I tried it for the first time this morning at 10AM. Outside temperature about 40. Turned on car and measured temp with scangauge (guess you have to turn on vehicle to read anything). Read 64. Shut off engine. Plugged in EBH. Checked at 11AM and it was 110. Checked at 11:30 and it was 114 and rising. Unplugged and drove to Home Depot about 4 miles away. Got 40mpg. Usually get about 35 when weather is nice for that short a distance (mostly slow going due to construction & going through town).

I'm impressed but I wish I had it for the winter.

 

You already see what it can do to help the gas mileage. Not only that is allows the oil to get up into the engine quicker on cold days.

Press the red button on the scan gauge to turn it on. The temp reading you see is from when you last shut off the engine. Start the engine pulls the cold coolant from the radiator and mix with the hot coolant in the engine.

The colder the weather the more the block heater helps. Although most engines, including hybrids do tend to run a little rich if the outside temp is in the 20's or colder. That's due to the extreme cold and low humidity.

 

I do turn it on with red button.

SG just says "connecting" until the car is powered up (Ready light ON). Am I missing something?

 

My goof John. I was wanting to point out the fact the gauge shows the last hot temp when you shut down the engine. The new reading after starting the ice, is the cold radiator water mixed with the engine water. Still much better when using the block heater.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I think you might be interested to run a few more simple tests.

e.g.: some night leave your block heater off and make that short trip starting with a dead cold engine. (Make sure to start taking your trip data before the ICE starts up.) Record the precise distance, mpg and the total amount of fuel consumed on the trip. (You should note that you are fully warmed up by the end of this little trip.) This will give you your fuel consumption on the test trip for a dead cold engine.

Then shut down, turn on again, reset your trip info and record the same data on the return trip. This will give you your comparable data for a fully warmed up starting condition.

The next night you have similar temperatures, warm up with theblock heater. To be definitive (even though you may normally warm up for a limited time) get block-heater-warmed for at least 3 or 4 hours (or even all night for this test in cold temperatures). Then repeat the trip test with the block-heater-warmed start conditions and again record the comparable data.

For the best comparisons you might want to be sure you can do the drives in similar temperature conditions and with comparable starting states of charge.

I have done these comparisons many times on a 2 mile trip ( 4mile round trip) I make regularly. My results vary some with outside temperature -but not dramatically. (Of course it rarely gets below freezing here in Houston.)

Typically I see less than 20 mpg on the dead cold test (some times less than 15) , around 40 mpg on the fully warmed return, and about 30 mpg (sometimes better) on the block-heater-warmed start. And the fuel savings holds up pretty well even in hot Houston summers.

From all of this I concluded that I save 0.03 to 0.05 gallons per cold start avoided, or a gallon or two a month if I use the heater regularly.

If you use your longer (4 mi) trip, I suppose you will not see as big a percentage difference in mpg, but I'll bet you will calculate a similar amount of fuel saved in gallons.

Jack

 

Is this procedure for 2.4 Liter. Would it also apply to a regular camry 2.4 also?

 

I'm sure it would.

And I bet it would be just as instructive, if not as dramatic.

Jack

 

I just installed the block heater on my 2007 Camry Hybrid. I have a couple of timers I use for lights and air pumps but don't know if they can handle the current of the block heater. I'll have to confirm before starting to preheat automatically. I uploaded a youtube video showing how I routed the chord to the lower front grill for easy charging access. Link to the vid is: but is still 12 minutes from being fully loaded.

 

Hi Squint,

Not sure why I can't view the pictures that you post. I'm a newbie to the forum. Thanks for your help.