Block Heaters 24/7

[PILOON]

A caution from lesson learned.

All new electric installations to be code call 4 a GFI on exterior outlets.

Well guess what.
One snowflake that finds your heater extension will trip that GFI and you'll saying words that you don't wish your children to learn.

 

[Doofy]

Agree with GFI statement. Here, the hoarfrost causes them to trip. Water line heat-tapes are also supposed to be on a GCI and they are always tripping off also. Cold climates are such a pain.

 

[RjCorazza]

A caution from lesson learned.

All new electric installations to be code call 4 a GFI on exterior outlets.

Well guess what.
One snowflake that finds your heater extension will trip that GFI and you'll saying words that you don't wish your children to learn.

I had my kitchen remodeled a few years back and they changed all the related breakers to some new arc fault breaker. After constant problems I had to put the original breakers back in.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

Check with the manufacturer's recommendations, if you can find them. Or talk to your shop/service center/dearler. I burned out a heater by leaving it plugged in for a very cold week. Did me no good after that.

 

[TC 30]

Growing up in Iowa, most of our vehicles had one of these, dont remember ever leaving them plugged in over night, an hour prior to start up seemed to be the standard.

 

[mrmikey]

One snowflake that finds your heater extension will trip that GFI and you'll saying words that you don't wish your children to learn

My remote failed to work last storm because of that, I'll take a chance without a GFI from now on.......Mike

 

[Dakota_male]

My winters are cold. Sometimes way below freezing sometimes well below zero Fahrenheit. A few of my neighbors that have snow plowing routes and those that have farm animals plug in their block heaters for those 6 months. That is, when they are not in the vehicle, using it, the vehicle is plugged in. Their idea is #1 The vehicle is ready at a moment's notice. And #2: there is no stress on parts (expansion and contraction) as the engine goes from 0 degrees to running temp. I'm not saying what they do is not valid... Personally, I nervous about having the Heater plugged in overnight when I'm not around to see or smell a problem. I just don't have confidence in them. What is your opinion.

I’ll plug my tractor block heater in a few hours earlier but it still needs to warm up the hydraulics afterwards. My emergency Perkins diesel generator weekly test, a timer will turn on the block heater 3 hrs before starting to reduce the stress of starting at full RPM. Cold days that warm up quickly my engines will look like a white frosted engine taking hrs to days to dry off before freezings over and over. Today is 0C, yesterday was -15C.

 

[Golden Rocket]

35 plus yrs as a mechanic - seen a ton of "heater" failures, the largest cause of failure was corrosion because of poor anti-freeze mixture ratio - that said, the inline circulating coolant heater were worse. As for usage, you only ever see a fail (as a user) while it is in use. It may seem to be a waste of coolant and effort but if you add maintenance of it to your annual maintenance schedule, you will always have a visual confirmation of whether or not it works right - take it out, inspect, replace accordingly - even test it in a bucket of water. Next on usage, you gain nothing by operating it any more than 60 mins (-30 C temps). If you really want to have aid for cold weather starting, get a battery warmer or better yet, trickle charger - you will be surprised in the performance gained from the bit of warmth!!

 

[TractorTYMe]

My block heater burnt out in the midst of the cold snap over X-mas with -15F. Apparently 4-6h intervals was too long, now the longest I keep it on is 2h on a timer if I anticipate snow in really cold. As long as it is above 10F it doesn't need to be plugged in.

 

[Topzide]

For those who have barns too far for WiFi, use a power line WiFi extender! Work great and smart plugs are flexible!