Hi, my name is Mike Pettigrew and welcome to another edition of Gear Up With Gregg's.
Today we're going to talk about Alaska Heat Pads.
What is an Alaska Heat Pad?
It is a 120V pad that is designed to heat such things as oil pans, hydraulic tanks,
and a variety of other items such as batteries.
The Alaska Heat Pad is available in a variety of sizes, ranging from 1 3/4" x 5" like this unit,
up to a 12" x 12" version, like this!
They are also available in a variety of wattages, ranging from 50 W to 720 W.
So when installing an Alaska Heat Pad, how do you know which wattage to use?
The general rule of thumb is that for every litre of oil you are trying to heat,
you need between 15 and 30 watts of power.
How is the Alaska Heat Pad installed?
We're going to use this oil pan as an example, It has a capacity of approximately 6 litres.
Based on the information that we just learned of using between 15-30 watts of power per litre of oil,
you would either use a 100 or 150 watt heat pad on this oil pan.
So on this application, we're actually going to use a 150 Watt heat pad.
You never want to use more wattage then required.
This will cause damage to your oil pan.
The heat pad must be installed on a clean, flat, dry surface.
Which means also the paint has to be removed, as you can see in this application the paint
is still on the oil pan, you would actually have to take something like sand paper,
a roloc disk, or something of that sort to remove the paint.
In doing so, you don't want to make the surface smooth, you just need to leave it slightly
rough so that it aids in adhesion.
Apply a liberal amount of Permatex 77 BR silicon, or a product similar, to both the oil pan
and the heat pad.
Then install the heat pad onto the oil pan, and apply pressure to remove the excess silicon
between the pad and the oil pan. The excess product can then be used to seal the edges
of the heat pad to the oil pan.
Why use an Alaska Heat Pad?
It will protect your vehicle or piece of equipment from damage on initial start up during those
long cold winter nights, and no, this is not to be used as an electric blanket.
I have had personal experience using a heat pad.
Instead of using by block heater, i would only plug in the heat pad.
This made initial startup very easy on the vehicle because the oil was already warm.
Well thats it for another edition of Gear Up With Gregg's, thanks for keeping it Canadian eh?