I fitted an electric block pre-heater yesterday a German brand called "Hot Frog". The model the customer had bought was a bit oversized for the car. I ended up squeezing it in in the by-pass hose between the cylinder outlet and the heat.
When I test it rasised the coolant temperature from 3.5c (38F) to 21c(70F) in less than 10 minutes after that rate of warming up slowed down and peaked at about 55c after 30 minutes. On start up the upstream oxygen sensor came to life almost immediately and the engine went closed loop in just over a minute.
Impresed -- I have now ordered a smaller version for my own daily driver.
" We're trying to plug a hole in the universe, what are you doing ?. "
(Walter Bishop Fringe TV show)
My truck is fitted with a block heater from the factory. It is impressive what a difference it makes it makes in the winter as far as how soon I can run the heat, and over all cold-start driveability.
It unfortunately has a less than impressive effect on my electric bill.
I'm not stingy with my utilities. I work outside year round and firmly believe in being comfortable in my own home, so I crank up the heat in the winter and run 4 window unit air conditioners in the summer. To hell with the bill, there's no better place to spend to my money in my eyes.
That said, I stopped using the block heater over night after I got the first months bill.
I need some kind of timer to kick it on a few hours before I get up in the morning as opposed to plugging it in before I go to bed at night.
Update on this. I fitted the same model as I fitted for my customer, Even just a 1/2 hour warn-up on the electric pre-heater gave a massive benefit in fuel consumption, the winter wasn't particularly cold with few hard frosts but in my normal daily use over the winter months I expect about 28 mpg or less --- what I got was over 34 mpg which is slightly better than the normal summer consumption
As a result I have continued to use it on a timer socket any time I expect a cold morning and I am still seeing a about 2+ mpg benefit on my dailly run I would normally expect 33 mpg I am getting between 35 and 36 mpg.
" We're trying to plug a hole in the universe, what are you doing ?. "
(Walter Bishop Fringe TV show)
One thing that disapointed for me was that 65c isn't really enough to warm the heater properly.
Next winter I will probably ditch the time switch and use Amazon Alexa to control it.
" We're trying to plug a hole in the universe, what are you doing ?. "
(Walter Bishop Fringe TV show)
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