Who keeps a bilge heater on?

mnm99

mnm99

Well-Known Member
Oct 2, 2015
2,447
Long Island
Boat Info
2004 340 SeaRay Sundancer
Engines
Twin 8.1 Merc
Do any of you keep a bilge heater on when winterized on land? If so, what size and what is your electric bill like? I have a 340 and am looking into it.
 
Mine stays plunged in. Also mine stays to the water year round. Power bill is around $50 in the winter. I think of it as insurance.

When I do get to the boat I run the cabin heater as well and the fridge so that adds to my bill
 
Bridog said:
I would think it unnecessary on a boat that was properly winterized.
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Your right. See my post earlier though. I'd like to keep my batteries from freezing and also couldn't hurt keeping the temps up a little to keep condensation down.
 
dwna1a said:
Mine stays plunged in. Also mine stays to the water year round. Power bill is around $50 in the winter. I think of it as insurance.

When I do get to the boat I run the cabin heater as well and the fridge so that adds to my bill
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$50 a month? What heater and size do you have?
 
It's a Camaflow and I can't remember the btu. I bought it to work with my twin engine 30'. The remote sending unit shows it stays in the mid to upper 40's.

Water temps today are in the upper 40's out in the James. I made insulated vent covers to keep the wind out of the bilge as well.
 
We keep a Broan big heat 6201 in the engine room. It has a thermostat so I set it to about 70-75 degrees.

we are in the water and I have a diesel boat so I see no harm. It keeps it nice and toasty and keeps condensation from forming in the engine room or in my fuel tanks.

I don’t think it’s a good idea in a gas boat unless you find an ignition protected heater.
 
I completely agree with that, it must be a approved marine engine room heater
 
I ran a boatsafe in the Winter. I think it was 42 degrees. As stated, no condensation and elimination of the hundreds of freezing and thawing cycles of everything in the engine room. $30-40 a month was my usual electric bill from the marina (of course it depends on the severity of the weather).
 
I’ve got a 300 watt 130 volt light bulb in a porcelain lamp holder mounted on a board in my 260DA. Used a 60 watt 130 bulb in my center console with much smaller bilge.

Seems to work ok to curb the condensation. No contacts to open/close and arc.
 
I'm in the same marina as Wyrman and keep my boat in the water all winter. I use a Boatsafe heater in the bilge and have 6 or 7 110V heaters spread throughout the boat. They keep the interior of the boat around 40*-45*. I also have one of the 110V heaters in the lazarette. There's a through-hull down there that has a glass "jar" that the filter sits in.

A few years ago I sorta forgot about putting a heater in the lazarette. Don't ask me how I was reminded that there needs to be a heater in there. I also drain the glass jars on all the thru-hulls when I winterize the boat.
 
I've used the Boatbilgeheater.com Twin Hornet for 4 winters now and it works great it has double everything for back up, well constructed product and the guy I talked to there was very nice and good to deal with, doesn't seem to use that much electricity..
 
Gofirstclass said:
I'm in the same marina as Wyrman and keep my boat in the water all winter. I use a Boatsafe heater in the bilge and have 6 or 7 110V heaters spread throughout the boat. They keep the interior of the boat around 40*-45*. I also have one of the 110V heaters in the lazarette. There's a through-hull down there that has a glass "jar" that the filter sits in.

A few years ago I sorta forgot about putting a heater in the lazarette. Don't ask me how I was reminded that there needs to be a heater in there. I also drain the glass jars on all the thru-hulls when I winterize the boat.
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I know a lot of deisel guys use pan heaters to keep the condensation down inside the motors - the added benefit is all that cast iron is a giant heat sink for the rest of the bilge - i never hear about gas boats using them though
 
I have a 600w Xtreme bilge heater hard wired in the bilge. It is designed to come at 40 degrees. I also keep the reverse cycle heater in the cabin set to 55 degrees. I don't winterize.
 
I have heater elements in my engines. That I use on really cold nights and a bilge heater to keep temps at 65 degrees
 
My ER has the Boatsafe heater plus I have a block warmers on each oil pan. The interior has the boat thermo set at 55 but I keep my electric Caframo 9206CABBX set so the cabin stays @ 60 with the boat fan running 24/7. $75/mo in the winter for power and cheap insurance in my book.
 
I have two boatsafe heaters in the ER they come on at 40 degrees. As for the water system I blow the system out with a small air Compressor takes about 20 minutes to do the whole system. I don’t leave any heat on in the cabin.

Our critical months are Dec , Jan , feb. after February no worries.
 
BoatUS publishes quarterly magazines, and the articles often deal with aspects of safety. They strongly recommend against unsupervised heaters for Winter peace of mind.

If the boat was properly winterized what's the need? If there is water in the bilge because it was not fully drained and mopped out, the potential damage to the hull is of more concern.
 
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