Coolant heater *failed*
 

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.

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

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.

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.

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. :D

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

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.