California Beach Heaters

[Will 1]

I have a Beach and I use a small heater called a Kampa Diddy whilst on hook up, which is excellent, and when not on hook up I use the Webasto diesel heater, works for me !

 

[soulstyledevon]

I have a Beach and I use a small heater called a Kampa Diddy whilst on hook up, which is excellent, and when not on hook up I use the Webasto diesel heater, works for me !

Don't see the point of carrying an additional heater if you have a Webasto...???

 

[Hotel California]

Don't see the point of carrying an additional heater if you have a Webasto...???

I do , when on hook-up .
No diesel smells
Less ticking noise at night

The two electric things i carry is a water boiler and a smal heater....
...and a hairdyer NOT for me but her!

 

[Amarillo]

Or am I missing something here?

I have had a look at the September 2015 price list, which was the one I used to spec my van and it has six heater options:
#1 £1500 Programmable air parking heater
#2 £1500 Programmable air parking heater - auxiliary heater
#3 £1740 Programmable air parking heater with radio remote control
#4 £1740 Programmable air parking heater with radio remote control and auxiliary heater (coolant)
#5 £840 Water auxiliary heater with programmable parking heater
#6 £1056 Water heater with programmable parking heater function with radio remote control

 

[californiakid]

And, to make it even more complicated, one is an ebersprächer and the other is a webasto.
If the air heater is installed, no control over the water heated is possible. The cooling liquid heater is only there to help the engine get to operating temperatures quicker.
But, I think it would be a good idea to heat the engine on cold days.

When i scroll through the menus on my overhead display auxiliary is on the menu separate from the parking heater as listed in a later posting by the Crispin family. These options may only be on a T5 Beach with European specification which mine lists as having.

 

[Will 1]

Don't see the point of carrying an additional heater if you have a Webasto...???

Well it's about the size of a shoebox, but slimmer, so who cares, it doesn't take up any room at all , and it's there shouldI need it

 

[PhilSut1]

I bought my California Beach 18 months ago with the auxiliary heater and haven't used it yet! That said, I've not yet camped in my Beach outside of the months of May to September. Which leads to a couple of questions, that I'm hoping some of you can advise on...

1. Probably a naive question, I know, but is it safe to leave the heater on all night? Is there any risk of carbon monoxide fumes from the diesel?
2. I like the idea of taking my Beach to the alps for a cheap ski holiday but I'm a bit scared it could turn into a cold, damp, miserable experience especially as there would be 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 6 and 8) in the van. Has anyone done this (especially with kids)? Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Phil

 

[Hotel California]

@PhilSut1
The heater can stay on without any problem , beware it can get pretty hot on the high setting
There are other treads on wintertrips and staying near skistations with tips on how to survive freezing themps.

 

[soulstyledevon]

We use our heater in summer & winter. Sometimes required in summer depending on what the weather is doing.

We tend to use before we go to bed or sitting around in the evening, then again first thing in the morning. Very rare it's needed at night. Not once your under blankets and in the spooning position

 

[soulstyledevon]

I bought my California Beach 18 months ago with the auxiliary heater and haven't used it yet! That said, I've not yet camped in my Beach outside of the months of May to September. Which leads to a couple of questions, that I'm hoping some of you can advise on...

1. Probably a naive question, I know, but is it safe to leave the heater on all night? Is there any risk of carbon monoxide fumes from the diesel?
2. I like the idea of taking my Beach to the alps for a cheap ski holiday but I'm a bit scared it could turn into a cold, damp, miserable experience especially as there would be 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 6 and 8) in the van. Has anyone done this (especially with kids)? Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Phil

Don't think I could do a ski holiday in the Cali with 4 people. That's a bit to extreme.
After a day on the slopes, I want to relax, be warm and enjoy some good food and beer.
Would do perhaps 2 people for a few nights. Anymore bodies or and longer than 3 nights and I think I would want some extra home comforts

 

[kave]

When i scroll through the menus on my overhead display auxiliary is on the menu separate from the parking heater as listed in a later posting by the Crispin family. These options may only be on a T5 Beach with European specification which mine lists as having.

