Block Heater Questions

Guess I'm dogging you tonight, LOL. Anyway:

We use ours (on reg Prius) very regularly, hooked up with timer. I've found 2 hours is about as good as it gets, and by the end of the first hour it's probably around 80% of fully warmed.

The process is pretty underwhelming, it's hard to tell it's working. After having it plugged in for a couple of hours, pop the hood and feel some of the coolant hoses, and block. They should be warming up.

It will not bring a car to operating temp, that's not the object. They typically raise the temp by around 30C (maybe 40~50F?). I've got a Scangage hooked up, and with ambient temps around 70F (yes, we use it year 'round) will see coolant temp around 110F within a minute of startup, after the coolant has circulated a bit.

If you need to use a long extension get a heavy gauge. Also try to prepare for the time you forget to unplug, it will happen LOL. Maybe use two zip ties in the grill to secure the block heater's cord, and loop your extension around something solid, positioned in such a way that plug pulls straight out.

 

We've got a timer on ours: the kind that you could set various on/off times for different days if you want, but right now I just set it to come on at 6am and shut off at 10am. That works for us on workdays, and on weekend I just activate manually as needed. It takes some forethought, and invariably runs longer than needed, but that's ok.

As far as unplugging: do prepare for the inevitable, set it up so when it does happen it pulls straight out. I'd say I (or my better half) forget maybe 5 times per year. No harm if the block heater cord is zip tied with very little hang out, and the extension is secured and straight pull out. And get into a routine, walk around the front of your car before getting in.

The real deal breaker might be when you hear the dealership price. Ours was around $400 installed. The parts about $60~80, but install is not a lot of fun.

 

I put in a call to two local Toyota dealers' parts depts., including the one where I bought my C4, to ask for a block heater (I know, they're available at the PriusChat shop). One responded that Toyota doesn't offer one & that his "Prius techs" said it was counter-indicated & might void the warranty. The other said it's available & he could order it. Any reason to pay attention to the first dealer's warning?

Thanks!

 

I called the dealership I bought my c from and asked them about the block heater as well. I was initially told that such a part does not exist for the c and that I didn’t need one because “nobody installs engine block heaters anymore” and that there’s already a thermos that heats the engine and that I will never have a problem starting my car. I told the man that I still wanted one and explained to him that it’s for fuel efficiency reasons, and gave him the Toyota OEM part number of the one off the PriusChat Shop site. He looked it up and indeed verified that it is available but that it is a Prius Gen II part, and not for the c. He did say that it would probably work for the c, however. I asked him the price to install the block heater and was told that it would probably cost around $500 because “it’ll be a 4 hour job and to install block heaters, you have to take apart the whole cooling system, drain all the fluids…”. I told him it was simply a plug that you bolt on. He then said that because I had incorrectly referred to this part as an “engine block heater”, when instead it is an “engine bolt heater,” that threw him off. He didn’t mention anything about it voiding the warranty (however he did go on calling this part an engine block heater the whole time after that).

I wanted to get this engine block (or bolt, or whatever) heater installed at the dealership I bought my car from because I thought a Toyota dealer would be more knowledgeable about this than a generic service shop for all cars, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. I don’t know if this service department was trying to rip me off (saying it’s a 4 hour job @ $125/hr), but I’ll probably call another Toyota dealership to see if they’re more knowledgeable (and friendly!) about the installation of the block heater.

Tl;dr…not all dealerships are knowledgeable about the Prius/Prius c engine block heater, so look for one that is.

 

I think all this really means "my shop is not well practiced at installing this part, so it will take at least as long as the standard labor book lists. We can make much better money at other tasks that we can perform much faster than listed in the book."

That thermos has not existed since Model Year 2009.

 

Thanks for clearing that up, fuzzy1. I know the 2009 Prius had one but wasn't sure about the 2012 c, since I've read it uses an updated/modified 2009 Prius engine.