Engine preheater on ebay??

There's a portable engine preheater on ebay motors for $129. It looks
like an ok unit but I'm asking for any of the collective wisdom on pros
or cons of a unit like this. There's also one on Sportys for $399.
Any opinions on either or a comparison?

skym wrote:
There's a portable engine preheater on ebay motors for $129. It looks
like an ok unit but I'm asking for any of the collective wisdom on pros
or cons of a unit like this. There's also one on Sportys for $399.
Any opinions on either or a comparison?

Post links to these, please?

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

On ebay, it can be found as follows:

www.motors.ebay.com

then click on "Aviation" under Parts and Accessories on the left side.
It is the second item on the page. (The URL is REALLY long.)


In addition to the Sportys catalogue (of which I receive two a month)
it is online at:

http://www.sportys.com/acb/showdetl....oduct_ID=10044

"skym" wrote in message
oups.com...
There's a portable engine preheater on ebay motors for $129. It looks
like an ok unit but I'm asking for any of the collective wisdom on pros
or cons of a unit like this. There's also one on Sportys for $399.
Any opinions on either or a comparison?

What kind of pre-heater are you looking for? Something you can use to heat
the engine relatively quickly, or something you can leave on for several
hours before flight to warm the engine? What is your climate (e.g. how cold
does it get where you live)? Do you need a heater for one plane or to share
between multiple planes?

Personally, I have one of the Reiff hot strip systems which is a sump
heater. I get 100f oil temperatures on start-up after a 4 hour heat cycle.
I have the thing attached to a timer so I just set the timer to come on 4 or
5 hours before the *next* time I expect to fly.

KB

"skym" wrote in message
ups.com...
(The URL is REALLY long.)
Then just make it smaller! http://tinyurl.com/dpcwr


Vaughn



In addition to the Sportys catalogue (of which I receive two a month)
it is online at:

http://www.sportys.com/acb/showdetl....oduct_ID=10044

I remember reading an old article about preheater somewhere. A person who
wrote that article complained about the price of preheaters. So, he made one
for himself for just 40 bucks. I can't remember how he did it, but I think
he used blow dryer's components. I think the article came from Sport
Aviation. I thought I should mention this.

Toks Desalu

"skym" wrote in message
oups.com...
There's a portable engine preheater on ebay motors for $129. It looks
like an ok unit but I'm asking for any of the collective wisdom on pros
or cons of a unit like this. There's also one on Sportys for $399.
Any opinions on either or a comparison?

I live in TX, so I frequently see temps in the 20's , but not much colder.

For me, I got a ceramic cube heater from WalMart ($20), and a 6" flanged
duct adaptor from Home Depot ($6), and an 8' length of aluminum 6" dryer
vent (~$8). I go out to the plane the night before I want to fly, stick the
duct up the cowl, set a standard lamp timer to come on about 3-4 AM, and I'm
ready to go.

"Toks Desalu" wrote in message
news:5mYmf.1497$Bj4.230@trndny01...
I remember reading an old article about preheater somewhere. A person who
wrote that article complained about the price of preheaters. So, he made
one
for himself for just 40 bucks. I can't remember how he did it, but I think
he used blow dryer's components. I think the article came from Sport
Aviation. I thought I should mention this.

Toks Desalu

"skym" wrote in message
oups.com...
There's a portable engine preheater on ebay motors for $129. It looks
like an ok unit but I'm asking for any of the collective wisdom on pros
or cons of a unit like this. There's also one on Sportys for $399.
Any opinions on either or a comparison?

"Toks Desalu" wrote in message
news:5mYmf.1497$Bj4.230@trndny01...
I remember reading an old article about preheater somewhere. A person who
wrote that article complained about the price of preheaters. So, he made
one
for himself for just 40 bucks. I can't remember how he did it, but I think
he used blow dryer's components. I think the article came from Sport
Aviation. I thought I should mention this.

Toks Desalu

It is easy to do with a little ceramic forced air space heater. You can get
one at Home Depot or Wal-Mart for $20. Add $10 worth of dryer vent ducting,
a flange from the HVAC section, a few pop rivets, and you're ready to go.
Add a $10 timer and you're really rockin'.

The only downsides are that you can't heat an engine quickly with one (I'd
guess an hour or two to get any meaningful temperature increase) and you've
gotta kludge up a way to route the air under the cowl.

KB

Heating it up slowly over a period of 3-4 hours seems like a better way to
go to me. Better to go from 20° to 80° and give all of the parts and fluids
time to warm up rather than blast it with 200° air for five minutes then
attempt to start.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

"Toks Desalu" wrote in message
news:5mYmf.1497$Bj4.230@trndny01...
I remember reading an old article about preheater somewhere. A person who
wrote that article complained about the price of preheaters. So, he made
one
for himself for just 40 bucks. I can't remember how he did it, but I
think
he used blow dryer's components. I think the article came from Sport
Aviation. I thought I should mention this.

Toks Desalu

It is easy to do with a little ceramic forced air space heater. You can
get
one at Home Depot or Wal-Mart for $20. Add $10 worth of dryer vent
ducting,
a flange from the HVAC section, a few pop rivets, and you're ready to go.
Add a $10 timer and you're really rockin'.

The only downsides are that you can't heat an engine quickly with one (I'd
guess an hour or two to get any meaningful temperature increase) and
you've
gotta kludge up a way to route the air under the cowl.

KB

Carl Orton wrote:
I live in TX, so I frequently see temps in the 20's , but not much colder.

For me, I got a ceramic cube heater from WalMart ($20), and a 6" flanged
duct adaptor from Home Depot ($6), and an 8' length of aluminum 6" dryer
vent (~$8). I go out to the plane the night before I want to fly, stick the
duct up the cowl, set a standard lamp timer to come on about 3-4 AM, and I'm
ready to go.

I did the same, but had two of the cube heaters, so made two
preheaters. I used an "offset adapter" as a source of flanges, and
used 4" dryer vent hose (half of an 8' length for each side). I put the
heaters on the ground and insert a hose in each cowl flap opening. I
made hooks from safety wire to hold the hoses in place (attach to the
cowl flap actuator rod). My plane is outside, so I don't have the
option of leaving this setup in place when I'm not around.

Conclusion? They do work, and make the plane much easier to start with
an hour or so application. I think there is room for improvement - I
note a significant temperature drop over the length of the dryer hose.
Perhaps supporting the heaters close to the cowl flap openings (and
using shorter hoses) will help - or switching to some sort of insulated
hose (if I can find any). Another thought (untested) would be to use a
couple of cheap hair dryers - one inserted in each cowl flap. Comments?

David Johnson