Is your car an igloo or a sauna ? Heatershite

[clayts450]

I've owned cars whose efforts to create warmth when needed ranged from Arctic to tepid. I have to say, however, that the heater/demister in the Streetwise is probably the best I've ever had - toasty within five minutes. Plus it's one of those rare cars which lets you have toasty feet and fresh air coming in to your face at the same time. Some voodoo shite going on there...

 

The Beetle (my first car) still holds my record for starting at -13 degrees C first time, but failing to proceed due to lack of warm air ventage to defrost the screen. Journey abandoned.

 

So your car's heater - blast furnace or polar bear's gonads ?

[UltraWomble]

Picasso is an Igloo for about 5 miles then gets toasty.

 

C8 even with the Webasto takes an eternity to warm up

[bramz7]

Saab 900- It's either off, or a furnace. Crank the heat up about one third and it gets really toasty quite quickly. 

 

Renault 18- Really warm but poverty spec lacking middle air vents, cheers Renault.

 

Merc- Warm as hell. Split climate controls too, so I could freeze my passenger whilst I basked in glorious heat. 

 

The Safrane RN I had was the worst. The vents and heaters stop working (design flaw) and I was driving it in winter with no windscreen defrost. My old BX14 was like this too, it was so bad I had to drive with the windows open. Man, that car was shit.

[mercrocker]

I love Merc split-level heating - and the fact that on non a/c cars you can get a blast of fresh, cool air from the middle vents whatever the heat setting is on.   Certainly the warmest on my fleet.   The Minor gets nice and warm inside, eventually, but the Cowley is more like having a panting dog breathing on your leg - I must de-rock the heater some time. 

 

T25 is good but loses heat throughout the vehicle (no bulkhead) and the fan hasn't worked for about 7 years.    

 

The one car I specifically bought for winter use - the Fiesta - has neither a functioning heater or heated rear window.    

 

I really should fix some stuff......

[davehedgehog31]

The 405 can be either, that is to say you can have either full cool, or full hot air but nothing in between. I think something somewhere is sticky.

[Datsuncog]

The Subaru Forester's heater is pretty good and toasty within about half a mile; after the demonically possessed climate control system in the Alfa (which liked to spontaneously crank itself up to max while negotiating roundabouts) it's nice to have one that just works. I've discovered that the heated seats don't always work entirely reliably, but all in all it's a close second to my Volvo 240 for winter comfort. Heated front screen seems to work ok too.

 

The heating and ventilation in the Yaris is beyond abysmal, always has been. Takes forever to warm up, then suffocates you with TEH HEATZ in the final quarter mile of your journey. Loves nothing better than to steam up all winter long, as well, despite multiple applications of anti-mist snake oil.

 

Pity, as it's the one aspect of the car that really lets it down.

 

Total disaster award goes to my XM estate, which I ran through the dreadful winter of 2010/11 with no working heater at all. Turned out a previous owner had bypassed the heater matrix entirely... the tragedy was that I used to hold my frozen fingers up to the vents and somehow convince myself that the air was getting warmer...

[Dan_ZTT]

My ZT-T heater was proper sauna-spec, toasty, but since I recently had to replace the coolant (because leak) it's not getting hot at all. Suspect airlock but haven't got around to sorting it yet, mostly because lazy and not doing many miles. Anything else obvious I should be looking for first or should I just get on with a coolant flush and refill?

[Mrcento]

Fiat Cinquecento heaters are ridiculous. (they all run hotter engine temps than the average car, which likely helps)

 

Forget sauna, you can go full blast furnace. If you hold your hand on the vents at full temp/full blast, it's like putting your hand in front of the bar of an old electric heater, about 5 seconds before you feel pain.

 

I used to work at 6am, when it was the bad winter of 2010, it didn't matter if we'd had -15 all night, 3 inches of snow or half an inch of ice, all i had to go was make a cup of tea, go out, start the engine, heater up full, lock with spare key, go in, drink tea and come out to a defrosted car with a roasting interior.

