zerostart not heating the coolant?

I installed my 1500W zerostart last week. I've been turning it on for 2 hours in the morning, but it doesn't seem to be heating up the coolant enough. The upper radiator hose gets hot, but when I start the car, the temp gauge is still at zero, and it still takes 10 miles or so to get up to temp. Did I screw up on the install? I followed the online instructions to the letter. The only thought I have is that there may be an air pocket in there someplace preventing the coolant from circulating properly. Is there a trick to burping the system to make sure there's no air? Maybe a bleeder screw that I overlooked? I was hoping for the car to at least register some warmth before I leave the garage.

No bleeder screw. To bleed the system, drive the car around for a while. It took about 2 days of normal driving to get all the air out of my cooling system after I installed the heater.

Doesn't the 1500W heater have the check valve in it? Or am I mistaken there?...

Shouldn't be a check valve if it;s the same series as what's http://members.porchlight.ca/benad/zerostart.htm here then not to sure what's wring cause I bought a 1500 watt one and it works beautifully car starts nice and warm even at one hour before starting garaged..

Try an extra hour and see what happens. I have the 1500W and on cold days it seems to need about 3 hours but I'm outside. Mine is at operating temp when I start but drops back to about 2 or 3 bars as soon as I get going.

hmmm wierd mine only took about 20 mins of driving guess I was lucky

bungy42 said:

The upper radiator hose gets hot, but when I start the car, the temp gauge is still at zero

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The temp gauge will only read above zero before you start your car and falls down to zero a few seconds after you start it. Make sure the hose going from the heater to the head has a continuous rise to it or the flow of the coolant (and the heating ability) will be greatly reduced.

Steve

Check the lay of your hoses as well. Remember, the heater needs to be at the lowest point in the coolant flow path. I have the 1000W heater, and in 2 hours the temp needle definately reads. I agree to try three hours and see what happens.

Make sure and look at the temp gauge as soon as you turn the key.

canbluegolf said:

Make sure the hose going from the heater to the head has a continuous rise to it or the flow of the coolant (and the heating ability) will be greatly reduced.

Steve

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I bet this is my problem. I'll have to double check that it doesn't dip back down before it gets to the engine.

8 years later, I seem to have the same problem. Did you find where it came from?

Devenini said:

8 years later, I seem to have the same problem. Did you find where it came from?

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Honestly, I don't remember. I think I tweaked the hose so that it had more or an incline. My car is always garaged, so I hardly ever use the heater.

You MUST have the outlet hose always gradually sloped up towards the engine head. If it's not at a slight incline the warmed coolant won't circulate and the heater will just cycle on and off, only heating the coolant in the tank heater unit and some of the outlet hose.
If there is not much incline you need to be careful to park level or you may even have the same issue.

My personal experience from looking into this for friends with this issue is this..

Each Zerostart circulation heater (750,1000 & 1500 W) comes in 3 flavors of on/off thermostat, 60/80 F, 80/100 F and 100/120 F.

Scroll down to page 76 of the following link to find the corresponding Zerostart #.

http://www.phillipsandtemro.com/userfiles/file/2014 Zerostart catalog indexed(1).pdf

The further north you live, the longer it takes for the lower thermostat settings to do the work to the point of being almost useless.
One friend in Edmonton, Alberta swallowed the cost of a new different heater to finally get heat.

The slope of the hoses is an issue but I always look at the part # first.

hth

Thanks guys, I'll try to fix that.