After the bloc heater, This is my solution for the morning defrost of the windsheild.



It fit perfectly, no contact with seats.


Pierre M.

Holy macro, Pierre.

I bet that thing (depending on the setting) is rated at 1000+ watts. Am I right?

That's a little too effective for me.


Cheers;

MSantos

You win 1.5 time. It's 1500watts.

The idea is for very little use like 10 minutes before leave. There is nothing I hate more then stop at the next street 20 seconds after I left the home because the windsheild is completly frozen... and let the engin become hot to clean all that. A lot of CO2 just to clean a window.

Also, during freezing rain, that might be very helpful.

bye,


Pierre

Wow - I only wish our electric costs were as low as yours. Must be all that hydro power you have up there. I pay close to US$0.10/kWh.

Then again it rarely even gets to 0C here so I don't have to worry much about things like block heaters.

Ditto.
Here in the Dallas area, I'm at 12.00 cents/kWh.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

Ahh we are back to the Block Heater topics again. I employed mine about 2 weeks ago when the night temps were in the high 40s F. Anybody running calcs will find out that it is not economically worthwhile to run a Block Engine Heater but the rewards one gets far outweigh the cost of electricity to heat the car. You get to Auto Stop within the first 1 mile from home in sub-freezing temps, your defroster works instantly, the heat comes out within about 20 seconds on those frigid mornings.

Having a few blips on the Coolant gauge is not the real test. How quickly it rises to the 8 or 9 blips is the key (I have had this occur within 1 mile in Winter conditions). That made my previous Winter commute of 20 miles yield me 50 mpg rather than 35-40 mpg without the Block Heater.

The only caveat is remembering to unplug your non-plugin Hybrid before driving away. I use a 16-oz cup and invert it on the gearshift and write "BLOCK ENGINE HEATER" on it so I can't shift out of Park without noticing that. Has that stopped me from twice removing the cup and driving away? Nope. Luckily the plug undoes itself quite easily from the car so no damage (yet). I'm sure I will be asleep leaving one day and do that again.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)

Here ya go - one of my favorite photos from the Block Heater. Proof of Block Heater operation on snowy morning. If only I would have had the Thermometer in the photo and then another one after starting the car to show the 3 or 4 blips of Coolant temp on the gauge. =)

Also, the heat under the hood helps keep the Windshield Squirter lines unfrozen which was never mentioned in the brochures for the Block Heater but was a great add-on.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)