Gi'day Group This morning it was -30 celcuis at my place. Luckily I have my TJ plugged in and it starts without a whimper. Normally I'll plug in the block heater when it's -10C or below. It's on a timer and comes on a couple of hours before I leave for work. Now at work there's no outlet to plug into. I thought about those power packs you can get at crappy tire with a built in AC inverter (300W at 110VAC). I wonder if it can power a timer and the block heater for a couple hours before I leave work with one of those. Thoughts or comments anyone? Thanks in advance
I can't see how 300W can heat an entire block, especially when starting from stone cold, no pun intended. I think it _might_ keep a hot block warm longer, but I don't think it would heat a block that had become colder than a witch's tit in Minnesota in winter.
I think it would be pretty much worthless - those portable power packs have pretty wimpy batteries. Now if you got a couple of 6 v golf cart batteries with an inverter sized correctly for the wattage of your block heater.... that might work.
How many watts/ amps does your heater draw?
I think a more sensible approach would be to just tuck a space blanket around the engine when you park to trap as much heat as possible, and maybe drive to lunch on really cold days to keep the block warm. Remembering, of course, to remove the blanket every time ;)
I think I would be putting in a dual battery system with a deep cell marine as the second battery. Then you could have 800 or more amps or something available to the inverter and maybe get an hour or two with no worries.
Remember cold drops the power in the battery radically.
RV shops sell the dual battery isolators and Canadian Tire now sells the Optima style or coil cell batteries that can be mounted sideways for space.
There are kits out for dual battery trays too.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Now if more places were like Winterpeg all you would need is the powerbar mounted to the fender, with the block heater, battery warmer, car warmer and the coolant heater (inline heater) all plugged in with just one cord hanging out the grillwith the "winter installed extension" and be able to plug in anyplace. When I was in Winterpeg 10 years ago (summer visit) I say nearly every place having posts with electrical outlets on them. Malls, mainstreets, almost every place of work had these posts, so anyone could plug in during the winter and be able to start. neat concept, to bad Dalton and Miller could never think of this ...
Standard 110 volt block heater is in the 500 watt range. Normal 12 volt battery holds 500 to 800 watt hours so you could potentially run the heater for an hour or so on the vehicle battery. I think those inverter pacs are about 1/4 that. But it seem sorta stupid to take 12 volts, convert it to 120 and then turn it into heat. Why not just get a 12 volt heater? I hope the RV/Diesel Truck folks would have something that works.
But I've found that most modern fuel injected engines with proper standard battery, plugs, fuel, 5w-30 oil, etc will start and run fine down to about -30C (-20F) Just hit the key and it should go. Not true on earlier carbed engines though. Go out and drive it at lunch time.
Once you get to the next stage like -30F (-35C) things start getting dicey. Vehicles still start but you really need to baby them. -40F(
-40C) you are on your own, get thee to a heater plug in. My personal record is -35F in a Thief River Falls MN (think Arctic Cat snomobiles in the plant across the street) in late January. Good grief, it started without too much complaint. Tranny wouldn't do anything for about 5 minutes but who's to complain.
Well.....Truthfully, all I got to do is look out the window and press the control for my remote starter towards it. Works like a charm!! :-) But the benifits of warming the engine up first are best. something to do with fuel economy and stuff like that. Couple of interesting sites
The one I used when I was in Wisconsin was 1500 watts, the one that was on the Jeep when I bought it was 1000 watts (removed and trashed shortly after I got it). Even at 100% conversion efficiency the first would require 125 amps from the battery, the second only 83 amps. Even the best power converters run 70-75% efficiency. You do the math
- that requires on humongous battery if it's on for hours at a stretch.
Why you I oughta :-) ... I sometimes miss the aftermarket remote I had on the Subaru. It had the additional feature, as yours probably does, to start up every so many hours, run for a few minutes, and shut off. Great for those nights out downtown till 3:00 am, when the temps start hitting the -30C or so mark. Maybe I'll get another ... when I'm old, and fragile ... like you :-)
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