Can The THermaHeat Heating Pad Be Installed On A Tankless Water Heater To Keep It From Freezing

Question:

Afternoon. I am preparing my new tankless hot water heater on my house for winter. I am going to use electric wire wrap on the pipes but I still have a large open void within the bottom pipe area cover. I believe the thermaheater rv holding tank heater pad would be a good solution to keeping this area warm to help prevent freezing from very cold days. The pictures show the tank and bottom cover area and this area, in the front is where I would adhere the mat. The unit does have a bottom metal cover. Question - Can the pad be used on 110V current? My idea is to set an outdoor elect on/off box beside the unit and hardwire the pipe wrap and mat to the switch. Do you see any issues other than electric with trying to use the heat pad for this application? Thank You. If this works, you might have a whole need market to tap into :

asked by: Jay M

Expert Reply:

The ThermaHeat RV Holding Tank or Step Heater Pad # 277-000164 requires 13.5v DC in order to operate so you would need to get some sort of converter to drop the voltage to a safe level for the pad. This heater pad should be installed on non-conductive surfaces only though so it wouldn't be the best option for attaching to metal on your water heater.

With your heater being tankless you should only need to insulate the pipes the inlet and outlet water pipes with some foam pipe covers that you can get at your local hardware store.

expert reply by: Kevin C