Will a Radiator Hose Heater provide instant interior heat if used properly? How does it heat? Does it circulate the coolant? Does it use alot of electricity? Our cars don't have the engine block heaters from the factory, so i thought that the lower rad hose heaters might be easier to install instead of the block ones, but i am not sure how effective they are. thanks for the help
Radiator Hose Heater
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why not just get a pan heater?
I've never used a hose mounted heater, but I have extensive experience with Kim Hotstart on standby generators. If you can heat the coolant to 80 to 100 degrees, the heat will have a pretty hefty head start instead of coming up from 15. They are pure resistive load, so yes, heaters do use a bit of power. Probably not as much as an air conditioner, though. You don't want to go more than 100 degrees F. Any more and you melt the film of oil on your cylinder walls and then you have scuffing from dry starts.
A pan heater is for the oil, I was looking more for the coolant type that way when my wife gets into her car in the winter she will have instant heat.
JHZR2
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if I were you, Id check into some of the forums that pertain to older automotive diesels. THese vehicles like warmth to start (depending upon design), and their owners fully expect 4-500k out of them, for the case of cars like the MB diesels... so will do special mods to make life better and achieve that goal.
There are some electric and some fuel-fired units that seem to work well...
JMH
There are some electric and some fuel-fired units that seem to work well...
JMH
part of being up north is dealing with the winter. i say live with it.
We had them on DT466s internationals (1500 and 200 watt models, probably A LOT bigger than you will need) and they had almost instant heat even an the coldest days...they work by convection to move the fluid.
Just use one properly sized for your application and you should be good (no worries about over heating).
steved
Just use one properly sized for your application and you should be good (no worries about over heating).
steved
Thanks, i didn't know that! No wonder i can't find my radiator pan!
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If you don't have a heat control valve, I'd use one of those. How well does the thermal siphon work with a closed thermostat. Does it just migrate via the weep hole? I'm sure their effective ..otherwise they wouldn't make them, but I the heater hose type should more easily do the roundy round ...or so I figure
NYE: Is/was there a long idle time on those gensets? I would reason that an 8 hour shut down @ 100F+ wouldn't promote the conditions that you're describing. Otherwise, I'd imagine that cars parked outside in Las Vegas or other places where the ambient is 100F+ would suffer the same dry scuffing side effects.
Surely something to consider if you're a "set it and forget it" type that doesn't care how much you spend in electricity.
He would just need to put a timer on it to kick in a few hours before his wife was going to drive.
NYE: Is/was there a long idle time on those gensets? I would reason that an 8 hour shut down @ 100F+ wouldn't promote the conditions that you're describing. Otherwise, I'd imagine that cars parked outside in Las Vegas or other places where the ambient is 100F+ would suffer the same dry scuffing side effects.
He would just need to put a timer on it to kick in a few hours before his wife was going to drive.
The only problem with something like a hose heater is that you have to get involved and do stuff. If that suits you then it will work just fine. I would consider a plan to heat both the oil and the coolant. Again, it's really the human factors that put such a system in doubt, not the actual stuff.
No idle time whatsoever. They crank and run right up to rated speed (1800 RPM) ASAP.
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