Who has Block Heater experiences good or bad?

[SethA]

I live in Northern NY and it gets damn cold up here. I've never had a car with a block heater but I currently don't have a garage and I am driving my ITS through the winter this year. Wondering if the block heater is worth it. Does it cut down on warm up time significantly? Does it actually warm up the oil and thus potentially reduce engine wear long term? I often end up with a lot of short trips as my kiddo is about a 1/2 mile away at her mother's half the time and it always falls on me to pick her up. I'm trying to reduce excessive wear on the car as I'm someone that keeps cars for 10+ years typically.

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[SilverRocket]

I don't have it on my Integra but I do on my Si. It's plugged into an extension with an outdoor smart switch and during the winter I turn it on 1-2 hours before departure, depending on how cold it is inside.

On mornings that it's really cold it's night and day difference. The car cranks a lot less and it does feel like the heater gets hotter a little faster, but that's secondary. You're really just minimizing the wear upon crank.

To that end, a block heater will not save you from short trips. For that you should take a longer drive to warm up the oil and burn off the moisture and/or change the oil more frequently.

 

[creaturemachine]

A block heater will warm the coolant slightly but doesn't do anything for the oil. They're for places where you will seriously have a hard time starting without one, like regularly -40 and below.

 

[Frenzal]

Have one on my ITS. Had one on my previous Accord.
It helps warm up the car a bit faster when you start to drive.

Better for the car in the long term, and better for the environment as the car gets to operating temp faster.

Can you live without it: sure, unless it is crazy cold out there (but then, you might also want to have a battery charger as the battery does not like cold!)

EDIT: With a block heater, you'll have an electrical wire hanging out of your front bumper, where you can see the intercooler. It will affect looks a bit.

 

[jedi03]

working on cars that have had this (southwest so I dont need one) they can short out after years of use requiring replacement, they help keep the coolant from freezing and cracking the block. If coolant freezes the thermostat closed it can blow the headgasket, with how thin our oil is i dont think it would affect the thickness with the extreme cold as much but it could help. Havent seen any longevity difference from vehicles that havent had it, but again Im not working on them regularly

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