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Heating for Beetle
volks67 - January 14th, 2006 at 10:04 PM

I know it is summer, but I have decided not to run heater boxes on my 74 Bettle (Barbie Girl, daughter's dub) as the risk of Carbon monixide poisioning is too great if the J Pipe inside delelops a leak.

Thus asking for advise re electic heating for the Herbie Wonders. The 74 Dub is running a generator not an alternator.


vw54 - January 15th, 2006 at 09:43 AM

Why dont you buy new heater boxes. A lot simpler tahn trying to introduce some electrical device.

Why would you need a heater in Brisbane anyway


volks67 - January 15th, 2006 at 02:46 PM

Dave, Just dont trust heater boxes one small hole developing inside the heater box and you are gone,

the car in winter will go to Kalbar about 100kl to the west of Brisbane and gets to 6 degrees celcius and a bit colder in winter real frost country


11CAB - January 15th, 2006 at 02:53 PM

I wouldnt be worried about new heater boxes (or old ones for that matter), if there was going to be a problem like you are suggesting then surely everyone would know about it....
Just about every non vw person "knows" that vws all catch fire.....when clearly they dont.
But you dont hear about the heaters being dangerous for your health.
I'd stick with the original heaterboxes
Graham


DIY-DUB - January 15th, 2006 at 03:03 PM

sorry fellas, ill go the opposite direction, you could easily pick up exhaust fumes coming from my "heaters" so im replacing them, with something electric, kills the rusting and the gas problem with one stone so to speak.:D on top of that, to reslove the problem temporarily, run your heaters with the windows 1/2 down that way your feet etc are warm and you have fresh air, worked for me, but im doing something permanently about it now.


Golde60 - January 16th, 2006 at 01:55 PM

what are you gonna do?

i m keen to find out some info on this as i am not running heater boxes at the moment.

what sort of fans/heaters are you using?

any info much appreciated.


DIY-DUB - January 16th, 2006 at 02:15 PM

still in research phase currently, will let everyone know when i find something suitable:tu:


EgeWorks - January 16th, 2006 at 02:53 PM

Electric heaters take a lot of power to run - take a look at their ratings, you need a lot of watts to make them go. A standard generator doesn't have that much to spare. Anything is possible but to run a decent heater you need some serious power output. A brand new set of heater boxes will set you back a couple of hundred and as long as they are installed right they won't rust or leak for another 30 years with proper maintainance.

Not trying to persuade you in any way but it would be an expensive and frustrating road to go down.


VWCOOL - January 16th, 2006 at 02:58 PM

Jaycar was selling some electric furnace jobbies a while back; try Whitworths for marine heater/hair dryers. You wil need a bigger alternator to run

Heater boxes work best and although valid, your concerns are kinda like being scared of lightning strike...


shiftyvw - January 16th, 2006 at 04:12 PM

Just something to think about, what production car ever used electric heating?
Just get some new heaterboxes fitted and you will be safe for many years to come.
One possible option would be arrange a setup using the engine oil heat, like fitting a heater box from the wreckers and modifying it with a suitable core for oil to flow through.

If exhaust heaterboxes were that dangerous i dont think porsche would have used them up until the last aircooled 911 in 97 or whatever it was.

Id be more concerned about burning the car down with some bodgy electric radiator setup!!


volks67 - January 16th, 2006 at 04:19 PM

My thoughts at present are to run a twin battery system like in decent yachts and cruising boats and to have a switch (marine that can charge the 1 st battery only or the second battery only or both batteries at once, sso that will cost about $135.00. Second battery can go and sit in passengers side under the rear seat. then run the 12 volt hair dryer idea. into the heater tubes that feed in the inside under the rear seat. thus i reackon will give heaters and demisters as well as never have to jump start as always have a good battery to run to.


shiftyvw - January 16th, 2006 at 04:24 PM

your problem i can see is that your generator wont be able to keep up, sure you have a larger store of power but you still have the same generator to keep it topped up.
Seriously, ditch the idea and do it properly.


barls - January 16th, 2006 at 04:30 PM

i run a pair of bilge blowers in my bug to boast my heater and also voltmeter in the car you could literally see the needle go down when they were running for long periods. this was with a generator in the car.


shiftyvw - January 16th, 2006 at 04:45 PM

that was without any sort of heating element in it barls? I mean just the fans to blow more air?


barls - January 16th, 2006 at 04:55 PM

yeah mate that was with no heating element. i did look at it but the math's didn't work out to be feasible ie too much energy for a little return. here is the main point most heater boxes have a layer of alloy in the shape of fins to increase surface area this covers the whole inside of the box with them only tampering away at the ends so the steel covers can join the pipe. so to leak in the box itself it has to go through the steel pipe and the layer of alloy as well. i think that you get what you pay for, so a set of the heavy duty heater boxes would do you fine and not leak for 20 yrs if cared for right. but if you must continue with this idea of not using the heater boxes why not go to a water heater with the pipes wrapped around the j pipes and a dash heater unit from a pulsar or something about that size.


pete wood - January 17th, 2006 at 08:42 PM

There was a proper kit available in the Us where you used an external oil cooler as a heat exchanger. You'd mount it behind or under the backseat (can't remember which one) in winter and then move it under the guard/car for summer. Apparently it worked well and didn't need a fan, but it would be a lot of stuffing around to move it twice a year.

I also read about a water heating setup in a custom bug in Fast 4s many years ago. The car had suicide doors and a front safari window. Anyway, he welded a sealed tank around one of the J/exhaust pipes and used it to heat the water, the hot water was pumped into the car, don't know how, and then a fan blew the heat off a watercooled heat exchanger out of some other car. The owner lived up in the Victorian Alps so apparently the heating was important. If you wanted to braze up the joins in your J pipes and make sure they were sealed you could do this I spose, but again, a lot of mucking around.


Purple Martin - January 18th, 2006 at 08:21 AM

Actually the water idea makes a lot of sense because the water is good at transferring heat from one place to another (and there's no extra electricity needed) but as you say it would be a lot of effort to set up. As well as the jackets around the J tubes you'd also need a radiator and fan in the cabin to get the heat from the water to the cabin air (you could use the heater element from any water-cooled car for this).


pete wood - January 18th, 2006 at 09:08 AM

BTW, I drove a beetle for a couple of years in Sydney with no heater. There were some very cold mornings in it. I'd wear gloves initially, but after about 10-15minutes the cabin warmed up and it was fine. So if you can hack it for one or two bad mornings in winter, it's fine for the rest of the year.


volks67 - January 18th, 2006 at 07:23 PM

Thank you everyone for the advise will consider my options


Volkswagenboy - January 18th, 2006 at 07:29 PM

What if you used the heat from your oil? (Sorry if someone posted that already).