What Do I Need...How Do I Choose?

First time buyers of our systems may feel overwhelmed at the choices being presented to them. We offer the following advice and direction to make this choice easier for you.

Where do I start?
The heart of the system will be your controller so this is the first thing for you to consider. Our heaters must be plugged into a controller and cannot be used without a controller. We have them for all budgets and users, from beginners to advanced.

The controller channels power from your 12 volt DC power source to your heaters. The controllers have settings to adjust the amount of power going to your heaters. This way, you can adjust how warm your heaters will get for your observing conditions, whether it be cold mid-winter or a mild summer evening.

Depending on the controller you purchase, a controller can be programmed to channel power to your heaters in very small increments or even use temperature sensing or dewpoint control! Read more about our controllers.

Now for the Dew Heater

• Kendrick Premier heaters are hi performance, 4 season heaters that will perform under very demanding conditions. There are very rugged, have a larger temperature range than any other heater brand The Premier line will appeal to anyone looking for the best heater out there and the security that the system will perform under all conditions.

 

Is it true that other Heaters brands are more "energy efficient" than Premier Heaters"?

NO! They simply don't produce as much heat as our Premier Heater. Watts/Amps = Heat and our Premier Heaters can produce approx. twice as much heat as our FireFly brand. Both brands are constructed the same, but the heating element inside is different. We publish how many watts each of our heaters produce. You don't always need that much heat, but if your optics become fogged, a Premier Heater has a much better chance of clearing the fog quickly by increasing the settings on your controller. The extra heat that comes with a Premier Heater will be especially important if you have larger diameter optics (lenses and SCT corrector plates). That heat needs to travel a long way to keep the center of the lens dew-free. In some cases, especially large SCT’s, you would need 2 FireFly Heaters (or perhaps 3 of our competitors’ brands) to do what 1 Premier Heater can do.

Do I need an eyepiece heater?
We say yes, most definitely. Moisture from your eye is the biggest culprit here. Once your eyepiece cools down, the glass will quickly fog over once you place your eye over it. Few things are more irritating in a night's observing than having a fogged over eyepiece (except for fogged over telescope optics!)

We have heaters for all sizes of eyepieces, from 1.25" , 2" and the really big 2" eyepieces (see our DEW-minator eyepiece heater!)

Eyepiece heaters are available in all three of our lines.

What Kind of Power do I Need?
You will need to provide 12 vdc to our controller. Your battery should be rated for at least 5 amp hours but this will depend on what heaters you are using. Bigger heaters require more power and will draw your battery down faster than the smaller heaters. Consequently, a larger battery may be required. Our heater pages have a chart that gives the electrical specifications of our heaters. See our battery page for information on our batteries.

If you are using a step down converter (ie: 120 vac to 12 vdc) you should be using a converter that has at least 5 amps of output. Again, the actual amperage requirements will depend on the size of the heaters you are using. See our converters here.

FAQ Page
To read more commonly asked questions on our systems, please see our Heater FAQ page.

Why you should choose a Kendrick system over a competitors?
See Kendrick vs Competitor Comparison. See for yourself and make an educated decision.