 

Thankfully it also had other settings and was fairly efficient at cooling as well.

 

Disco is a bit "meh" in comparison, doesn't cool particularly well, heats fairly well, albeit at typical diesel warm up speed, but isn't quite sauna. Adequate though.

[vulgalour]

Skoda Felicia holds the record for most unfeasibly hot heater I've ever encountered in any vehicle ever.  You could drive it with all the windows open, in the small hours of a winter's morning, sub-zero temperatures, and with the heater on half it was still too not.  Absolute insanity.

 

Nothing stands out as being particularly bad, even the one in the Ledbury Maestro was adequate.

[Guest Hooli]

The Jag gets warm in what seems like a few hundred yards, one of the many advantages of a proper sized engine.

 

Shame driver's heated seat doesn't work and nor does the heated screen.

[PhilA]

Nissan Bluebird is the only car I have had that had a hotter heater than my Cinquecento (which I agree had a fantastic heater in it).

 

It would make the carpets dry in ten minutes if you put the heat to the floor after getting in from the rain.

 

My mk2 Transit was pretty good but "sucky heater" goes to my FD Victor, with a heater matrix the size of a large box of matches and a fan that would struggle to blow over a house of cards. Squeegee for the inside of the windscreen a necessity.

 

Phil

[MorrisItalSLX]

I have never properly used the heater in the Jag as, if you may not know, Australia is quite hot.

 

The air conditioning/blower has 3 levels - Off, Might as well be and Hurricane. There is also "Auto" which just turns it on and off at random.

The previous owner spent thousands (yes thousands!) on the A/C and it was worth it, ice cold all the time.

 

It gets very hot if you leave it outside in the sun, very much a greenhouse.

The sunroof is fully operational but I never use it as the A/C is just too good.

[Guest Hooli]

Do both your fans work on the low speeds? I know XJ40S had transistors in the blower boxes that died so the fans only worked at full speed.

[MorrisItalSLX]

The fan works on low, it’s just that low is very low and high is very high. There really need to be an intermediate setting.

[SRi05]

The Lancer has been used for wintering duties lately, and even with the setting on the middle bit it's fucking roasting. Haven't dared turn it up full pelt yet

[bolognasal spray]

Me '04 Fuckus is decently efficient - warms up promptly, and makes using the car in winter a relatively pain free experience. There's the slight gripe that actually setting the "dial" to a position that keeps it at one comfy temperature is tricky. Esp. on motorways. I find I get too warm, then back it off too far and get too cold. So pendulum between those two states for e.g. an entire three hour journey. Bit annoying. 

[Richard]

The Volvo's heater is excellent for a modern. It took three minutes from cold to defrost the windscreen the other week. I've not had it out in proper cold yet but it should be decent enough.

 

The Transit's heater is appalling. Not only does it take forever to blow hot, it's designed to prevent any of the hot air from reaching your body. If you get wet on a job 200 miles from home you'll still be wet when you get home.

[Jazoli]

My '05 Avensis heater is great, warm air through the vents 2 minutes after a sub zero start, its great after having run a diesel VAG last year which took 10 miles to warm up (coincidentally the distance to work), great climate control too just set and forget.

 

What's more impressive is the wife's 307CC diesel, that puts out heat as quick as the Avensis and the aircon is also very good.

[cros]

The heaters in all my cars except the 205 are terrible, but I'm not much bothered. My landrover has a Dutch made 'Heat On' device which I put in because the original Smiths one leaked. It is about twice as powerful at 4kw, but because of its location on the left of the transmission tunnel, struggles to deliver much air to the drivers side. It does demist the screen reasonably well which is progress. Going to Switzerland last year it didn't cope well at -10, not least because of all the draughts, but it was tolerable because we wore warm clothes.

