Any tips to prevent water from freezing

[Cosmo]

Was out for 10 days and had the full treatment from mother nature. When temps went down to +15F the water containers in the car froze.
The day time temps were high enough to thaw for drinking water.
When backpacking I keep water in the sleeping bag. I put the next mornings water into pots so I can thaw it on the stove for breakfast etc.

Anyone have any better ideas on keeping water liquid?
Thanks for your help

=Cosmo

[saltydawg]

Carry an extra cooler and keep the water in it. If it gets real cold heat some water up and rebottle it an put it in the cooler.

They work both ways.

[Tom&Shelly]

Anyone have any better ideas on keeping water liquid?
Thanks for your help

=Cosmo

Camp in warmer places!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I'll..um..let myself out now...

Tom

[featherliteCT1]

I wonder if a low watt 12v heating element in a cooler would keep the water from freezing. For example, these little heaters supposedly only draw 7 watts.

https://www.amazon.com/12V-Flexible-Pol ... E131B28E23

Saltydawg also has some low watt heating pads for his batteries.

Also, maybe one or two of those chemical heat pads that hunters put in their boots.

[dogcatcher]

Keep it in an ice chest without ice, a good one keeps heat in just like it keeps heat out when it is full of ice.

[saltydawg]

I wonder if a low watt 12v heating element in a cooler would keep the water from freezing. For example, these little heaters supposedly only draw 7 watts.

https://www.amazon.com/12V-Flexible-Pol ... E131B28E23

Saltydawg also has some low watt heating pads for his batteries.

Also, maybe one or two of those chemical heat pads that hunters put in their boots.

I know for sure a 12 watt heating pad would do it, and they only cost like 12 bucks or so. I have done a few tests with the pads I am using for the battery heater, in one hour they will warm my batteries from 35 degrees F to 46 degrees F. I currently have the thermostat for them set to turn on at 4 degrees Celsius or colder and off at 8 degrees Celsius, so if I turn the heaters on and the temp is 3 degrees it turns on and runs until 8 degrees, or if I turn it on and they are 5 degrees it wont turn on, but the load on the thermostat by its self is .017 amps so no draw unless the heaters are on.
Damn thermostat only shows celsius, but since I dont want them to charge when below frozing, using celsius does make it easy.

As for using hand warmers they use oxygen in the air to work, so throwing them in an airtight cooler wont work once they use up the oxygen.

[Cosmo]

I came to the right place! Great information. I like the cooler idea and it would work great for a weekend.
After a longer period even the contents will cool.

For what I am doing the suggestion to put some heaters in the cooler with such low power consumption might be the long term ticket.

Ages ago I had a similar looking heater for a waterbed.

Where did you get the thermostat? Sounds great.

With the water bed you had to have the entire heater in contact with the cool water or the heater would burn. Maybe a flexible water container will do that.

Appreciate the help. Sometime I think I spend more time planning for and testing stuff than I do camping.

=Cosmo

[saltydawg]

heaters and thermostat came from amazon. The instructions with the thermostat are crap.

Black and red is power in, yellow and black are power out. they can only do 12 volts they can be used for cooling or heating. The pads dont need contact, I think they are internally limited to say 70 degrees as I have them hooked up and just sitting there, they got warm but never hot.


https://www.amazon.com/Temperature-Cont ... 467&sr=8-6


https://www.amazon.com/GAOHOU-Electric- ... 360&sr=8-1

[bobhenry]

Speaking of thermostats and keeping things warm. I have the idea to be able to keep paints and stains warm ( above 40 degrees F ) I have a larger dorm fridge that no longer cools and still have a ton of old school incandescent builds. The missing link is a programable t-stat that will come on at 32 and turn off at about 40 - 45 degrees to keep things from freezing. Un like the poster I have electricity full time but only heat the new wood shop when I am up there. Can someone recommend such a thermostat ?

[swoody126]

bobhenry, the t-stat you seek can be found in the marine industry and TH'AINT CHEAP

i think i rememberize seeing fixed temp ones at Lowes

and while i'm here ...

can anyone tell me how to re-program an ice chest to heat mode ;-)

sw

[saltydawg]

Speaking of thermostats and keeping things warm. I have the idea to be able to keep paints and stains warm ( above 40 degrees F ) I have a larger dorm fridge that no longer cools and still have a ton of old school incandescent builds. The missing link is a programable t-stat that will come on at 32 and turn off at about 40 - 45 degrees to keep things from freezing. Un like the poster I have electricity full time but only heat the new wood shop when I am up there. Can someone recommend such a thermostat ?

You could use the thermostat I linked to as well as the heating pad and just run them off of a 2 or 3 amp 12 volt converter. The same company makes one that is 24 v and 220 volt, so I am sure you could find a 120 volt version. But I would use the 12 v pad, less change of things getting too hot, and less space taken than a light bulb.

[NevadaBlue]

Bob, I use a thermostat for my chicken heat/light. It comes on if the temp drops below 35 degrees. 110 volts, two outlets on the thing, just plugs into any outlet. I use it as a back up heat/light for the hens. I also used it in the past to turn on a bulb to keep the outlet of my water tank from freezing. (It was in an insulated box then) Check at the feed store.

[Cosmo]

I have been looking at thermostat outlets too!
These looked good for AC Several temp ranges available. Some for hot weather some for cold weather.

https://amzn.to/36XrO1K
https://amzn.to/2VQUeEm

=Cosmo

[rjgimp]

and while i'm here ...

can anyone tell me how to re-program an ice chest to heat mode ;-)

sw

In the mid 90s when I started trucking I bought a 12VDC Coleman cooler. At the time I thought it a bit spendy (~$120) but I wanted to not be dependent on acquiring ice when it was inconvenient or unavailable. A feature I noted at the time of purchase but didn't figure I would ever desire (I was wrong!) was a switch that would reverse the function to heating. It turns out the thing is far more efficient and effective in that mode. It is essentially a normal cooler with a heat sink and a small fan mounted in the side. The switch reverses the polarity so the fan blows the opposite direction. In cooling mode it blows out and in heating mode it blows in. Product info states that it will cool up to 40degrees below ambient temperature but it will heat to 140degrees regardless of ambient temperature. I don't currently use it as much as I used to and I never have put a meter on it to check current draw.

I guess at this point my cost of ownership is down to about a penny a day. Not too bad...

[featherliteCT1]

I use this Inkbird temperature controller to run a small 120v freezer I converted into a refrigerator to run off an inverter and my 12v lead acid battery system.

https://www.ink-bird.com/products-tempe ... 1000f.html

I also hooked up this 12v DC to DC buck converter to hold the volts going into the Inkbird at a constant 12.7v.

https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/as ... wered=true

I hooked up the buck converter to hold the volts at a constant 12.7v because I was afraid that the battery voltage would fluctuate up and down too much for the Inkbird to operate correctly. Not absolutely sure I needed it but it was simple to install.

Do the LIFEPO4 batteries output a constant voltage so the buck converter would not be needed for the temperature controller?