Coolant heater *failed*

[bhazard]

Well, the other night I was out late, got home around 10pm. Had to be up for work at 4:45am, but I REALLY wanted a toasty car to get into, so I stayed up to midnight to install my heater (Kats 1500w aluminum tank).

I got it in and refilled the lost coolant, ran the engine for a few to burp it, topped it off. Plugged the heater in. It got hot. The hoses around it got hot. I thought "success!" and went in and got a short 4 hours of sleep.

Went back out to go to work and its DEAD. Nothing, freezing cold. Its the heater too, the circuit aint blown. I plugged a light in and its fine.

The stupid things a dud. Or is it? Anyone had similar experiences? I can ask for a return from amazon right now but if theres any hope of it working I would like it *now* lol.

[thefirebuilds]

sounds cooked to me. Try another outlet to be sure.

[MetroMPG]

Rule out the heater cord itself. I think that's more likely to fail than the heater element, assuming it was surrounded by coolant, and the coolant was flowing.

[bhazard]

Tried a couple outlets, the cord looks fine. Not sure how else to check other than take the heater apart, and I want to be able to send it back.

I sent for a replacement.

[MetroMPG]

Try putting a multimeter on it to measure the resistance. I'll go do mine right now and you can compare...

OK, I'm back! Man it's cold out.

I read 16.4 ohms at the plugs/prongs of the heater cord.

Which is roughly what is should be, according to this calculator: Enter 110 volts, 16.4 ohms and hit "calculate" = 737 watts. @ 115v = 806 Watts.

Mine's a 800w nominal heater.

Ohms Law Calculator

[bhazard]

Took the meter to it, it read nothing except for very very brief instances, and then it read something like 191.2 ohms which calculates to like 63 watts.

Dud.