To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
This cartridge heater clips into the cavity of your engine block and submerges in the coolant to keep engine fluids from thickening. Results in easier start-ups, faster heating of your cab, and less wear and tear on your vehicle in cold weather.
Features:
Specs:
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Benefits of a Heated Engine
Start your engine easier and warm your cab faster in cold weather with this cartridge-style engine block heater. Heating your engine coolant keeps it from thickening and freezing, resulting in more reliable start-ups and smoother operation altogether. It also lessens the workload and extends the life of your vehicle's battery. And because starting your engine when it's warm creates less condensation in the engine block than starting it when it's cold, your engine will get better initial fuel vaporization, which causes fewer emissions and less pollution.
Cartridge-Style Heater
This cartridge-style heater simply clips into the cavity of your engine block. There is no need to remove the core frost plug. The power cord on the heater is removable so that you won't need to buy a whole new heater if the cord gets damaged. The cord can be routed through your grille for easy access to a 120-volt outlet or extension cord. Make sure the heating element is fully submerged in the coolant before plugging it in.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be taking a look at Kat's Heaters custom fit cartridge style engine block heater. You'll want to refer to the fit guide here etrailer.com to determine which block heater is going to be appropriate for your vehicle and the engine. These cartridge style heaters are custom fit for your engines, and just slide right into the block, and transfer heat through the block to help warm up the coolant, to allow for easier starting and quicker heat up times. So what this means for you is you don't have to worry about difficult starts, making it for a longer time in the morning to get started, or potentially miss work. The people who can benefit from this most are ones that drive diesel engines. Diesels use glow plugs to heat the engine.
However, sometimes it can take several key cycles to get the engine warm enough to properly start. Having a block heater on it like this will help ensure that it will fire right up. Additionally, your engine is going to heat up faster since its had a headstart, so you're going to have heat coming out your events faster on your way to work. It features a five foot cord that can be routed up to your grill area, where it can be mounted permanently.So whenever you want to use it, you can simply plug an extension cord in, plug it into the wall, and it'll start to heat up your block. The heater produces 400 watts of power.
And this is pretty substantial, so this is going to warm it up fairly quickly and evenly throughout. Even though it does come from a central point. It's made of a durable cast aluminum, so it's going to be lightweight and corrosion resistant. We're under our vehicle now. We're going to show you a typical installation.
Looking at the backside of our engine block, now the backside isn't always where they're going to be, but it will be on your engine block. You are looking for a cavity. You can see ours right up here. Now we'll take our heater. We're going to insert it in the hole.
It's a good idea to take some compressed air or something and blow out any dirt and debris in the hole. And then also coat your heater with silicone. This will help transfer heat better, as well as keep out moisture from getting inside.We're not going to be coating ours with silicone today for demonstration purposes, but afterwards you'd simply slide it in. And that's what it'll look like when you've got it fully inserted. As you can see, it's flush up against the block, and our clip has clipped around the side of the block there, and this will ensure that it can't come back out. Next you'll just route the wire up to the front of the vehicle. A good place for it is behind the grill, where you can tuck it back out of the way, and you won't be able to see it, but you can access it to plug it in when you need it. Whenever you're routing your wire, you want to avoid any moving objects such as your steering or drive train components. And any excessively hot objects, such as your exhaust. So you can see here we've got our cord routed to the front of the vehicle right in the center.We can now plug it in with an extension cord, and start heating up our engine. And then if we're not using it, we can easily tuck it back out of the way, and you don't even know it's there. There is no on or off switch, as soon as you plug it in it begins to heat. Now we do have ours on a lift. You'll most likely be doing this on the ground. We've had it plugged in for about 20 minutes. Let's check our temperatures. At the plug, we're measuring about 110 degrees. You can see as we take a measurement on the side of our block, we're at about 100 degrees, so it's spreading pretty well throughout our engine. So as you can imagine, if it was 19 degrees outside, this would be like starting your vehicle on a warm summer day. And that completes our look at Kat's Heaters custom fit cartridge style engine block heaters.
