Block Heaters 24/7

[VoyagernOK]

Expansion and contraction aren't going to be significant issues with regard to heating your engine.
For someone who needs to be able to jump in his diesel at a moment's notice and go, leaving it plugged in makes sense. I let a diesel engine in a Suburban heat only about a half hour in -25° weather and when I started it, it twisted the shaft in the oil pump off because the oil inside the pump had not warmed and was too stiff for it to pump.
If it is cold enough as our winters in SD often were, I'd use both a tank and block heater. Mine were always wired together. If you don't want to leave it on 24-7, then plug it into a timer. That's what most of the ranchers in our area did.

I've never heard of anyone having a fire from an engine heater? Anyone else here ever hear of that?

 

[PChap]

I own an old Ford 545D Loader with air heat assist does not work well. So I added an oil pan heater 150 watts it works great plug it in after you use the tractor an leave it

 

[Gord Baker]

There are heaters that are inserted in the lower rad hose that circulate the heated water.
Many heaters are 1500 Watts and take a lot of electricity. Consult your manual and Dealer.
4 hours ON should serve for most situations.

 

[Doofy]

The old plow truck with the 7.3 diesel sits outside year around. When I need to plow, everything gets plugged in. Oil pan and transmission pan pad heaters, either the 1500 watt circulating heater or the 700 watt block heater (depends on if I remembered to plug in the block heater the night before). There are also 80watt Battery Blankets on both batteries.

The 1-1/2 amp trickle charger is always plugged in.

Even with all of this, sometimes it is still a chore to fire that beast up.

 

[PILOON]

My CUT is a Mitsubishi and does not like cold so my heater is on 24/24.
Heck even in summer I need glow plugs.

I also enjoy the fact that my cab heat is ready to provide some comfort at start up.
OK, in Quebec we have affordable power but the cost of that 300 watt element is not much worst than forgetting a couple of lights on in the shed or whatever.
I compensate by having mostly LED lighting elsewhere.

I also have an intelligent charger permantly wired to my battery and a witness LED to confirm that power is live at my tractor.

Did I say that I hate cold.

 

[panamaguy]

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.

Having grown up in Canada a block heater and oil pan heater are a way of life. In the a out 40 years using then I have never had a problem. Plug it in a forget it. A oil pan heater should be part of your setup. You want oil that flows the second you touch the key. If you want to do a test put whatever grade of oil you use in a cup and put it in the deep freeze over night and try pouring it out in the morning. Hence the oil pan heater

 

[Doofy]

I finally made the move to full synthetic oil in my 7.3. Went from Delo 15W-40 to Rotella 5W-40. Should have made that change several years ago. It is amazing how the viscosity of the oil affects cranking speed.

 

[DSteiner]

Years ago… I thot I couldn’t afford to leave any of my tractors plugged in until a hour or so before needed then one cold winter day the power went out. I needed the tractor powered generator to milk my cows but non of the tractors started. After that one tractor was plugged in continuously with a thermostat. Now that I’m retired and have a newer tractor, 29 years old compact, that starts in all weather I seldom ever use the block heater.

 

[Doofy]

At 38 cents (and climbing) per KWH, I can try being frugal but the time wasted and frustration of not plugging in usually wins and I plug 'em in. It's only money.

 

[rogerson]

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’m in Northern Ontario Canada and winters are cold. Have the block heater for my tractor and automobiles on timers running from 4 AM to 11 AM. I‘m normally out and about between 8 AM and 9 AM with no start issue even on the coldest mornings.

in terms of worrying about a device failure, it happens, but the electric circuit breaker will trip before a short creates a fire or similar. Trust me, everyone in Northern Ontario plugs their vehicles in overnight, and I don’t think I’ve heard of a structure or vehicle fire caused by a malfunctioning electric block heater.

 

[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!