mine always shows like it is cold or the needle is were it starts from. But you can tell that it runs alot smoother and it blowing warm air almost right away. I only plug mine in for three hours or it is only on that amount of time, because it is on a timer. My son is an eletrictian and say's these things take a lot of juice to run. Was also told to plug it in right away while it's hot and that it will not take as much to kept it warm? I have tried both seems usless to use that much electric 8 to 12 hours when 3 will do.
This is the reason I use a timer. I bring it on about two hours before I leave for work. As I said in other posts, the block heater is about 1 KW. And if your electrical rate is 10 cents a KWH it will cost you about 10 cents an hour to operate. I usually feel the hoses when I unplug it, you can tell if it has been on or not. It will not get warm enough to register on the temperature gage (stock gage).
I have my truck on a timer also, its on 3 hours before I leave for work, so when I go out to start it the truck is about 120 according to the edge. I wait another 5 then shes all warm and ready to hit the road
My gauge moves maybe 1/8" hardly noticeable on the gauge, but as the others have said, she exhales warm air much quicker and she starts like a Summer morn!!!
I also use a wolverine oil pan heater...Model 40 is a 500 watt heater, basically a light bulb...I leave it plugged in during the night during the winter and have had instant starts...been using it for 4 years now...really cold weather I might plug in the stock block heater for 30 min or so but usually the wolverine has done the job in fine style..
along the lines of winter coming up. i was wondering if anyone uses a grill cover on the psd. If so were is a good place to find one? I plug the old girl in at night, but i was thinking if i had a grill cover it might not go to the high idle as much during the day.
Man I'm glad I don't live in Maine, I can count on one hand how many times mine goes to high idle a year. My bones ache when it gets below 40. I have heard of a few of you Yankee types using grill covers but haven’t seen any around here, maybe one of the other snow birds will chime in.
Well, my experience is that if I use my timer for the block heater and let it warm up for 3 hours it works perfect. My temp gauge usually moves around 1/8" when I turn on the key.
Also, a really good thing to do is go to the hardware store and get a standard Ceramic light bulb base, they are cheap, you can even buy two. Get a piece of 3/4" plywood long enough to span between both the oil pan and the tranny pan. Get two empty large coffee cans. Put the bulb bases in each can and mount them to the plywood so each can lines up under the oil pan and tranny pan. Wire it up w/ 12 gauge wire and voila' you've got a cheap heat-lamp that will warm up the engine oil and the tranny. You can use anything from regular 100 watt bulbs to the really nice heat-lamp style bulbs. My Dad came up w/ this idea and now we use this on all of our equipment, especially the tractors. It works great.
Yes, I do use a grill cover on my truck, I got it from Cabellas and it works great. She warms up quicker and holds higher temps. It also gets a little bit better mileage w/ the grill cover on there.
According to my calculations it should be around 10-14 ohms. I haven’t actually measured mine to be sure but that’s how the math works on 115 volts and 1,000-1,200 watts. It also should pull around 10 amps.
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