Cell Switch CS-100

[mulro767]

It's getting cold up here in Minnesota!!! And my 20 minute drive to the hangar to program my pre-heat is getting old. Anyone have any experience with this product? It might be on my Christmas list. To Me. From myself.

http://cell-switch.com/index.php/products/cs100

Btw, found it on www.aeroinstock.com for $274.

[bnicolette]

Mulro,

See this thread. There is one on ebay for cheaper and one of our members used it and says it works "like a champ".

http://mooneyspace.c...__+cell +switch

[Hank]

Yep, I have the one from Phillip on the Avionics page here. Works great! Just added $10 to the card yesterday to run me through the end of Feb. www.pilotportraits.com I think is the website.

[TWinter]

I just got mine in yesterday from a vendor on the forum (take a look at Pre-J forum) and it's a few posts down. It arrived and I had the app downloaded and up and working in 15 min. Tried it on a portable radio first just to see if I was doing it right. Worked perfect. Now it's at the airport and plugged in..of course we are in a heat spell right now, but in time it will be very nice and handy. Phillip's product works very well.

So far, so good..

[mulro767]

So Phillip's requires an account with a pre-paid card? I haven't seen anywhere if there are charges for using the cell-switch.

[TWinter]

So Phillip's requires an account with a pre-paid card? I haven't seen anywhere if there are charges for using the cell-switch.

He sends a prepaid card. You can use the device by just calling or text. It averages about 3 bucks a month if you just activate by a call in and no text. I'm cheap so I call, I think if you text it will text you back w/ a comfirmation of signal recieved. The text cost a few cents each time. Every three months you update your sims card. It was a ten dollar minimum. When you get the unit the card has 10 bucks loaded so your ready to go. If you want to let the sims card expire over the summer and not renew you can buy another sims card when winter rolls around again. I looked at the others and his seemed to be the easiest to "Plug and Play". Three bucks a month is cheap enough. I think I spent $20 on yesterdays Powerball. That would have bought 6 months of warm or cool airplane..LOL

I do know the switch is slightly higher priced compared to some others, but it's pretty simple and works great. I'm a simple guy and the "plug n play" was worth the slight money difference from the EBay ones.

It's only about a 12 mile round trip to the airport plug in the heater, but at 13 mpg I'm already ahead. Good luck. TW

[aaronk25]

Just curious why not just leave it plugged in all the time? I do with mine and with cowl plugs in it keeps it toasty and the moisture out? Electric bill about 30 a month. Seems the payback would take a while.

[Hank]

Two winters at $30/mth is more than I paid Philip.

What's the projected lifetime of your engine heater in hours of use? Mine will never run more than 18 hours at a time.