Boiling hot rad hose heater

1981 · Dec 1, 2015

Installed a zerostart 1 1/2" lower rad hose heater 600 watt on my 1981 Massey Ferguson 210-4.
It gets very hot in about 10 minutes. In an hour I can feel heat in top hose, top of rad and a little on top of block.
It is getting so hot I can hear the antifreeze boiling just above the heater, is this normal ?
The heater has a thermastat, but after 2 hrs, I have not noticed it cutting out.
Is the boiling antifreeze a problem ?

Thanks for any help
Randy

CalG · Dec 1, 2015

You put a heater in the cooling system. IT's supposed to heat the water.

You may have a circulation issue if you want just a "gentle heating". The thermostat won't open until what, 220 f? You can work on that.

My choice would be to start the heating process in a time sufficient to get the engine started, and no more. Say 20 min or so.

Coyote machine · Dec 1, 2015

I agree, with the timed useage. Put it on a heavy duty timer where it turns on at a certain time and goes off 20 min later. Boiling coolant is not a good thing- it will make it sludge then jam your radiator/cooling system.

RalphVa · Dec 2, 2015

Put it on a timer, maybe 20 minutes maximum.

I had one of those bottom hose heaters in our 220D Mercedes. Put it on about 30 minutes before starting it in -22 F weather. Engine fired right up.

Ralph

Mace Canute · Dec 2, 2015

1981 said:
Installed a zerostart 1 1/2" lower rad hose heater 600 watt on my 1981 Massey Ferguson 210-4.
It gets very hot in about 10 minutes. In an hour I can feel heat in top hose, top of rad and a little on top of block.
It is getting so hot I can hear the antifreeze boiling just above the heater, is this normal ?
The heater has a thermastat, but after 2 hrs, I have not noticed it cutting out.
Is the boiling antifreeze a problem ?

Thanks for any help
Randy

Yes, it's normal and no, it's not a problem. Millions of coolant heaters do exactly the same thing. What you are hearing is the boiling of the coolant that is touching the heating element. It's all a matter of how much energy you are trying to get into the coolant in X amount of time. If you had a heater that didn't make an audible noise when operating it's likely it would take a very long time to warm the coolant and it possible might not even keep up to the heat loss as the coolant circulates.

Here's a couple of nice little charts.

1981 · Dec 2, 2015

Thanks for the advice, I will keep my plug in time down to about 30 minutes. No need for a timer as I am retired:drink: and the tractors main use is for running pto chipper and some snow plowing with rear blade, and I can do both on my own schedule. By the time I get my gear ready and do a walk around checking for leaks and things, it should be good to go.