I'm in northern Mn and I am thinking of having a engine heater installed. I drive a hour to work and the car sits outside at work and home. It always started last winter. Should I pay the money to have it done? Any other winter maintenance ideas? This is my 2nd winter. Love my car!
the block heater will help warm up and mpg's (at the cost of some kWh's) but probably worth it in your climate. can you plug in at work? are you in garage at home? you can do grille blocking, there are a few threads here, it's pretty easy and keeps most of the cold air from passing through the engine bay.
In your locale I'd definitely get it. I think now install through the dealership is in mid $200's, not too bad. We got dinged for $400 when buying new. They saw us coming, I guess. The part's only about $60~80, but install is not a lot of fun. Look into a timer, set it to run for at least a couple of hours before you need the car, more like 3~4 hours in the depth of winter. Make sure the cord's securely zip tied to the front grill, say a couple of zip ties, a few inches apart. And set up your extension cord so it'll pull straight out, and relatively easily, if you forgot to unplug. More like when you forget to unplug: it will happen. My wife's habit is to walk around the front of the car, makes you notice the cord.
She's out side 24/7. I do the grilling, didn't help much( I didn't notice anyway) I can't plug it at work but the nights are sometimes -30 Thanks!!
Winter #15 in Minnesota is quickly approaching for me and I have yet to see the need for an engine-block heater. It certainly isn't necessary, even when leaving the car out all day when the temp never gets above 0°F. All it does is reduce the warm-up time required. But simply driving away right away is surprisingly efficient. Grille-Blocking is helpful for heat retention. There's no need to allow the precious warmth you have to be lost quickly. Having the recharge finish as close as possible to your departure is helpful. Set the timer to take advantage of that.
