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.

 

[Doug Vee]

It waste a decent amount of electricity to leave it on more than required but it won’t damage the machine to leave it plugged in continuously.

I learned this pretty early in my diesel owning lifetime.

I bought a 6.2 liter 3/4 ton Suburban a couple decades or so ago. The first winter we owned it, it got pretty darn cold, so I thought I would plug her in at night. The following month the power bill took a bigger jump than the normal winter time jump. I had a heavy duty timer clock, and rigged that up to come on a couple of hours before startup time. It really helped. It was a 1000 watt heater, so equivalent to 10 100 watt light bulbs burning.

Timers are a good thing.
Doug

 

[eKretz]

The condensation thing from leaving the block heater on continuously sounds like a load of bollocks to me. Condensation generally occurs when something is cold and then gets brought into a warm space - think like when you take a can of beer out of the fridge and it immediately gets condensation all over it. If you have a warm can of beer (like the tractor with the block heater on and warmed up) and put it in the fridge, ever seen it get covered in condensation? No? Me neither.

Now it *could* present a problem if you constantly and repeatedly turn the block heater off and on. If you start with an ice cold engine, then the block heater warms it up, you're bound to get some amount of condensation there. Generally that's not an issue as long as you're running the engine after it gets warmed up with the block heater as most people do, because once it's running and comes up to temperature it will evaporate most of that moisture with the heat.

But if you just run the block heater over and over on a timer from ice cold to warm, but don't ever start the engine and get it up to full operating temperature, I could definitely see it gathering some water in the oil over time.

 

[Topzide]

If you can get a wifi signal to where you have you tractor parked, a wifi plug will give you a timer for on or off and remote turn on from your phone. The feature that I use for my 3500 CTD is, set up an automation scene that turns on between a certain time when below a set temperature! That way, if I need to go rescue the DW, the truck is ready to hook up trailer and go without waiting to warm before getting up the road! I've been her "tow truck" for years. Then have a later time period for weekends. Can always turn on from the phone if needed before even getting dressed! Have found that the truck needs about 60 - 90 minutes pending temps. The little 3 cylinder Iskei only needs 45 minutes. Set it up when plowable snow is forecast. JM2C.

 

[stevensdo]

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 have my Mahindra Max 25 plugged into an Amazon smart plug. I have Alexa turn it on about an hour before I'm going to plow snow. Live in northern Wisconsin.

 

[Cycledude]

I live in area with some of the most expensive electricity in the state of Wisconsin so I prefer to not leave stuff plugged in unnecessarily
Being plugged in for an hour or two ahead of time seems to help my tractor start plenty easy.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

If you can plan your usage, plug it in 24 hrs prior.

Supposedly a factory Cummins 6.7 block heater doesn't need more than three hours before the temp peaks.

I have never used mine since it rarely goes below -10 here, and I really don't feel like messing with a cord when leaving between 2 and 5 AM.

 

[rmonio]

Thank you for all the replies. The idea behind the WiFi Plug is a pretty good idea - I’m going to try that and see if I can make that work in the barn (I Have WiFi there) - so I should be able to control it from my phone.

I’ll let you know how it works for me! Thanks!

-Bob

 

[WinterDeere]

Thank you for all the replies. The idea behind the WiFi Plug is a pretty good idea - I’m going to try that and see if I can make that work in the barn (I Have WiFi there) - so I should be able to control it from my phone.

I’ll let you know how it works for me! Thanks!

-Bob

I went with ZWave, which was already widely-used in 2011 when I made that change. It has mesh networking capabilities, which means that most devices on the net act as range extenders for other more-distant devices on the same net. But I think there are a few proprietary variants of ZWave now (e.g. Zigbee).

Mine is integrated with our alarm system, and despite having changed alarm system equipment manufacturers twice in that time, these ZWave devices have worked with all three systems. It's nice, because I have all of our outside lights programmed to go on at sunset and shut off at midnight, and various decorative indoor lamps on their appropriate schedules. Even my espresso machine is plugged into a ZWave outlet, programmed to come on and start pre-heating at 5am.

We also have ZWave flood sensors and a whole-house water shutoff valve, so it will shut down water to the whole house if a washing machine ever blows a hose or if our 3rd floor water heater ever springs a leak. And since the alarm system controls it all, it will also turn on all our outside lights if there's ever a break-in attempt in the middle of the night.

That said, I'm not sure if there's a new standard out there that's even better or gaining wider acceptance, as ZWave is at least 20 years old now.

 

[rmonio]

I went with ZWave, which was already widely-used in 2011 when I made that change. It has mesh networking capabilities, which means that most devices on the net act as range extenders for other more-distant devices on the same net. But I think there are a few proprietary variants of ZWave now (e.g. Zigbee).

Mine is integrated with our alarm system, and despite having changed alarm system equipment manufacturers twice in that time, these ZWave devices have worked with all three systems. It's nice, because I have all of our outside lights programmed to go on at sunset and shut off at midnight, and various decorative indoor lamps on their appropriate schedules. Even my espresso machine is plugged into a ZWave outlet, programmed to come on and start pre-heating at 5am.

We also have ZWave flood sensors and a whole-house water shutoff valve, so it will shut down water to the whole house if a washing machine ever blows a hose or if our 3rd floor water heater ever springs a leak. And since the alarm system controls it all, it will also turn on all our outside lights if there's ever a break-in attempt in the middle of the night.

That said, I'm not sure if there's a new standard out there that's even better or gaining wider acceptance, as ZWave is at least 20 years old now.

We’re not a wired home when it comes to outlets - but we do have a mess of Arlo cameras that we use for monitoring. I will check out the Zwave - if other folks have suggestions, please share! Thanks!