Bit the bullet and installed a Eberspächer Hydronic this week. Or I should say, I had the Eberspächer installer do it for me.

For those of you that have no idea what I'm on about, it's a petrol (or diesel) powered furnace that heats the coolant and then turns on the fan to heat the cabin. When I came out this morning and started the car, the needle jumped up to around 75°C right away. Operating temp (90°) was reached after a minute or two.

It's also remote controlled via smartphone or touch tone dialing from any phone. The only visible modification inside the car is a tiny little button with a LED in it for turning the unit on and off manually.

So I'm now the proud owner of what might just be the only properly warm 1.4 TSI in town.

Edited 7 February, 201313 yr by Perc

How much does this cost?

G

How much does this cost?

G

~1900 euros for the 5 kW version and the cellular addon for remote controlling it, including install. The install is a big part of the cost. If you don't mind spending a day disassembling and reassembling your car inside and out you can get away a lot cheaper.

It would have been ~100 more if I had opted for a keychain remote instead of the mobile phone control. A less powerful 4kW heater would have been about ~150 less. You also need to get a cellular subscription of some sort, either prepaid or monthly.

I probably overdid it with the 5kW heater (the shop recommended 4 kW), but I wanted the heating to be as quick as possible because it does use quite a bit of power. My daily drive is a bit on the short side, leaving too little time for the alternator to top the battery back up.

The smartphone app is a bit fiddly though, and nothing I would recommend to a non technical person. Dialing into it is far easier. Just wait for the device to answer the call and press "1" to activate the heater.

The more advanced features like setting timers and so forth basically requires the smartphone app. I say "basically" because it's possible to craft the text messages by hand, but it's a chore that requires reading the manual. Having the app generate and send the messages for you is far easier.

I would probably still recommend the keychain remote to a non technical person, though. Press a button and you're done.

Edited 7 February, 201313 yr by Perc

wouldnt have ought a petrol would take too long to heat up, i can however see the use of this for a diesel. I hope you didnt spend too much on it

yikes thats expensive, is it proper cold where you are...

I will get some of that money back when time comes to sell it, it's a coveted accessory on the aftermarket. And while these heaters are more common in diesel vehicles, my TSI certainly doesn't heat up any quicker than my friends PD140 Octavia does. In fact, I think his is slightly quicker even.

Many diesel vehicles in Scandinavia have these heaters fitted as standard, only without any means of controlling it manually. It just fires up on its own whenever it decides it needs to. The addons to turn it into what I have costs a couple hundred euros. Needless to say, it's a popular purchase.

VAG in general seems to have shunned auxiliary heaters though. I'm not sure why, but I think it has to do with the fact that they aren't maintenance free. They need some maintenance and repair every now and then just like everything else on a car. They're common in French and Japanese cars.

Out of interest are these diesel fired auxiliary heaters available as an option on new Octavia's in Scandinavia?

I ask because I'm sure it's mentioned in my Octavia's owners manual.

I'm sure it'll be a worthwhile addition in your location......I don't think it'd be worth the cost in the UK.

These heaters are common on commercial vehicles especially coaches, on the coach I used to drive many years ago once I knew what time I was starting the next morning I would set the timer for 30 minutes before I started and I would arrive in work and start the coach up and it would be almost instant heat unlike the coaches without that would take an eternity to warm up!

Great device!

I would love one of those in my Superb. I guess it would defrost all the windows if you left it on long enough?

I was just thinking the other day I wish I could remote start the engine and all the heating elements a) without going outside and b ) keeping the car locked so no cheeky toerag nicks it while it's sitting there running on the drive!

Edited 7 February, 201313 yr by Yearofthegoat

Yes, it defrosts the windows pretty quickly. 20-25 minutes is usually more than enough. Depends on the size of your heater, the temperature outside, how big your car is, etc. Petrol powered heaters also fire up slightly quicker than diesel ones, as far as I know, so I gain a minute or two there.

And yes, Skoda offers it as a factory option. As far as I know, though, you can't get mobile phone control through them. The factory solution has a remote control and Maxidot integration for setting timers and so forth. Mine is obviously not integrated in Maxidot but I can do the same things (and then some) through my phone instead so I'm not crying.

The "factory" Skoda heater is made by Webasto which is the other big heater manufacturer.

Edited 8 February, 201313 yr by Perc

Since a much of the wear on the engine happens during warm up this must reduce that. Does it have any effect on the initial oil temperature? I would guess not but the oil probably warms up quicker once the engine is running?

