Quote:
Originally Posted by BLSTIC
Ever thought about using the original heater core and a resistance water heater? In your car it's an easy decision, but some cars with climate control may be a bit more sensitive about their heater controls
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Unless you have some sort of complex climate control that would require you stick with heated fluid then the ceramic heater element seems to me to be the better option.
Using a resistance water heater may be a bit easier because you don't have to make any changes inside the cabin but it has quite a few drawbacks.
You are dealing with near boiling water so you have to be mindful of the pressure that can be generated in the system and have some sort of safety valve. This is normally the radiator cap.
You need a reservoir of fluid to heat, this takes up space and adds weight.
The reservoir and all it's piping needs to be heavily insulated. The energy to heat that water didn't come for free like it does on an internal combustion engine so you don't want to lose any of it.
Then there is the heating delay, to bring up all the water in the system to a sufficient temperature will take many minutes.
You need to add a pump to circulate the water. Taking up more space and adding more weight.
Then the pump and heating element need to be controlled to maintain a controlled temperature and have some protection/detection set up in case of low or no fluid.
Also all these extras like the heating element, circulating pump, reservoir, etc start to add up to a significant cost.
All these issues disappear with a
ceramic heater element.
They weigh next to nothing.
Are self regulating. (They have a
positive temperature coefficient, the hotter they get the less current flows until they reach a natural equilibrium).
They heat up fast, maximum temperature achieved in seconds. Very handy for demisting a windscreen on a cold morning.
No fluids to worry about.
Take up almost no space, certainly no additional space. They replace the existing fluid heater core in the cabin which further reduces weight.
Are very cheap. Sourced from a cheap space heater and only requiring a relay to control turning them on and off.
The ceramic heater option can have some issues that need to be taken into consideration.
How difficult is it to access the cabin heater core. On some vehicles this may be embedded deep within the dashboard requiring significant effort to access.
Interfacing the element control relay to the dashboard controls.
Fabricating something to mount the heating element to.
But that's about it.