Designing a Heated Industrial Enclosure for a Fire Water Tank

The client’s fire water storage tank presented a set of requirements that ruled out any off-the-shelf solution immediately. Two enclosures were needed to protect the tank’s riser pipes and supply and return lines. This is valuable equipment that sits exposed to outdoor conditions year-round and is especially vulnerable in cold environments where moisture and freezing temperatures can cause serious damage.

The dimensional requirements alone made this a significant build. The first enclosure needed to measure 169” × 168” × 96”. The second came in at 163” × 155” × 96” — both standing eight feet tall. At that scale, the enclosures essentially become small rooms, and every design decision compounds.

But size was only part of the challenge. These enclosures also needed to:

• Mount to the curved radius of the tank
• Include removable access panels for routine maintenance and component replacement
• Incorporate a built-in enclosure heater to maintain safe operating temperatures for the riser pipes and lines in cold weather
• Protect against moisture and condensation, which can degrade both equipment and electrical components over time

Getting any one of these details wrong — the fit, the thermal management, the access — would mean a non-functional installation on a fire suppression system.

Safe-T-Cover’s in-house engineers have designed and manufactured custom enclosures for similar fire protection and industrial applications before. That experience meant the team could move fast.

Rather than starting from a blank page, engineers pulled from an extensive catalog of existing design details and quickly adapted them to meet this project’s specific requirements: the radius mounting configuration, the heater integration, the access panel placement and the exact dimensional constraints of both units.

The result was a quote delivered within half a day of the initial inquiry and complete drawings and specifications within one full business day. For a project of this scale and complexity, that kind of turnaround reflects both the depth of our design library and the efficiency of working directly with engineers — not a sales team relaying requests.

Both enclosures were manufactured from marine-grade aluminum, the right material for outdoor applications exposed to dust, moisture, condensation and extreme temperatures. Aluminum’s corrosion resistance and structural integrity over time make it the standard for industrial weatherproof enclosures that need to stay functional for decades, not just years.

Each unit was designed and built to Safe-T-Cover’s standard quality specifications, which means the same durability and performance standards as our standard enclosures.

Key build specifications for both units:

• Heated industrial weatherproof enclosures with built-in strip heaters to maintain safe internal temperatures in cold environments
• Radius-curved mounting designed to fit the tank profile
• Removable access panels on each unit for maintenance access without full disassembly
• Insulated panel construction to protect against condensation and heat loss
• All hardware included for on-site assembly
• Detailed assembly instructions and photographs of the assembled enclosures