# Pipe insulation



## jonybakery (Mar 31, 2010)

Hi All,

I've been wild camping up in the North Western highlands for the last month. Its been a little cold at time but superb. One one when the temperature dropped to -15 degrees the water and wast pipes froze. I am now going to insulate all pipes to try and stop this happening. 

Can people therefore put forward any recommendations they might have for insulating pipes?

Also what else do people do to keep the van warm as possible? Does carpeting the van help? etc

Thanks
Jon


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## DTPCHEMICALS (Jul 24, 2006)

Insulated copper pipes in my garage have frozen

Dave p


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

See my post here concerning a cold floor.


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## fabfive (Dec 31, 2008)

Our camper was supposed to have removable carpets supplied, although for some reason had not been supplied when the van was new. Even in the better weather, we soon got fed up with bits of sand and grit, wet and dirt being paddled into the van and in colder weather I hated the feel of the floor on my feet - especially if you want to encourage everyone to remove shoes on entry!

We splashed out a bit and bought mats from the Turtle Mat company (their classic range, which came in larger sizes and, although not cheap, are less pricey than the fancy ones). I think I used around 3 mats in total and this needed very little cutting. I overlapped them easily at the joins and they were very easy indeed to trim around the edges of furniture and poked under the seat boxes too. The result is an excellent carpet which doesn't show the joins (we chose a dark graphite colour) and can easily be removed and put in sections in the washing machine even! It shed a bit of fluff to start with, but soon bedded down and is great for trapping water, dirt and grit off feet. It is also easy to sweep even with a brush and dustpan, for quick tidy ups. We can easily do a 2 week break with 5 of us in the van and just a quick brush every so often and a good vaccum on return home. Although we spent just over £100, it was best investment we have made and wouldn't be without now.


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## sallytrafic (Jan 17, 2006)

Occupying your van should be enough to keep it warm ie if you are warm enough so will most of the plumbing. You can buy heat tape to wrap around pipes and fittings to keep them just above freezing, insulating on top of the heat tape will do the job. However if you are wild camping you have to watch their power consumption.

I will, after Christmas, be removing cladding and looking behind cupboards to find out why one of our cold pipes froze overnight while we were at -8 outside but fairly warm inside. 

When your van is unoccupied for more than a day or so I think the cost effective way to deal with it is to drain it down. Our van is drained down at the moment but we had no problem using it for a couple of nights as an overflow bedroom. Took a bottle of water to flush the loo and another for the kettle. 

PS if the loo cassette has 'contents' you need to make sure it doesn't freeze especially if your outside temperature is so low.


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Pipes*

Hi

Insulating pipes can be done with either the foam, as used on some central heating pipes and then secured with cable ties, or use that spray on stuff.

However, in these sort of temperatures, the severe cold will penetrate the insulation too and then the defrost process will take even longer.

If possible, leave the waste tap open and collect grey water in a bucket.

Russell


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## TR5 (Jun 6, 2007)

If fitting pipe insulation use Armacell armaflex. There are types which repel water very efficiently which is essential for exterior insulation.
I used it for additional covering of heating pipes (hot air) which were exposed under the van. 

Look up Armstrong insulation.


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## artona (Jan 19, 2006)

Outside the house we had an unlagged pipe that froze up as soon as the temp got to 0 degrees. I used this. I then gaffa taped it up tight and then wrapped that all up in a plastic bag, its never froze since.

In the van when I was installing the water pipes I used the same on a bed of insulation. This was then sitting on 6mm ply which under that had 32mm of kingspan. There is some exposed pipe under a seat/locker in which we have a hole to the outside world to allow gas to escape in the event of a leak. The locker has a false floor above all of this to stop the cold getting into the habitation area.

The set up will be fully tested over the new year when we are away for a few days

stew


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