Engine Room Heater

[eze2bme]

Are the oil filled radiator type of heaters safe to use as supplemental heat in an engine room? My Wolverine oil pan heaters have stopped heating, so until the replacements arrive I need another source of heat. The heater circuit is on a thermostat so I could set the heaters at the highest setting and the thermostat could cut off the circuit rather than the heater's internal thermostat thus eliminating any potential "spark"! Your thoughts please, thanks..

 

[JD5652]

I have used the oil type heaters in my engine room previously.

Assuming your engines are diesel. If so, even less of a risk of ignition.

 

[SEVEN]

I’ve used them in my boat for years with no issues. I leave them on 24/7 all winter long. It’s the safest Ive found.

 

[eze2bme]

Thanks guys - yes I have diesels and kinda figured that they would be safe. My batteries are the Lifeline AGM batteries that are non-gassing also.

 

[car54]

I use an oil filled electric radiator on a 35-45f thermo cube and a box fan circulating air around to make sure everything stays warm. I have a thermometer and an amazon cloud cam has a good shot of everything. I can check from anywhere to see if the heat is on and the actual air temp of the engine room. The camera also looks into the bilge pump area so I can see any issues before they get too big

 

[1969MY53]

Following

 

[oscarvan]

I've run two of them this winter. One an analog one with a clicky-click thermostat, the other on with fancy push buttons. Problem is the latter will NOT turn back on if the power interrupts. So between the two of them I have redundancy in case of failure of one of them, and in case of shore power interruption. Yes, if the analog fails AND the shore power interrupts I am toast. But then BoatCommand lets me know and I can get myself or someone down there.

 

[Jammin']

Same boat. I use two oil filled radiators, one small forced fan heater and block heaters on thermostats. If the block heaters go on, something went wrong.

 

[brettportzer]

What block heaters have you got?

 

[Jammin']

What block heaters have you got?

I don't know the brand. They are immersion heaters and draw about 1500 watts.