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Has anyone got (or know anyone who has) one of those ceramic in car heaters you see advertised in the sunday papers? They sit on the top of the dash and plug into your cig lighter and give instant heat out. Ive read a review on one site and the writer seems somewhat underwhelmed. Thanks in advance.
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Bought one for my son a few years ago as a temp measure before he got a new car when he had a blocked heater matrix on an old car and needed to set off for work at about 5 am-- he was TOTALLY underwhelmed. He reckoned the sleeve of his coat was more effective at clearing the screen. Only a very limited sample obviously!!
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Phil
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Breath on your hands, now.
Same thing.
(I have one)
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Thanks for the replies. It was going to be a present for someone who moans all the time about how cold her car is in the mornings in winter. Now to think of something else!!
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Semi serious reply, I'm just going to leave a fan heater in my car with an extension lead in the garage...whack it on for 10 minutes or so...nice warm defrosted car.
I can't afford a Kenlowe/Eberspracher
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Put it on a timer switch the night before for added comfort!
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Old timers will remember a 12v heater element that was attached to the windscreen with suction pads. Those cars had no way of directing even feeble heater output onto the windscreen. It must have been very low power as that was in the old 22A generator days!
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Put it on a timer switch the night before for added comfort!
and make sure the local fire brigade have the full postcode
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Total rubbish.
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"ceramic cars": whatever will they think of next?
Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Yeah, I got one of these years ago to try in a car in which I'd had to bypass a leaking heater matrix. They are indeed almost no use at all.
What are they, 150 Watts? Really makes you think how inefficient a car engine must be - *loads* of kilowatts of energy lost as heat.
Also makes you wonder what they'll need one day for a truly effective heater in a car which is all-electric...
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surely some heat is better than none?????
by using it ,,the car will get warmer quicker than by not using it
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sometimes a little bit too much opinion....but its only because i care !!!
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Often the cigarette lighter socket is fuses at 10 amps so these heaters can only be 120/140 watts tops and it's a straight physics from there. 120 watts will contibute but not a lot. Regards Peter
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I bought SWMBO one some years ago (still have it, never used) which was rated 200W, including the motor, and it states not to use it without the engine running. No good for preheating the car, unless you want to flatten your battery, so what is the point ? the heat from the engine will warm the car up quicker. Very poor IMO.
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The Prius in some countries (not here) is fitted with a total of 660W worth of ceramic heaters in the footwell air ducts and the heater core, in an attempt to warm things up a bit quicker. Even at that power level, it's still not terribly effective, apparently.
The normal coolant heat-exchanger is rated at 5300W, which is presumably typical of most cars. That should give you some idea how far away those piddly 12V 250W heaters are from providing useful heat.
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Going back to the 70's, Colt (Mitsubishi) used to boast about a 6kw heater.
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Take a passenger!
Didn't I read somewhere that a human being radiates around 60 watts.
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