what in the world do you need a fuel heater in cali for???? lol i just plug mine in when i have to start puttin a coat on and that works just fine for me

 

it gets so cold in cali if it drops below 85 the word is ending

 

Last time I was on top of Donner I swear it was well below 85.

If I remember right there was about 20 feet of snow beside the road and I had chains on both drive axles on the tractor and a set on the trailer so it stayed behind me.

Could be wrong though, that was about 26 years ago.

Unless you are going to spend a lot of time below 32 degrees I would just run a good anti gell fuel treatment in the winter.
I have not had a fuel heater hooked up for 10 years and have spent plenty of time well below zero without any problems.

 

Must be global warming

 

But with a fuel heater on a cold start it would save more diesel fuel cuz of its heat expansion. Right??? once the motor is at normal temperature the heater will be turnd off

 

I don't see how that would save fuel. And in reality, the factory fuel heater is not supposed to come on unless you are in cold temperatures (32F I think is the thresh hold).

 

All the fuel heater does is warm the filter, hopefully enough that wax crystals don't plug it during cold weather.

Most modern fuels are blended so that gelling should not be an issue as long as the temps stay close to normal and you stay in the area the fuel is blended for.
When you run into trouble is when there is a sudden cold snap with temps well below the local average temp or you buy fuel in a normally warm climate and drive to a much colder climate.

Example of the first is your average local temp should be 20 degrees, but a sudden artic front has the temps at -20.
Better get some anti gell product in the tank while the temp is still dropping and every time you add fuel or you will be having problems since the fuel was blended for 20 degrees.
Next example is you fill up in San Diego where the average is 60 degrees and drive to Donner where it is -5 degrees.
Again the fuel was probably not blended since 60 degrees is plenty warm to run straight #2 fuel, but you went to a totally different enviroment.
Once again a good anti gell addative will keep you rolling instead of on the side of the highway with a gelled up fuel system.

In both of the above examples the filter heater would not save you, the wax crystals would be blocking the fuel lines before the fuel ever gets to the filter heater.