Tube Heaters

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MarieK

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I know there is plenty of discussion about tube heaters on here but is it safe to leave them on all the time? I have fitted one in the engine bay on Friday and been keeping an eye on it over the weekend and all seems fine but I have to leave the boat for a week now and usually turn everything off.
 
As above on a plug in therosmatic heater (set to 5 degrees) in the cabin...

Works a treat... Probably woudn't leave one on 24/7 bit of a waste of £ really, they're ideal for keeping the frost out, beyond that your just chucking it away. I think those plug in thermostats are around £15 so no reason not too really.

Just remember they often need a couple of hours "charging" first so the internal battery can be charged so you can set the temp etc... Common thought there broken when they just eed a couple hours plugged in before they switch on...
 
I have a 180W tubular heater and electronic thermostat set at 6 degrees, all in the engine bay. I also have a thermostatically controlled fan heater in the main cabin.

Generally speaking, I have 2 concerns with my setup:

1) It won't work during a power outage e.g. winter snow-storm etc
2) My insurance might not pay out, should things catch fire. (Some marinas also state that electricity should not be used for heating - is that their get-out clause?)

If you leave the heater on permanently, you probably want a lower-powered heater to avoid heating up the boat too much and losing too much energy. But, this may not be able to cope with maintaining a minimum temperature in the boat when it gets very cold outside.

It therefore seems more sensible, to me, to use a higher-powered heater (e.g. 180W rather than 60W) that can maintain a pre-set temperature but to have it on a thermostat to avoid heating up the boat too much and losing money.
 
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We have had ours running on the boat now since the end of Nov. It is connected to a timer which comes on for 12 hours overnight. Seems to keep the inside nice and crisp. We live an hour from the boat and check usually every other weekend.

An 80watt heater uses approx 1 unit every 12 hours.

We mounted it (using brackets provided) onto large plywood base so that it cant fall over or move around. Also make sure nothing can fall onto it.

Ian.
 
Same set-up here with a thermostat set to 5C and tube heater from TLC in the engine bay and a thermostat oil filled rad in the cabin.

Checked over the weekend and all OK. Ice outside but the thermostat read 5.8C and the tube was cool.

I also put a max/min thermometer in the engine bay on this visit to see how much the temperature fluctuates and whether I need to adjust the thermostat setting.



Harpsden
 
We installed a 200watt tube heater in the engine bay on a thermostatic switch. It had been set a 5 degrees but over the weekend we decided to raise the set temperature to 7 degrees to account for the warm up time on the heater.

We have also installed a 160watt heater in the cabin again set at 7 degrees. They seem to work quite well.
 
Work for me too, although I have had reliability problems with the thermal plugs. Have got through 5 so far this winter. Hoping the current 2 are OK, and will check this evening. Otherwise will leave the tubes on timers.

Last winter I spent about £8 on electricity!
 
I've got a 240 watt tubular heater which I put on the floor in the front cabin and leave permanently connected during the winter. I also leave the hatch in the ventilate position and have no problems.

I went to the boat last weekend in sub zero temperatures and everything was perfectly dry like it always is.

I can't see any point in using thermostatic plugs or timers and in fact I would suspect that they could be a bigger fire risk than the heater its self
 
I'll second that - I have a tube heater permanently on in the engine bay as I am more worried about the timer / thermostatic switches causing a fire than just the heater itself....
 
Hi,

Do you guys think one large tube heater or two smaller ones are better? What is the view in the min number of watts you need to keep the engine bay warm?
 
EugeneR said:
I have a 180W tubular heater and electronic thermostat set at 6 degrees, all in the engine bay. I also have a thermostatically controlled fan heater in the main cabin.
Click to expand...

I have heard of fan heaters catching fire when the Fan part fails and overheats, you might want to consider using Oil filled heaters.
 
Matt341 said:
We mounted it (using brackets provided) onto large plywood base so that it cant fall over or move around. Also make sure nothing can fall onto it.

Ian.
Click to expand...



like this..........


369d8aa7.jpg
 
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