Tire warmers Single or dual temp?

Why would you chose one over the other?

Just trying to figure out what I need so I can start looking for a set. TIA

 

You pick dual temp warmers if you like to use the low heat setting on rain tires that generally don't require warmers to begin with.

Or you pick dual temp warmers if you think a thermostat controlled item will "cook" your tire when it keeps the preset temp for as long as it's plugged in. You put it on "low" setting to avoid "cooking" your tires over lunch break. How do you cook your tires when leaving them at a temp they're designed to operate at? Beats me, ask the guys that use that logic.

If you can't tell, what I'm sarcastically saying is that after 6 years of TD's and racing I have yet to see any useful purpose come out of dual temp warmers.

Edit: actually I take that back. Low temp setting is perfect for street tires like Q3's and shit. They aren't designed to operate at the 180 or so temp settings of the "normal" heat setting. That's what makes the Q3's get greasy when consistently pushed hard (getting hotter than the operating temperature they are designed for). But I also don't see the point in bothering with warmers period if you're running street tires.

 

Makes sense. I will be running DOT race rubber or slicks so the single temp would work fine there...but I do like the idea of lower setting for rains if that situation ever happened, had not thought of that. I know the race rubber does not like to heat cycle and the warmers keep them at one heat cycle basically for the day as long as you keep them hot. Don't know if that shortens the effective life of the tire or not.

 

I've had everything from digital back when I started (T2's because they were cheap) to dual-temp and now I just run single-temp Cap-It warmers. I have the old dual-temp woodcrafts in the cabinet as backups or if I needed a low for some weird reason. But I haven't pulled them out in forever.

One big advantage to the single temp is you won't accidently switch to low temp and not realize it and end up going out on tires that aren't at their optimal temp. It's happened to me in the past and I've heard numerous other people do it as well.

Yeah, I've heard of people using warmers on low for rains but so far I've never had a tire rep recommend that practice, all have told me no. As Stickboy put it back a few years ago, why? You heat the tires to 120 degrees them immediately ride them through cooler water that's going to pull the heat out before you get to pit out, you're just going to shock the surface of the tire.

 

Interesting. I will be at Tally this weekend and plan on doing a lot of research with folks...asking the tire guy will be a great idea (thanks for that). So much detail stuff to learn...

 

^^Just act like a sponge and soak it all in.....

 

I'm trying...lol The big stuff is easy...it's all the detail stuff that's getting my head wrapped around the axle.

 

If you want to use them on a street oriented tire like a Q3, Q3+ or Power One 2CT or whatever hypersport street / track tire, running them on warm may be worth while to have them up to temp when you hit the track without overheating them.

I have also heard from tire vendors not much point in running warmers on rains as they will cool off as soon as they hit the water. If it is just barely wet and you have a really short sprint race it might be worthwhile to run a warmer on a rain if you are going for the win and don't care about destroying a rain tire in one short race. If the race is very long, you will want to start with that tire cooler in those conditions so it doesn't overheat before the end of the race.

 

I've always run fast road rubber for trackdays with no warmers up to this point and know the drill to take a couple laps to get up to speed until tires are hot. Very little experience with using warmers so just trying to learn what I can and hopefully avoid overspending on things I don't really need.

 

Some more food for thought: Are there any rain tires that require low heat warmers? No.

Are most tire warmers water proof? No.

So you're out there in practice sessions, bike is nasty as fuck from all the rain water being thrown all over the place. Water logged belly pan every time you pull in. Guess what's soaking wet? Your tires. You're going to continue to put on and remove something that's not water proof on wet tires, and more than likely the outside of the warmers are also getting wet since it's probably raining (since the track is wet right?!)

Single temps all the way. I haven't seen a good factual reason that justifies the higher end tire warmers yet. They'll show the heat picture and the cheaper warmers will have those zig-zags in them and the high end models will be uniform in heat. But if you leave them plugged in long enough, the tire is going to heat soak uniformly anyways. What's the difference?

I am all about spending money where you should - good suspension, good tires, etc. Some shit I just don't buy into, or I did at one point in time, and realized it was a waste of money.

 

I use dual temp. Hot for race tires. Med temp for rains, or DOT Street tires on a cold day.