Air Conditioner Heat Strip?

[rbgatti]

Hi, out new PUP has a Carrier V 13,500 BTU air conditioner.  At the time of purchase, our dealer never told us there was a heat option.

Is this worth getting?

I understand that the controller (inside) part of the unit would need to be replaced.  I'm itching to call to see if they would do it understanding I would pay for the difference in the cost and to install it.  I think there is an $80 difference.

My thinking is that there may be times when you want to quickly take the edge off instead of starting the noisy heater.  Our only experience with our heater now is the one night we camped in the driveway and it fell below freezing at night.  The propane heater ran 80% of the time to maintain about 60.  The propane heater size is "16 M BTU".

Thoughts?

[Lonewolf212]

We had a heatstrip on our previous Starcraft, and will get one on our upcoming Niagra. It does a decent job of quickly knocking the chill off, also it helps circulate the warm air if you are using your furnace. We also frequently ran it to provide some white noise to cover up some outside disturbance. Just don't expect it to keep you warm and toasty when it's 25 degrees! Down here in Mississippi we rarely needed more heat.

[batsignal2]

We have one and love it.  We camp mainly between May-October and have used it often.  We take a spare heater in case it gets colder, but have only used it one time.  We have 2 kids under 5 so my wife is extremely picky when it comes to temperature inside the camper and it has satified her.  We mainly use it very late at night or in the morning to remove any dampness.  I got it installed when we had the AC put in for $75 more.  They told me if I got it installed later, it would cost $125 because of the extra labor to remove parts of the unit, etc.  We are glad we got it.

Jeff

[rbgatti]

I just checked with my dealer and they said the new ceiling unit with heat is $148.  My ceiling unit was $108.  Instead of swapping my brand new ceiling unit and crediting me the $108, they are offering a flat $148 fee for the new unit but install it for free...no labor.

I don't know what labor rates are.  This sounds reasonable even though the unit is unused but the PUP is 2 months old.

Sound like a good deal?

Thanks!

[mike4947]

About what I've seen from others. Few dealers give "credit" for the old inside unit once it is installe on an RV.

As for the strip heater it is a heater just like the little cubes you see. About 5K btu's drawing apx 12.5 amps.
The advantage of using a heat strip is you can use the AC's vents to direct the heat where you need it, mainly the bunk ends.
The disadvantage is that some folks feel a "draft" and they don't feel the heat.
The large amout of air flow from the AC fan with the relatively small about of heat can feel like there is no heat coming out.

[rjmurphy]

Being new here, I may not have thought of all the issues. What is the problem with having a small ceramic heater along for the "chill chaser"? You can buy a nice one for about $50. That's what I'm thinking of doing, after I heard the furnace run in our new Fleetwood.

[zamboni]

What is the problem with having a small ceramic heater along for the "chill chaser"? You can buy a nice one for about $50.

No real problem -- and we have a space heater we use.  However, in a Hybrid camper, we get a lot of condensation in the bunk ends (plus, it gets chilly in there, while the main cabin is warm).  We generally run the bunk fans to try to circulate air.

Having heat strips in the AC, will let us use the AC's blower to push the air into both bunk-ends.

Lastly, with dogs in a camper, it is better not to have/use a space heater on the floor that they can knock over, etc

[tlhdoc]

I would contact the dealer ASAP.  I don't know how long you have had the PU, but if it has been very long I doubt that they would do it.  If the unit is registered with Carrier they may not be able to do it.  That said I had the first Carrier Air V that my dealer installed.  I told them that I wanted the heat option and they said no problem.  Then they were getting ready to install the unit, when they found out it is not an add on like on the Coleman AC units.  I like the heat strip a lot.  It circulates the hot air that the furnace or other heat source makes and it blows the heat into the bunkends where it doesn't like to go on its own.  It is always in the PU and doesn't take up any more room than the AC unit does.  Good luck with getting the inside unit replaced.

[wynot]

We put in the heat strip last summer, and never used our propane furnace.  I found the heat strip to be more consistent heat instead of the cycling of the furnace which tends to wake me up.  As someone noted, it blows nicely into the bunkends, something that you don't have to worry about with the furnace, which heats the area in front of it...then shuts off.
 
If you want intense hot heat, you won't get it with one of these.  But if you let it run on a reduced (cooler) setting, it makes for a very comfortable camper.