Van water heater in cold climate

Reckon I can reply to this one from the UK as it gets pretty cold here.

I always drain the tank down during the winter when we get sub zero temps, ice does expand water so if it freezes it will damage something if it is full of water, so I keep it drained down.

At the moment while its warm I do not bother draining the tank between trips, many do because they worry about bacteria etc but it does not bother me.

Do you have heating in the van, we do both gas and electric, would not worry while that was all on, the water supply is in what we call a aqua roll which is a big plastic drum outside, that can freeze but never heard of one splitting etc, most people just cover them with some sort of thermal insulation and all is ok.

Am thinking of trying a bit of winter vanning over here this year, did a trip last April and it hit -2c and had no probs with no insulation etc so reckon I would have no worries in colder temps if I insulate it all

Fancy pitching up somewhere for Xmas day and having a BBQ that would be well different to the normal turkey and sprouts etc

Nite

Stuart

Hi
We have a 18.6 Caravan with a hot water supply, we have travelled to a number of places that have been below o degrees.
Canberra being one in winter, the outside water hose turned off the tap and the hose froze, disconnected the hose the next day, when we reconnected the tap was frozen.
The hot water system was on heating and didn't freeze.
I would suggest in the low temperatures that you disconnect the water but leave the heating to the hot water system still on.
The water tanks so far have never frozen.
Regards Ted