I've been running my block heater on a plug-in outlet timer to run for 4 hours before startup. I figured I would save a little electric and burn time on the block heater. It warms the motor the same on 4 hours as when I plugged it in overnight. Has anyone timed how long it takes the block heater to warm the engine to the heater's capacity? I'm going to knock it down to 3 hours and see how that does (timer works on hourly increments). I'll post my results if nobody has done this.

Thanks.

Billy

I believe it will depend on how cold it is. But it usually takes 2 to 3 hours to warm it up.

The only advanage to leaving it on all night is the snow is melted from the hood,

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We set ours for 2 hours, seems fine for 10*F, in the garage.

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Dennis
Considering sound advice, invent your own solutions
CRD

Awesome! Thanks for the input. I'll try two hours and see what happens.

I don't know the answer but one way to get an idea is to see how fast you get at least a little warmth out of the heater vents with the viscous heater relay unplugged so the only heat is from the block heater and the engine warming up. It doesn't get all that cold here (20s F or occasional teens) but I can tell you that with my viscous unplugged but my block heater plugged in when I crank up I have a bit of heat at the heater vents essentially immediately. Absent the block heater being plugged in there is a delay of a few miles.

No, I have not tried to find a minimum time to run the block heater. My bad, too lazy to deal with a timer as rarely as I use the block heater and as little current as it pulls.

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I use 4 hours when plugged in, below 0C in Mass.