As the temp guage jumped to 75C as soon as it was started, I imagine the oil must be warmed to some degree. Either way all the oil galleries in the engine would be hot, so the oil would get up to temperature much more quickly.

I imagine it's an expensive factory option, which is why it's not offered as an option in the UK.....no one would pay for it! However I have owned Diesel cars in the past where auxiliary heaters are fitted as standard, but with no controller....it just fires up when the engine is started and the outside temperature is low. So it really only assists the engine in getting to operating temperature.

In both cars I owned with the aux heater the controller was an optional extra, it would have been great to even have the option to set it to come on with a timer, let alone have phone access to it!

For Nordic climate, parking heater with remote activation as shown is the way to go, however for UK climate, the electric aux heater as shown here is more than enough. And it costs actually less than the chipping heated windscreens that SUK is stuffing us with.

Answering other questions, yes, parking heater will preheat engine to a large degree, as it operates on common coolant path. So in case of diesels at least, what you spend on preheating you can frequently save on initial fuel consumption of a pre-warmed engine (and the engine will live longer too if you keep the car till it dies). The initial cost does put quite a few people off, though.

Edited 8 February, 201313 yr by dieselV6

Be carefull using it when you only do short trips! It will empty your battery in no time.

I know that issue when going on skiholidays. Only short trips to the ski areas and long heating times every morning will leave your car dead after the second or third day.

Be carefull using it when you only do short trips! It will empty your battery in no time.

I know that issue when going on skiholidays. Only short trips to the ski areas and long heating times every morning will leave your car dead after the second or third day.

Yes, I know all about that. Which is why my car is hooked up to a trickle charger right now.

Edited 8 February, 201313 yr by Perc

That is the way to go!

Not much people know this and are well disappointed if they come to an only mildly warmed up car, still covered in snow and no juice to fire up the engine.....

Eberspächer and Webasto are the main suppliers here in Germany.

Eberspächer and Webasto are pretty much the only manufacturers out there, as far as I know. It's like Defa and Calix with electric block heaters.

Last night turned into an unplanned pub visit, so I had to leave the car behind. It was cold out and snowing sideways earlier today when my friend picked me up to go fetch the car. So I picked up the phone, dialed the car and told it to turn the heat on for me.

I love this thing.

Glad to see your retrofitted aux heater works this good.

I bought the kit for my Yeti back in november, but didn't install the Webasto until a couple of weeks ago.

Kit consisting of Webasto Thermo Top C, 5,2 kW with Complete installation harness for Yeti with climatronic.

Did all the installation myself. About two days work for a guy who had no experience in retrofitting aux heaters.

I'm glad I removed the front bumper even if this was not neccessary according to the installation guide. -Much better workspace.

Had some struggle getting the new fuelline and wiring harness through the duct from engine compartment to the underside of the car.

Also had to buy myself some XZN sockets for some of the bolts used on the car.

The included installation guide was in german and With b/w photos. Fortunately I downloaded the same installation guide in english with color photos from a russian website.

Cost: €1495,00 bougt off one of the german companies selling from ebay.

I also went for the phone-based controlling. App allows for both SMS and cost-free voicecall for activation/deactivation.

My last car, 2009 Octavia 2.0 TDI, had factoryinstalled Webasto. This one had a low-voltage watch that denied startup of the heater if voltage was too low.

Can't see the retrofitted one for the Yeti has this function onboard. Well, I did install a CTEK socket in the grille for easy connection to my CTEK charger.

Battery, 61Ah will probably be replaced with a 74Ah or 77Ah.

So, if you are thinking about retrofitting an aux heater, -Go for it.

Best choice will probably be to have the aux heater factoryfitted when ordering new car. These days Skoda runs campaigns on factoryfitted aux heaters here in Norway.

So, if you are thinking about retrofitting an aux heater, -Go for it.

Indeed. Expensive, but no regrets here.

Best choice will probably be to have the aux heater factoryfitted when ordering new car.

Yes, the integration with maxidot (which I saw in action on a 2012 Passat) is nice. But I don't know if Skoda offers remote control via GSM?

The owners manual for my 2012 mentions a remote control which obviously is a rebadged Webasto Telestart T91, their simplest model with a LED and buttons for ON and OFF. This is simple and works well, but you obviously need to be within range.

Mobile phone control is a lot more fiddly and not necessarily something I would recommend to someone that doesn't like gadgets and toys. Not to mention it costs a few quid to run. €4/month for me including unlimited calls, as well as texts both ways. I like being able to turn the heat on from anywhere in the world, though.