Heater Normal air vents.Engine Block Heater. Front Van

[Little owl1963]

Been studying this heater takes around 10 miles for engine to reach 90 degrees .
The heater increments are low then 16 degrees right up to 29 degrees then to high setting which is 30 degrees max .
Even on 27 degrees is just about warm /hot .

Why do you have to put this heater up so high, to get hot air out air vents ???
And takes at least half hour to get to temp !!!

Must be worst heater ever known. Is this normal for volkswagen heaters?? Or am I missing something ??

To the contrary I have a 10 year old ford transit connect works van , at just over half way on temp control it's red hot in around 10 mins .

Why are ford transit heaters so much better than volkswagens ???

Are there different types of heaters an different ways in which they operate ??.

 

[TripleBee]

I don't know if I get it right, but do you mean the cabin heater? The heat that comes from the engine temperature?
If so, my Golf 2 petrol heated up in less than 5 minutes. Even mid winter in the early 2000's, I had to get the heater down after less than 2km of driving to have a cosy temperature.
Then I had a Golf 4 diesel, where, in winters, the heater started to give above outside temperature after 20 minutes. And that was back in the days where we could drive normal speeds (90km/h).
Now, my 15 year old California heats up in about 10 - 15 minutes if the outside temperature is above 7°C., or 10 minutes if below 7°C. Then the engine pre heater kicks in, and starts to heat up the engine coolant, to get the engine faster at it's working temperature.

The slower the engine heats up, the more economical the engine is. This means the car (van) uses less fuel to get the engine working, or there is a temperature regulation issue (thermostat).
How was the fuel economy of the Transit in comparison with the California?

 

[Little owl1963]

Yes cabin heater , not quite sure on the fuel economy .
Do petrol engine heaters , heat up quicker than diseal engine heaters ??
Yes the T6.1 california ocean I think supposed use less fuel , could be linked to that ??
The heater is terrible though , both terms time taken warm up engine and , have put on near to max , to get it to blow ‍ hot
Dreading the winter months !!!

 

[Andy C Berks.]

Sounds like a problem with your heater. Based on experience with our 2023 Ocean - don’t ever recall having needed to operate outside range of about 17-21 degrees. Am always with AC switched on, so don’t know if that makes a difference if you are operating without AC being on ? It’s a larger cabin than a car or even a transit with a bulkhead of course, so a Cali will take a bit longer to heat up the cabin - the rear blower helps with that but have never really used i, and don’t ever recall thinking the heating isn’t working. To the contrary, last winter which was our first with it I remember thinking it being a lot better than I had expected given the volume of air. In winter months when it’s properly cold generally always have put the diesel heater on via the key fob to warm the cabin and defrost the screen - that gets it really toasty and pretty quickly.

 

[Little owl1963]

Yes think hour right problem with my heater, only done 2,000 miles yet another problem , on long list problems since brought it in 2022.
Yes iv had air con switched on .
Did not no you can operate front air vent heater with a fob ??
Not worried about rear of van , my tests were done while driving , by putting my hand over the front dash air vents .
No mate not the diseal heater , the normal front heater I refer too .

 

[secret lemonade drinker]

Diesels run colder and slower than petrols. it is that simple, most diesels have a ceramic electric heater to speed up cabin heating

 

[TripleBee]

Yes think hour right problem with my heater, only done 2,000 miles yet another problem , on long list problems since brought it in 2022.
Yes iv had air con switched on .
Did not no you can operate front air vent heater with a fob ??
Not worried about rear of van , my tests were done while driving , by putting my hand over the front dash air vents .
No mate not the diseal heater , the normal front heater I refer too .

If you put your AC on "auto", the middle vents in the dashboard will never blow hot air. This is to prevent you from falling asleep because of the heat.
Only the side vents, window and footwell vents will blow warm air.
If you put your AC on manual mode, on the dashboard vents, then the middle vents will blow warm air too.

 

[vmaxkiddy]

Yes cabin heater , not quite sure on the fuel economy .
Do petrol engine heaters , heat up quicker than diseal engine heaters ??
Yes the T6.1 california ocean I think supposed use less fuel , could be linked to that ??
The heater is terrible though , both terms time taken warm up engine and , have put on near to max , to get it to blow ‍ hot
Dreading the winter months !!!

Diesel engines are slow to get hot in comparison to petrol engines. The Cali has an additional engine heater that operates automatically below 7° C to warm the engine quicker in the winter months.

 

[Little owl1963]

If you could all let me no , what temp range it takes in this weather , by placing hand over a vent for it to actually blow HOT .
IM Finding has to be 27 degrees plus on temp display , seems quite high to me ??
Is this normal ??
One person on here says , his is 21 degree max to get hot

Is it normal to take 30 mins to get up to hot ??

 

[larrylamb]

Did not no you can operate front air vent heater with a fob ??

No, it's the diesel "overnight"camping heater that heats the van that can be fob operated.
Engine heater is the one you're talking about that demists the screen, heats the cab etc. Sounds like you have a fault (stat?). It usually heats up quick and not needed to turn up so high.

