Well this Friday and Saturday the morning lows were in the high 20's to low 30's, so I finally decided to plug in my block heater.

Well Friday was a "ok" morning, even though after having it plugged up for about a hour it triped a breaker (which ain't much), then after reseting and checking it burnet a GFCI outlet that was wired to my outside recepticle which I was using. Well it was time to head to work that day so everything worked out for the that day.

The Saturday since my outside recepticle wasn't working I went ahead I ran the extension cable into the house so I could plug it up right inside my front door. Well it worked just fine, this time I have a guage that checked amps/watts. I was showing using a 25ft heavy duty extension cord, I was only pulling around 910 to 920 watts and 7.0 to 7.2 amps.

Does that sound correct to people who use there block heaters, or should the amps be higher? The breaker I am using is a 15 amp breaker, and by what I've read that is perfect.

 

I've read anywhere from 900 to 1100 watts. It seems to vary somewhat. It may be that they just don't make the heating elements to a very strict tolerance.

 

Is there anywhere I can find out for sure, would the service tech at my FMC know? This way I can find out for sure how much re-wiring I would need to do for the higher watts, if any would re-wiring would be needed. I really don't want to burn the electrical wires especially when I get a timer so that it can start up a few hours before I go to work.

 

I've not seen a specification anywhere. However it is going to be way less than 15 amps. 15 amps at 120 volts is 1800 watts. It should be less than 10 amps (1200 watts).

So any outlet, extension cord, timer, etc rated at 15 amps should work.

 

Here is who makes these.

Catalog

Check through the site. You could even email them and ask. I did a couple years ago, and they answered pretty quickly.

 

sounds like you live in a newer house built in the last 10 years or so

GFI outlets suck wait till it rains or snows and your thinking your going out to a warm truck only to find its blown a breaker and its ICE Cold

Iv had a ton of problems with the GFIs to but seem to work just fine on a standered circut

 

Not sure about the outside ones. I have had 2 new houses that I have plugged into, but I have always plugged into the inside garage circuit. I have a weird paranoia of outside cords being swiped. ( I have lost many to theft in the past 30 years )

 

My inside garage was GFI protected and anymore all outside plugs should be GFI protected to
If its been wired right you only need 1 GFI plug in the circut and all the other outlets down stream are GFI protected as well without the cost of buying actual GFI outlets for each spot
they work great in a bathroom/kitchen especialy for little kids around but in a outside setting they suck
If I would drive in a storm and get the front of the truck iced and slushed being the location of the plug it all drips right down the cord and kicks the GFI off

 

Buy a watt stopper for $25.00 @ home depot it will show voltage, current & wattage on a digital display. It will show kw per hour used so you could find out the cost of using your block heater & other electrical equipment.