[antoine]

i live in a small mountain town in B.C altitude 4000 ft at the house, the temperature is always fluctuating it could be 5 celsius (41f) at bed time and drop to -18 celsius (0f) at night, or it stay's warm all night. Anyway I was told by a unreliable source that having the block heater plugged in when it is warm out can be bad for the truck, is this true or false?

 

[fordsforever73]

False! I use mine anywhere from 10 degrees (Can) and down. It's on a HD timer, set for 2-3 hours before I need it. No Issues.

 

[seelow]

You're fine if you leave it plugged in during the winter. Really the only problem would maybe be if u plug it in all the time the heater might wear out sooner... but that would be like my neighbor, who leaves his 6.4 plugged in all day every day. haha. Although I don't know what it would do, I wouldn't suggest plugging it in during the summer. (don't know why you would)

 

[antoine]

You're fine if you leave it plugged in during the winter. Really the only problem would maybe be if u plug it in all the time the heater might wear out sooner... but that would be like my neighbor, who leaves his 6.4 plugged in all day every day. haha. Although I don't know what it would do, I wouldn't suggest plugging it in during the summer. (don't know why you would)

Ya that would be a wast of power. I'm glad to hear it won't hurt cause if I don't plug it is a struggle to get started but plugged in all night it stars like a dream:thumbsup:

 

[M.L.S.C.]

Oh yah, go ahead and plug it in, you'll be just fine. I plug mine when it's below freezing and I'll be driving it, I don't keep it on the heater 24/7 tho cause I only go out once every few days and it would be a huge waste of energy.

 

[WhiteGardens]

False! I use mine anywhere from 10 degrees (Can) and down. It's on a HD timer, set for 2-3 hours before I need it. No Issues.

Good call on the timer. Block heaters pull 1000 watts. That's equivalent to a lot of light bulbs.

Couple hours is all I need for my truck.

 

[ScottFraser2]

Yup, unreliable source for sure. If i leave my truck pluged in for more than a day and it snows.....i have a little bare spot where the snow just melts on the hood.

 

[wolfman1961]

trying to work out something with a neighbor.........how much to plug in for say 8 hours overnight with my block heater?

 

[M.L.S.C.]

Well that's 8KW of electricity per night, how much does 1KW cost at your location? You onlu need 2-3 hours tho, no need for a full night heating, unless you live way up north.

 

[wolfman1961]

Thankyou for answering my question so quickly................I will look into the 1kw cost.

 

[M.L.S.C.]

One quick correction: this is in kilowatt-hours (KWh), not just kilowatts (KW), basically the power of the electric device miltiplied by the amount of hours it runs - say you have a 1500W heater, then that would be 1.5KW x 8h = 10KWh. Back on the cost thing - where are you located? Check out this table, should be a pretty good ballpark:

Electric Power Monthly - Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State

According to it residential electricity here in MI runs for about $0.11/KWh, so if I run my 1000W block heater for 8 hours that's 88c per night, round it off to a dollar for easy calculations that's roughly $20 worth of electricity per month if I only use it on work days...

 

[Snotzalot]

Get a 15A appliance time and set it to turn on 3 hrs before you need to start. When you get in for the evening plug it in and at 4 AM it turns on.

 

[wolfman1961]

That's pretty close to what I came up with........I appreciate your response.