Randy Parker credits a brush with bad luck for inspiring him to develop a way to quickly warm diesel-powered engines on cold days.
Parker, a welder at Oxbow, Sask., has designed and patented a heater that can warm an engine block to starting temperature in 10 to15 minutes.
The device, named the Dragon Boxheater, is promoted as a convenient way to warm engines in diesel-powered equipment, especially in remote areas with no electrical outlets available to plug in a conventional block heater.
The Dragon Boxheater arose from some challenges Parker faced about 20 years ago while living on a farm near Alameda, Sask. Partway through winter, the power company cut off the electricity to his yard, leaving him with no way to plug in his truck to warm its engine block.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
He needed the truck to haul water, so he experimented with blowing heat underneath the engine area with a tiger torch. That wasn’t efficient, so he tried using a scoop shovel to target heat from the torch toward the engine.
Those experiences weren’t forgotten and a couple of years later, while thinking about ways to heat a shop, Parker saw the potential to warm an engine block based on heat radiating from warmed water travelling through pipes.
The result, following a series of designs and modifications, was the Dragon Boxheater, which is being made by Setter Manufacturing at Russell, Man.
“Anybody who sees one of these thinks it’s a really good idea,” said Parker. “Anybody who’s got it, likes it.”
The Dragon Boxheater is a cylinder shaped chamber made from stainless steel. Another stainless steel chamber is mounted inside the main one, along with heat deflectors.
Heat from a tiger torch, fuelled from a portable propane tank, is fed in through an intake pipe. Three-quarter-inch hydraulic hoses carry the coolant from the diesel engine into the Dragon Boxheater and then back to the engine in a closed loop. Couplers are used to hook the hoses into the engine in the same way as a circulating block heater.
The engine’s coolant is warmed as it passes through the Dragon heater. The inside chamber and the heat deflectors increase the efficiency of the system.
Greg Setter, owner of Setter Manufacturing, said one of the main appeals of the heater is the short time it takes to warm the engine block in temperatures below zero. After warming the engine with the heating unit for about 15 minutes, there is no need to use ether to help start the engine, he said.
People have used ether for decades to coax diesel engines into starting on cold days. But an ether-primed engine might catch and run before it is properly lubricated, Setter said. The result can be extra wear and a shorter engine life.
The price for a Dragon Boxheater begins at $2,495, which does not include the cost of the tiger torch and portable propane tank.