Strange, is this actually in the manual? I have an austrian calif with the most expensive version of heater and two decals in the car door, one for the webasto and one for the ebersprächer and still I have the exact same as the uk manual for the t5:
http://www.1946vw.co.uk/vwbooks/vw_info/T5_pdfs/heater_control.pdf

 

[larrylamb]

I do , when on hook-up .
No diesel smells
Less ticking noise at night

Agree with that especially if you have an awning. I find the heater great but noisy at night so use a mini rad if it is cold.

 

[Alibee]

Don't think I could do a ski holiday in the Cali with 4 people. That's a bit to extreme.
After a day on the slopes, I want to relax, be warm and enjoy some good food and beer.
Would do perhaps 2 people for a few nights. Anymore bodies or and longer than 3 nights and I think I would want some extra home comforts

With you 100%. Fine for a solo trip, or a couple of you for 2-3 days max, but a week with a family would be bonkers. Didn't stop me thinking about it before booking our next trip last week though!

What would be fantastic is if there were campsites in the alps with very large, luxury communal areas, showers, board/boot lockers, etc, but no bedrooms or catering. We could turn up, ski, lounge in the communal areas in the evenings and then use the Cali as a bedroom. Could probably do a week with the kids without issue. The reality though is that the bedrooms are the cheap bit to develop & maintain, it's everything else that costs the money, so there's little incentive to develop this sort of model.

 

[WelshGas]

I bought my California Beach 18 months ago with the auxiliary heater and haven't used it yet! That said, I've not yet camped in my Beach outside of the months of May to September. Which leads to a couple of questions, that I'm hoping some of you can advise on...

1. Probably a naive question, I know, but is it safe to leave the heater on all night? Is there any risk of carbon monoxide fumes from the diesel?
2. I like the idea of taking my Beach to the alps for a cheap ski holiday but I'm a bit scared it could turn into a cold, damp, miserable experience especially as there would be 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 6 and 8) in the van. Has anyone done this (especially with kids)? Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Phil

I've had my heater on for 7 days straight just varying the temperature as and when. Normally on 1 or 2 overnight.
A full blown Diesel car engine produces very littl Carbon Monoxide CO. The Diesel heater fitted to the California is very frugal with Diesel and produces so little CO it is barely measurable. The heater uses a heat exchanger to heat the internal air which is pushed through the exchanger by the fan. Combustion products are NOT pumped into the vehicle. On first start up their might be a diesel smell outside until the unit is upto temperature.
You should run the heater for an hour every month or so or it may not fire up when you do need it. Keeps the cobwebs down.

 

[Star01]

I bought my California Beach 18 months ago with the auxiliary heater and haven't used it yet! That said, I've not yet camped in my Beach outside of the months of May to September. Which leads to a couple of questions, that I'm hoping some of you can advise on...

1. Probably a naive question, I know, but is it safe to leave the heater on all night? Is there any risk of carbon monoxide fumes from the diesel?
2. I like the idea of taking my Beach to the alps for a cheap ski holiday but I'm a bit scared it could turn into a cold, damp, miserable experience especially as there would be 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 6 and 8) in the van. Has anyone done this (especially with kids)? Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Phil

Big respect for even considering going skiing in a California. We've been many times with our two children at the same ages as yours (slightly older now) but never in a California. Even some of the small apartments in some ski resorts can feel tight with children let alone coming back to the confines of a California. At the end of a day on the slopes, with wet clothes, hungry tired children...trying to live in such a small space would be too difficult for us. The space would be more confined than normal aswell due to all the clothing required for different conditions (especially with the ages of your children) aswell despite being able to leave all ur equipment in the resort lockers etc. Good luck though. Full of admiration if u have a go. Perhaps try a short ski break first....

 

[Star01]

With you 100%. Fine for a solo trip, or a couple of you for 2-3 days max, but a week with a family would be bonkers. Didn't stop me thinking about it before booking our next trip last week though!

What would be fantastic is if there were campsites in the alps with very large, luxury communal areas, showers, board/boot lockers, etc, but no bedrooms or catering. We could turn up, ski, lounge in the communal areas in the evenings and then use the Cali as a bedroom. Could probably do a week with the kids without issue. The reality though is that the bedrooms are the cheap bit to develop & maintain, it's everything else that costs the money, so there's little incentive to develop this sort of model.

What a great idea.....now that would be fab! If I win next week's Euro lottery.....

