[Steve Lowe]

Like most here I had a heater in my van last night but seemed to have a problem.
The one I use is like this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JCB-portable-heater-/262736766514?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368
I had it on frost setting over night which seemed fine but the outside ports were frozen solid so this morning turned it on full thinking it would help with de thawing .
The problem is I went out an hour later and the light was on but heater not working.
After being unplugged for a while it works fine.
Why would it do this ?

[simon w]

If your hose locks/outside ports are left outside overnight they will freeze and having a heater on inside the van wont prevent them freezing up. Can you disconnect them and have them inside the van over night?

If the heater was running for a long period of time during the night maybe the extension cable gets too hot and trips out the power?

If you only had it on a frost setting then I shouldn't think it would over heat though.
 

[Smurf]

if using a cable reel and don't fully unwind the cable it may overheat and even cause the plugs to melt too.  Especially when an appliance is trying to drawing more power than the mains socket/cable is meant to be used for. Also worst case senario may even start a fire before it trips out. Not ideal if you're sound asleep in bed methinks.

Regards to hoses, outside ports. wfp pumps, gas water heater etc they can't freeze up if there is no water in them to freeze

[Don Kee]

Most extention leads have a thermal cut off

[colin bird]

I use a small oil filled rad in van,I built a large box to go over ,ro,filters,and pump,the rad sits inside box,so not heating all of van but heating parts that have water in,the rad is 500 watts in only put in a quarter on,to date no problems,my outside ports always freeze. My van is parked outside my garage so I use a hairdryer in the morning to thaw them out.
I also put hose feel and pole inside garage