Experiment with an auxiliary coolant pump

[Morphector]

Couple of weeks ago I installed a 1500w 120v coolant heater on the heater hose following daox how to

The heater could not get the temp above 80f and circulation was not great across the system so I decided tto search for a pump.

Vw installs these on a lot of cars and they are pretty cheap on amazon.
My install location my 1500w heater is directly under it




I just plumbed mine but didn't finish the wiring and did some experimentation with it

Car was fully warmed up from a 15-20 minutes drive with a full grill block. Engine is idling, fan was set to 4, outside temp 30F


1st test whitout the pump running, waited a couple minutes



2nd test, auxiliary pump running, as soon as I power it I see the car temp dropping on the scangauge, waited a couple of minutes for temps to stabilise




It's not really cold out here, but when it's cold my car takes about 20-30 minutes of highway at 55mph to warm up to my taste, will surely report this week on how much quicker it gets hot in there in the morning...

[Eggman]

Couple of weeks ago I installed a 1500w 120v coolant heater on the heater hose following daox how to

The heater could not get the temp above 80f and circulation was not great across the system so I decided tto search for a pump.

Vw installs these on a lot of cars and they are pretty cheap on amazon.
My install location my 1500w heater is directly under it

Thanks Morphector for the write-up. What heater did you use? Can you post a link? It looks like a 12v heater, right?

[Morphector]

Thanks Morphector for the write-up. What heater did you use? Can you post a link? It looks like a 12v heater, right?

The heater is 120v 1500w
Zerostart 3308003 Series 8000 Light Duty Circulation Heater, 5/8" (15.9 mm) Diameter Inlet/Outlet | CSA Approved | 120 Volts | 1500 Watts https://a.co/d/4WHlGov

The 12v pump I used to circulate coolant
universal auxiliary electric water coolant pump 0392020034 + Water Pump, Car Auxiliary Pump Fit for Other Vehicle Aftermarket Replacement OE: 1KO965561Jfor mercedes engine pumpauxiliary pumpauxi https://a.co/d/azEJqDe

Didnt kow it but the pump has 3/4 plugs on it so I had to buy 2 adapter fittings.... Would have been much easier with a 5/8 one...

[Eggman]

Couple of weeks ago I installed a 1500w 120v coolant heater on the heater hose following daox how to

The heater is 120v 1500w
Zerostart 3308003 Series 8000 Light Duty Circulation Heater, 5/8" (15.9 mm) Diameter Inlet/Outlet | CSA Approved | 120 Volts | 1500 Watts https://a.co/d/4WHlGov

The 12v pump I used to circulate coolant
universal auxiliary electric water coolant pump 0392020034 + Water Pump, Car Auxiliary Pump Fit for Other Vehicle Aftermarket Replacement OE: 1KO965561Jfor mercedes engine pumpauxiliary pumpauxi https://a.co/d/azEJqDe

Didnt kow it but the pump has 3/4 plugs on it so I had to buy 2 adapter fittings.... Would have been much easier with a 5/8 one...

Duh. You did say it was 120V but I was focused on the wiring for the circulating pump... Too bad the Zerostart heater doesn't include a circulating pump. I wonder why?

There were discussions here on the forum pointing out that the Prius uses a thermal storage tank for coolant. That should work nicely especially for times when there's no electrical source to use for heating.

Also, has anyone tried using an engine block blanket?

Thanks for the links, I hope it works for you. Looking forward to your updates.

[Morphector]

Update 1
This morning it was 33f outside, ran the heater with the pump for 20min coolant was at 80f at startup..

Came back home with a hot car an decided to let the heater plugged in since I had to leave 2hr after... Started the car with a 160f coolant ( 120v heater has a thermostat)...

As far as heat production from the heater core there's definately a difference, especially at low rpm and idle, heat output always stays the same...

As an added bonus no need to Idle when I have to wait outside (I only had to wait for 2-3 minutes this morning and the heat was still hot)

Will surely report back, also would getting more flow to our core heater help them not getting full of goop, since the part that always goop is the one with less flow....