# Your Furnace Supplemented By A Ceramic Heater



## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Hello all:

Because I'm a light sleeper and wake up every single time the furnace kicks in, I finally went and got one of the little ceramic heaters. We camp almost exclusively with hook-ups and have paid for electric so I figured why burn up my hard earned propane









The outside overnight temp was in the upper 40's where we camped this past weekend. I put the new heater on top of our stove which is in the middle of our unit (28BHS). With the fan set on high and the temperature dial turned up to about 75%, the furnace never even came on all night long. It was a beautiful thing as I slept great







The trailer was plenty warm without being hot which could also be a problem.

I should have done this a long time ago


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## Castle Rock Outbackers (Jan 18, 2004)

We do the same thing CJ when camping with hookups. We have a "safe heat" oscillating heater that has a built in thermostat. When we run that at night, the furnace never comes on.

What I do need to purchase this year is one of those de-humidifiers (Dri-Z-Air or something similar). We often woke up in the morning with condensation on the windows (whether we used the furnace or not).

Randy


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Its about time Jim! Great things to have if you have hook up's. Make sure it has a tip over shut off too, that way if it tips you won't have a fire to deal with. We've had 2 in our Outback, set pretty low, but with one in on the counter and the other (small one) in the bunkhouse everyone was warm on those nights.


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

Hmmm, now may be the time to go shopping for one of those. The stores are starting to gear up for summer, so I'm sure that seasonal stuff will be on clearance...

Tim


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

Yeap, I am taking tomorrow afternoon off to get my hitch installed and I've been planning on buying a couple of those ceramic jobs. This weekend we are camping on the MT/ID border where lows are supposed to be in the high teens. I'm not sure if I should run the ceramic heaters or just run the regular. The ducting on the regular heater should keep the under belly warm. I'm not sure the electric heaters will.


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

We do the same thing as CJ. The main reason is to keep the noise to a minimum and the other is to save propane. I figure why use propane if I am paying for power. Maybe I just cheap









Thor


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## merlotman (Dec 28, 2004)

We have used an electric heater in our last camper and it worked well. Does anyone know if you can run the Outback furnace in fan only mode? That would help circulate the warmed air throughout the underbelly and prevent frozen pipes if relying on the electric heaters.


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## borntorv (Apr 13, 2004)

Jim,

Ditto here on the space heater. We haven't even tried the furnace unit in the OB yet. Like you said, why burn up propone when the electric's already been paid for!

So you went camping last weekend huh? Can you see my deep shade of green from out there??

Greg


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Sorry Greg, but somebody had to go out there for the Outback team









Merlotman: Yup, you could just run the fan alone on manual if you wanted.


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

We use an ocillating space heater. I only use the furnace when I want a quick warm up, or it's really cold out.

Just use them wisely, and don't place them where you will trip over them in the night. (they are the cause of many a fires!)


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## Jacko (Feb 14, 2005)

CJ,
Thanks for input, we too don't enjoy the abrupt noise in the OB when the furnace kicks in. I have to go out and by one of those heaters--what brand did you get?
Does your thermastat work properly? Our seems to get it a little warmer than we exspect. 
thanks

Jack


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

I got the Pelonis brand from camping world. It has two settings, high and low. On high it uses the full 1500 watts. The one I bought was being discontinued but is similar to this one:

Ceramic Heater @ Camping World

Although the thermostat doesn't list actual temperatures it does seem to work properly. I just had to experiment with the setting to get it right. The first night I had the fan set to low and the temperature set just a little lower than 75%. Like this the furnace which was set to 68 degrees did come on once during the night. I changed the settings as listed above and all was well.


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## RCColby (Oct 12, 2004)

California Jim,
I have two small electric heaters I use in my 5er. Put one near the door and the other in the bedroom. Only use them on low heat setting and both have a thermostat so they cycle on and off as needed. I don't like the cermiac ones as the fan is small and noisy, I can hardly hear mine running.
When the outside temperature is under 30 I just use the one in the bedroom so that the furnace will run some to keep the tanks warm.
Bob


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

So what kind of electrics do you use that is more quiet? Do they draw much more current? You got me intrigued now







Is it as safe as the ceramics? Mine does have a fairly audible fan noise but it's really no biggie.


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## jallen58 (Oct 27, 2003)

I also supplement the out back with a Heat Dish That we got at Costco for $30.00. On the medium setting it keeps the 28BHS just right and the hester never turns on







. It also has a tip over buzzer that is quite loud. I also removed the light bulb it was just a little bright.

