Best automotive tank & engine heaters according to redditors

It's a block heater, something like this. Used to get some heat in your oil when you live where it gets really freakin' cold. Plug it into an outlet after parking, and the next morning you don't have to wait for your vehicle to warm up.

I have one on my Jeep ZJ. Comes in handy during Montana winters (and Fall, and sometimes Spring).

In Yellowknife (and Canada generally), one commonly has one or more of these four things, each of which will have an electrical cord with a two-prong plug meant for your standard North American 110/120V AC socket.

1. Block heater. Just about every car made, look around the engine block, you'll find a round place where you can knock out a round chunk of metal, leaving a hole that accesses where the engine coolant will be. A block heater is then inserted into the hole. Imagine the kind of heating element at the bottom of a kettle. One can always get a mechanic to do this for you, but in Canada, probably nearly all new cars, the dealer (or even the factory) will just go ahead and install it anyhow.
   
   
2. Imagine a long narrow plastic electric blanket, say 6" wide and 2-3' long. Now imagine that wrapped around the sides of your car's battery. Yes, it is a battery blanket.
   
   
3. Take a heating element and surround it by a metal case with a magnet on one end, or put it in a plastic envelope that has strong adhesive on it, or even some straps and hooks. Slap that onto the bottom of your oil pan, and you now have installed an oil pan heater.
   
   
4. If your windows regularly frost up on the inside, and you hate waiting 5-10-15 minutes for the car's heater to warm up enough after you start it to defrost the windows, you can get a small heater with fan and install that inside the car.
   
   Then, run all the cords to your car's grille. Get an extension cord that has 3 or 4 sockets, plug your cords into that extension cord, then plug the extension cord into an outlet on the outside of your house, or an outlet in your parking lot. If you want to be eco-friendly and not use any more electricity than you absolutely have to, put a timer on that outlet, and have the juice come on at, say, 4-5 am, 'cause 3 hours or so is usually enough to make your car's parts all nice and toasty.

Install a block heater

Engine block heater then? Or a garage?

Make sure you have a good battery and don't worry about it is the simple answer.

If you do decide to install one anyway, they're not expensive and it's not that hard to do. The basic/most common ones replace a frost plug, which is a little tin cup near the bottom of the engine, designed to pop first and relieve pressure if your coolant ever does freeze (which I've never seen happen, because.. antifreeze). So it's just a matter of draining your coolant, popping out the frost plug and tapping in the heater. Getting to the bottom of your engine to do this likely won't be fun.

Example of a simple block heater.

> however it’s not always possible to warm up, especially when it gets to -35 etc. nothing warms up in that.

Hot Pad Heater ($30.44 USD) + Engine Block Heater ($27.95 USD)

A119 is very popular, goodluck with it, v2 is more stable than v1.

They make cab heaters. I have one like this in one of my classics.

I've never seen a head bolt heater that actually gets the engine warm enough to get the heater going more quickly when it's legitimately cold out. I prefer an engine preheater like this (installs between the rad hoses and circulates as it heats), or an auto start.

Have you tested the antifreeze? Antifreeze that has been left in an engine for a long time without being changed, or had water added to bring it out of the 50-50 mix can degrade its properties. There are cheap coolant testers you can get at autoparts stores or similar area will sell them. They let you take a sample of the coolant and the float will tell you its rating. -15 is cold, if the antifreeze isn't doing it's job and freezes it can crack the block/heads and cause all kinds of trouble. Hopefully it won't be this but worth checking.

I would see if you can get a engine block warmer:

https://www.amazon.com/Zerostart-310-0057-Engine-Block-Heater/dp/B000NM2KNA

or something similar to heat the block to see if it helps.

Alternative things could be IAT sensor or any similar temperature sensor, the engine relies on this when starting to properly gauge the fuel mixture in the engine and if a temp sensor is sending out funky information it can also cause this.

Can you string an extension cord to your card?

And here's a heated seat pad

> The max temperature of a toaster in air is less than its max temperature in vacuum, same as the engine, if it works as I speculate.

The issue is what is the toaster made of? Steel? Won't it melt if it's hot enough to melt an engine block? If the toaster melts all the insides short and it stops being a toaster, it might still be able to melt the engine block, but you've made what is closer to an arc furnace, not a toaster.

> You mean like the red color of hot metal? Thats mostly from the surface, right?

Yes, hot metal gives off IR radiation which will cool it, yes it's from the surface, but the heat from the toaster will be transferred via conduction to the surface. An engine block if more than capable of transferring 1.5kW without melting, they are typically designed to handle a couple hundred kW when water cooling is available. A 1kW toaster will almost get it warm, what you have is essentially a large block heater, 1.5kW is actually what some people connect to their engines to help it start