Wingnut
Veteran Member
I'd have to mildly disagree with you on the inline heaters. Drawing on my experience of a lifetime "up north" including 3 years in the high arctic ... the inlines really help in application where you want to avoid hot spots and want the heat spread as far as possible.
Look at it this way ...
Block heater - sits in the water jacket in the block and heats the coolant in the area of the element ... but doesn't distribute the heat except by radiant action ... so never heats a very large area. Works "ok". Doesn't do a lot to give you heat inside the vehicle until the engine is warm ...
in-line or circulating heater - both passive and active applications ... heats more coolant because it's designed to sit in a position where the heated water rises and is replaced by cooler water below.
In the arctic ... we thought it was fantastic when circ heaters arrived about the time they started testing synthetic fuels ... became much easier to use vehicles in the winter (much easier than using a tiger torch to thaw out the oil pan ..)
too bad that common sense ain't
Look at it this way ...
Block heater - sits in the water jacket in the block and heats the coolant in the area of the element ... but doesn't distribute the heat except by radiant action ... so never heats a very large area. Works "ok". Doesn't do a lot to give you heat inside the vehicle until the engine is warm ...
in-line or circulating heater - both passive and active applications ... heats more coolant because it's designed to sit in a position where the heated water rises and is replaced by cooler water below.
In the arctic ... we thought it was fantastic when circ heaters arrived about the time they started testing synthetic fuels ... became much easier to use vehicles in the winter (much easier than using a tiger torch to thaw out the oil pan ..)
too bad that common sense ain't
