Best Engine Room Heater

Chattanooga, TN - wet slip - usually only deal with a handful of days below freezing.

Drain and blow air through all the fresh water systems.
Add antifreeze to drains and shower sump.
Drain and clean the poop tank and add antifreeze.
Engine, Generator and HVAC I don't winterize unless the boat is going to be out of the water for maintenance.
Bilge heater - 40-45 deg.
Portable electric heater in the cabin. 45 deg.

Monitor by phone app. If power goes out I have a friend in the area with keys that can crank up the generator. One thing really nice about the Chickamauga Marina it's one of the first customers from a TVA sub station.

 

I guess it's still working. Texas ice storm rolled in.

On at 37.13f and off at 41.61f.

It's 24f outside by the way.

 

I have had nothing but trouble with two 45's and them turning on/off at different temps. In speaking with them again about this we decided to go back to the 66 but with the thermostat removed so it is always on.

I ended up using a cheap external temp controller from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0957NYW37/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This setup has been working like a charm. I can't say enough about this company and their willingness to help and keep their customers happy. Truly rare these days.

 

Question
In your gas boat did you hard wire it to the breakers or plug it in. Are the Extreme heaters rated to be in a bilge of a gas boat. We do not see our boat from October to May. Boat is in Washington Stare on the hard over the winter. Temperatures go as low as 15 for a few weeks.

 

On my prior 1995 330DA gasser I wired it to the breaker panel. I used a BoatSafe heater.

 

I plug mine in. I run the cord through an access hole where my shore power plugs in.

 

Great timing. Just starting to think about the winterization process as I will be staying in the water for the first time. I'm planning on adding engine pan heaters but only have one outlet in the bilge. Doubt I can run two heaters off of one outlet. Also need a cabin heater, or two.

 

I plan to stay in the water as well. My boat is in a covered slip so I won't get the benefits of the sun.

I used 2 Caframo heaters in the cabin on my last boat and plan to do the same with my current boat.

 

I have done multiple Ironman events in Chattanooga. Such a neat area. I think I could retire there.

Side note I have had an Extreme Bilge Heater a number of years. I winterize my own boat. I view it as insurance. But I am comfortable with my winterizing skills. The heater has worked consistently over the years.

 

The previous owner had the bilge heater hard wired to the cook range circuit breaker.

 

I too winterize my own boat and feel confident in what I do, I use a heater as secondary insurance.

 

What remote temperature model products are you using, perhaps a URL so I can take a look.

 

In the engine room I have block heaters going 24/7, plus the stock E.R. heater that kicks on at a preset temperature (I'll need to look what temp that is), in the cockpit I have a Caframo with a thermal outlet adapter and in the galley I have another Caframo on the counter top keeping a temp around 60° and if it gets down to 55° the house heating system kicks on.

 

That must be an expensive electric bill!

 

$75/mo ///. $35/mo summer

 

I use GoVee w/wifi, one on the cabin, engine room and cockpit. They store the history and when you connect and download the info you get a nice temp graph. You can set alarms as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Hygrom...234a6ab7159eb&btn_ref=srctok-ea5234a6ab7159eb

 

That's significantly less than I expected. I seem to recall Gary or someone else installed block or pan heaters once and received an enormous unexpected electrical bill. Way more than $75.

 

Use the same ones.

Edit - I use these by Govee and connected remotely when I'm not around.

https://www.amazon.com/MINGER-Tempe...778&sprefix=govee+temp+monitor,aps,155&sr=8-5

 

I view the electric bill as insurance in the winter, as we are wet slipped year around.

 

I tried using Govee for a season but it would not stay connected to my router (possibly my fault). Anyway, last year I installed Sensor Push (https://www.sensorpush.com) and have been very happy. It had 100% uptime over the winter.
The system consists of a gateway:

and remote sensors:

The gateway talks to the sensors and sends the data to a free cloud service accessible via an app:

With detail on each sensor (I can see my BoatSafe heater kicked in at 7:30 or so this morning):

The gateway works well on both my router and marina wifi. The hole in the sensor let me zip tie it to the overhead of the ER. This system is more pricey than Govee but has worked well for me.