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Has anyone experience of engine preheaters are they noisey difficult to fit etc
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Andrew,
I haven't actually fitted one at any time, but I have two or three customers who use the Kenlowe one on classic cars. Installation does not look to be difficult, but locating the mains power socket neatly takes some thought. I personally think they are a very good idea, but the icing on the cake, especially for engines that have been standing for some time, is an electric pump oil pressure builder. I saw one American owned car a couple of years back at Goodwood where turning the key operated the elctric oil pump for ten seconds before the starter was engaged - not so cool when you stall it at the lights though !
Why worry about any noise ? The car is in the garage while you are having an extra piece of toast in the kitchen !
Regards, Adam
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Presumably the concern about noise relates to the diesel or petrol types such as Eberspacher fitted to motorhomes, lorries usually but perfectly adaptable to cars. Too expensive for me in the UK (nearly £1000 a few years ago) but would like to know what they cost fitted in Germany.
Did have an unidentified Kenlowe type electric mains unit fitted unobrusively on an old Daimler when I acquired it. Simple heater unit tapped into a water hose. Didn't use the old girl much in winter (she was over 40) so never fully established if it helped although engine seemed to spin less sluggishly on start-up.
I've always felt these are sound in principle (electric or fuelled) for ungaraged, winter-use cars so I too await more expert experience.
David
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They are offering at a mutiple autospares shop ATU similar to Halfords a fuel either benzine or diesel from 400ukp, more expensive if you want the remote
control.I think they are Webasto they appear to heat the water and blast warm air into the car plus an oil heating option.I think Webasto must have a webb site I will have a look.
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I have a Kenlowe Hotstart that has completed 2 years usage on an MB 190E(it wont fit in my current diesel car.) Its complete & available for a reasonable price, if anyone is interested.
Saxton77@hotmail.com
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Simon,
You are just the chap to give us a long term report then!
David
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The Kenlowe Hotstart is mains operated and includes both a circulation pump and heating element. The main problem fitting it is finding sufficient underbonnet space. It is sensitive to crud and crap in the coolant, and the pump will break if you haven't changed your coolant regularly. There are some Swedish kits which are also mains operated. Even the multi story carparks in Sweden have sockets for them. Then there are the petrol or diesel fuelled pre-heaters which Andy has seen. For enyone who wants to look up the number, Kenlowe is in Maidenhead, Berks.
HJ
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Here in Sweden, (-1C this morning) as HJ said almost all the cars have these mains kits fitted. Actually they heat the oil rather than the water, and of course its not wise to leave them plugged in all the time as it does not do the oil any good. Its best to turn them on about an hour or so before the car is wanted, and of course it means that the oil circulates better on start up never mind the improvement in cranking speed. Personally I would rather look after the engine and put up with being a bit cold myself a bit longer, although heated seats are a bonus.
To heat the interior there is a spur with socket installed inside the passenger compartment. You can plug a special fan heater into this which operates while the oil heater is powered and so heats the interior and removes the frost on the windows.
Used both the Eberspächer and the Webasto hot air units on boats. Personally had more success with Webasto installations than the Eberspächer, though this may have been a case of the latter being a bit under specced for the size of the cabin space.
They are noisy both inside (fan) and outside (burner exhaust) and use quite a lot of electrical power especially on start up. The exhaust also gets very hot. I would not consider these for any sort of extended use unless you arranged a separate "domestic" battery with some sort of split charging arrangment.
If you decide to buy one of these and have it controlled by a thermostat watch that also as it cycles the unit on and off. Of course when the thermostat switches it back on its just another cold start with all the high use of power especially on diesel versions. A better solution is to buy one with low and high power settings and wire the thermostat so that it cycles between high and low rather than turning the unit off/on.
Hope that answers all your questions Andrew. I can find out the cost of one of these units if you like? Which vehicle is it for? Like spiked tyres so many people want them over here I assume they are not so expensive.
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Oddly enough this seems to be such a good idea that we've been toying with the idea of testing one of the Kenlowe ones and, if it turns out to be useful, adding it to the site. But as with so many things I've been too busy to do anything about it. But winter approacheth...
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I checked the webasto german site and they make a petrol driven model that looks quite neat but they do not seem to have a diesel version
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Martyn,
If you mean the type that goes in a coolant hose to pre-heat the system I'm very interested in one of these for our project Series III Land Rover. When (yes just when will that be?) it's finished it will have a dual purpose. As an older interesting (classic??) vehicle for me to work on, and to do the 3 mile run to see our horses each day. Now from a fully cold start it isn't really going to get warm, either the engine or interior.
There is plenty of room under the bonnet for fitting and any associated wiring/sockets to the mains.
I would offer to do your trial but at the rate I'm going it will be lucky to see action this winter.
Think I'll look for this device on the net later tonight.
Also I loved the stories of putting a hair dryer or fan heater in the car for five minutes before starting. That would take the chill off for a short journey.
David
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Andrew all the Webasto ones I have used have been marine installations which use diesel, of course these were from Webasto in UK.
Here is the link to the Webasto UK site, in sunny Doncaster.
www.webastouk.com/
You will see there is a link to passenger car heaters at the bottom of the first page. It is interesting that there are upgrade kits for certain cars who already have one of these systems installed, list at the bottom, with cost from GBP299.
I assume these can upgrade the existing coolant heater to a full blown cabin heater, operable by a timer, with remote control possible from controller or by dialling a pager. These look quite nice with outputs from 4 to just over 5 kw.
Mercedes Benz A Class 170 Cdi
Mercedes Benz C Class 220 Cdi
Mercedes Benz E Class 220 Cdi/320 Cdi
Mercedes Benz S Class Cdi
Fiat Ulysse MPV
Citroen Synergie MPV
Peugeot 806 MPV
Rover 75 Diesel
BMW 530d
Land Rover Freelander Td4
Land Rover Discovery Td5--(if option of Fuel Burning Heater has been installed)
Chrysler Voyager MY2001 Diesel
However I still bet its cheaper and simpler to have one of the Swedish systems, of course you have to have a source of mains power.
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Thanks Stuart ,I will be spending a lot of time in the alps this winter(If my tender is accepted) and do not relish geting into a freezing cold car every day.
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No problem, its nice for me to be of help for a change Andy, however in the case of all these cars with a heater fitted already I would bet that they are the sort that requires the engine to be running before they operate.
When these things fire up, they need to pump the fuel, some sort of glowplug arrangement so the fuel fires, assuming it's a diesel, and then a fan to blow the hot air or pump the water whatever. They really consume juice particularly on start up. I know you will be using this for a shortish time only, but considering the battery has been out in the cold all might and therefore can only produce a part of its capacity ie -20C about 30% what wold be its cold cranking potential after that and the heater, I dunno, but its not worth leaving it to chance.
This is a real issue on boats, I know in your car you are not running a goggle box or an all night card school but I guess as you tow a van you should have the secondary battery and split charging thing all sorted??
I would ask the manufacturer some hard questions about power usage and then look at your car's battery and charging system. Having been the wrong end of bat flatteries on boats a few times, there is nowhere to plug a charger in at sea.
I find the following website useful about battery and charging questions.
www.uuhome.de/william.darden/
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I remember reading that the new BMW 5 series has an option for some kind of heat absorber pack located in the sump tray that would store heat overnight. Sounded like the ideal solution.
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