Comfort Hot System

[Gerald Farris]

I have been ask by a forum member in regards to a Hurricane heater "what is a Comfort Hot". So I will try to explain what it is, especially for new Beaver owners with Hurricane heaters.

The Comfort Hot system is an inline electric heater with two 17 amp heating elements and a 4 to 5 gallon coolant capacity, that is installed in one of the Hurricane hoses to add electric heating capability to the Hurricane system or any other hydronic heating system.

The Comfort Hot system was designed and built by Jim Rixen at Rixen's Enterprises (http://rixens.com/) in Portland Oregon, the company that sold the Hurricane heaters to Beaver. The system was installed on a lot of Beavers that have Hurricane heaters since the Hurricane has no 120 volt heating option. Some of the early Patriots did not have electric water heaters, so the electric option was a very popular aftermarket add-on.

The Comfort Hot system will keep the coach comfortable (without the Hurricane diesel burner running) on 30 amp shore power (one 17 amp element on) with outside temperatures down to the 42 to 45 degree range. On 50 amp shore power (both 17 amp elements on) it will keep the coach comfortable down to 20 degrees.

Gerald

[Keith Moffett]

Gerald
Thanks.  
A couple mor questions if you dont mind.
As our coach has the hot water tank as well, where would the comfort hot system fit.  Not much room in that little bay.
Where would one find one of these?  Rixen's?  Elsewhere?
Have you a general idea of a cost?

Again, thanks
Keith

[Gerald Farris]

The Comfort Hot is available only from Rixen's as for as I know.

The mounting location and cost will vary with coaches. If you install the unit yourself, as I did, it will save you $200 to $300 over Rixen's installed price. Three years ago Rixen's installed price was around $1000, to the best of my memory.

The best place to mount the unit on my coach was on the basement wall, next to the Hurricane. This made for a short hose run and used an otherwise wasted space. On some of the Patriots the units were mounted in the engine compartment in place of the Hurricane pressure tank (surge tank) using the model Comfort Hot that has a radiator cap on top. With the C12 in my Marquis there was no room for this application, therefore the basement mounting was my only option.  

Gerald

[David Parham]

In researching my issues with the Hurricane unit, I discovered that Rixen no longer represents ITR. They are very well informed about the units but do not sell them anymore. ITR has a US facility in Vancover WA and they can be reached at 800-993-4402. Larry with ITR was very helpful to me.

[Gerald Farris]

Rixen has not been a distributor for the Hurricane heater for several years now. Rixen is marketing his own design heater that uses an Espar burner and a Comfort Hot combined into one unit.

Gerald

[Michael Kauffman]

[size=14][face=Sans-Serif]Thanks Gerald, great info.  I'm getting a Comfort Hot if possible.  No More keeping the rv park neighbors up at night.  Thanks again, Mike [/face][/size]