RODI Water in garage.Freeze?

[Sad Panda]

I (which means my wife) would like to move my two 40g RO/DI and mixed water barrels from a guest shower to my garage. My question is that my garage which is attached to my house and obviously enclosed is not heated which in summer is no problem but in Virginia it gets freezing, so has anyone else had success in putting something in the garage with a small heater or would this just burn the heater up? Any other suggestions are also appreciated.

[Keraxis]

My garage normally sits around 50.  I imagine if it dropped down to negative numbers I would worry about it getting below 32 but I doubt it.  You can also insulate your garage door.  They sell kits  

[dipg]

I have my water changes station in garage. The last two years when the temperatures dropped below 20 for extended period the inside of my garage stayed at around 36. We did get the garage insulated with the kits available at Home Depot.

[Bruleyii]

idk if this would work but you might be able to wrap the containers in insulation and drop a heater in the water. 

[Sad Panda]

That's what I was wondering is if I use a heater though is that going to be to stressful on the heater as it would run constantly I would think.

[DaveS]

As others have said, unlikely you will need to worry except maybe 1-2 nights a year.

 

The powerhead you have running in your salt water barrel to keep things mixed probably puts out enough heat to prevent freezing there (besides the fact that salt water has a lower freezing point.  Use a heater in the fresh water barrel on the nights you are worried. 

 

I think the bigger problem would be if the water in your RODI canisters froze and cracked them.

[Sad Panda]

Dave that's my issue the RO barrel (40g). Would a submersible aquarium heater (say 200w) work or would it burn itself out. 12oz water bottles will sometimes freeze in my garage.

 

If I can somehow free up the guest bathroom shower and make the wife happy I can probably buy another aquarium toy...LoL.

[DaveS]

Will the actual RO/DI filter be kept inside or in the garage? 

[Sad Panda]

the actual filter is inside the house and would not get cold

[DaveS]

I'm not an expert but my guess is that a Maxijet in the fresh water barrel may be enough.  Between the heat it generates and the motion, you may be able to prevent things from freezing.  You refer to it as a water barrel so I'm envisioning a 55G Pepsi barrel which is fairly flexible so unless it freezes solid, you should be ok.

 

Again, just a guess.  I also doubt a heater running for 6-8 hours at night will cause a problem either so that may be an option.  Worst case the heater quits but I see no reason it would explode or do anything more than stop heating.

[s2nhle]

I would just warm the fresh salt water before doing the water change.