RIHCH: What dealership did you get that installed? I am also from RI and am waiting for my 06 HCH to arrive. Hopefully I can wait a month so I can get the tax credit.
Sure Mike, I use Metro Honda which is located in Johnston www.metrohoda.com
330-2129
Anyone actually have their engine block heater installed yet?
I asked my dealer for a quote:
$59 plus tax for part
$95 per hour for labor x 3
Total cost $348.87
Um, I think I might go the "self-install" route !!!
It's a radiator flush. Call them back and ask how much a radiator flush costs. If they quote 3 hours to do a radiator flush then OK. If they say it's $100 for a radiator flush, then you'll know they're scamming you bigtime.
Brandon, a radiator flush does not involve removing the front bumper, unfortunately for the dealer.
Look at that PDF I posted above and you can see the steps involved. It's a lot of stuff, but I can't see how they estimate 3 hours for it. I'm gonna show that PDF to our company mechanic and ask him how long he thinks it might take HIM to do it. He only charges $50 a hour !!
I just picked my car up an hour ago after the dealer installed a block heater. I paid a grand total of $124.00 Canadian for it. I emailed the dealer last week and asked for a quote and he told me it would be $106 installed plus taxes. When I went to pick the car up this afternoon (dropped it off at 7:00 am) they wanted $184.00 . I told them that was not the price I was quoted and showed them the printed email. They went back to the computer and said that the emailed quote did not have the updated parts price. In the end they agreed on the $106.00 as was originally quoted. Sounds like I did okay! I will put it on a timer and run it for a few hours prior to my drive to work. I have a short commute and the engine barely has a chance to warm up. I'll give it a few weeks and report back on FE.
It's like a 15W heater...that's about 50 cents to run every night for a full year. Will it save you 50 cents of gas over a year? Solve that and ther's your answer.
If it is 15W it will have very little affect on your engine temp. The metal engine block will radiate alot more then that.
Not sure about Honda's, but various units I checked into were 400W. So if you left it on for an 8 hr. period it would use 3.2KW or roughly $.32 per night. This is considerable more than the extra gas I use based on my FE difference. My question is how much difference would 1 or 2 hrs. of heat time using a timer make.
I was waiting for someone to correct me on that...
yeah- I checked online a few days ago and they were all in the 500W range. Most sites said it took 2-3 hours max (use a timer) to bring the engine up as much as it was going to get, all the way down to -20F ambient. So for me that's about 8 cents a day... x 150 cold days...about $12 per year. Assmuing I drive 350 miles a week, it would take about .75mpg increase in my FE to pay off the electricity @ $2/gallon. Easily achieved. Amortizing the $50 to buy the part over a few years (5 seems to be a reasonable lifetime) and I need ~1.5mpg boost from the warm start. That seems doable too- most people seemed to say they were getting abotu 10% increase, although those were Canadians talking about VERY cold ambients!
The takeaway I read was: don't use it all night- definitely use a timer or powersaver cord (temp switch that cuts it in/out). And about 2-3 hours on is all that's needed.
I'mm gonna get one for the HAH and the Exploder- put them in over Xmas.
Brandon, a radiator flush does not involve removing the front bumper, unfortunately for the dealer.
Look at that PDF I posted above and you can see the steps involved. It's a lot of stuff, but I can't see how they estimate 3 hours for it. I'm gonna show that PDF to our company mechanic and ask him how long he thinks it might take HIM to do it. He only charges $50 a hour !!
Removing the front bumper is hardly any harder that removing the underbody cover like you have to do for an oil change anyway, and they only charge $30 for an oil change! Still a ridiculous sum of money. Show the PDF to your friend. He'll probably laugh and say it's maybe 60-90 minutes of easy work.
The Honda block heater is really warming the coolant, not the block. Of course the block warms by simple heat transfer. But the block is aluminum and will insulate the warmed coolant, more than radiate it. Block heaters are a good idea in colder weather and climates. Also, the wear and tear they prevent far exceeds any electrical cost. Not to mention fuel savings and comfort.
Re: Update: Honda engine block heater
