Car heating

[IMM]

I rigged one of these up in my Chevy Blazer. Point an infra red controller at the car and the heaters came on running off the spare battery. You can point at the car from office windows.

[Andy Dingley]

Dead easy, just use an element with a negative thermal coefficient that doesn't need a thermostat. They're not common (Kenlowe still palm off unreliable overpriced crap on us), but they're available as commercial process heating. I don't know why we don't see more of them.

I once built a pre-heater using an injection moulder nozzle heater of some huge power. But run off a 50V transformer, it was a reasonable power to pre-heat a Rangie.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[biod]

Take care ! my brother used one of these until 2 years ago when it caused a fire in the engine compartment of his Fiat Punto - nearly burnt the garage down as well.

[IMM]

Using fully synthetic oil eliminates having to warm up engine oil, unless you are in the Antarctic. It is very thin at low temperatures.

[Dave Plowman]

Oil viscosity isn't dependant on the type of oil. And regardless of how 'thin' the oil is when cold, you should still treat an engine carefully until fully warmed up.