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (104 Customer Reviews)
This cartridge heater clips into the cavity of your engine block and submerges in the coolant to keep engine fluids from thickening. Results in easier start-ups, faster heating of your cab, and less wear and tear on your vehicle in cold weather.2014 Dodge Ram 5.7L uses Kat’s 11816 cartridge heater. Perfect fit. Must remove the two starter bolts and slide it out of the way. Don’t disconnect starter wires. Just slide starter out of the way. Easily done with truck on ramps. Clean out hole. Find a correct size retaining screw. Not sure what size or If hole is threaded. Too much rust. Just be able to jam some screw in there to retain the cartridge, until silicone dries. Smear about an inch wide layer of high temp silicone around the base of the cartridge. Insert cartridge, twist back and forth to spread silicone, and hold in place with retaining screw. Route wire straight forward. I used 1 1/8” spade bit to drill a hole in black plastic in bumper, but my bumper was already messed up, so I didn’t care much. Plug hangs out grill about 3”. Use zip ties to secure cord to square tubing frame post inside bumper.
I have a 2014 Ram 1500 with the 5.7 hemi. The heater element was easy to install. It took a while to find the hole in the engine block (behind the starter motor) but it was a perfect fit. The engine oil is warm enough in a couple of hours for easy starting in cold weather.
The heater fitment is terrible. The molded cable junction rubs on the starter housing since it does not have the 90 degree bend the OEM heater has. Running the cord in a direct line toward the grill gets within about 10 inches instead of reaching the light bezel as it should. Now I have to extend the cord and have a unnecessary junction in the engine compartment. One star is being generous!
Love it this winter. Colorado has had some cold nights and its great to get in my pickup and turn the heater on and enjoy warm air
Haven’t had a chance to use it yet but I came quickly and was a good price
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Installation was surprisingly not dramatic…and everything is working as promised. Thanks once again for also the constant checking with me to make sure I received the product; very appreciated.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
I cannot rate the product (which may be really fine) since there is no instructions given on installation so I'm stalled. Well the so called "instructions sheet" says to put the heater in the "cartridge" but doesn't give the slighlest idea where it is other than stating that for my car its situation is " LF" whatever that means.
Not on par with etrailer's business practices !
Jenny N - 03/01/2022Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Does your company do any type of quality control before you send these out? I was wondering what everyone was talking about in the reviews when they said they had to file these down to get it to fit. Indeed I did have to significantly grind/file the circumference of the plug to get it to fit. Now I’m not confident that it’ll stay in the block because I had to modify it so much; something that should have been made right from the factory, who does this for a living. (3rd Gen Tacoma)
Jenny N - 11/05/2021Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Very well made, easy to install on Hyundai Elantra GLS 2016 with 1.8 engine. Lightning fast shipping at an incredible price of $[x] from USA to Canada. Very pleased doing business with Etrailer and will do again for sure!
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Installed this on my 2019 Toyota Tacoma. Haven’t really tested it out yet as I installed it before it got seriously cold. Installation was easy. Just follow etrailers super helpful video. I did have to file a slight flat on the heater to clear the bell housing overhang. Not a manufacturer issue on the heaters part. Just normal variance on Toyota’s end.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
The heater was easy to install, there was a indent on the engine block that the heater fit in and was held by a clip, routing the cord to the lower grill and holding away from moving parts with the tie wraps took some care as the cord was just long enough. My GMC Acadia spent the winter parked outside in Wyoming so the heater was good on those cold nights especially when I had to leave for work at 5 am, The apartment complex has plugs at every parking space so was very convenient, on very cold nights left it plugged in all night, not sure if it was designed for that but had no problems. Looking forward to another winter.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Easy installation once we found the hole in the engine block where it goes, that is the hard part. Worked fine last winter, have not needed it this year.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
I live in northern Ontario, Canada. Average temp is -20 but has gone as low as -30/-35. This heater was installed in a 2016 Hyundai Elantra GLS 2.0 engine. Installation was easy once the battery box was removed. Slipped in the cavity real nice. The heater was plugged in for 4 hours at -20c. I then tested the engine for warmth. To my surprise the engine block was warm to the touch and the snow had a small circle on the hood where it started to melt. This surpassed my expectation, and I highly recommend this heater. Uses 350 watts per hr. That's less than a frost plug heater at 550 watts per hr. Shipping, packaging and instructions all great.
