Zerostart 3400017 Portable Electric Heat Magnet Heater for Transmissions, Oil Pans and Small Engines | Magnetic Engine Block Heater | CSA Certified | 120 Volts | 200 Watts

It's a tough little oil pan heater.

I was skeptical - but this thing holds tight to the underside of the oilpan on our f150 - 1978. We don't live in really cold places like I used to - where it would get to 30 below. We live where it can dip to 5 degrees. But this old truck is a pain to start when it's about 25 - so we bought this to help. It takes just enough of the edge off to do so. The truck has a 460 and a manual choke. So it's a lot of cranking amps to get her going.

I really haven’t had a chance to use it too much but it looks like it’s gonna do the job

Used this on a large 20KW Diesel generator to keep the oil warm. even in negative temps the generator would fire right off.

I was hoping the other reviews were wrong... but they were very true. I thought.. how could that be possible... it must be an isolated incident... nope.The large mass of metal on the heater WILL NOT TOUCH the flat surface (i.e. oil pan). It's simply a fact!I called Phillips & Temro Industries directly and talked to customer support. The woman I spoke to was great! Not exactly technically inclined herself but very helpful. I explained the issue to her and asked if this was by design or a flaw. She sent me a print to view and we couldn't find a solution on it. She wasn't sure what else to do so she connected me to an engineer to help. He was also great and super helpful! He confirmed that ideally the large chunk of metal on the heater SHOULD TOUCH the oil pan... and that would conduct heat the best. He said that tolerances on these parts isn't great and this is what happens when your parts on the ends of their tolerance bands. His suggestion was to file off a bit off material to allow the heater to contact the oil pan (similar to what another customer did on here).Now, I'd be ok with doing this. In fact, I almost did. BUT...1) For $65 dollars, I *should not* need to modify a product to allow it to do it's sole purpose. This is a VERY simple made-in-China gadget... and should not be $65 in the first place.2) I became paranoid that (like other customer have experienced), this product would burn and melt and possibly start a fire beneath my truck. I don't have time for that. I suspect that these products are melting themselves BECAUSE they don't have a way to transfer their heat. I bet after modification, these heaters would work great... but if I'm wrong... fire beneath my truck. Nope. After seeing melted units, I don't trust that the "thermostatic protection" actually works!3) I sent the attached photo to Phillips and Temro in hopes that maybe it would prompt an investigation into this heater. No response. It's a VERY simple fix. Change the metal punch/die/whatever to make the contact plates a little smaller. Done. I know even small changes can be large hurdles in the mass production environment but in this case.. YOU GOTTA FIX IT. I'm very surprised they let products out the door like this. I'd love to speak with that product manager and learn what the deal is.All in all, I feel like it's very close to a helpful little device... it WOULD BE great... but due to this little flaw, it's totally worthless and downright worrisome. I'm sorry, but I've got to return it.

The glue that holds the inner parts to the housing came apart It heats well but not worth the money

Make sure your oil pan is not aluminum as an LS engine. A little smaller than I thought is should be.

My jeep loves it and I love my jeep!!!!