Pipe thawing cord for pan heater????

[3rdgendslmech]

Hey guys, need opinion if this will work or not. Lately we've been getting a lot of freegzing rain and snow. My MrCool DIY is doing a pretty good job of knocking the chill out of my barn! The one problem I noticed the other day is that the pan after a few defrost cycles is froze. Its not that big a deal since usually during the day it'll warm up and melt but the other day I had it running for about 2 days and the ice build up was almost to the condenser coils.
I can't find anything for a DIY pan heater option. Would a pipe thawing cord do the trick if I ran it around and fastened it to the pan somehow?

 

[Kaizen]

Not sure if pipe cables are weatherproof.
Roof cables would be better. Not sure what the shortest one would be. The pan is open at the top right? What about a pond heater or birdbath heater?

Looking at buying more mini splits for year round. What temps is yours working down to? What size is it and size of garage?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[3rdgendslmech]

I got a 24K BTU. Shop is 800 sqft. All but 1 wall insulated with R19 and the ceilings are just 1" foam boards under the roof purlins. So far it'll put out pretty decent heat down to about 25 degrees. After that I usually fire up a torpedo heater to warm it up faster. It'll keep the shop about 50-55 degrees.