Jim


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## RCColby (Oct 12, 2004)

California Jim,
I just bought them at a local super center. Regular electric space heaters w/thermostat, safety tip-over switch, two heat settings, around $20 each. Can't remember the brands, already had one and bought one new one after I got the 5er. I know Holmes makes some decent ones.
Bob


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Thanks Bob. I'll take a look at those too


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## RVCarolina (Jul 31, 2004)

We use 2 small heaters, both set on "low" heat, works great. I think they are the Holmes brand, not ceramic - they are much quieter than the new ceramic heater the DW uses in our bath at home.
Fred.


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## Not Yet (Dec 13, 2004)

Campingworld has the vordado brand heaters on sale now. I have used those at work and they are nice. I may have to pick up one or two. The member slae price is better than anything else I cold find on the web.

Jared


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## campntn (Feb 20, 2005)

We bought one last fall when we owned a popup. It's an oscillating WalMart type. It's good. But they had one with a feature I wished now I'd gotten and paid the extra for:Remote control. At the time I thought it stupid, but temps inside a camper are hard to regulate sometime, so it'd be really nice not to get up and down during sleep. I like the remote on the Outback. I'd think about gettin a ceramic heater with a rc, if I have to do it again.


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## RobR (May 25, 2005)

I do the same thing its quiter & you save $ on Propane. RobR


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## mskyoutback (Jul 27, 2004)

campntn said:


> We bought one last fall when we owned a popup. It's an oscillating WalMart type. It's good. But they had one with a feature I wished now I'd gotten and paid the extra for:Remote control. At the time I thought it stupid, but temps inside a camper are hard to regulate sometime, so it'd be really nice not to get up and down during sleep. I like the remote on the Outback. I'd think about gettin a ceramic heater with a rc, if I have to do it again.
> [snapback]27950[/snapback]​


Yes, the remote is great! Would be much better if it were backlit so we could see it in the dark.


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## stapless (Feb 20, 2005)

California Jim said:


> I got the Pelonis brand from camping world. It has two settings, high and low. On high it uses the full 1500 watts. The one I bought was being discontinued but is similar to this one:
> 
> Ceramic Heater @ Camping World
> 
> ...


FYI - we bought the pelonis disc furnace. nice thing is that it has a thermostat to set a temp, and great feature is that it has a continuous adjustable fan/heat setting, so you set a temp and it very slowly sdjusts itself up and down so never hear the thing turn on or off. it slowly turns itself up or down or even off over 3-5 minutes as the thermostat approaches selected temp, and turns back on slowly as temp drops below selected temp. great for us very light sleepers!! kept my 28BHS a perfect 67 degrees despite 40-50 degree temps outside, and had turned itself off by morning when the sun was warming up my TT.

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/in...17&skunum=19119

just my 2 cents

scott


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## firemedicinstr (Apr 6, 2005)

We keep a small ceramic heater cube,(I think we got it at Home Depot) I then set the trailer temp to about 60 just in case the ceramic cant keep up. sometimes we might hear the camper heater fire up once or twice during a cool night. Beyond that you would be suprised at how warm one of those little cubes can keep a trailer.

MK


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## mountainlady56 (Feb 13, 2006)

I use a Honeywell model HZ2030. It is fan-powered, has a lockable thermostat (numbers 1-?), cuts off if tilted,
has an electric eye that, when it is approached too closely will turn the heater off (it's got a reset button). I don't remember the price on it, but it really works well, picked it up at Walmart and kept my whole 27RSDS nice and toasty unless it was subfreezing weather, all last winter. I put it mid-ways my TT, to evenly distribute the heat. This would work well for those of you with pets, as well, if you left them for a day trip or something, just sit it up on the counter or something, so they couldn't get to it. 
Darlene


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## cookie9933 (Feb 26, 2005)

I can't believe everyone doesn't already have an electric heater. Besides the cost of propane, the furnaces are WAY too loud, IMHO. But the fans on some electric heaters are a bit noisy too, so we bought one of those oil-filled electric radiators. A Honeywell brand, as I recall. It works great, puts out the same 1500 BTUs as other electric heaters and is absolutely silent. Now that 's what I call a good night's sleep. Only one drawback is the weight (maybe 20 lbs) and somewhat bigger size.

Bill


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