Most 12V heaters sold online are junk. I'll say it plainly. They draw 10–15 amps, put out maybe 150W of heat, and flatten a 100Ah leisure battery in a few hours. Buyers who source these for the RV and campervan market need to understand the physics before they place a PO, because returns will kill the margin.
The 12V reality check
A 12V socket fused at 15A gives you 180W max. That's roughly 600 BTU. A single human body puts out about 400 BTU. So a 12V electric heater for RV campervan use is really a spot warmer, not a cabin heater. It'll take the chill off your feet in a Sprinter at 4am. It won't heat a 20ft Class C when it's -5°C outside.
We build these. Standard spec is 150W, 12.5A draw, PTC ceramic element, 60mm fan, ABS housing. MOQ 200 pcs. Lead time 25–30 days. CE and RoHS are standard; UKCA if you ship to Britain. Retail price lands around $18–25 depending on packaging and cable length.
If a buyer asks you for a 12V unit that heats a whole van, walk away from that conversation or educate them. There's no honest product that does it.
What actually heats a campervan
Two real options. First, a diesel air heater (Webasto or Chinese equivalent). 2kW, runs off the vehicle tank, about 0.2L/hour. That's the correct answer for four-season van life. Second, a 500–1000W mains inverter setup with a proper wall mounted electric heater, but only if you have 200Ah+ of lithium and a big alternator or solar array. Most campers don't.
The 12V heater's job is supplementary. Cold morning at a campsite with hookup? Use a 500W oil filled radiator instead. Silent, cheap to run on metered electric, no battery drain. That's the honest recommendation for anyone asking how to choose an electric heater for a camper.
Where 12V units earn their place
Trucks. Day-cab drivers idling overnight burn 2–3L of diesel just for heat. A 150W 12V unit plugged into the cigarette lighter keeps the cab above freezing and costs nothing extra. We ship a lot of these to fleet distributors in Northern Europe.
Also: boat cabins, ice fishing shelters, hunting blinds, and small workshop corners where a lead-acid battery and a solar trickle charger live. Niche but steady. Reorder rates are good because the failure mode is usually the fan bearing, and we uprated ours to a sealed sleeve type in 2021 after field complaints.
What to spec if you're sourcing
Ask for the amp draw at 13.5V, not 12V. Real vehicle voltage sits higher when the alternator runs, and cheap units pull 20% more current than the label claims. That's how you get melted cigarette plugs and warranty claims.
Insist on a thermal fuse, not just a thermal cutout. Over-temperature protection that resets is fine for a house, not for a unit wedged under a sleeping bag.
Cable gauge matters more than the heater. 16AWG at 3m gives you voltage drop that turns 150W into 110W. We ship 14AWG as standard. Costs us $0.40 more per unit. Worth it.
If you want a private label electric heater program, the tooling is cheap on this category. Logo on the housing, custom cable length, retail box. 200 pcs MOQ, 15 days for samples, 30 days for production. Cert paperwork is straightforward because the product category is low-risk.
The honest takeaway
Don't sell a 12V heater as a cabin heater. Sell it as a foot warmer, a truck cab defroster, a battery-powered spot heat source. Set the buyer's expectation on the box, in the listing, and in the manual. The units that get returned are the ones where the customer expected 2kW and got 150W. The units that get five stars are the ones where the customer knew exactly what they were buying. That's a marketing problem, not an engineering one, and it's the difference between a 4% return rate and a 30% one.
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