Kat's 13100 1000 Watt Aluminum Circulating Tank Heater

Works perfectly, and heats quickly. It is thermostatically protected, so that it heats the coolant to a preset temperature, without overheating. I got this to replace a failed unit on a tractor, so installation was easy. The hoses already were plumbed, all I had to do was remove the old one, and install this one. It comes with new clamps, and a couple fittings that would be helpful in a new installation: a mounting bracket, a tee fitting, (to tap into a heater hose), and a fitting with threaded ends, (to connect to a threaded hole in the water jacket of your engine block), and a simple instruction/installation sheet. You supply your own tools and any extra hose you may need.Now my tractor goes from a sluggish start at 30 degrees to starting right up at 15.I have one of these, and another rated at 1500 watts, and unless you have something BIG to start, like a 100+ HP tractor, I'd suggest going with this one, as it seems to be all I will ever need on an 80 HP tractor, and draws under 10 amps, so you can run two at a time, on a single 20 amp circuit. The 1500 watt heater draws somewhere around 13 amps, and almost needs its own circuit.

Living in Northern MN, it gets cold and needed a way to warm up the block on my Farmall M.This works great! Block gets warm to the touch on the coldest of days and turns over easier. So far, happy w it and the value

I bought this to hack it.I wasn't going to spend another winter in my electric truck without heat. Last year, I managed to "get-by" by setting a milkhouse heater on a board on the seat. I would plug it in, and let it heat the cab for 15 minutes before I would unplug, and zip to work (at 5AM). Things weren't so bad driving home in the afternoons. A black truck in the New Mexico sun (5200 ft altitude)made it fine unless I parked in a parking structure, or we had a cloudy day.Back to the Kat's 1000 watt heater. I did some calculations, and determined that 1000 watts should be more than enough to heat the truck. The milkhouse heater was 1500 watts, but it wasn't efficiently distributed (no defroster). I hooked up the element to 144vdc and it roared to life. My whole system only took about a quart of antifreeze for the heater, the pump, and the heater core. I understand that this heater has a high temperature cut-off, but I think it got confused with the DC. This was expected. Typically, analog contacts fuse shut at 144 volts DC, and digital control circuits are looking for a zero-crossing so it can turn itself off. My heater just keeps heating. In fact, it will boil the antifreeze in under a minute -- so I had to keep the pump cranking, and the blower in the trucks HVAC running, to draw heat away from the system, and it got too hot in the truck. OK, the advantage of using the factory heater core is that I can dial-back the heat, and mix in any amount of cool air as needed to attain a decent comfort range. I needed a way to "tune-back" the Kat's so it wouldn't be so efficient. I tapped my battery pack at 96 volts (cutting 4 batteries out), and it works great. Nice and warm, but no boiling antifreeze. There was another benefit. As I said, high voltage DC will fuse the contacts on almost any control circuit, so dropping the voltage from 144v to 96v also dropped the current from 10 amps to 6.5. Altho it the contactor relay that I am using to switch the whole mess is rated at 1 horsepower at 120VAC, it seems to be working, and not fusing closed. I will look for one with DC rated contacts, but shudder to think what that will cost. May have to make it myself.This little heater is being used in ways that it was never intended, but it passes all the tests. If I had it to do again, I would buy the 850watt one, but the 1000 works admirably.I am probably going to buy a Kat's 1500 watt one for my homebrew infusion mashing tank, but that is the winter project. FWIW, don't even bother trying to contact the manufacturers. All attempts at contacting them went unanswered.

Followed instructions to a tee. Plugged in to use after being installed on the motor a week later came back to a cold engine block heater won’t even cut on

This was much cheaper when I bought it a few years ago. I thik it was 15-20 bucks at the time. Installed easily with a few lengths of hose, a couple of drilled holes and some sheet metal screws. In the winter I have it on an outdoor timer that turns it on about an hour before I leave for work in the morning. Car always starts easily and doesn't need to idle high much. Even in February the car comes to full operating temp (oil and coolant) within about a mile of driving same way it does in the summer. Brings fuel consumption on geo metro back to spring/fall 43-45mpg rather than 38-40mpg I had been seeing in the winter. Heater and defroster work as soon as I start the car. In fact if left on defrost passive heating will just about clear a frosty windshield before I even start the car.

I have 2 mini sand rails with 250cc engins that I use for hunting coyotes and jack rabbits here in Arizona. When the weather is cold they will not start at all. No way No how don't even think about trying to start them. Zero- Zilch- Notha- No Way Jose. So I got this idea about warming the cylinder head, and what do you know, their is a way to do it. And hear it is. Bought two of them and installed them. Talk about hot water! 15min. and they start right up. No fuss No muss. Now I go out in the coldest of weather down to freezing and chase down the coyotes to get a shot. But still if I turn off the engine to take my shot, I better not let the engine cool off more than 10 minutes tops, Or I am walking home.

It's ok and as fare as i can tell it would of worked very well, but for my installation on a 06 chevy silverado it would of required a lot more parts to do the job right, parts that are not included in the kit, So i had to returned it and order the correct parts that is made for the truck. One thing to note about this circulating heat pump is that dose not actually have a pump inside of it, It works be way of convection the unit heats the cold fluid thru the bottom and the hot liquid flows away from the heating element out thru the top. Clever designed unit in my opinion but the name is misleading because it really doesn't pump anything via a motor.