So this is the first time that I really tried to form... I'm just looking for some insight I have a F350 6.7 Diesel I was wondering if there's any chance that you can get 2 battery warmers with one plug?? any info will greatly help thanks
Tim

 

I did a quick scan of eeBay and also Google and did not readily see "dual battery blankets or pads". With a few butt splices and some electrical tape, you can modify them to use one plug. Or cut both plugs off and use on new replacement plug for both. Just make sure your extension cord can handle the amps.

 

Thanks for your help... One guy said I could plug both of them into one of those 3 way short extension cords.... which would be good because then I could plug both battery warmers and the engine block heater into one cord. any idea if the outlet could handle that kinda of pull.....

 

When I was in Alaska I regularly saw a battery blanket, block heater and, interior heater plugged into the same outlet. Plug into a gfci outlet and if it trips you'll know it was too much. I know it's not much help.

 

so this might be a stupid question i guess i can figure it out myself but if a gfci outlet trips its just the outlet right? not the breaker in the box? so if the outlet trips in the garage will it kill the garage door opener that's plugged into a different outlet that's on the same fuse? again thanks for all the help

 

I am here in Alaska and I see that all the time. 3 and 4 way plugs with battery blankets, oil, transmission, and block heaters plugged in. What you have to do is add up all the watts that each item pulls and go from there.

Your Ford's Stock block heater is rated for 1000W, but my kill-a-watt meter says it draws 800W. My houses dedicated outdoor GFI outlet is rated at 20AMPS or round down to 2000 WATTS. The lowest rated outlets are 15A or 1500 Watts before they trip. Remember that EVERYTHING plugged into that circuit counts. Your lowest rating is the weakest link, 15AMP outlet with a 30AMP breaker doesn't up the 15AMP outlet to 30 amps...

(just in case you wanted one an Oil/transmission pan heater is typically 150 Watts)
Battery Blanket Heaters are typically 50 to 75 watts

So, Block heater and two battery blankets are certainly under 1500 watts, even using maw draw ratings.

I had to pull a lot of wattages as we had a Volt that had 8amp and 12amp settings so I looked at actual watt draws, outlet, and breaker ratings to make sure things would work correctly.

 

thanks that helps out alot.... soo first diesel ive owned love the truck... engine block heaters keep the oil from getting to "sludgy" right?? should i invest in a transmission warmer? ik its going to get cold where i live and travel but i can't imagine it getting down to Fairbanks -40s ha ha
Tim

 

Engine block heater helps the truck start and you get warmer cabin air quicker. You reach operating temps sooner which is better for everything too. One thing to remember, a diesel doesn't make that much heat at idle. The truck will high idle to keep itself running, but idling longer than few minutes doesn't really help - other than letting your electric defrosters and if you have it, rapid supplemental heater work. You gotta drive it. High idle mod might be worth it. I never did it, because I remote start, clean the frost/snow/ice off, get in and go... Don't worry, if it isn't safe to jump in and go, the truck will say "WAIT TO SHIFT". I've only seen that message a few times when there wasn't any pre-trip outside prep work to do and it never lasted for more than 10 seconds.

My personal thought - Transmission pan heater will help you get better MPG sooner. I notice that the 6.7 transmission gets and stays cold for awhile. I haven't had any shifting issues after a long cold soak at -25F. For me, I decided it wasn't worth it.

BTW, my friend in Fairbanks call -40 in the winter, a "warm" day... As -60F or colder is possible.

 

The "C" in GFCI stands for "circuit". It should not trip the breaker in the panel, but it is supposed to kill everything on that circuit - meaning that it may as well have tripped the breaker. That can lead to a hard lesson learned if you had a freezer plugged in on a GFCI protected circuit and the GFCI tripped, potentially ruining your food.

That happened to me years ago with a chest freezer I had in my garage. Most of my protected outlets had a blue sticker on them indicating such, but the outlet I had my freezer plugged into was not labeled as being protected. I happened to notice the dull orange light on the freezer lid was not glowing one day while leaving the house and figured out that the GFCI in the garage had tripped, and caused the power to go off of that outlet, as well as the others that were marked as protected. Thankfully, I caught it early enough that nothing had begun to defrost yet. Needless to say, I found another outlet that was not GFCI protected and used that for my freezer instead.

 

Kind of a loaded question. If there is a ground fault in any of the devices plugged into a GFCI circuit, then it will trip. could be one plug, or several on the loop. In my area, its pretty common for a garage outlet to be wired onto the same circuit as a bathroom, and then the GFCI is actually located in the bathroom.


GFCI does NOT trip due to overload though. That is the job of the circuit breaker. Your question leads me to believe you are concerned about load, and if overloaded, the breaker in the panel would trip, not the GFCI.

 

That was what happened to me to shut down my freezer in the garage. My wife had tripped the GFCI in the bathroom that morning with her curling iron, but rather than resetting the GFCI, she just went to the other bathroom to finish getting ready. Outdoor outlets can similarly be wired to a GFCI located in a bathroom (or kitchen - but unlikely).

 

Doug, that's funny. We had that happen to years ago for the same reasons, except we then left on vacation for two weeks. Got home, and there was some water on the floor of the garage. When I opened the lid of the freezer, it was warmer inside than it was outside due to all the bacterial activity. Needless to say, I almost puked because it smelled so bad. Threw the whole thing away, went to Costco bought a much smaller chest freezer, and moved it into the basement, on a non GFCI breaker.

 

The GFI (or GCFI) outlets up here are typically the one outside on the wall... And they are typically on their own breaker. The pain is that if there are TWO outlet outside, like for TWO cars to plug in their own block heaters -- you guessed it -- same breaker. Welp, that maxes out the load so if one block degrades a little and pulls a little more juice, it trips.

Interesting that in public parking lots with block heater plugs - they rotate the power on and off throughout the line. They do it so you get just enough to keep things warm, but don't kill their power bill.

 

I guess what I'm trying to ask about the outlets is, if the car is plugged into the GFCI outlet in the garage and that outlet trips will the garage door that's plug into a different Outlet, in the garage, on the same breaker, still work? Will I still be able to open the garage door? or have to some how reset the little button on the outlet in the garage with the doors closed... The garage is not attached to the house and there's no "pedestrian door" to get into the garage... Just the two overhead garage doors that need power to open... LOL does this make sense? also the garage is on a breaker with part of a bedroom and the shed.....

 

Installation for a GFCI outlet is supposed to be that the home-run (power for the entire circuit) is routed through the GFCI first, and then to the other outlets on that circuit, so that if anything on that circuit has a ground fault, it will trip the GFCI and the entire circuit. It should not trip the breaker, but if the GFCI outlet is wired first in line, and the garage door opener is powered by that same circuit, then yes, it will also kill power to the garage door opener and will have to be reset at the GFCI outlet. A way to test this is to be in the garage and push the test button on the GFCI. If the opener stops working, you have your answer.

Options at that point are to either find a different non-protected source of power for the opener, OR remove the GFCI from the circuit and replace with a regular outlet, OR get an opener with a battery backup (or install battery backup on the current opener if it is equipped to accept it). Kind of a PITA - I know.