fan heaters

[boomer39]

i recently bought a 12 v car heater/ demister. it is useless. does anyone know of a good one, or a small 240v blower that i can use with a 12v inverter for a short time. my car heater is playing up and i cant afford to have it repaired yet. cheers, paul kelly.

[tali1]

i was going to buy one of those heaters aswell - but i asked on net before buying - and was told it was uselerss!
you might just need a new pollen filter, or as in my montego i used to give the heater pipe under the glovebox a whack to get ti going!
HTH

[Buenchico]

Unfortunately, you're unlikely to find a satisfactory solution with sufficient power output. For example, consider the heat given out by a domestic fan heater on its 'low' (1000W) setting. That's probably only about the same as a good car heater blows onto the windscreen, so it tells you that you require something like 1000W of heat output to clear your screen efficiently. Getting 1000W of power from a 12V circuit means drawing a current of over 80A, which will blow fuses or melt cables.

A typical 12V car heater will provide only about 75W so you'll never get a great deal of heat from them. However, some are more efficient than others. In particular, ceramic heaters use the limited power available better than other similar heaters. You might get an acceptable result with this, but I certainly wouldn't want to rely on it in very cold weather:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ITAG=FAQ&M oduleNo=48775&doy=28m12#faq

The most common cause of heater problems is insufficient coolant. Check your coolant level and, if needed, top it up with plenty of anti-freeze. (It's cheap in Wilkinson's stores and it conducts heat far better than water). Otherwise, you'll need to get your coolant system flushed through or get a replacement heat exchanger from a scrap yard.

Chris

[boomer39]

thanks all, will take on board, however the heater problem is somehow related to my heated rear windscreen. they both work intermittently, so sounds like an electrical fault, cheers, paul