Engine Block Heater Installation?

I live in Northern - Central Maine. When we bought our Prius, we asked about block heaters. The dealership has them and can install them. I was told that as they sell hundreds of these cars only about 5% have heaters installed, and so far no owner has ever returned to have one installed later. From that, we decided not to have one installed.

We love our Prius. So far we have not seen any reason to install a block heater.

I am sure that your dealership has them, and can readily install one for you, if you decide you want one.

Your climate down South may certainly be a lot different from how our climate is in this area. With this warm weather we have gotten this past week, the ice on our rivers/lakes is beginning to break up. So it is no longer safe to cross the rivers/lakes here. We must once again, must drive around, or only cross on bridges. Until next winter

I hope that you enjoy your Prius

 

Dont you have folks who Ice-fish in NY?





To get your ice-fishing shack out onto the ice you must pull it with your car.

 

There has been discussion on this forum, where the debate was that by having an engine block heater, it would increase fuel savings during the first 60-seconds of the ICE running each morning.

If your daily commute takes 30 minutes, how much are we honestly talking about here to save 5% of fuel usage in the first 1 minute of driving?

I install block heaters onto vehicles that do not start when they are cold. For example I have a diesel tractor, it is really hard to get started when it is cold. An oil heater helps. When you look around at diesel trucks. They nearly all have oil heaters [if they operate in the North]. If your oil is hot, then all you need to do is to get the oil to flowing through the block for a minute, and the block is warm enough to allow starting the engine.

Block heaters become a requirement in regions where it gets cold; because vehicles do not start.

Since owning our Prius, it has NEVER refused to start for us. I can not say the same for our other vehicles. We have gone out when it has been -20F, and started our Prius. It starts up right away, every time. Within a minute the internal heater is putting out warm air.



Another interesting feature I have noticed, is that it seems warm defrost air is warm but not really too hot.

Consider my truck for example. It is hard starting when things are cold [meaning anything below 5F]
When it does start running, the engine takes a few minutes [maybe as long as 3] before it really starts putting out warm air to the cabin. When it does, the defrost air when it touches the windshield cracks the windshield. The glass is too cold, the air is too hot too quickly so it cracks the glass. My truck windshield has dozens of cracks from this. This is fairly common in colder regions, I see it routinely. The defrost air needs to start as warm and not hot. It is taught in Driver's Ed, most everyone is used to the habit that you never turn the temp selector all the way to 'hot' when you first start a vehicle. But instead you slowly ease it toward hot, as the vehicle warms. So it might be 10 miles down the road before you are finally blowing hot air onto your windshield.

Somehow with the Prius, this is not needed. It does not crack it's own windshield.



As to your question; I do not see any need for a block heater in a Prius in this region. I suspect that most Prius owners around here, likewise do not see any need for one. Which is why nobody puts one on after-market.

I was tempted to have one put on before I took delivery, the same as 5% of other Prius owners. But after the first winter, I saw [as do all of us] that there is no need for one.

 

I was contemplating this when my 2010 was new and found that $300 list price and a relatively complex DIY especially if you do not have a way to lift the car. Dealer install was outragesly high I would have NEVER recoup the cost by the saving. It really just shortens the warm up but not that much.

Now, if you leave in North Dakota or Canada (well I think in Canada it is standard) that is a different issue.

If you have a garage (without that heater is not practical anyway) you are already fine.

 

Some manufacturers deliver cars to colder regions with the OEM block heater already installed. One I noticed was a Pontiac Vibe purchased in central Canada. The owners didn't even know it was there. A few thoughts:

It's much easier and cheaper for manufacturers to put block heaters in at the factory. They have unfettered access to the engine, and in a lot of cases where the the coolant circuit needs to be opened up, it avoids wasting brand new fluid.

IMHO, if Toyota started putting them in at the factory this would be a significant extra "feature" to put in their overview list for the vehicle. They are good for fuel economy, especially on short trips, and just generally are good for engine longevity and passenger comfort.

The traditional view is that a block heater is only required to start an engine that otherwise wouldn't start. I don't agree with that. We got it installed at time of purchase (for way too much $). We live in a very temperate coastal climate, and use the block heater year 'round. Typically for a couple of hours before the first start up of the day, on a timer. The electrical cost is maybe 7 cents an hour for us, relatively cheap compared to other areas I think.

When I start up after using the block heater, with ambient temperature say around 5 centigrade (~40 fahrenheit), the ScanGauge will show coolant temperature around 20~25 centigrade (68~77 fahrenheit). and it quickly climbs in the first few minutes, as coolant gets more circulated.

That's fairly typical behavior, regardless of ambient temperature: the block heater will raise the coolant temperature by around 15~20 degrees centigrade (30~35 fahrenheit). Fully warmed is in the neighbourhood of 85~90 centigrade (185~195 fahrenheit).

