Help: Should the heater in my van blow hot air when engine is off/cold?

Swift66

Have tried, to no avail, to find an answer to this online.

The heater is my van works but only after the engines warms up after driving for 10mins or so, the thing is that I camp in my van sometimes and have found that turning on revving the engines does not make the heater warm up.

Is this normal, I thought that the heater would have an electrical aspect which would allow passengers to be warmed when sitting in a vehicle as well as when driving???

Cheers

ronaneire

Your heater in your van works off the cooling system from your engine. As the engine warms up so will the water in your cooling system.


Take a look at the linkys

http://www.autorepairintheknow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/engine-cooling-system.jpg

http://www.familycar.com/Classroom/Images/Cooling-System.gif

wilson10

Here's what you need.

http://www.eberspacher.com/

hi5

The water in your engine is constantly circulating but only when the engine is running,the water pump is an accessory on the fan belt.
Your heater is part of this circulatory system,the hot water in the heater matrix is quickly cooled by the blower fan and the existing hot water in the engine goes to waste:(
Now if you fitted a small electric pump which you could switch manually to the system then you might be able to make use of the engine heat:).

ronaneire

hi5 wrote: »

The water in your engine is constantly circulating but only when the engine is running,the water pump is an accessory on the fan belt.
Your heater is part of this circulatory system,the hot water in the heater matrix is quickly cooled by the blower fan and the existing hot water in the engine goes to waste:(
Now if you fitted a small electric pump which you could switch manually to the system then you might be able to make use of the engine heat:).

Hi5, to clarify what you said. If he fits an electric pump to the cooling system he can gain the use of the wasted hot water?
There is no wasted hot water, as the engine runs the thermostat opens and closes thus allowing you to have constant hot water passing through the interior fan heater.
Also the cooling system is pressurised so I cant see how a small electric pump would do anything.

Anan1

ronaneire wrote: »

Hi5, to clarify what you said. If he fits an electric pump to the cooling system he can gain the use of the wasted hot water?
There is no wasted hot water, as the engine runs the thermostat opens and closes thus allowing you to have constant hot water passing through the interior fan heater.
Also the cooling system is pressurised so I cant see how a small electric pump would do anything.

The idea is that the pump would circulate the coolant while the engine's stopped. Some cars have this feature already, via a residual heat setting on the heater control panel.