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Sept 20, 2007 9:38:48 GMT
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its getting towards that time of year I notice...
Every autumn/winter I say I'm going to get a Kenlowe Hot Start for my daily hack. This year I feel I could almost be serious.
Has anyone every used one?
Any good or a waste of time?
Also any suggestions for jury-rigging something for a fraction of the price would be welcomed. Obviously without too much risk of burning the car down or generating a huge electricity bill...
In case anyone is thinking "a whut nah?" this is a device which runs off mains electricity and heats the coolant in the car so when you start her up in the morning you have heat on ready to go to defrost / demist so you don;t have to either
1. drive off looking through a letter box size slot in the screen with no side or rear vision
2. leave the engine running on idle while you have breakfast
3. scrape or wipe all the windows in the cold, then stop and do it all again as they re-freeze/fog up 1/2 mile down the road.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,937
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Kenlowe Hot Startbstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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Sept 20, 2007 9:54:38 GMT
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its getting towards that time of year I notice... Every autumn/winter I say I'm going to get a Kenlowe Hot Start for my daily hack. This year I feel I could almost be serious. Has anyone every used one? Any good or a waste of time? Fan bloodytastic device - Had one a while back sold car left it fitted to car - what an IDIOT!!! You forgot to mention the mpg benefit - it was worth nearly 10 mpg on a 3.0 senator (summer commute mpg overal v winter commute mpg average) Downside is they need a bit of space to fit but most retros have reasonable spacious engine bays so not too hard - trying to fit one in a modern can be a nightmare
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bxer
Part of things
Posts: 457
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Sept 20, 2007 10:08:09 GMT
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Also any suggestions for jury-rigging something for a fraction of the price would be welcomed. Obviously without too much risk of burning the car down or generating a huge electricity bill.... Old fashioned metal electric kettle, plus welding skillzorz plus central heating pump FTW??
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Sept 20, 2007 10:14:45 GMT
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how long do you have to leave them on to work? Is it a case of nip out when you've dressed then 15 mins later whwen you have had your brekkie and a cuppa its ready to roll? or would it need to be on a timer or something or left overnight?
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,937
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Kenlowe Hot Startbstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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Sept 20, 2007 11:25:56 GMT
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how long do you have to leave them on to work? Is it a case of nip out when you've dressed then 15 mins later whwen you have had your brekkie and a cuppa its ready to roll? or would it need to be on a timer or something or left overnight? Always ran mine on a timer - had a waterproof plug behind the number plate and just plugged it it when I parked it up on the driver - timer did the rest I had it brewing for an hour and found it was fine never bothered to change it after that I'd have loved to cooked up a way to run the car fan after say 30 mins of heating for a full snow clear mode ;D but we don't get much snow
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Kenlowe Hot StartBenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Sept 20, 2007 11:29:40 GMT
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Sounds like a top invention! Never heard of one before. I'm dreading winter - my choke has stopped working
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Sept 20, 2007 11:38:59 GMT
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Get to the scrappy and look for a V6 Calibra / Cavalier. Behind the front bumper at the bottom corner of the rad is a small electric coolant pump. Also get a replacement plastic header tank for your car in case of screw-ups, or if your car doesnt have one already. Get down to a caravan sales and accessory place (wear a woolly bobble hat to blend in) and buy a 12v "travel kettle." Get a 12v power supply from wherever you can. An old battery charger would do. Get to Maplins or similar and get a decent weather-proof 2-pin in-line plug and socket.
Fit the pump inline on the feed to your cars heater matrix, fit the heat element from the travel kettle inside your header tank, drilling a small hole to pass the wires to it. Seal the hole up well with araldite / plastic weld or similar. Run wires from pump and element to the socket which you concel under the front valence etc. Run a wire from the other end of the socket into your house where it plugs into your 12v supply. Switch on the 12v supply before you need the car (use a timer switch if needed) and voila. Things to note - travel kettles are a bit curse word. the element isnt very powerfull, so needs a fair while to heat the coolant up to a decent level. Something else to consider, also from the caravan shop would be the element from a caravan fridge. These are 12v and rated 125w iirc. I don't knowhow much better this might be though. Also, make sure that the location of your pump means you can still cirulate water round the majority of the system, as the thermostat will be closed. Experiment a bit with the warm-up times. I found it best to plug mine in the evening before and have it on for 15 minutes every hour through the night to keep the coolant temp "topped up" rather than trying to heat from cold in the morning. If your battery isnt too great, you could also connect the 12v supply to the battery to kep it topped up through the night.
I did this on an old landrover a few years back and it worked. Certainly not as efficient as a bought one, but it did the job. I considered doing it with 240v stuff as mentioned above - a central heating pump and an element from a kettle. I planned to fit the element into some kind of large diameter tube, weld up the ends, leaving normal sized entry and exits for the cooling system pipes, so the element was sealed into the cooling circuit. The heating pump was to go next to this. The wiring would have been the same really. I never got round to it, but it would heat the system up a LOT faster, but a kettle is on average 3kw so it would fairly smoke your electricity. I don't know if a quick burst of this in the morning would be better than my system of 15 mins every hour through the night with the low voltage stuff. Worth looking into though.
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1986 Panda 4x4. 1990 Metro Sport. 1999 Ford Escort estate.
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Sept 20, 2007 11:43:11 GMT
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Also, my sister a few years back had a Volvo 360 GLT which was originally from Norway. It came with a similar system, but also connected to the heated seats and had a heating element in the sump too so the oil was warm in the mornings too. It was awesome.
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1986 Panda 4x4. 1990 Metro Sport. 1999 Ford Escort estate.
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Kenlowe Hot StartBenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Sept 20, 2007 11:43:13 GMT
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^^ Cool! ^^ I've got an electric pump from a Lotus Elise somewhere in the garage... would be perfect for this job I reckon.
Chances of me ever getting round to building one of these? Slim.
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Sept 20, 2007 11:50:46 GMT
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I have an engine block heater kit which was a dealer fit option for my Buick. Still in its box though. I think that does the oil and the water jacket.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Sept 20, 2007 11:51:38 GMT
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oh, and Dave, AWESOME. If I get time I might try that but with a kiddie and that now I have little tinker time so a bought one may be the way forward.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Sept 20, 2007 12:25:43 GMT
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If the weather gets really bad just buy a cheap scorpio, about 200 quid for a winter hack that has heated front and rear screens, seats and mirrors and usually has headlamp wash wipe, some of em have heated squirters as well and will go nice and sideways in the snow. sell it again in spring.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Sept 20, 2007 12:54:51 GMT
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Rig up the block heater if you have one, they are the most effective But yep, heated screen will be finding its way into the Kadett for sure ;D
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Kenlowe Hot Startbriandamaged
@GUEST
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Sept 20, 2007 15:11:14 GMT
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A lot of the Land Rover boys swear by 'em.....saves a lot of time in the mornings if you have a Diseasel, plus there's a lot less chance of creating your own embarassing Cumulo-Nimbus of half-burned chip fat!!
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