 

Optimum fuel efficiency is dependent on a bunch of different things. One of those things is the ICE being within it's best temperature band-width.

On a morning when the engine is sitting there at 20F, and first starts up, it is not anywhere near it's best operating temperature. As it warms up, and until it gets to temp, it is loosing efficiency.

This can be addressed from the point of view of keeping the oil sump warm. The first time that oil begins to flow, quickly the entire block is warmed. It is not instant, it still takes time. A warm oil sump is still not the temp of a running ICE. So the ICE will reach it's operating temp within 30-seconds of running?

On the other hand, say it is 20F and starts running, how long does the ICE take to achieve it's best operating temp? One minute? Two minutes? Certainly no longer than two minutes, because the Prius is throwing out warm air into the cabin within two minutes. So it must be somewhere before two minutes. After that, there is no effect on Fuel Efficiency from a block heater. The effect is from the moment the ICE starts, and lasts until the ICE reaches temp.

A- Using a block heater allows the ICE to come up to temp in 30-seconds. That is 30-seconds with a 5% drop of fuel efficiency.

B- Not having a block heater delays this. The ICE runs for say 120-seconds before it is at temp. That is 120-seconds of ICE run-time with a 5% drop of fuel efficiency.

Between operating a Block heater, and not operating a Block Heater, is the difference of maybe 90-seconds of ICE run-time with a 5% drop of fuel efficiency.

Do this for a month, and is there a difference of burning 1cc of gasoline? 2cc?

IMHO, within the big picture, your going to drive the vehicle for 30-minutes on your trip to work. I suspect this difference in warm-up times is a very tiny fraction of the over-all ICE running time.

 

Don't want to get drawn into debate, but: no engine warms up that fast, block heater or not. To say efficiency blips up from 95% to 100% after 2 minutes run time... Oh heck, why am I getting drawn in, LOL.

Here's something of interest:

Vehicle Warm-Up | Office of Energy Efficiency

 

There is no reason to "warm" up the car other then your own comfort ... car is fine unless you abuse it flooring/heavy load etc.


What you may consider and really rally cheap and easy and effective is partial or for Jan/Febr full grill blocking !!

I have done this for years ... it helps almost as much as blockheater.

I would only recommend full blocking if you can monitor coolant temp... someway (I have a scangaugeE).

YMMV..

 

well I monitor water temp if that is good indication of "engine is warm" in very very cold (for me) 25F morning (car unfortunately parked outside) the water temp matches the outside ...

then about half a mile it is up to 100+ and and by a mile 145F (mind I do have full grill blocking from late Dec till about now early March) it takes about 3 min to get that far ... (I avoid heating the cabin till I see 145 on the SG)

I do the first few miles in ECO mode so all those stop signs and lights within local street I get the ICE to stop.

So not sure about how long the engine heats up but certainly not that long

 

Well yes you block the grill in front of the radiator ... you can search but the most common methode (which also cheap ) to buy 2" (I beleive) pipe insulation in Home Depot cut them to size and stuck those in the grill .. not pretty but works... I get a picture in a few minutes and upload ...

You need to cut the length and notches for the plastic vertical part for the grill. I used to zip tie them but this year I even forgo that and have not lost it at all...

It may even help with drag

 

here is the pic of my grill block

lic plate ereased in case toyota is watching

 

It's pretty good. I've heard engine oil temp lags a bit, ie: when coolant temp peaks the oil temp is still on the climb, taking maybe 25% more to be fully warmed.

My experience with the numbers is similar to you. Short trips in winter, it often never get up to the usual peak of 190F. Especially at lower speeds with lots of engine-off time, it floats around 145F.

Regarding grill block, if temps are consistantly below 5C I'll block 100% of lower, none of the upper. If temps climb, say flirting with 10C, I'll take out 50% of the blocking. Basically that's either one or two of the styrofoam 3/4" pipe insulation tubes (OD of the insulation about 1.5").

I push the tubing over the grill blades, don't bother snipping it at the vert. members. I hold it on with a strip of velcro tape, one near each end. The tape is very easy to install/remove, is reusable.

 

Same here even with full blocking I hardly see 190F if even moderate cabin heat is on .. only when I am in a hurry and/or climing the few little hill around here fast (biggest is the bridge !!!). I am going to remove upper blocking at next re-fuel ...

Thanks for correcting the size of the tube OP can see my picture and match it in Home Depot or Ace or whatever is close by....

 

^ Yes, be careful with upper grill block. There's post here regarding 3rd gen grill block (by Ken... in Japan). Bottom line, there's a small radiator behind the upper grill opening, for the inverter coolant circuit. The recomendation is to never block upper more than 50% I think. To play safe I just leave the top open, our ambient temps through winter are pretty mild here on the west coast, for the most part.