Engine Heater

[NHRA225]

Gonna plug my Engine Heater in tomorrow- gonna be cold - 20 Sunday and Monday.
Anyone left it plugged in overnight ?

[laj]

you can leave it plugged in as long as you want. in my large trucks I have left them plugged in for weeks at a time.

[hooverbill]

I put a timer on mine so it comes on serveral hours prior to departure.

[spike45]

Originally Posted by NHRA225

Gonna plug my Engine Heater in tomorrow- gonna be cold - 20 Sunday and Monday.
Anyone left it plugged in overnight ?

As long as there is sufficient coolant around the element and the glycol concentration is not above 60% (-59F for Ethylene Glycol). Normal convection heating will keep the element form suffering a meltdown. And they have been known to meltdown. Timers only save electricity. When properly sized your heater will get the jacket temperature up to around 45 or 50 depending on ambient temperatures. Running a heater for a couple hours before startup is usually sufficient
Immersion Heaters - In Block Electrical Engine Heating | Hotstart

Search those pages for installation instructions and use their product locator to see what you may need. For an ISL/ISC I think you will see that the maximum recommended wattage is 1000 watts. Secondary choice is 750 watts. You can use an external tank heater but they are more of a pain to install plus you have two opportunities for leaks with the two hose connections required to connect to the cylinder block.

[CumminsLuvr]

Having spent 8 years in Fairbanks, Alaska I plugged everything in. I even had a plug in for my Arctic Cat 4 wheeler. In Alaska the general rule of thumb is to leave it parked in anytime it is 20 degrees or colder. It was not unusual to leave all my vehicles plugged in for the better part of 6 months. There are some other things you may want to consider if you are going to be staying in the cold for a while.

My 2001 Cummins had two battery warmers(one for each battery). A 60 watt transmission warmer, a 60 watt oil pan warmer, a 60 watt transfer case warmer, and I also had an 800 watt Katz interior heater that would take the chill out when it was -35. One thing I never got was a webosto. We had these all installed in our military vehicles and they worked great. Turn them on for 30 minutes and it would warm your coolant to about 140 degrees for an easy start.