What it Takes to Start Frozen Cars at -50°C in the Coldest City on Earth

Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel for a feature on the daily hurdles car owners living in the coldest city on earth must overcome daily. The Siberian town of Yakutsk is famous for its sub-zero temperatures, forcing car owners to adopt some interesting techniques for keeping their automobiles warm.

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[andrewdavidson]

You couldn't pay me enough to live in a place like that. The amount of effort it takes just to deal with the challenges of daily life is insane.

[ditherdather]

These people are brave. I live in Ohio and the coldest I've ever experienced here was -33f. We were warned not to go outside if it could be avoided, and not to have any exposed skin. People shared pictures of frost on the inside of their entrance doors.

[Ichabod_Jericho]

Sticking heaters under a car in a city that constantly freezes over is the greatest business model I’ve ever heard of. What a genius😂 hardest part about the job is bearing the weather.

[idget]

In the late 70's in Germany while serving in the Army as a Medic, I recall our ambulances having to be started every two hours and run for 15-20 min to prevent the engines from seizing up. It was crazy cold, and while on field maneuvers, units we were assigned to cover would do this for us, out of respect for what we did for them. Classic take care of the folks who take care of you!

[satyamarjeria]

You know it cold when the car has its own blanket 😀

[joetilman]

I lived in Fairbanks, AK. Not quite as cold, but had better infrastructure: electric plugins in most parking lots for cars, most of which had block heaters and battery heaters.

I had an uncle that lived in Fairbanks in the 1950s, and he said they'd drain the oil and take the battery out, and bring them in the house each night, then reverse the process the next morning.

[lordabhikingfisher]

I was riding motorcycle across Himalayas, and we experienced freak snowstorm (with temp dropping to -10C) and the nearest town Ladhak was 50 miles away. There was no way I could walk back and roads were closed. I pitched a tent middle of the road with motorcycle partially in the tent and kept the bike running for 2 days straight. The warm engine kept me toasty warm. If for any reason the engine would have stopped, I may not have survived. Army engineers rescued me eventually.

[henrikaleksandernilsen]

Imagine being an engineer at a car company taking great care designing a cooling system to prevent the car from overheating, only for some Russians to cover it all up with blankets.

[GregSr]

In the US Air Force I was stationed in northern Maine at Loring AFB. Before watching this video, I used to think that was cold. I saw ambient temps down to minus 29 F. Chill factors down to minus 70 F. Anytime ambient temps were going to be negative, I had to bring the battery inside or the car would not crank the next morning. The shock absorbers would freeze so the suspension had no bounce. Sometimes the snow would partially melt and then refreeze. That caused the tires to freeze to the ground. The car would not move. Had to gently rock the car back and forth to break the ice.

[thebearsden]

Before block heaters ...my grandfather made a special tin Pan that he put hot coal from the stove under the oil pan..and covered the front half...took 20 mins and started like it was summer..😁

[Parents_of_Twins]

I grew up on a place that didn't have any electricity running to it so on really cold mornings I would go out and put a couple pounds of charcoal on a garbage can lid and light it up then go and feed the animals. When I got back I would slide the now just hot coals under the oil pain of our truck and put some piece of plywood across the front to keep the wind from blowing away too much heat. By the time I was all dressed and ready for school I could go out and start the truck. I had a little over a mile walk to where the bus would pick me up so on really cold (wind chills in the -60's F or colder) days I would either drive out and park along side the road or I would drive the 20 miles into school. I walked to the bus several times in -25F as long as it wasn't too windy. Of course being in high school I wouldn't wear a hat either because it would mess up my hair. In all fairness to my stupidity I got bullied and teased enough so I tried to not give the assholes reasons. My dad convinced me that I was too slow and weak to fight back so I just took the shit. It wasn't until I was in grad school and was taking a martial arts course that I learned that I was actually quite fast. Good intentions pave the path to hell as they say and my dad's good intentions in lying to me so I wouldn't fight sure caused a lot of issues for me and between us. So be careful what you say to your kids.

[hmehbec]

А еще это видео показывает, что Тойота - достойное авто :) именно эту марку предпочитают на севере.

[jasonholman]

Engine block and oil pan heaters work well. You can buy magnetic ones that can be placed and removed as weather gets cold. Doesn’t look like they have access to an outdoor receptacle.

[kellywilson]

A heated garage would be at the top of my list, No way i would deal with that every day in the winter !

[rastislavsmolek]

This looks more like a problem of people that do not own garage, mostly city population...

I wonder how New Yorkers would fare in -60 degrees Celsius with their cars parked outside...

But yeah, people adapt to everything given enough time and reason to stay.

Good information overall, if somebody is planning a trip to Frozen Tundra, prepare your cars in Yakutsk they are experts in the trade...

[anthonymcneill]

Humans adapt to varying conditions on Earth. Good video!

[johnwang]

I remember we used to hang a mechanics troublelight with a 100 watt incandescent light bulb under the car to warm up the oil pan, there were also electric jackets you could wrap around your battery and the engine block had frost holes and you would have a 50 watt heater in one of them, if you were paranoid, you could have another frost plug heater installed especially if you had a V8 or V6 engine. Howevee, the city wouldn't let you run an extension cable across the sidewalk to your car, the hardware stores sold wire stands that would reach over the sidewalk that you could tie the extension cables to but that was also illegal but people wouldn't be tripping over the cables or shoveling snow through the cable. People would also run electric heaters for the cabin off their extension cords to get their cars ready to drive. I remember a car manufacturer tried integrating sodium acetate heat packs to critical components like the carburetor so that you could quickly heat the car up but as sodium acetate released heat when a shock such as the sound from snapping a metal disk in the heat pack caused the liquid to begin freezing, random street noises could do the same releasing the heat prematurely.

[loanraymond]

During the winter in Quebec everyday is a treasure hunt to find where your car is under all the snow

[satansforeskin]

Hello from central saskatchewan where we have anywhere from 1-6 weeks of similar sams temperatures every winter. Its brutal and the only service you can get us a tow truck boosting your battery. These guys actually going around and heating people's engine would be a brilliant business to start here.

[tsunamidigital]

Welcome to Kenya 🇰🇪 we don't experience extreme cold..the only cold that we know is during rainy seasons but the temperatures are always Norma and if it drops its by minus one degree.. perfect weather