Coolant heater fits in lower hose

[philip]

This a little different. It's a block heating element that splices into the lower radiator hose, runs on house current. [ends Dec 18, 06]

Ebay Item number: 200057789389

[glenlloyd]

I've used these on the Peugeot cars I've had in the past...however, I've never spent nearly that much on one!

[philip]

How well do they work? I take it there is some reliance on thermosyphoning?

[glenlloyd]

How well do they work? I take it there is some reliance on thermosyphoning?

I always found them to work well, but that also depends on the cooling system of the car they're installed on.

Yes, they rely on thermosyphoning. The unit itself has no pump so no forced circulation of the heated coolant. It's essentially a tube with a heating element sticking into the center.

The last one I purchased locally I thought cost somewhere around $25-$30 but that was a few years ago. IIRC it looked almost identical to the one pictured.

sa

[redmondjp]

A previous owner had one of these installed in the lower radiator hose on my SD22. I've tried it and it doesn't help. It gets the lower hose really hot but everything else in the system is cold. A 150W magnetic block heater stuck to the side of the engine does more good than one of these.

These types of heaters rely upon a free-flowing coolant path through the engine block, which one doesn't have on this vehicle due to the thermostat being closed (and the heat will not make it all the way from the heater up to the thermostat in order to open it).

On VW TDI engines, they typically install a coolant heater into one of the open coolant loops that has free-flow circulation through the block (I believe they typically use the oil cooler loop).

My $.02