Alan,

I'm in Grand Rapids, MI and we get pretty cold here but not quite as bad as you do.
I plug three of mine in every night on a timer as someone previously mentioned. Never worried about it until I got four of these beasts. Three hours in the garage on the plug gets it comparable to a summer start with instant heat.
I also plug them in at work (outside) with good results but not as good as the garage because of wind.
Last winter I went to synthetic (Rotella 5w40) for the dead of the winter months (Dec-Feb). This made a significant difference when caught away from a plug. Normally I'm a 15w40 user with the exception of those three months.
I have been very encouraged by these machines in the cold up here. They start much better at zero than my Volvo diesel did. Mine are good compression engines however and don't use much oil.

Best of luck,

Don

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