Kat's 24050 50 Watt 2"x 5" Universal Hot Pad Heater

I purchased a used sailboat with a small diesel engine (Yanmar 1GM10) that was always hard to start. After cranking for the better part of a minute, the engine would fire ... and backfire from all of that fuel that the mechanical injection system put into it. Boat "experts" recommended expensive repairs, such as injector replacement, and I finally stopped at my local Kabota tractor shop. A knowledgeable person recommended an oil-pan heater, so I bought this product (they were out of stock on that seasonal item, but Amazon had it to me in 2 days).

Anyway, the engine holds 1.5 qt of oil, which is appropriate for a 50 60 W unit. This 2 x 5-in pad fit my oil pan perfectly. Installation took about 10 min to sand off the paint, wipe it down with alcohol, and stick on the self-adhesive pad. I went to the boat the next day, and it turned right over ... and it has ever since.

For less than $20.00, I have an engine that starts well every time. The other benefit is that it keeps the oil above about 110 deg F, so the wear on the cold engine will be greatly reduced, with longer life expected. For that reason alone, this heater would be worth the cost. BTW, my monthly electric charge at the marina is $0.05/kW-hr, so it costs less than $2.00/mo to run it continuously. If you are even considering such a small investment, stop worrying and get it. You won't be sorry.

Ever since Dishnetwork "upgraded" me to the new eastern arc dish I was having signal loss problems whenever it snowed. In order to pick up three satellite feeds with one dish they had to make this dish much larger and it also points at a higher angle to the sky. Unfortunately that also makes it a one big snow collector. After a lot of research I decided to give these little babies a try. I installed two of these heaters with the self-adhesive backing and then sealed the edges with hi-temp RTV. After wiring in a switched outdoor electrical outlet, all I have to do now is flip a switch in my house to melt the snow off of my dish. In a matter of 5 minutes my signal is right back up in the normal range on all three satellite feeds. You can go ahead and spend $100 or more on those fancy dish heaters if you want to. Or, be like me and save yourself a ton of money by just getting two of these. I've read other reviews where people say they don't stick well. I haven't had that problem. I lightly sanded the installation areas on the back of the dish with very fine sandpaper and made sure it was clean and dry. They have been on my dish for a year now and show no signs of degradation.

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Used 50 watt heating pads on my sat dish to keep snow from building up. Works great! Used 2 because dish is long and narrow. Placed one on each side. Only use them when snow builds up and blocks signal. Clears dish quickly and reagains signal. An absolute necessity when looking at satelites directly overhead when dish can fill with snow.

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I use this pad heater attached to the engine block of a small diesel generator. Even in 10-20 degree weather it heats the engine to 50 degrees which allows it to start effortlessly. The quality is excellent and I'm VERY glad that its made in USA.

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I came across good reviews from others that like myself, were looking for a satellite dish snow removal system that would keep the dish clear of snow and also cost a lot less than the $132.00 system advertised as the one that would fit my DirecTV HD-dish.

An EXCELLENT purchase!!!! For a total of about $60 I now have a system that stops the chore of going out to brush off the dish of snow! Very happy so far. I bought the two of these hot pads and locally found a temperature sensitive plug. As I only need this set up in the winter I have the two cords plugged into a multi-plug 3 way plug and these are in turn stored in a weather PROOF plastic outside electrical box that no moisture has penetrated ( a LOT of rain and some snow so far) and then to an outdoor winter rated extension cord to the very nearby storage building with the power in it and then to the temp controlled power plug that's on at about 30 and off at 40.

As we usually get several feet of snow in this area but haven't yet, I was concerned that even with the temp plug it might be getting the metal dish itself too hot on the places I put these peel and stick heat pads on. I checked with a infrared temperature thermometer and was releaved to find that the combined 100 watts of power on these units was translating to a temp of 45 on the dish with an ambient temp of 30. So very happy all the way around! Also a nice spread on the wide dish as I thought I might have to get a third heat pad to make it all work right but it does as is.

At least my dish is set low enough that I can reach it with a long broom, if we had the dish on the house, this would be the ONLY way to go in the winter!!! Highly recommended for these little guys!!

UPDATE 12/21/2012

We've had quite a bit of snow, almost 2 feet in the last week with days of almost continuous light to moderate snowfall and the dish has consistently stayed clear of snow buildup on the dish. There has been some buildup on the arm the actual receiver sits on, but no disruption of the signal to the TV and no more manually cleaning the snow off the dish, VERY happy about that! And only 100 watts total draw works too.

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