My car is garaged, but it does sit for a few days on end between drives. Chicago does get below freezing a lot, and occasionally below zero. I run 5w30 and have a battery with a decent CCA rating, but I'm still contemplating a block heater.

Can anyone comment on this? Is it really going to help with cold starts? Never had one before.

 

block heaters are more for places that are REALLY cold and more common in diesels, which have issues in general getting up to temp quickly while idling.

if you drive the car every day, and want quicker heat, then by all means get one. but, imho it is a waste.

 

agreed, except in alaska like places and diesels

 

Its really a waste for you. Just allow your car to properly warm up during the cold before you drive.

 

^that's actually more of a waste. there is no need to "wam up your car". it's just wasting gas and giving you 0mpg. just start it up and start to drive it really slow. shift like at 2k until it starts warming up a little then you can drive it a little more normal and then once its fully warmed up drive normally.

 

You have to let it run for at least 5 minutes in the cold. It doesn't need to be fully warm, but it needs something before you get going.

 

well it was about -27 celsius here today in edmonton, usually anything under -20C ill go ahead and plug in my block heater on my civic. Otherwise, it has a pretty rough time starting up. Block heaters do help initial starting, and also getting the car up to temp quicker, but i've heard that it does use ALOT of electricity, so at home i'll put it on a timer overnight so that it will only go on about 2 hours before i intend to drive it, imo it does the trick. At work though, i'll leave it plugged in all day.

I don't think if you dont get below -15c, no idea what that is in F, too lazy to google, i wouldn't bother, you should be fine w/o it.

oh, and ill agree with that idling for extended periods of time to "warm" up a car is a little bit of a waste. on super cold days like today, i'll give it a ~5 minute warmup, but on most days, maybe 30sec-1min and driving very easy until it warms up a bit. The best way to warm up a car is to drive it! but to each his own i guess...

 

Incorrect, as said before that is nothing but a waste of gas. One of the car mags did a write up on this with info from the major car makers. They determined that if you fully warm up your modern car you are wasting gas, shortening the life of your oil, and can acclerate the wear on the rest of the drive train. If you drive the car easy for the first several miles you are warming up the entire drive components and that is better for the car.


That is unless you have converted your car from Fuel Injection to a Carborator, if so then, yes you need to warm the car up.

 

It's not a waste of money since it doesn't cost much for a block heater. From experience with my other car, it helped with cold starts (below -30 degrees F), but that was in the sub-arctic (Fairbanks, Alaska). However, I also had a oil pan and battery pad heater. Personally, I would not install one for Chicago weather, but it's your car.

 

I think he has given a great reply for you.