Beach with Heater

GreggB · Dec 6, 2018

SallyHG said:
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to respond. I felt, on reading VW response, that:

... Auxiliary heaters have the task of heating the vehicle interior. Auxiliary heaters work in connection with the heating/ air conditioning system. Auxiliary heaters can be used when the vehicle is stationary, to pre-heat the vehicle interior when the engine is switched off, or during the journey (e.g. during the engine's warm-up phase). If the auxiliary heater is switched on while the vehicle is stationary and the engine is not running, the engine may also be pre-heated. Auxiliary heaters heat the coolant, which in turn heats the air in the heat exchanger. The heated air then flows into the vehicle interior and heats it.

VW were telling me that I had the sort of heater that you are calling the Cabin Heating Auxiliary Heater/Cabin Heating unit. I feel VW have been confusing and shall indeed continue my research into getting one of those. I am supposing these are also other names for a Parking Heater.

Attached is the photo I took this morning showing the controls for my heaters.

View attachment 39469

thank you.

The controls at the bottom are to operate the rear heater, simply a second heater unit and fan linked to the engine and cab heater system, only operating with ignition on.

A parking heater will operate completely separately from the engine and cab system, usually by burning fuel and blowing hot air out of their own vents, ideally powered from leisure battery with independent operation. The auxiliary heater can perform this function but by heating the engine cooling system and using the standard blower motor, obviously less efficient and risks a flat starter battery if run off that.

MattBW · Dec 7, 2018

GreggB said:
The auxiliary coolant heater fitted to the Beach will usually be of the ‘passive’ type that only operates on engine start up with an ambient temperature of below 5c. The idea is to help warm the engine quicker. Some vehicles do have a timer function within the dash display or the additional control panel if fitted. I doubt a Beach with Climatic will though.

It is possible to upgrade to a remote start system with a Webasto Telestart. This will fire up the auxiliary heater by means of a remote control to heat the engine coolant and once it hits a set temperature switch the heater fan on to defrost/demist the windscreen. Annoyingly easier and cheaper to fit to Climatronic equipped vehicles than those with the more basic Climatic.

I’d like to fit one to my Beach as the warm up time is annoyingly long but still weighing up the cost vs actual benefit for us.

I've looked at the telestart and to be frank its a lot of money for what it is. I think Loz mentioned in another thread on here that it basically provides 12v to the positive on button press nothing more fancy than that.

Still does quickly enable the morning warm up and I think about it every winter on the first scraping of the cali's windows.

GreggB · Dec 7, 2018

MattBW said:
I've looked at the telestart and to be frank its a lot of money for what it is. I think Loz mentioned in another thread on here that it basically provides 12v to the positive on button press nothing more fancy than that.

Still does quickly enable the morning warm up and I think about it every winter on the first scraping of the cali's windows.

You can get Telestart kits on eBay for Climatronic equipped vehicles for £150, which isn’t too bad as it connects to the canbus system and operates the heater. Adverts specifically state not suitable for my auxiliary heater though. Only definitive option I’ve found for Climatic vehicles is from Car Systems at €250 plus postage. The extra £100 gets you some wiring and a relay for the heater fan.
I’d be happy with something that remotely switches on the auxiliary heater to pre-heat the engine if it cost less than £100 but struggling to work out exactly what is required as I can’t find a wiring diagram for the auxiliary heater. Adding a 5 pin relay for the cab heater fan isn’t too difficult.

MattBW · Dec 7, 2018

Ahh I don't have climatronic (I dont think) so I may need a similar item. I have AC and rear heater but I'm not quite sure what the difference is.

I have seen some of the setups that use an old nokia phoe and a custom pcb... or something like this...

https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-gms-controller-for-webasto/

Nolan · Dec 7, 2018

CAZ said:
We have a T5 Beach with the after market webasto heater and 3 zone ac. To be honest If we upgrade to a T6, I would just get one installed. Good luck in finding one took us 6mths.

View attachment 39542

I'm still considering this as we ordered our recently arrived Beach without the parking heater.

Does anyone have any opinion on the different outlet types? To me the seat outlet as pictured here looks fine, almost better than the factory type as it's blowing right into the cabin so won't be so affected by kids constantly coming in and out etc.

I live very near Bognor motors so tempted to drop in there at some point and see what they say cost wise.

WelshGas · Dec 7, 2018

MattBW said:
Ahh I don't have climatronic (I dont think) so I may need a similar item. I have AC and rear heater but I'm not quite sure what the difference is.

I have seen some of the setups that use an old nokia phoe and a custom pcb... or something like this...

https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-gms-controller-for-webasto/

Climatronic is the 3 Zone System. You can select different temperatures for Cabin L & R and Rear.

MattBW · Dec 7, 2018

I can't speak for the factory B pillar vents, but the ones in the seat don't get much hot air upstairs without some kind of pipe put in place.

That said the seat one can be made to look quite nice and I can direct it down or up as desired. By cutting a hole and embedding them in the plastic shroud you can get a nice finish. The part is pretty cheap too so I purchased a spare one to ensure a good fit when drilling out the hole.