When we first got our Elkmont 24, we did not have a working heater. The one “installed” by TM and checked by Texas RV Center prior to delivery was not working, not even installed. But we did not know all of that in the beginning. So we went to Wallmart and got an electric heater with a small blower and some sort of thermostatic control. Since 99% of our trips are with full hook up it was fine this way.
However it turned out that it was very difficult to adjust the 1500W heater to give off the correct amount of heat. Either it was not enough or we would wake up hot hot hot.
So off I went to Lowe’s and got a Line Voltage Thermostat normally used for baseboard heaters. I build a wooden box, installed a single outlet on one side and the line voltage thermostat on the front side, and attached a 6’ cord to the receptacle. The thermostat has only 2 wires, one black and one red. The black is attached to the feeding cord, and the red to the hot side of the outlet. The white wire from the cord goes to the other terminal on the outlet receptacle. The thermostat runs on 2 AA batteries. Very simple and very effective. We turn the heater to the highest setting and the thermostat to whatever temp we want, plug the heater into the box, and the other cord into the wall, and we have nice heat controlled by the thermostat. Because of the 6’ cord and the 6’ cord on the heater we can elevate the thermostat so it is off the floor and at a level where thermostats are most often mounted. The whole set-up goes under the seat when not in use.
The heater was about $ 18.00 but the thermostat was $ 45.00, but well worth it.
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