Block heater plus car charger on same circuit?

I'm guessing the dealer added more in labor for removing the belly pan.

The difficulty is going to come down to where exactly the freeze plug is that the heater sticks into.

 

That's just the beginning of the fun. Not sure about 4th gen and Prime, but on third gen removal of the engine underpanel takes about 10 minutes at most, especially for pros with a hoist. I'd suspect the wipers, their motor and linkage, and cowl below the windshield also need to be removed. You could maybe avoid it, work just from below, but would likely regret it, lol.

Getting the heater element into it's hole is a bear I think, requires disconnection/shifting of various components, very tight quarters.

I've never done btw. But yeah, if I was going through the process again, think I'd give it a try.

 

Here's a Toyota pdf of third Gen install, get a feel for what's involved. I think they tend to make it look easier too:

 

Thanks. Yeah, it does make it look easy, but probably not as easy as it looks on paper. I contacted a dealer for installation of block heater. I will see what they say.

 

Canadian dealership parts departments sell the part too: around '$85~90 CDN. Not sure why northern US States don't also stock it, they don't?

 

Part Number: PU140-00900 liste in the instruction is what I found in e-bay and a few other parts site, but does not seems to be stocked in US Toyota dealer stores.

 

0W-16 oil is not backward compatible unless the car maker so states. Anyway, the 0W (cold) spec is the same for both, per the SAE J300 spec.... The hot viscosity spec, 16 vs. 20, is said to yield about 2% improved fuel consumption at normal operating temperature.
https://www.farmoyl.com/resources/sae-viscosity-grades

 

The numbers of the XwXX oil are just a label. The actual measured values need to fall within a range in order to qualify for that label. In general, the thinner when warm oil will have lower viscosity when cold than the thicker oil even if they both have the same cold label value.

Mobil 1™ Advanced Fuel Economy | Mobil™ Motor Oils

Check the cold viscosities. The 0w20's is two thirds of the 0w30's. That cold test isn't even cold. 40C is warmer than human body temperature. When the oils are down at the temperatures of winter, the difference between their actual viscosities will be even wider.

Cars and engines were back certified by some when they switched to 0w20. Toyota could do the same with 0w16. Toyota Canada could recommend it for harsh winter regions.

 

Called a dealer, a service manager there said Prius does not need an engine block heater and they have never installed one before, but gave me an estimated quote of $140 for parts and $264 for labor, total $404 USD.

 

Well, no gasoline engine truly needs a block heater outside of areas with really cold climates. They do benefit from an efficiency boost for the shorter warm up times.

 

So, for Prime, do you think, driving on EV to get up to speed and switching to HV without load as suggested here Does Toyota make an engine-block heater for the 2017 Prius Prime plug-in? | PriusChat works just as well as using EBH for fuel efficienty and for redusing strain on ICE for logevity?

 

People installed a block heater on the gen2, and used it year round for the efficiency gain. But that model had a longer, fuel burning warm up cycle than current models. The gen3 started capturing exhaust heat to warm up the engine, and the gen4 got better. The block heater helped the most on short trips, but those will mostly, if not all, be EV in a Prime.

Outside of harsh climate like the OP's, I wouldn't bother with a block heater on a PHEV. The engine is going to have an easy life to begin with, and most start ups will have assist from the battery to keep the engine load light during that time.

 

From my last winter experience, that was true only up until the morning temperature hit single digit. Any morning when temp was below 10F, my PRIME started ICE immediately after I turned on the car. No EV was available. This was true even when Climate control was turned off and no defroster was being used. Preconditioning with the climate control had no effect on ICE coming on. The heat pump is so ineffective it did not warm-up the cabin at all even with repeated preconditioning up to 40 min. Aftere this experience, I decided to just run ICE on HV mode for my morning commute of ~20 miles and saved EV range for my afternoon commute back home. I don't have way to charge at work. I was just thinking EBH may reduce the strain on ICE and make it more comfortable during morning commute for increasing heater efficiency.

 

That's a good strategy, and a good time to use block heater.

FWIW, we use ours year 'round, heehee...

 

If DIY is easy enough, parts price at $54, I might do it, but probably not worth $400 by a dealer. Beside, I may run into the same problem OP of this thread has. I only have single 20A circuit for both a L1 charger and EBH.

 

In your situation, the EBH sounds like it could be worth it then. A warm engine might let you use EV even for some of the trip in. I just sucked it up while I had the gen2, and I didn't have seat heaters, though those will be must on a plug in or hybrid now. Now I have a basic ICE supplying all the heat I need.

You have more options for the plug use in the terms of timer options. I'd look into a 16 amp L2 charger. There are ones that simply plug in. The shorter charge time from it would mean less change of having charging and engine heating overlapping with each other. Plus, it might mean better cabin preconditioning.

 

Yeah, that's another $200-400 for the L2 cord alone. Installing 240V line and maybe increase the breaker from current 20A will cost quite bit more. I guess, I will never recover the initial investment for the gas saved. Oh, I forgot to tell you I live in high electricity rate region of New England, so my EV and HV cost are just about even at current electricity and gas price.

 

When I lived in Alaska we typically set up our cars with block heater + battery blanket + night light mounted behind the grille, all wired on a single plug.

In a traditional car with a larger engine you can save a lot of fuel by preheating from grid power. The benefits aren't quite as big for the smallest engines since they heat up quickly on their own, but savings are savings. Unless you're paying something extraordinary for your electricity the preheat will be a net savings.

The night light is there so you can make sure the thing is on just by looking out the window.