Webasto water heater-tech query!

[morganrue]

Hello all.
Our 2018 Beach has only the water-based heater, blowing into the front vents.

The control panel mystifies me- can I extend the period it runs beyond 120 mins, to an "infinity" symbol, so it runs all the time we're parked?
For this to be any use, I need also to be able to reduce the temp it blows at. Is this in any way linked to the conventional heater settings on the dash?

At the moment it's either feast or famine- really warm whilst the Webasto is running, and cold once it switches off.

I am alos thinking of having th eupgrade to remote switch-on via a remote, fitted- anyone had experience of this? It's over £500 so I really oughtta ask...


thanks


Morgan

 

[WelshGas]

Hello all.
Our 2018 Beach has only the water-based heater, blowing into the front vents.

The control panel mystifies me- can I extend the period it runs beyond 120 mins, to an "infinity" symbol, so it runs all the time we're parked?
For this to be any use, I need also to be able to reduce the temp it blows at. Is this in any way linked to the conventional heater settings on the dash?

At the moment it's either feast or famine- really warm whilst the Webasto is running, and cold once it switches off.

I am alos thinking of having th eupgrade to remote switch-on via a remote, fitted- anyone had experience of this? It's over £500 so I really oughtta ask...


thanks


Morgan

The Webasto Coolant heater, as far as I am aware, runs off the Engine Battery. Run it for too long and the engine will not start. It has no adjustable temperature control and is designed to warm the vehicle and engine in cold climates and not for camping.
The 2nd Ebersparcher heater, that is often fitted as an option, is designed for camping and is controllable.

 

[morganrue]

Thanks for the reply. The Eberspacher heater is a better option, of course, but I have seen a video showing the settings for the Webasto being adjustable, which is what I am looking to find out. FWIW the Eberspacher blower motor also draws from the batteries...

M

 

[WelshGas]

Thanks for the reply. The Eberspacher heater is a better option, of course, but I have seen a video showing the settings for the Webasto being adjustable, which is what I am looking to find out. FWIW the Eberspacher blower motor also draws from the batteries...

M

Normally the Eberspacher Parking Heater draws power from the Leisure Battery, Not the engine battery and so can be run without affecting engine start and it is a 2 Kw heater as against 5Kw for the Webasto Coolant heater which also runs an electric water pump to circulate coolant.

 

[morganrue]

Normally the Eberspacher Parking Heater draws power from the Leisure Battery, Not the engine battery and so can be run without affecting engine start and it is a 2 Kw heater as against 5Kw for the Webasto Coolant heater which also runs an electric water pump to circulate coolant.

Ah! So the water pre-heater draws from the service batery? In that case I dont even WANT to know how to make it run all night! Thanks, WelshGas

 

[MattBW]

I think the water/coolant heater will also only run for a max of 30 minutes before shutting off (with ignition off). It's good ona frosty day however to clear the windows and warm the engine.

There is agreat thread about fitting the remote kit here somewhere by @GreggB

Webasto Telestart

Finally got around to purchasing a kit to upgrade my auxiliary coolant heater to remote operation/parking heater. As my Beach has Climatic air con it’s slightly more involved (and expensive) than those with Climatronic. The kit I bought was second hand but unused, originally from...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

If its for night time then have a look at Planar (@calikev loves his) or Webasto. I love my webasto 2000 STC and find it more than enough for such a small space. Brilliant pieces of kit.

 

[clarinetbcn]

The Webasto Coolant heater, as far as I am aware, runs off the Engine Battery. Run it for too long and the engine will not start. It has no adjustable temperature control and is designed to warm the vehicle and engine in cold climates and not for camping.
The 2nd Ebersparcher heater, that is often fitted as an option, is designed for camping and is controllable.

The optional programable coolant heater upgrade on Beaches, with it's small control panel near the rear view mirror, ran off the leisure battery up to 2017, from 2018 it runs off the engine battery (many thanks to @WelshGas for supplying the VW service documentation for that bit of knowledge in an earlier post). The temperature is fully adjustable. Set your heating/AC controls to whatever setting you want before turning the engine off (some find it useful to leave controls on max defrost) and the coolant heater will be controlled by that setting and temperature (this is fully covered in the Multivan part of the owners manual, not the California supplement) . It does use a lot of battery for coolant pumps and dash fans, which is why you cannot program it to run indefinitely. Some have misunderstood this machine as a heater. It is not. It's function is to preheat the engine and cabin on cold mornings, but as its high battery usage indicates, it was never meant to be a cabin heater. That's what the optional parking heater, a different machine on the opposite side of the van underneath, is for.