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Originally Posted by MadReferee
In the last week or so there was a thread here on TBN discussing this very subject. Bottom line is that the block heater takes only 15-30 minutes to do it's job. Leaving it on any longer just wastes electricity. I would guess, but I am not sure, that the hydro fluid heater is the same.
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Depends how cold it gets and what wattage the block heater is. Many block heaters are less than 1000 watts (around 600 or so is common I think, but there certainly are larger ones in some vehicles). Around here it can get cold enough that 15 minutes will barely start warming an engine. It won't hurt anything to leave it plugged in as long as you want, so I'd give it a couple hours or more if it's cold out (cold as in -20C or colder. Above that isn't really that cold
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I once calculated how much it cost to leave a car plugged in for 12 hours, assuming (if I remember correctly) a 650 watt block heater. It worked out to something like 25 cents. That was a number of years ago, so it could have doubled or more by now, but that still isn't too bad.
You are right that a hydro fluid heater is basically the same as an engine block heater, but the one I almost bought for my 990 had a much longer element, to stick farther out into the fluid I guess. It could well take more current than the engine block heater as well since it has a LARGE mass of fluid and cast iron to warm up.