My Morris Commercial was made before anything had heaters in 1933. (Maybe not strictly true, the Stanley and a few others had a real fire). The windscreen is openable and I fitted a kit car heater which is small and uses a computer fan. You wouldn't call it cosy but its better than nothing.

MGB heaters are notoriously terrible. They are quite a bit less powerful than those fitted to Midgets, the sort of perversity BMC excelled at.

I dismantled mine in an attempt to improve matters, and discovered that from new the gasket that prevents air bypassing the matrix had been omitted, so for 40 years it had been extra disappointing. I once read of Triumph TR's heaters being likened to an "elderly Maiden Aunt breathing gently on your legs" and the MG isn't much better.

The P4 has quite a complicated device with 3 control quadrants that have separate 'de-mist' and 'de-frost' positions, but for all this the water has to squeeze through a tiny control valve so it doesn't approach modern standards.

I must end with the bonus you get with many old cars- smaller windows and built in draughts mean that in warm weather they are more pleasant to be in if you dislike air-con and blowers roaring away.

[Snipes]

The temperature valve thing on my old fiesta stuck in the hot position over summer. I finally got round to changing it when the replacement failed a few months later in the cold position....

[oldcars]

Igloo. The Reliant will ice up inside the screen. The heater* does get warm eventually.

[Lacquer Peel]

My B5 Passat's heater is great and heats up quickly for an old direct injection diesel -it's putting out warm air before I get to the motorway which is just a couple of miles away. It's climate control with lots of flaps and buttons but still works after nearly 20 years.

 

The best heaters I've experienced were in XUD powered cars, blast furnace level heat that made the car interior toasty even when it's -20°c outside.

 

The worst was in a modern Sprinter, at work we would sometimes have to sit in the cab while linesmen did their thing, the temperature gauge would plummet with the engine at idle resulting in little to no heat and even at running temperature the heater was shit.

 

I travelled through Europe in midsummer with some friends in a Peugeot 407, temperatures up to 40°c with the heater stuck on! That's put me off any Peugeots beyond x06 for life.

[Guest Hooli]

The fan works on low, it’s just that low is very low and high is very high. There really need to be an intermediate setting.

 

That's how my XJ40 was, which turned out to be only one of the fans running at low speed. I don't know if it's the same for S3s but thought I'd ask.

[Tamworthbay]

Worst was the vw camper van, how that piss poor excuse of a heating system was ever supposed to cope with a winter is beyond me.

[MorrisItalSLX]

I believe the SIII has only a single fan, but well worth a look now I know.

I shall look through the receipts to see if the fan/s were done in the overhaul. I know it had the matrix replaced along with the compressor, condenser and all the pipework.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

A few years ago Mrs N was using a 300Tdi Disco as everyday transport for the 20 mile commute to university, problem was the heater took about 20 miles to get up to temperature.

My solution was a fan heater on an extension lead, 5 mins before leaving she'd flick the plug in the kitchen on, so that when she got in the car it was defrosted ( and de-condensated) and very warm. Luckily she never forgot to unplug the lead and the car stayed warmish until the heater kicked in.

[barefoot]

Worst was the vw camper van, how that piss poor excuse of a heating system was ever supposed to cope with a winter is beyond me.

 

 

I think that depends on whether you've still got the proper original heat exchangers fitted with about a million alloy fins

or the total wank efforts containing three thick 'fins' that they now sell to replace them.

 

[mercrocker]

Add to the VW misery (even in a wasserboxer)  of trying to heat a huge empty van with something only supposed to keep the ice from forming in a two-man cab....Apparently my supplementary* heating arrangement of leaving gas burners and grill on whilst in motion is deemed not particularly safe.    (don't worry, I only tried it once)

[bub2006]

The heater in the proton is absolutely fantastic. I like toasty feet in cold weather so I still have the window down a touch too.

[oldcars]

The heater in the proton is absolutely fantastic. I like toasty feet in cold weather so I still have the window down a touch too.

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