 

[Little owl1963]

Thanks I get it checked out

 

[Little owl1963]

Just tested my Ford transit connect 2011 diseal .
Within 2 mins on high blowing out air vents hot .

 

[m10chkcalifornia]

Just tested my Ford transit connect 2011 diseal .
Within 2 mins on high blowing out air vents hot .

That must have some sort of auxiliary heater. Takes longer than that for even a small petrol engine to get the coolant hot enough to produce useful cabin heat.

 

[Little owl1963]

From my research , some go to heater first from top of engine , others come from bottom block which takes longer

 

[clarinetbcn]

The slower the engine heats up, the more economical the engine is. This means the car (van) uses less fuel to get the engine working, or there is a temperature regulation issue (thermostat).
How was the fuel economy of the Transit in comparison with the California?

Just for clarification, engines produce more pollution when they are cold because combustion is not as complete. Since diesels are much more efficient than petrol motors, they produce very little waste heat as a byproduct of combustion and take longer to reach operating temperature (and due to their high efficiency use less fuel than petrol motors.) That is why every VW T5/6/6.1 has a separate engine coolant heater under the left side of the van, in addition to the air heater under the right side of the van if so equipped, in order to quickly get the engine up to operating temperature and lower emissions. Both of these heaters have burners which run off of diesel from the fuel tank. For those whose vans have both, you will see two stickers on the rear inside surface of the driver’s door, for those who do not have the additional air heater, you will still have a sticker for the coolant heater. As standard from the factory the driver has no control over the coolant heater. It comes on automatically when the engine is started in cold weather in order to lower emissions. This is why it’s possible to see the engine reach operating temperature quickly in cold weather, and take longer to heat up in mild weather. My van has the optional factory installed coolant heater control, which allows me to program the timer to preheat the motor in cold weather, and also preheats the interior and defrosts windows through the normal dash vents even before the engine is started. This also reduces engine wear because when the engine is cold the internal parts have not yet expanded to their normal size. The factory option also modifies the coolant heater to use electrical current from the leisure battery, not the engine battery. Since the coolant heater uses coolant pumps and fans from the heating system, battery usage is high and this system is not appropriate as a parking air heater. That is why my van is also equipped with the air parking heater, which uses the battery to heat its glow plug to start combustion but then uses very little electric current. Some owners have installed an after market controller to the coolant heater that every VW van has, in order to be able to preheat the motor in cold weather. I use my van a lot for winter skiing, and have noticed that on long mountain downgrades in winter even the warm engine will lose temperature due to very little fuel being used (I’ve had the engine thermostat checked.) This can get to the point where the heating system produces little heat for the interior. If this happens while driving I turn on the coolant heater, the engine regains temperature and the heating system goes back to functioning normally.

 

[clarinetbcn]

Just for clarification, engines produce more pollution when they are cold because combustion is not complete. Since diesels are much more efficient that petrol motors, they produce very little waste heat as a byproduct of combustion and take longer to reach operating temperature (and due to their high efficiency use less fuel than petrol motors.) That is why every VW T5/6/6.1 has a separate engine coolant heater under the left side of the van, in addition to the air heater under the right side of the van if so equipped, in order to quickly get the engine up to operating temperature and lower emissions. Both of these heaters have burners which run off of diesel from the fuel tank. For those whose vans have both, you will see two stickers on the rear inside surface of the driver’s door, for those who do not have the additional air heater, you will still have a sticker for the coolant heater. As standard from the factory the driver has no control over the coolant heater. It comes on automatically when the engine is started in cold weather in order to lower emissions. This is why it’s possible to see the engine reach operating temperature quickly in cold weather, and take longer to heat up in mild weather. My van has the optional factory installed coolant heater control, which allows me to program the timer to preheat the motor in cold weather, and also preheats the interior and defrosts windows through the normal dash vents even before the engine is started. This also reduces engine wear because when the engine is cold the internal parts have not yet expanded to their normal size. The factory option also modifies the coolant heater to use electrical current from the leisure battery, not the engine battery. Since the coolant heater uses coolant pumps and fans from the heating system, battery usage is high and this system is not appropriate as a parking air heater. That is why my van is also equipped with the air parking heater, which uses the battery to heat its glow plug to start combustion but then uses very little electric current. Some owners have installed an after market controller to the coolant heater that every VW van has, in order to be able to preheat the motor in cold weather. I use my van a lot for winter skiing, and have noticed that on long mountain downgrades in winter even the warm engine will lose temperature due to very little fuel being used (I’ve had the engine thermostat checked.) This can get to the point where the heating system produces little heat for the interior. If this happens while driving I turn on the coolant heater, the engine regains temperature and the heating system goes back to functioning normally.

@calikev Maybe this post could be pinned as a resource for heater information? I'm happy to post it when I notice it come up, but maybe it would be easier to find as a resource.

