Fuel Heaters for add-on Fuel Filters

[RBridenbaugh]

I'm adding additional particulate and water filtration capability to my fuel system and like the various spin-on cartridge systems people have posted or available commercially.



Have any of you using these spin-on filters had issues of wax or gel fouling/plugging when the weather got colder, as most don't seem to have or add heaters?



I have not had an issue to date with the stock 300W fuel heater / filter in combination with fuel additives, to depress fuel wax point and gel formation, when overnight conditions have been -10F. I'm planning on moving to where it is colder and less people (I like winter ) like northern ID or western Montana, so I thought it may be necessary to have ~300 watts of fuel heater just prior to these filters or integral with the filter housing.



Something like these from Racor, available in either 300W or 500W. Overkill or essential? or are Fuel Additives alone enough?



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[steved]

Unless your routinely seeing temps that are really cold, it is probably unnecessary. Most of us with aftermarket fuel systems don't have any heaters, and I personally only ever had one issue (and that was with summer fuel in winter).



Other than that single time (summer fuel at -10*F), I have never had any trouble with 1 micron filters on my FASS.



And don't get me wrong, I was bent on having a fuel heater after installing my FASS and never got around to it. I have not had any trouble to -25*F, except the single time they slipped summer fuel into the local station during winter (which they readily admitted).

 

[AH64ID]

Like Steve said, if the fuel is properly winterized it will not be an issue.

Throw a can of Diesel Rescue in the truck and call it good.

 

[RBridenbaugh]

I assume winterized fuel up north isn't hard to get. I winter camp and boondock at ski area parking lots in the Sierra at 8,000 to 9,000 feet here in California. Most of the fueling stations are down in the valley and they see no need to reformulate for winter, since they really don't have it. So it is summer fuel all year round in these parts of California. Who knows what I get at the few stations in the foothills at 4,000 feet.



Watched some guys spend about an hour trying to start a diesel with gelled fuel and then with Diesel Rescue. The part where they were dumping it into the tank wasn't bad. It was part where they were removing each filter and filling them half full with Diesel Rescue and then the remainder with diesel, during a storm, that didn't look like as much fun ...