So, I was thinking, I Might try one of those 300W Mag Block Heaters on my hydrolic resi. Thinking it might make my hydro heat up quicker and inturn make it so i dont need to warm up so much or wait for the warm up so much. Any one tried this, or any input?
I use one on the oil pan of the 310C to get it fired up in an hour at 0 degrees. It only holds 8 or 9 quarts of oil though. I think the heater may be too small for the hydraulic oil volume you have, but overnight, it would probably help. Remember, all of the return oil in all of the cylinders is still cold, so you still have to give it a chance to warm up slowly by exercising a bit, then going slow a bit.
I know its totally off subject, but i just joined and cant figure out how to make my own post.
starting a thread hi you have to make 3 posts before you can start a thread
I guess I worded that incorrectly, I was actually thinking of a few of them... How many has yet to be determined... I had thought about the return fluid, but i figured that at a min it would mix with the warmer fluid and warm everything more quickly... My Case 580k takes 25ish gallons of hydro fluid...
Me thinks the block heater is about 1000 watts, so you probably could in theory get away with the B/H and two of the pan heaters @ 300 watts on a 15 amp circuit. Give it a try. I was thinking today, 300 watts is a good deal of heat anyway. I checked our crock pot that cooks meat from frozen, and it is dual heat: 180 watts or 250 watts on high. I am surprised it is so low, so you may be OK to use just one pan heater and get a good result. Give it a whirl.
Those three heaters would be 13.3 amps worth of draw, a 15 would work but if the breaker was a little weak it might not hold it. 300 watts converts out to 17.06 BTU/min. A 100 is 5.68 BTU/min or 341.21 BTU/hr I can't find the numbers to heat a gallon of oil so I'm not real sure how the numbers would convert but using these numbers to warm up water you need 8.34 BTU's to raise 1 gallon 1 degree, so if your whole system takes 25 gallons or so you're looking at 208.5 BTU's to bring the temp up 1 degree, if you're at 0 and trying to get to maybe 50 degrees before you start the machine you'd need 10,425 BTU's. Using the 1000 and 2 300's your looking at 90.99 BTU/min so you'd need a hour and 55 minutes under ideal conditions to put in enough heat for that. If you use only the 300 watt you'd need 10 hours and 12 minutes to do the job. And to raise just one gallon one degree you'd need 13 minutes.
Cool math 95zIV - I see now why at 6 below F, I have to plug the blockheater and one 200 watt pan heater in for about 1 and 1/2 hours to get the backhoe to start. She's still not happy about it, but she'll start.
I use a 300 watt one on a Jap tractor oilpan. It helps to get it started on cold days. If you put it on the tank of a 580 like my K it would need to be on all night and inside out of the wind. It helps to have oil that is not ice cold going to the rest of the system on start up. I have used it on my Kubota RTV as well to warm the engine oil.
Heating hydraulic fluid = 1 watt will raise the temperature of 1 gallon of oil 1 degree Fahrenheit per hour
Check your units Spyder. It should be somewhere around 8 BTU/gallon to raise the temp, I think ......
Deere John.......I should of posted the site I took this from (didn't want to break any site rules here),,,,but in any case, I know it takes awhile to get things warmed up enough to get my JD 210C running, she don't like being cold started and I don't like to use ether.
I hide the ether around my place - I agree that it is a good tool in the right hands, and a disaster waiting to happen in another's hands. I cold started my 310C the other day at -10 C, and it barely started - it took 3 attempts but I wasn't about to use either and there was no time to preheat.
I always use the block heater to start my 580k, i was just thinking this might be a way of speeding up the hydro oil warm up. My cold weather start up usually goes like this, Plug in for 30min to an hr, start it up and idle for 30 to 45 min while I uncover snow or watch tv... use machine... I was thinking that the heaters on hydro might make the hydro warm up faster, and inturn reduce stress on the system, and mabe make the hydo work better faster