Engine Pre-heaters

[sparky Paul]

I've been reading a thread about fuel economy on the petrol models, and it reminded me about something I saw about some time ago. We generally get the 30 mpg from our 2.3 knocking about, and easily achieve 35 mpg on a long run, even with a top box on.

 

However, the OH is now making at least two trips to school daily with a stone cold engine, and mpg is being badly affected - particularly as winter approaches. The journey is about 3 miles and the engine is barely warm when she gets there... it then has chance to cool down a bit again, before she drives home again. In addition, I can't see this being good for the engine. Unfortunately, there is no sensible alternative to using the Gal during the winter - we have no bus services here, or even anyone to share with in our small village - and it's a bit far to walk down country lanes with a 4 year old. ;)

 

Anyway, it 's got me thinking about engine temperature on these short trips. You used to be able to buy a paraffin sump heater which sat under the car and kept the edge off, but the plastic undertray makes that's a non-starter. In any case, I reckon you need something which will get the car a bit closer to working temperature to have the kind of benefit I'm looking for. I remember seeing an electric engine pre-heater, sort of a small immersion heater that plumbs into the cooling system - a bit of Googling reveals that Calix make one (RE282) which will fit the Galaxy...

 

Calix website

 

According to the installation instructions on the site, the heater fits into the bottom hose on the Galaxy. The data on the site says fuel consumption is cut by about 40% in the first 5km at 0 degrees centigrade, with a corresponding cut in emissions. I would imagine the car would also produce hot air from the heater more quickly.

 

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of these, or anything similar? :lol:

 

EDIT: Also check out Kenlowe HotStart

 

This is a bigger affair than the Calix, with a 2.7kW output - gets the engine temperature to 85 degrees centigrade in around 20 minutes. This is interesting too...

 

Hotstart benefits

[NikpV]

interesting - i would seriously be worrird about my OH putting our three in the car and driving to school trailing a connecting cable or worse still pulling the gubbins out of the hose :lol: ;)

[sparky Paul]

interesting - i would seriously be worrird about my OH putting our three in the car and driving to school trailing a connecting cable or worse still pulling the gubbins out of the hose :P :P

 

Oh yes :P

 

I have had exactly the same vision... only I could see the car hairing off up the road followed by the house wiring and the fusebox... :lol:

 

The wiring kit for the heater is provided with a connector which I suppose would give way, but I think that the answer would be make the connection very obvious, or make some sort of interlock - it wouldn't be difficult to incorporate something to prevent the car being started with the heater still connected. ;)

[kalel]

As I'm living on latitudes where preheaters are quite common I may offer some advice.

I can with confidence say that you only drive away once with the cord attached.

If you plan the installation well and have the inletsocket facing straight forward the connectingcord will be pulled straight out of the socket without any damages to anything. this is if you back out of the driveway of course.

 

If you guys consider installing an engine preheater, I would like to suggest that you add a tricklecharger to the setup. Me O'l Missuses cars have had one for the last 20 years and her vehicles has needed new batteries in avarage between 8 and 10 years. My cars that never have had neither preheat or tricklecharger have needed replacement batteries at the, to us, normal 2 to 4 years interval. The extra cost for a trickler is soon paid in no batterychanges.

 

I may also point you in the direction of DEFA, them Norsemens also knows how to heat cars in winters.

 

http://www.defa.com/finn_dok_h.php3?merke=...=2&lang=3&ndid=

 

I have experiences of both DEFA and Calix brands and can say that both brands work very well, only difference is that I have an impression that DEFA connectors and connector blocks are a little bit more reliable than Calix.

[brawlski]

the DEFA one looks good the instruction seem better than the calix, they dont seem to have a stockist over here. i have toyed with the idea of these things for a long time. up here is Scotland it can be very handy! i already have a heater inside the car that comes on and defrosts the cabin but th eengine pre-warmer would be nic. i always thought they had to be fittted into the block?

 

anyone no of any stockist in the uk?

[sparky Paul]

As I'm living on latitudes where preheaters are quite common I may offer some advice.

I can with confidence say that you only drive away once with the cord attached.

If you plan the installation well and have the inletsocket facing straight forward the connectingcord will be pulled straight out of the socket without any damages to anything. this is if you back out of the driveway of course.

 

Thanks for the link, very enlightening! Good point too about a trickle charger - it would be simple to add a small one under the bonnet.

 

To prevent driving away whilst still hooked up, I was thinking about adding an electrical interlock to the ignition circuit somewhere - when the 240V was applied to the heater, a relay would interrupt the starter soleniod, for example.

[NikpV]

 

To prevent driving away whilst still hooked up, I was thinking about adding an electrical interlock to the ignition circuit somewhere - when the 240V was applied to the heater, a relay would interrupt the starter soleniod, for example.

 

 

I was thinking of threading the cable though her car keys. :angry2: :lol: :rolleyes:

[sparky Paul]

I was thinking of threading the cable though her car keys. :D :lol: :lol:

 

:lol:

 

The DEFA one looks good, similar in implementation to the Calix one. To give an idea of the cost, I found a price at a stockist in Germany for the DEFA 435 to fit my 2.3 Galaxy -

[brawlski]

can you give me the dealers details?

[sparky Paul]

can you give me the dealers details?

I found the DEFA 435 for the 2.3 petrol Galaxy at www.carandcamp.com.

 

I didn't post the website earlier as it's all in German, it takes a bit of head-scratching to find what you want. Shipping to UK is