Hello all I am sick of misted windows on the car in the morning. I bit the bullet and bought a defa block heater ( coolant preheated). Installed this afternoon  took about 3 hrs using bad tools. The cold is not a big deal in the west of Ireland but the damp is unreal.i have it on a timer for 30 mins before I go in the morning. Total cost circa 160 ish euro.

 

Tsm

 

 

You could have used a small ceramic fan heater on timer that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket.

If you have climate control, make sure you have it on AUTO or have the air con switched on (without reducing the temperature setting).  In auto it will reduce the humidly very quickly. On wet days I can clear the screen and side windows in just a few minutes.

 

The way it works is this: The incoming air is cooled and the water vapour is condensed to liquid water and piped away. The chilled dry air is then mixed with heated air to achieve your set temperature, There are two downsides 1) until the engine warms up the heater pushes out cold but dry air and 2) the air conditioning will not work if there is a risk of freezing such as below 5C.

 

Keep the system on auto all the time and you will soon dry out any pockets of damp such as in seats and trim. With the modulating, rather than on/off, type of climate control used on our cars, I cannot see any difference in mpg by having it on AUTO all the time outside the summer.

How are you liking the block heater?

 

I installed the electric 1kw PTC heater in the heater box.  Install was a bit more of a mission (running large wires to fuse box, splicing control wires into CAN-BUS) but I'm very very happy with the result.  Pretty much instant heat in winter and faster engine warm up too.

I assume it does not come on unless the engine is running?