 

[californiakid]

Strange, is this actually in the manual? I have an austrian calif with the most expensive version of heater and two decals in the car door, one for the webasto and one for the ebersprächer and still I have the exact same as the uk manual for the t5:
http://www.1946vw.co.uk/vwbooks/vw_info/T5_pdfs/heater_control.pdf

It clearly states under controls that you can switch between auxiliary heater & auxiliary coolant heaters in your PDF file. Actually doing so on the display when you have settings in memory is another matter. The programmer is not the easiest to set so I just leave it set on auxiliary parking heater. The difference with my manual is these instructions are on pages 321,322. Edition 11 2014. Hope this helps.

 

[kave]

You can have:
an aux air heater
an aux coolant heater.
You might have booth, in that case you can control only the air heater.
The manual wont say you can swith between them.
The only "switching" that can be done is if you have the aux coolant heater only, then you can swith between ventilation or heating.

I just leave it set on aux parking heater"

Both are aux park heaters. One is air, one is coolant.

 

[Amarillo]

When I ordered my Beach I selected #2 above. If #3 offers more for the same price I'm wondering now why I didn't select that instead

Or am I missing something here?

I went to the dealer today and checked my order. What has been printed off on my sheet as "Programmable air parking heater; with radio remote control (7VM)" has been ordered as "Parking heater with radio remote control plus auxiliary heater (7VF)" i.e. #3 has been ordered, not #2.

 

[kave]

I think option 2 is new, I didnt specify two heaters but only air but got both.
A nice thing with the air heater is that it can be used while driving. A coolant heater usually shuts off heat to the cabin when engine is started. It reminds to be seen if air heater can defrost windows or if I need som hacking to enable the coolant heater to remote start instead.

 

[snowy55]

I thought the coolant heater that comes on automatically at 5c, or below, was part of the emissions system to decrease the warm up time for the engine and was a standard fitment.

I may be totally wrong though

 

[VW Cali]

And I still have no idea what heater I got.

I know it had the auxiliary heater and we have an extra remote for it but that's it.

 

[Emil Silenhag]

And I still have no idea what heater I got.

I know it had the auxiliary heater and we have an extra remote for it but that's it.

Check the sticker in the drivers door.
My says:
ThermoTop C (engine/driving heater)
Air top 3500 ST (Auxiliary heater)

 

[kave]

I thought the coolant heater that comes on automatically at 5c, or below, was part of the emissions system to decrease the warm up time for the engine and was a standard fitment.

I may be totally wrong though

True, and help engine heat the cabin while engine is running. What I like is to be able to preheat engine and cabin using that heater.

 

[VW Cali]

This is useful information, and for the first time I feel that I am beginning to understand the 5 options. Please correct me if I am wrong.

**Edits in italics**

#1 Programmable parking heater, air auxiliary heater - £1524
Will keep the sleeping areas warm and snug all night long, but if you are too warm, or too cold, you will have to get up and fiddle about with the controls to turn the heating up/down/on/off.

#2 Programmable parking heater, air with radio remote control - £1764
Will keep the sleeping areas warm and snug all night long, and can be adjusted from the comfort of your own bed so long as you have remembered to bring the control to bed with you.

#3 Programmable parking heater, air with radio remote control and auxiliary heater (coolant) - £1764
Will keep the sleeping areas warm and snug all night long, and can be adjusted from the comfort of your own bed so long as you have remembered to bring the control to bed with you. In addition, on a cold frosty morning at home, you can preheat your engine coolant while you are eating your cornflakes in the comfort of your bedroom slippers. The engine coolant will be ready for you in no more than 30 minutes and the driving heater will work immediately.

#4 Programmable parking heater, water auxiliary heater - £816
On a cold frosty morning at home, you can preheat your van while you are eating your cornflakes but will have to pull on your boots to go outside and turn the thing on. The engine coolant will be ready for you in no more than 30 minutes and the driving heater will work immediately.

#5 Programmable parking heater, water heater with radio remote control - £1074
On a cold frosty morning at home, you can preheat your van while you are eating your cornflakes in the comfort of your bedroom slippers. The engine coolant will be ready for you in no more than 30 minutes and the driving heater will work immediately.

So useful!

I have now checked my list of options and saw I have paid for:

Programmable parking heater with radio control and Auxiliary....

At GBP 1,450 plus VAT.

Looks closest to Option 3. Now to figure out how it works.