Block heater questions

[dar636]

On my 871TI's I replaced one of the block heaters a couple of years ago with the same brand (Hotstart, 1000w) and it has worked well. This last PNW cold snap had the other engines unknown brand or rated heater fail and I replaced it with another Hotstart system as I had bought a spare when the first engines heater failed. Only then did I realize that I can't have both heaters running now as the 2x 1000w units pull 16.6 amps overloading the 15 amp breaker....my bad for not doing the math first.

So I need a solution. I can either upgrade the breaker to 20 amps, downgrade the heating elements to 750w each (12.5 amp draw) or put the heaters on timers so they aren't able to run simultaneously, or a combination - or all of the above.

I had been pretty much leaving them on continuously with the water temps in Seattle.

This got me thinking of asking you folks how you operate your block heaters before I go further, do you run them continuously? Turn on before needed? (how?) Put them on timers? Phone app controlled? Or? Those are my questions for today.

Standing by.

Random pic included.Dog days.jpg

[Play'N Hooky Too]

Mine are on a breaker in the engine room. I just switch the breaker on the night before I'm going to use the boat. Of course I'm in NW Florida, so the heaters just make it easier to start the engines on "cold" mornings without fogging out the whole marina. You could upgrade the breaker, but I would make sure that your wire to the breaker is the appropriate size and that you are not going to overload the panel with the heaters and other equipment that may be running at the same time.

If you are running them all the time, I don't see why the 750w heaters wouldn't get the job done.

[SKYCHENEY]

I agree. Don't swap the breaker out without checking the wire sizing first to see if it can handle the extra amperage. If not, then downsize the heat elements.

Flat coated retriever?

[dar636]

Flat coated retriever?

Gordon Setter, Maggie. 3 yrs old.

[MadHatter53]

My block heaters are the plug in type so I have an outlet in each er on separate breakers and only used prior to start up.

[Scarlett]

Check your electric panel and see if you have a spare breaker and wire only one per breaker, that’s what I did. Mine were just plug in type before I hard wired them to 2 separate breakers

[SKYCHENEY]

Flat coated retriever?

Gordon Setter, Maggie. 3 yrs old.

Great looking dog.

[jason.erbecker]

Check your electric panel and see if you have a spare breaker and wire only one per breaker, that’s what I did. Mine were just plug in type before I hard wired them to 2 separate breakers

I did the same. The block heaters are plugged into 2 individual outlets in the engine room. Each outlet has it's own breaker on the main panel. I run them continuously this time of year with no issues. Having them on their own breakers makes it convenient to turn them off/on as well.

[Sadey]

Not sure if I’m doing it correctly but when we put the boat in the water in May I turn the heaters on. When we pull the boat out in October I turn the block heaters off.

[Dan Mapes]

When we had our boat surveyed back in 1999, the mechanic was against leaving block heaters on all of the time. The notion was they would dry up oil lining the cylinders if the boat was not regularly run.
But they certainly did keep the floor warm in the Fall up in Kingston NY.