Daniel V - 01/21/2020Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
This is the second Kat's heater in this car. The first lasted 5 years or so and worked well so decided to replace with same.
Terry A - 02/27/2022Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
I am very satisfied with this product!
Reiner - 04/15/2022Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
2015 Hyundai Sonata 2.4 install. Have to remove air intake, very tight to get it in just enough space. Had to trim a little bit to make it fit but nothing ever fits perfect. Picture say it all.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Attempted to install into a 2014 Tacoma. After removing the bracket the blocks the hole for the heater, the cartridge would not go in all the way. I discovered that the thickness of the cartridge where the plug connects to makes contact with the engine below the hole. I had to sand a flat part onto the heater in order for it to slide in flush.
The clip barely holds the heater in to the point where I couldn't trust it. I attempted to make the bend further down the clip so it could securely hold the heater in but the clip was fragile and snapped. Attempts to contact Kats/Five Star Manufacturing was a waste of time, they never respond. I resorted to making my own clip with stronger metal and a bend at the proper length and it can be trusted to hold now.
Do not purchase Kats/Five Star Manufacturing products with the expectation that they have your back if the product is faulty in some way. Purchase OEM block heaters, yeah they may cost a little more ($18 in this case) but you can expect the product to perform as expected.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
I bought this a year ago and installed it myself. It was a fairly simple and quick install. The heater works great and I recommend it for the Tundra.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Although these are marketed as fitting a '08 FJ, a '14 & '15 4Runner & Tundra; They do not. They will not fit in the specified location, they came apart and now they are stuck in the engine block and are useless pieces of junk. DO NOT BUY THIS!! Even my mechanic says these are not worth it. I contacted ETrailer.com and they wouldn't accept a return.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
This block heater is garbage. As soon as i pulled it from the box it broke. I managed to put it back together but once again it came apart. This happened multiple time over the course of my attempted install. It also did not fit which i verified on the website that it did fit my vehicle. It caused major frustration and eventually made its way into the trash. A complete waste of time and more importantly money. Stay away from this product.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
The install was pretty straight forward except you have to grind one side of the element at the base flat in order for it to plug in, this is not in the directions. At the base where it bulges out, it gets in the way.
Also the cord could be another 2 feet longer, when you route it away from hot exhaust and moving parts it uses a lot of cord.
It helps tremendously in -35C, aside from those two points im happy.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Install was a little tricky given the location for my vehicle 2012 F150. But other than that pretty straight forward. Packaging was good and product seems well put together. Only time will tell if it works well. I'm not in the cold climate yet. It also does come with the 3 prong as advertised.
Erik - 01/11/2019 Erik - 01/11/2019Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Great quality and price of the product! I have used it for a year now and everything works well.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Got it hooked up and after a fix it works.
There is nothing that orients the plug to the body. I unhooked it to get it in, plugged it in and hit an issue: it tripped the GFI. It seems one terminal is on a thermostat that opens the connection to the pin and switches to ground. This pin MUST end up as the 120V line and NOT the neutral line. My first hookup had it as the neutral. That trips a GFI when it cycles off and would burn up the heater on a non-GFI outlet as it would not shutoff like a GFI. I unplugged and flipped it around. That got the T-stat line on the 120V, and it will heat the coolant about 35 degrees over ambient. Not sure how to find this without trial and error, but it should probably be keyed to prevent this issue.
Review from a similar Cartridge Style in Vehicle Heaters
Shipping was very fast (2 days) from Florida to Boise..
I have not installed the block heater yet. I'm driving home to Alaska soon and I'll have my mechanic install it there. Required in Alaska for even for gas engines
Robert - 05/17/2021 Robert M - 05/18/2021
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