 

[Little owl1963]

Just for clarification, engines produce more pollution when they are cold because combustion is not as complete. Since diesels are much more efficient than petrol motors, they produce very little waste heat as a byproduct of combustion and take longer to reach operating temperature (and due to their high efficiency use less fuel than petrol motors.) That is why every VW T5/6/6.1 has a separate engine coolant heater under the left side of the van, in addition to the air heater under the right side of the van if so equipped, in order to quickly get the engine up to operating temperature and lower emissions. Both of these heaters have burners which run off of diesel from the fuel tank. For those whose vans have both, you will see two stickers on the rear inside surface of the driver’s door, for those who do not have the additional air heater, you will still have a sticker for the coolant heater. As standard from the factory the driver has no control over the coolant heater. It comes on automatically when the engine is started in cold weather in order to lower emissions. This is why it’s possible to see the engine reach operating temperature quickly in cold weather, and take longer to heat up in mild weather. My van has the optional factory installed coolant heater control, which allows me to program the timer to preheat the motor in cold weather, and also preheats the interior and defrosts windows through the normal dash vents even before the engine is started. This also reduces engine wear because when the engine is cold the internal parts have not yet expanded to their normal size. The factory option also modifies the coolant heater to use electrical current from the leisure battery, not the engine battery. Since the coolant heater uses coolant pumps and fans from the heating system, battery usage is high and this system is not appropriate as a parking air heater. That is why my van is also equipped with the air parking heater, which uses the battery to heat its glow plug to start combustion but then uses very little electric current. Some owners have installed an after market controller to the coolant heater that every VW van has, in order to be able to preheat the motor in cold weather. I use my van a lot for winter skiing, and have noticed that on long mountain downgrades in winter even the warm engine will lose temperature due to very little fuel being used (I’ve had the engine thermostat checked.) This can get to the point where the heating system produces little heat for the interior. If this happens while driving I turn on the careoolant heater, the engine regains temperature and the heating system goes back to functioning normally.

Are these what your. Referring too ???
There on my drivers door , but sure relate to the Auxillary Diseal night heater ?? Not to do with separate air vent s front dash heater ????

 

[Little owl1963]

Ps this post is totally separate from diseal night heater , its solely about the front cab , air vent heater that is ineffient

 

[clarinetbcn]

Ps this post is totally separate from diseal night heater , its solely about the front cab , air vent heater that is ineffient

The front cab air vent heater gets its heat from the engine coolant. If the coolant temperature is low, the heater won’t work. Hence my post about diesel motor efficiency and coolant temperature. Your van has two heaters with burners that run off of diesel fuel. One is the night air heater and the other is the auxiliary coolant heater that is standard on every van. That’s why you have two stickers.

 

[Little owl1963]

Ah , I'm interested in the air vents while I'm actually driving the van , my initial post was as to why it takes half hour to get to 90 degrees oil temp and I have to put it on high 27 degrees plus to actually get hot air out dash vents ?? Is this normal ??
On my ford transit connect diseal old van it only takes 5 mins to get red hot .

Don't think you can drive with auxiliary diseal night heater switched on ???

I'm just trying find out about cab heater with only me in vehicle driving

 

[WelshGas]

Ah , I'm interested in the air vents while I'm actually driving the van , my initial post was as to why it takes half hour to get to 90 degrees oil temp and I have to put it on high 27 degrees plus to actually get hot air out dash vents ?? Is this normal ??
On my ford transit connect diseal old van it only takes 5 mins to get red hot .

Don't think you can drive with auxiliary diseal night heater switched on ???

I'm just trying find out about cab heater with only me in vehicle driving

You can. No problem.

 

[larrylamb]

it takes half hour to get to 90 degrees oil temp

I'm just trying find out about cab heater with only me in vehicle driving

that's too long for engine heat into the cab, why don't you get it checked out with VW?

 

[secret lemonade drinker]

Your Ford has a ceramic electric heater in the dash that heats the cabin (and flattens your battery) until the engine temperature has reached a level where the engine thermostat will allow hot water to heat the cabin by the dashboard heater matrix. at this point the ceramic electric heater switches off because it is no longer needed.
The VW does not have the electric heater in the dash for the cabin, it relies on the engine hot cooling water to provide the source of heat for the cabin. so yes your VW is normal.
If you want to heat your cabin quickly and efficiently you could get one of these:

Pardon our interruption...

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[WelshGas]

Your Ford has a ceramic electric heater in the dash that heats the cabin (and flattens your battery) until the engine temperature has reached a level where the engine thermostat will allow hot water to heat the cabin by the dashboard heater matrix. at this point the ceramic electric heater switches off because it is no longer needed.
The VW does not have the electric heater in the dash for the cabin, it relies on the engine hot cooling water to provide the source of heat for the cabin. so yes your VW is normal.
If you want to heat your cabin quickly and efficiently you could get one of these:

Pardon our interruption...

www.ebay.co.uk

Or just put the Parking Heater On.

 

[Little owl1963]

Or just put the Parking Heater On.

Thanks all info , throws some light on it , getting it checked out next week , may well be just normal .
But to get red hot air has be 27 degrees plus on control knob , just thought should be lower than that get hot air .
Yes ceramic heater makes sense why my old ford transit connect gets red hot in few minutes