature. So when the tank reaches 45 degrees it will turn on, regardless of the outside temperature. It will continue to run until the tank reaches 67 degrees and if the tank is exposed that would be more more difficult than if it is enclosed.

expert reply by: Kyle S