Engine Preheater - any good?

Last Friday it was 6 degrees when I had to do a shoot . . . preheated for
an
hour and ready to go . . . warm as toast.


I believe such products (this thing, Reiff, Tanis) are for over-night warm
ups, not spur of the moment.


I am tied down outside--no hangar, no power. I've had a Tanis heater since
owning the plane (it came with it) but it's useless to me.
www.Rosspilot.com

"Rosspilot" wrote in message
...

3 Hours? Way too long.
I still use (and love) my trusty Red Dragon.

Well, I use a timer, so it doesn't matter if it's 3 hours or 15 minutes.
When I get to the plane, it's ready to go. For the $$$ I saved, the time is
not a factor for me!

"Jim Rosinski" wrote in message
oups.com...
Matt Barrow wrote:

THEN DON'T BUY IT. Rather, why don't you buy some space heaters
from
Wal-Mart and some ducted hoses and sell them for $50? Come
on...why
don't you?

Because I don't want to.

No, it's sooooo much easier to **** & moan and throw stones.

I'm neither ****ing nor moaning.

Um...yes, you are. You're ****ing that someone who makes a product that
isn't a rube goldberg contraption made in a garage is a rip-off.

For whatever reason I don't know, but
you seem to want to turn a civil discussion into a flame war.

Well, "civil" is a vague term; you called it a rip-off and cast numerous
aspersions.
In case you mis the point a "rip-off" is tantamount to THEFT.

The
original poster asked for input on a pre-heater he was considering.
Unfortunately, no one in this forum had any experience with the
specific item he pointed us to. Next best thing is to analyze the
vendor's claims and come up with an analysis. Mine says the item is
probably a ripoff. Others can, and have, disagreed with that
conclusion. I have no problem with that.
What does that non-answer have to do with anything I said?

A BMW costs $60,000 and doesn't cost that much more to produce than a
Honda Accord: is that a rip-off?

For the moment taking your assertion (implying that profit margins on
BMWs are vastly greater than those on Accords) as fact, I would say yes
the BMW is a ripoff.

So, are you saying that "profit margin" is a factor in whether an item is a
"rip-off" or not?

But then again I'd claim that any item with a
markup due to "yuppie appeal factor" is a ripoff. Just MHO.

Just an very ignorant and adolesent (not to mention presumtious and
self-effected) perspective.

A "rip-off" is something you can't so without or something involving
theft, not something you acquire voluntarily.

After puzzling over this statement and finally getting it to make some
sense by changing "so" to "do", it says something remarkable. You think
that anyone who purchases anything voluntarily has by definition not
been ripped off. Interesting definition.

Caveat emptor....otherwise know as being mature enough to make you own
decisions and live with them.Then, there's a whole industry wrapped around
"victimhood" and people just groan about it.

Grow up!

"PaulaJay1" wrote in message
...
In article , "Matt Barrow"
writes:

I believe such products (this thing, Reiff, Tanis) are for over-night
warm
ups, not spur of the moment.


Why so? I find that my Tannis does a pretty good job after and hour or
two.
After all, you don't have to get the engine up to operating temp. If I
have
raised the engine temp 20 or 30 deg I have done a lot of good.


Same with my Reiff. But around here, quite often, raising the temp 20
degrees would still not have it above freezing. :~(

Every little bit helps, even the old "light bulb in the engine compartment".
Thanks, but as so many have pointed out, you do more damage to an engine in
the first minutes of a very cold start than in 100 hours (or so) of cruising
at high speed.

For a turbo'ed (or turbonormalized) plant, the effect can be even more
devastating.

It's also nice to come into an engine compartment that's 80 degrees and have
the cabin heater kick out nice warm air from the 'git go.



Once again, every little bit helps.

Bob...

I work in medicine and I got an old patient air blanket warmer for free - a
model that had been discontinued by the manufacturer. It's about 800 watts
and has a blower and heater and 3 inch plastic hose and is set at about 40
degrees C or 102 degrees F. Its a very sturdy metal floor unit with wheels.
My R182 is hangered (unheated).

I modified the heater by putting an intake plastic hose rather than having
it take air from the room. I stick the output hose in the oil dipstick
access and the input hose in the left cowl flap and I leave it on all winter
and I cover the cowl with a quilt.

The coldest mornings here are about - 25 degrees F but with this rig, the
engine is always a balmy 70-75 degrees and it heats the whole compartment -
engine, battery - everything.

I have pulled the plane out in - 25 degree weather and fired it up with a
couple shots on the primer like it was the fourth of july.

It soulds like the heater you are considering is similar to this.

Regards,

DB

Lee,

We're tied down outside, too, but we recently scored a tiedown next to a new
hangar when it was put up and several of the tiedowns (ours included) were
moved. The new hanger has outside power outlets five feet from our wingtip!
That's the main reason we're thinking about a simple preheater - nearby
power.

We would have had to run an extension cord across a taxiway where we were
before. Not practical.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Rosspilot" wrote in message
...
Last Friday it was 6 degrees when I had to do a shoot . . . preheated
for
an
hour and ready to go . . . warm as toast.


I believe such products (this thing, Reiff, Tanis) are for over-night
warm
ups, not spur of the moment.


I am tied down outside--no hangar, no power. I've had a Tanis heater
since
owning the plane (it came with it) but it's useless to me.
www.Rosspilot.com

I work in medicine, too (Biomedical Engineer). Yeah, a scrapped Bair Hugger
would be great, but I don't have one. That's basically what this gadget is,
although we had a partnership meeting last night and agreed to engineer
something ourselves as an initial attempt. I'm going out shortly to look
for a suitable $20 heater. I have a remote-sensing thermostat I can use to
maintain the temp of the distal end of the ductwork (that's the end that'll
be inside the engine compartment) to a level that should prevent starting
any fires.

I'll report back.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Doodybutch" wrote in message
...
Bob...

I work in medicine and I got an old patient air blanket warmer for free -
a
model that had been discontinued by the manufacturer. It's about 800
watts
and has a blower and heater and 3 inch plastic hose and is set at about 40
degrees C or 102 degrees F. Its a very sturdy metal floor unit with
wheels.
My R182 is hangered (unheated).

I modified the heater by putting an intake plastic hose rather than having
it take air from the room. I stick the output hose in the oil dipstick
access and the input hose in the left cowl flap and I leave it on all
winter
and I cover the cowl with a quilt.

The coldest mornings here are about - 25 degrees F but with this rig, the
engine is always a balmy 70-75 degrees and it heats the whole
compartment -
engine, battery - everything.

I have pulled the plane out in - 25 degree weather and fired it up with a
couple shots on the primer like it was the fourth of july.

It soulds like the heater you are considering is similar to this.

Regards,

DB