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easy and compact solution for heater/demister
pete wood - November 3rd, 2010 at 11:27 AM

saw this on another forum. thought you guys might appreciate it.

http://www.aussiedesertcooler.com.au/heater_demisters.htm 

Aussie Dubbin - November 3rd, 2010 at 01:53 PM

Looks interesting but where is the hot enough fluid coming from? I think steve1303 tried but the coolant/fluid wouldnt get hot enough... suggestions?

barls - November 3rd, 2010 at 02:00 PM

steve also used stainless as his tank which has a very poor heat transfer rating. if you use copper pipe it would work.

pete wood - November 3rd, 2010 at 06:20 PM

I have similar heater in my car to their aircon setup and it's awesome. sure it takes a little while to heat up, but with the top on, I only have to have it on for a few minutes before it's too hot. I'm confident I could drive my buggy to the snow and not need a better heater.

Aussie Dubbin - November 4th, 2010 at 07:40 AM

Can you tell us some more about this setup Pete?

pete wood - November 4th, 2010 at 03:37 PM

here's a pic of it, sorry it's a phone pic but you get the idea. three outlets, fan and heat control if you have the aircon hooked up, but I don't.

Adsman - November 4th, 2010 at 10:36 PM

:) I like the look of this

Aussie Dubbin - November 5th, 2010 at 07:59 AM

Sorry mate i was more concerned with the piping. Where does the fluid go to come form? Heating and pipe application stuff. Thanks

pete wood - November 5th, 2010 at 10:16 AM

ah, right, well I can help you out with that...

A friend of mine is a plumber. he pressed me up some Rehau plumbing pipes, plastic stuff with brass fittings that doesn't need lagging and is flexible enough to shape to the side of the car. Then I connected the heater pipes up to it and ran them along the drivers side and into the car under the dash area. Easy peasy japanesy - as my daughter says. All I needed was to clamp it using PVC conduit mounts. Looks neat and works very well.

As far as the tap system goes; you need to have the heater water running through to the motor all the time, so I put a bridging piping across mine near the motor and put an on off tap in the hot side in the engine bay so I can turn it off for summer, although to be honest, I find I never turn it off.

Aussie Dubbin - November 5th, 2010 at 10:23 AM

Sorry man still some more info please. Are you running an air cooled motor? How is the fluid ran through, around the motor or exhaust. I like the idea of the flexible pipes.

Cheers for the timely responses

Joel - November 5th, 2010 at 11:53 AM

I picked up one of those Hotrod heatercores after I gave up building my own, just be warned they move sweet FA air, enough to be an ok heater in small car but would be no good for demisting or anything like that

waveman1500 - November 5th, 2010 at 12:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Aussie Dubbin
Sorry man still some more info please. Are you running an air cooled motor? How is the fluid ran through, around the motor or exhaust. I like the idea of the flexible pipes.

Cheers for the timely responses


I'm pretty sure he's running a Subaru motor, mate. That's why this is posted in the 'Non-VW Engine Conversions' section of the forum. Heating is easy when you're watercooled! I run aircooled cars but never turn the heater on because I don't trust them, my heaterboxes are too old and potentially leaky so I'd rather be cold than breathe exhaust gases. I keep gloves in the car for cold conditions and wear a jumper in winter, no problems.

Aussie Dubbin - November 5th, 2010 at 01:06 PM

Cheers i just felt very dumb. Sorry started reading and then forgot to check the thread origin. I always use the topic activity button to do my up to date chacking of posts.

Cheers:dork:

waveman1500 - November 5th, 2010 at 01:09 PM

No problems mate, I do the exact same thing all the time as I always use the Topic Activity button as well.

pete wood - November 5th, 2010 at 02:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Aussie Dubbin
Sorry man still some more info please. Are you running an air cooled motor? How is the fluid ran through, around the motor or exhaust. I like the idea of the flexible pipes.

Cheers for the timely responses


there are a few options you have re other types of heaters in your car and keeping it aircooled.

1. oilcoolers inside the car. this is common in the US where it gets very cold. A lot of them don't even use a fan, just let the core radiate the heat. of course you need some way of turning this off for the summer. you could have too coolers and a 2 way switch to go between them. of course you'd also need a thermostat

2. water heater that works off the oil or the exhaust. this again is not new. a lot of cars have trans coolers that work this way cooling the oil with the engine coolent. you just need to make sure that you keep the anti-freeze up to it coz it water gets in the oil or viceversa it can be nasty. re using exhaust, I heard of a VW using this system many years back. I never saw it in action, but it sounds like a resonable system to me. you'd just get a set of J-pipes and weld a tank round them then have an electric pump (bilge or similar) to pump the hot water around the system to you in car heat exchanger.

The other idea that has just hit me... which isn't a new one BTW, is water cooled heads. There are a bunch of ways of doing this, but lets just say there are a number of benefits to it beyond getting a good heater, but it's outside the scope of this discussion and best asked in the drag racing forum or tech forums. Porsche did it on the 959. Heck, you could put WRX heads on and use them if you really wanna go crazy. Ian Swinkels (aka 2443TT) was working on this style of engine a few years back. Ask him how he did it.

Hope that helps.

Pete

waveman1500 - November 5th, 2010 at 03:17 PM

I think that if you're going to go as far as putting watercooled heads on then the easiest way would be to convert to a Type 4 engine and put Wasserboxer heads on it. Or just go the whole hog and put a wasserboxer in there. Or a Subaru. But then you're getting a long way away from merely providing a good heater!

pete wood - November 5th, 2010 at 05:16 PM

there are a lot of good reasons for only using water cooled heads. the mag VW case weighs a lot less than a subaru case. also, all the cooling is largely done by the heads. that's why drag guys can get away with grout and resin filled blocks in cars that see street duties. less water in the heads so that's all round less weight and you can get away from a smaller radiator.

...besides, some guys think the VW motor is better and want to keep it. I don't get it, but that's the way it goes I guess. :lol:

Inane Cathode - November 6th, 2010 at 03:09 PM

I just built mine up out of the rear heater box and fan from a vanagon. Seems to work alright, i have to get the flaps hooked up to some controls but the few cold days we've had so far it's heated me and the windshield up fine .

Adsman - November 9th, 2010 at 09:05 PM

Aussie Dubbin - Air cooled heaters

How about a 12V hair dryer? Would be ok if you have an alternator.

Aussie Dubbin - November 9th, 2010 at 09:25 PM

Na theres been lots of chats about 12v... they are all crap

Adsman - November 9th, 2010 at 09:36 PM

If you look into it alot of 240V appliances are DC type motors so you could step up the voltage using a Jaycar kit. Not sure what voltage would be needed as I have never tried a hair dryer. Other 240V motors run fine at 50V or so. Just be aware they will pull more current than DC hairdryers too (resistance of the heater element.) Hmmm come to think of it I would sooner go to the dark side.....lol