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Heaters


Guest dieselnut

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Guest dieselnut

What donor heaters do people use? Up until this evening I had a heater from an Austin Mini which whilst a little asthmatic at least kept my toes from icing over.

On the way home from work my heater matrix sprung a leak gently showering my legs in a fine mist of cold water.

 

I'm just wondering what anyone else uses? I can buy a replacement matrix for the mini heater, or are there better donor solutions that might give a bit more warmth?

 

Matthew

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I have had an old mini heater in mine for years and it cooks up a storm. I've had to stop in snowy weather to take clothes off. Mind you my roof and sidescreens are well fitted apart from the almost inevitable cold right elbow syndrome. So a healthy mini heater matrix and fan can be very good.

Edited by Longboarder
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Guest dieselnut

Cold right elbow seems to be inevitable - though I am working on redesigning the doors to try and take out at least some of the gaps!

I think then a new matrix for the Mini may be the way forward. After posting last night I stripped the Mini unit and it looks like it may have been going for a while, the fins in certain places are pretty much corroded together blocking the air flow, also there's a lot of air leakage around the matrix rather than through it as the foam stripping inside was pretty much dust.

 

Spotted the Polo write up on the North West Rhocar site, but I can't find a Polo heater of that vintage online anywhere.

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I had always planned to install a heater when building my car but I decided to leave it until after IVA. Since then, and with doors, I've found the heat from the engine bay coming through into the cabin is just as good as a heater.

 

Without the doors, the heat just gets blown straight out and you hardly notice it, which I assume is what would happen with a heater as well?

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Same as Florin i used the sierra matrix and half the sierra fan. The advantage for me being that i had the sierra wiring loom so everything just wired up as before. I made a new box though for the matrix out of a microwave outer casing if i remember correctly :) a couple of bits of 2inch waste pipe and some vacuum hose sorted the vents. I've only got demist at the moment so at some point i need to add some more vents so it actually heats me up. I imagine with a roof/doors it would get plenty hot enough.

 

Not sure what price they are but aldi are doing heated seat pads at the moment.

 

On a different note i just bought a battery charger from aldi for £12.99. Only just connected it so don't know how good it will be but it's meant to be an automatic jobby which switches to trickle charge etc and has an lcd screen.

 

at some point i might actually get to drive my 2b this winter...

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I'd be cautious with those heated seat pads - I bought a cheap one which just plugged into my lighter socket and it sent the electrical system haywire. Voltage spikes all over the place and bad enough to affect spark to the engine, power to the ECU etc, etc. Went straight in the bin...(the pad, not the car :crazy: ).

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