You should carry a small trickle charger to keep the batteries fresh at work. Just plug it into the 120 volt outlet on the dash and your truck should start fine when you come out to go home.

 

I live where it gets cold. Peak temps this week are -21c and lows -30 or more. Vast majority leave diesels plugged in all the time.

I have heard it will eventually burn out the heater but never actually seen it happen to anyone. My work place a rig has generally 8 diesel trucks at any given time of the day on site.

Soon as it gets -15 truck start plugging in. -20 people plug them in for a few hours and anything colder then -25 pretty much everyone plugs them in u less roll with a company truck.

Plugging in the truck vastly decreases the warm up time. The colder it gets the longer the start delay on the truck. If you don't plug it in thy don't start. Part of the selling feature of new fords for me was the fact they tested them in cold starts.

And yes leaving it plugged in all the time gets costly about $60 a month. But at work electricity is free if you can find a plug. And not trip a breaker.

 

Yep, with a key start a user can hop in and crank her. Remote start waits automatically for the glow plugs. Same with push button start. Actually I think it would be great to see push button on all of them, as fleet users are sometimes less likely to care about a truck their boss owns. Ford's pushing push button on many entry level vehicles so lets hope it comes to everyone.

 

I think to be on the safe side I will just go with the timer as some have recommended.

 

I keep my 02 7.3 plugged in all night when the temp gets below 20. But those old motors don't like the cold much. My neighbor uses a timer and it works great for him. I'm sure it'll save you a few bucks on the electric bill.

 

My 01' 7.3 was angry at anything below 20ish. It would start, but sometimes it took a couple shots at it. In the 7.3 I did add Archoil which helped, but boy she was angry! I would usually plug in at below 20* when I knew I needed it the next morning. I never did get a timer, but 4 hours on the block heater was enough.
I just got my new 2017 with the 6.7 and MAN that thing starts nice in the cold! I think it starts easier than my wifes Edge! I have no intention of plugging it in unless it gets below 0 or something.

 

I like that reference, angry. My '01 has lost a little in its' 240K miles and part may be the starter. But the worst is forget to plug in and it makes one attempt to chooch some smoke and second time around it barely growls and the relays all start clicking and the radio loses its mind. So I bought a good jump pack, no good. Bring out a set of jumpers and a good battery, no good, even with the jump pack on the second battery. 30 minutes with 150 amp charge and also plugged in and it gets over the hissy fit. Reprogram the radio, make mental note to plug in, on with the show. Until next time.

 

Here's my take: I've read the 6.7L diesel will start on glow plugs alone at -40F. However, I have proof of Ford testing startups with temperatures at least -20F:

My own experience with my 2016 6.7L last year was starting it up at -15F (-26C) after sitting overnight. I forgot to plug it in.

Started very quickly and ran fine. I only waited for the glow plug light to go out once. There is a message about not being able to use the accelerator pedal for 30 seconds with a count down timer. After that, the truck was fine.

I always try to plug in my truck when temps are getting down near zero F. It certainly doesn't need it, but the small amount of warming will reduce engine wear to a degree. I leave mine plugged in all night long and unplug when I leave for work at 6AM.

You can do an easy test since these trucks will read out the engine oil temp. Try it plugged in vs unplugged. The engine oil read warmer, and once it is started, the oil temp comes up quicker. It helps.

I would not worry too much about short trips. Most of these trucks sold into cold climates have the supplemental heater and dual alternators. The truck is throwing as much as 377A of juice back into the batteries. Consider it a fast charge.

As for heat, the electric supplemental heater will start putting out lukewarm heat within a minute or less. Its not great, but better than what the competition offers, and it helps start the defrost process and take a little chill out. Plugging the truck in will improve heat marginally. Its an awful small heating element to warm up 12.5 gallons of coolant in a CGI bucket.

Remote start has always had a delay before cranking to give the glow plugs time. In very cold weather, remote start could fail because the GPs needed more time or needed to be recycled on again. Once remote start fails once, the vehicle has to be started from inside.

The push button starting forces you to hold your foot on the brake pedal for the duration of glow plug warm up. Remote start is infinitely preferable because you just push the buttons. Even starting with a standard ignition key is easier.

 

Interesting about the default time features on the remote start. I had an Autopage remote start and security installed after getting broken into in plain sight of the production floor overhead door a while back. I hate the alarm, purely a reaction purchase. But the remote start is great. Programmable for diesels. 15 second to 90 second delay start for glowplugs, 5 second to 20 second crank time and up to 3 full cycles for no start. This makes me curious if the Ford system has any programming or is it only what the engineers and computer think you need?

 

That's a very good question, Rob. I wondered if the delay was simply an arbitrary "timer" that waited and then cranked the truck, or if it was an 'intelligent' timer which calculated outside temp.

I believe the answer is that it is 'intelligent,' at least to a degree. The GP lamp takes longer to go in very cold weather, and the engine seems to crank as soon as that light goes out. There is a whole Glow Plug Control Module (GPCM) sitting above the left valve cover running the show, including DEF heaters, which tries to figure it out.

What is annoying is how there is still a minimum 2-second wait in the summer with push-button or remote start. At least with a key, in the summer when you knew no GP help was needed, you could just crank the ignition without waiting.

 

So this doesn't answer your question.
But unless you are required to carry a lot to work, why not walk since its so close by.
I would never drive but enjoy the walk if just a mile or two.

 

Was reading the manual and saw they recommend plugging in if below -9F. It got really cold here last night, 34F. Have to get my coat out.
Should have saved the $75 and not ordered with block heater. It never has been -9F here.

 

It is probably a boot sequence pause to ensure everything has time to come online in the countdown procedure. Just a guess.

 

You actually bought it twice. They give them to the Yankees for free!!

 

I live within a couple of miles of work as well. It's all uphill on the way in, downhill on the way home. So the reason I don't most of the time is because I don't enjoy coming in sweaty when the dewpoint is 75, nor do I enjoy trudging through snow and ice in the winter. I do bicycle in a few times when its nice...but most of the time the Super Duty is a better choice.