Pre-heater?

[rolesyboy]

Looking for a preheater of some description. My car sits unused for months at a time and I am thinking if I fit something that I can preheat the engine it will avoid all of the cold start faff. Don't wish to spend fortunes but if anybody has any suggestions or experience would love to hear from them. Cheers. Mark

[andy1071]

It is common in Nordic countries to fit either a petrol powered pre-heater for the coolant (expensive), or an electric element in place of one of the core plugs.
Such as:
http://www.defa.com/sv/automotive/warmu ... 00_series/

(You may need Google translate...)

The standard procedure is to plug the car in at night, and use a timer to switch it on in the morning. But you could just plug it in when you need to.
-There are lots of different designs, so it may take a bit of work to find one that fits ok.

-A colleague had a petrol heater in his Mercedes estate, a few years ago, and used to claim that it in winter, it used less petrol than running from cold...

[JC T ONE]

I bought a Webasto for my everyday car, this is the best thing I ever bought for myself

The feeling of a warm & ice free car is soo nice, and as already stated, do you use less petrol.

But this is not the only advantage, you also save on the engine, as the engine runs leaner from start (no choke) this menas less wear in the bores, and your exhaust gets less condensation = less rust.

I know a guy who had one fitted more than 12 years ago, when he bought a new car, that car is still running on its original exhaust system

[rolesyboy]

Thanks gents. Any chance of a link or the specific name of the Webasto item Jens? Can't find one. Cheers. Mark

[JC T ONE]

Thanks gents. Any chance of a link or the specific name of the Webasto item Jens? Can't find one. Cheers. Mark

Here is a couple = this is what my heater, does to a bucket of ice cold water, after 2 min

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rrbaUN_Fs

I bought it secondhand, as they are blxxxy expensive

Here is the official Webasto video =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFCt3gO_iqQ


Mine is a termotop E, it warms the engine, and turns on the cars heaterfan, so the cabin is warm, and windows ice free

[guru_1071]

many years ago, my dad and a a mate of his went to look at a 1920s car that had been in storage from before the second world war.

they pulled the cover off it, paid the old lady what she wanted for it (this was back in the late 1960's) and where amazed to find that the engine was warm, on further inspection they discovered that it was plugged into the mains electric of the house and had a water heater built into the engine bay that heated the cooling system up by a small amount

the owner of the car (who was killed in the war) had left it plugged in, and it had never been turned off.....

of course in the 1930's, antifreeze didnt exist so car owners would either drain the engine evey night in winter, or lay the cars up until the warmed weather, so a electric heater would have been a genius idea.

i dread to think what 30 years of electric cost........