Block Heater? (Bemidji, International Falls: living, moving, garage)

[TCMaster]

I am sure this has been done to death, but do you need a block heater in the Twin Cities?

[JenLee]

Not anymore. It's been pretty wimpy here for about 20 years and the new engines just don't need it.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by TCMaster

I am sure this has been done to death, but do you need a block heater in the Twin Cities?

Not normally, no. If the temp gets below -25 degrees F (not that common) and you have to park outside, though, it might not hurt to have one. Otherwise, you can runout and strt the car and run it for 15 minutes or so to warm it up. That will get it through those very cold nights.

I've owned some cars that would always start, and some that got moody at those lower temps. A lot depends on the car itself.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by TCMaster

I am sure this has been done to death, but do you need a block heater in the Twin Cities?

Generally no, but it depends. If you have a situation where you park outside and it gets to be a very cold stretch in the -20 range, it helps as it is harder to turn a car over due to oil being stiff and battery losing some of its starting power. Also, if you have an older car without fuel injection, you may need one too. Even if you don't need a block heater, it does create a situation where your car warms up much faster on the cold days.

Example - my 2004 F-150 with a 5.4L V8 gets hard to turn over below -15 and last winter there was 2 days where it did not start. Plugged in the block heater for 2 hours and it fired right up. Bigger engine is a factor as well.

[kuan]

If you have to park outside and it's -20 for days on end don't forget to bring your battery indoors at night.

[TCMaster]

Does a battery warmer help as well?

[kuan]

No no no. I was really just kidding about taking the battery indoors. Most modern cars will start fine at -25F.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by TCMaster

Does a battery warmer help as well?

We had a little Toyota Corolla that started in any weather, including -45° AIR temps in Bemidji. Never had a block heater or anything else. We had a battery warmer on a Chevy Blazer, that thing never started if it thought it was going to be cold. Your best bet is to replace your current battery with one rated for the colder temps and you won't have to worry about it. Getting AAA is also a good idea just in case you do need a jump start.

[JenLee]

We've had our kids with cars and later, their moving in and out of our place and leaving a garage too full of STUFF for about 5 years so our cars have sat outside for that long. In all that time we've never had trouble with cars not starting from the cold and we didn't have block heaters. During that time, our son had a 20+ year old Mazda RX7 and a 10 year old Caravan; and our daughter went through 3 cars: a 94 Geo, a 96 Sebring and a 2000 Sebring (she got hit by other drivers both times). Our car is a 2002 Hyundai.

If I was living up by International Falls, I would have a block heater, but the weather here in the Cities hasn't been that bad for many years and no one I know has needed them.

[TCMaster]

What is the coldest it ever gets?