BRZ Heated Mirrors

[22 BRZ]

Originally Posted by soundman98

is the block heater very worthwhile to connect in warmer near-zero weather? is there a noticeable difference in your electric bill from running it for extended periods?

my truck came with a block heater. i special-ordered the cord from a canadian toyota dealer, but haven't tried it yet, mostly because it doesn't get that extreme cold around me.

I used to have cars that had a thermostat in the block heater that would trigger at 0F/-18C, so there wasn't a point in plugging in if it was warmer than that (GM products). I have no idea if the Subaru ones have that same threshold, but I still tend to use 0F/-18C as my queue to plug in. I tend to really notice a difference in how the engine starts with vs. without the block heater at around -10F/-23C or so. The BRZ is parked right now as they have not plowed from the recent blizzard, so I've been driving the WRX (2021 - pretty similar if not the same block heater) and it started perfectly even with air temps around -26F/-32C. That's the coldest weather I've seen yet with either of our Subies.

Electric bill is a tough one to comment on. I use a timer so that the block heater is only on for ~4 hrs before leaving for work. Also, I have a 240V humidifier in my furnace that I need to run more often the colder it gets, so my electric bill goes sky high in the winter due to that already. That makes it hard to see any impact of block heaters. Apparently the block heaters are 400W, and my maths tells me that costs 15 cents to run for 4 hours (1600W @ ~10cents/kwh, I think that's right, electricity is very cheap here, hydro-electric).


One more thing I should add is that the heated mirrors on the BRZ seem to not clear the entire mirror. I get a good 1/2" ring around the edge that doesn't get clear (especially noticeable after a car wash). Is that just me or do others see that?

[jvincent]

Originally Posted by soundman98

is the block heater very worthwhile to connect in warmer near-zero weather? is there a noticeable difference in your electric bill from running it for extended periods?

my truck came with a block heater. i special-ordered the cord from a canadian toyota dealer, but haven't tried it yet, mostly because it doesn't get that extreme cold around me.

Unless you get extremely cold you probably don't need a block heater. I never used one with my FRS when it was parked outside and it gets pretty cold up here.

What a lot of people do is put the heater on a timer so it only comes on for a couple hours before you need to start it in the morning. That's generally plenty of time for it to warm up.