Issues with leaving hydraulic and engine block heaters plugged in during the winter?

[grsthegreat]

I accidentally left my GC plugged in for more than four hours once and found that the temperature gauge was still lower than when the tractor was fully warmed up when I turned the key. I now make a habit of putting the key in my pocket when plugging in. I just recently got proper power in my shop and plan to use a bluetooth outlet if I can find a good one.

Look up Yolink on amazon. Amazing range on their switches and they just plane work great. Going on 3 years now without any issues

 

[neilpaku]

What I did with my equipment is experiment to find out how long each takes to warm up sufficiently to start at idle. My JD garden tractor takes 45mins to come to operating temp (literally, the thermostat is open), but my pickup (6.0 Ford) takes a good 6-8 hours so I know how far in advance to set the timer for. That way it's at operating temp when I go to use it but I'm not unnecessarily running the heater. That said, I have on occasion left it running for days with no ill effect.

 

[RjCorazza]

What I did with my equipment is experiment to find out how long each takes to warm up sufficiently to start at idle. My JD garden tractor takes 45mins to come to operating temp (literally, the thermostat is open), but my pickup (6.0 Ford) takes a good 6-8 hours so I know how far in advance to set the timer for. That way it's at operating temp when I go to use it but I'm not unnecessarily running the heater. That said, I have on occasion left it running for days with no ill effect.

I did the same testing years ago on my tractor block heaters. In my case, 3-4 hours was the sweet spot where the block was no longer getting hotter, and was somewhat evenly warm. I recall it getting up to 40 degrees over ambient temp.

 

[Bikewimp]

I added an X10 15Amp controllable plug to the shed where my Bx2200 stays. Plug in the block heater into that controlled plug, and when plowing is due, I hit a switch in the house to warm it up, have breakfast then plow. Works great. Install is not difficult and not expensive. The extension cord has an indicator light so I know when that outlet is powered. I also added exterior lights to the barn n shed to the X10 system so I can plow anytime.

 

[BeeFarmer]

I use an outlet plug that turns on below freezing in the winter. Never have had a problem in many years.

Block heater does a nice job on the New Holland.

 

[ZiggyD]

Depending on the wattage of the heater the wasted electricity can really get expensive and for no reason.

The oil doesn’t need to be kept at August temperatures and a tractor will easily start and work well when it’s in the teens or even much lower. Arguably, there’s no real need for a heater unless you’re regularly experiencing prolonged periods of negative temperatures (F).

 

[sixdogs]

When I lived in northern New England, I put a recirculating water heater on my Chevy plow truck and left in plugged the day before a storm. It was great to have a warm start at way below zero and fast heat out of the heater. I had no condensation in the oil and I'm OCD about that.

The heater was a low buck KATS recirculating heater that spliced into the heater hose and I think the drain plug to the block. Many of us had them.


For a tractor, if you could find a heater that circulated the coolant through the block, I think that would be a better idea. For my snow tractor, I just left the block heater plugged the night before I needed it. Never an issue and never heard of one. Easy starts and warm coolant.
Lots of tractors have huge cooling systems and can take an hour to warm up and need any help they can get. It seems that no heater and limited use is where the condensation would be an issue.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

My daughter’s boyfriend is a Diesel mechanic for an implement chain and he said that it was ok to leave the my block and hydraulic heater’s plugged in on my JD 4600. I thought you couldn’t do that…. Is it ok to leave them plugged in?

We’ve had some really cold temperatures up here in Minnesota, so I have been going back and forth to plug it in. He said to leave it be. Thoughts?

Thanks!

-Bob

I've turned my heater on before going to bed if I need the tractor first thing in the morning to move snow. No problems leaving it on all night.

 

[WinterDeere]

Depending on your circumstances, there are a lot of options in timers and switches to automate the heaters. I use a wifi switch that can be programmed to come on and then off at whatever date / time I want, or manually turn on the heaters from a phone app.
On a day I will be using the tractor, I have a "rule" that I enable that turns on at 0200h and turns off at 0600h.
As far as the original question of whether 24/7 will damage anything, no it won't (other than costing $ in electricity use)

Same, but I only hit it 20 - 40 minutes before usage. I've felt the block and exhaust manifolds on more than one Yanmar-powered Deere over the years, and they all seem to be putting off some heat inside of 20 - 40 minutes. In my shed on a -5F morning, 20 minutes has it plenty warn enough for an easy start, without having to plan 4 hours in advance of when I'll be using it.

Of course, longer never hurts... just hasn't been necessary on my machines.

On "surprise" snow days, when I've failed to plan ahead, I just plug the tractor in before I start hand-shoveling the walkways. By the time the walks are done, the tractor is usually warm enough for an easy start, to plow the driveway.