As title asks....who has the best car heater in their motor?

Mine (octavia RS FL) is woeful!! It takes an age to heat the inside!! Its so bad that when i get to work im still freezing and temp gauge has hardly moved!! :(

Now my old mans lexus 450 (12 years old) is champion on the heating front...as soon as you turn it on from cold hot air spews forth to roast your cockels

What is the problem with heating a car from cold? Couldnt you just have some kind of large hair dryer that comes on until the AC is up and running? Surely it cant be that difficult?!!!!

Winter moan over!!

Kit

the mark II fabia vRS comes in quiet quick, a minute or so, the engine runs quite hot..

best i believe are fiat. (don't wuite know how they do it... just circulate war=ter through the matrix at startup?) but anyhow, they reccon 20 seconds to hot air in a petrol, and when I ran the 500 1.2 this was true, almost befor you are out of your driveway its blowing hot air..

deisel is a different matter though, my grande punto 1.9 would take 10 minutes to blow hot air! so would my mark I vRS!

Diesel doesn't warm unless you boot it iirc

In traffic it just doesn't happen.

the best heater i think i had was on my old Clio in '98 the absolute worst ever was the heater in my god awful volvo S40 this video shows the car had been running outside for 45mins with the heater up full, dreadful hateful car.

http://www.twitvid.com/2499D

As title asks....who has the best car heater in their motor?

Mine (octavia RS FL) is woeful!! It takes an age to heat the inside!! Its so bad that when i get to work im still freezing and temp gauge has hardly moved!! :(

Now my old mans lexus 450 (12 years old) is champion on the heating front...as soon as you turn it on from cold hot air spews forth to roast your cockels

What is the problem with heating a car from cold? Couldnt you just have some kind of large hair dryer that comes on until the AC is up and running? Surely it cant be that difficult?!!!!

Winter moan over!!

Kit

Thats exactly what some manufacturers, including VAG, do now. It draws a huge amount of current though, a 1000 watt heater at 12v is over 83 amps!

My uncle's AC Cobra replica has seriously good heaters. You really need them due to the lack of a roof!

Couldnt you just have some kind of large hair dryer that comes on until the AC is up and running?

Yes, you can - see:

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/101947-coming-soon-the-greatest-favorit-project-ever-probably/page__view__findpost__p__1762119

Or get yourself a combustion engine Felicia, heater probably designed to cope with winter in the Tatra mountains

The air-cooled Citroën I drove back in the 70's on the other hand... :no:

webasto

webasto

Good bits of kit. Great on an old Defender!

I tried to get one of these fitted and was told there is not space under the bonnet of most modern cars.

Our 1.2 Yeti takes about 80 seconds or so to get warm air coming out of the vents to clear the screen. It's really quick.

Petrol or a pre-heater is the way to go if you want quick heat.

My previous 1 series BMW was great at heating up due to the variable "screen" that shut over the radiator - but that was teh only thing it was good for in winter

Massie the (diesel) Mazda is kicking out heat within a couple of miles/ 3 or 4 minutes so not complaining too much.

I was just reading engine specs of the Up! (citygo) and the new 3 cylinder circulates coolent rounf the exhaust manifold to hest up the heater quickly! neat maybe thats how fiat do it... but was literally 20 seconds in the 500...

Diesel doesn't warm unless you boot it iirc

In traffic it just doesn't happen.

You should boot a cold engine. I try to take it easy when the engine is cold.

webasto

Or Kenlowe engine pre-heater.

I've never heard of Webasto, only Kenlowe.

Or Kenlowe engine pre-heater.

I've never heard of Webasto, only Kenlowe.

Webasto and Eberspacher are big companies that produce some great systems for heating vehicles. (amongst other things)

My fabia takes about 5 min`s. Water isnt even up to temperature by the time I get to work

Cant say I have ever had a problem with my Octavias petrol or Diesel.

Usually have warm air coming through within 2 miles of setting off in a morning and I leave the air con on all year round.

Sounds like you have a problem or your not adjusting it right.

My Kangoo is surprisingly good as it happens.

About 2 minutes till warm air comes forth.

The vRS is about 4 minutes till warm air comes and the SDI takes the

longest at about 6 minutes.

The MX5 is the best out of the lot though,

presumably because it's a convertible and is petrol engined.

The heated seats are pretty good too.

Was out in that at night a couple of weekends ago, roof down approx

4 degrees outside and I was too warm with the heater on full.

Had to turn it down a bit.

My Octavia is pants in the winter, due to the bad weather and lack of speed to warm up the engine, I can complete my 18ish mile journey and the temperature guage still hasn't reached full temperature.

However, SWMBO's Rav4 is by far the best car heater I have ever known, it only takes about 30seconds before warm air is entering the cabin, its that good that we've never had a need to use the Heated Seats

Matthew

My Fab saloon heater is very good in winter . .. . . . . . . unfortunately, its also very good at heating in summer, even when you select cool air - the temperature control valve/motor below the dash gets stuck intermittmently.

Sheer brilliance of design that you select materials for the control flap that have a greater co-efficient of expansion than the surrounding airways - result jammed flap in hot summer weather and eventually failed motor.

Nick

Seems that most folk with a diesel have the same prob!!...Surely a pre heater could be factory installed without too much fuss? Something like the principle of a small hairdryer!!?

My smokey old fabia was the same!!...Took an age for it to get warm!!

I put on the top vents and turn on the cabin recycle button...

k:)

My mates Disco3 is awesome, Near instantaneous heat!

It's got a Webasto though!

Good bits of kit. Great on an old Defender!

I tried to get one of these fitted and was told there is not space under the bonnet of most modern cars.

Not enough space?! Pah. I took this picture at the Frankfurt Motor show this past September of a Webasto unit:

Yep, it is the size of a loaf of bread! So tiny in my book.

My diesel Audi A2 had a diesel powered Webasto heater fitted as standard (it was the size of about two loaves of bread though). Lovely bit of kit. BUT it only came on in temperatures below 5 degrees. Doh. So if it was say seven degrees outside with windchill making it much, much colder you were out of luck and it took ages for the diesel to heat up the normal heater. It had its own tiny exhaust pipe at the front. Later model A2s had this diesel powered one replaced with an electric one (which is what the one above is).

As to the heater on my Yeti: coming from a car with an auxilary Webasto I was a bit sceptical of how long it would take to get the heater to work but it never takes more than about 3 minutes to feel heat coming in. Amazing.

Jaysus those Webasto things are huge!! Surely something the size of a small hairdyrer would work if say only needed for first tens mins!! Or even something the size of a fan heater!!...Am i over simplifying this or this there a reason for not having them?

K:)

Land Rover used to fit a small diesel powered heater behind the front bumpers of early to mid Freelanders. These were then replaced by an electronic ceramic heater that wasn't as good.

You can still buy the Fuel Burning Heater, as I think it was made by Webasto.

If you park on your own driveway and have a 230V socket nearby, there are electric alternatives (I have one):

http://wup.defa.com/en/index.html

http://www.calix.se/consumer/index.asp?lang=UK