Pamperme

Let this be the most popular thread ever. Leave a comment if u think manufactures need to start equipping cars with instant heat. Toasters have been doing this for years and u mean to tell me that they can design cars that can do this too?????? I'm tired of freezing my butt off while driving.

Pamperme

Let this be the most popular thread ever. Leave a comment if u think manufactures need to start equipping cars with instant heat. Toasters have been doing this for years and u mean to tell me that they can design cars that can do this too?????? I'm tired of freezing my butt off while driving.

mmarshall

Some electric cars and hybrids already use an electric heat-pump system for climate-control, so you don't have to wait for the coolant to warm up in the engine block and then circulate through the heater-core. The heat pump (with electric grid back-up) starts providing heat quicker....but, of course, can reduce cruising-range on an all-electric car by drawing more battery current.

FrankReynoldsCPA

Ford offers this on their diesel pickups, as diesels take a long time to warm up.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using IB AutoGroup

ABC

i have always wondered why most cars don't have the "instant" heat elements built in so you get heat right away... and then turn off when the engine is warmed up.

TangoRed

As others have said, electric and diesel cars from numerous makes have had this for a while.

CdeFabio

I thought the LX had this years ago. I remember reading something about a ceramic heater core that provided near instant heat. Does anyone else recall something about this?

I just found an article about the 2008 LX570 from the press release: "For extreme cold situations, the LX 570 is equipped with an auxiliary positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heater. The PTC heater consists of a PTC ceramic element, aluminum fin, and brass plate. When current is applied to the PTC element, it generates heat that instantly warms the air passing through the unit"

Wish this was in all Lexus models...

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

That's a fancy name for household ceramic heater

I'd love to have this feature. Since I live only 3-4 miles away from work, my car doesn't warm up enough. I have to wear my heated jacket to keep warm.

yowps3

Can those heat coils heat up from the 12V power?

FishBike

The current GS also has that PTC heater when you get the cold weather package or equivalent (e.g. all Canadian models have it). It's not very powerful (a few hundred watts) but it does start to take the chill off the air right away, and boosts the output of the heater core until the engine is fully warmed up.

The specs for the heater core that uses engine coolant say it cranks out about 6,000 watts, so your 12V electrical system would need to provide about 500 amps to run something equivalent to that. Yikes. However in a hybrid or electric, where you have a much more powerful and higher voltage electrical system anyway, it's much more practical to do that.

UDel

You would think by now they would have systems that work better then what we have now. Turn even a cheaper electric space heater on and heat is instant no matter how cold a room is, why can't cars use the same technology. at least for the first 5 or 10 minutes until the regular heating system starts blowing warm air. Use the same technology for cup holders to heat drinks. Only other thing to do is get a power inverter for your car and plug a little space heater right into it.

While they are at it why don't they offer a simple tuner/channel selector for rear seat passengers and a headphone jack/bluetooth so they can listen to whatever they want separate from what the driver is listening to, even many cars with rear seat controls don't offer a way for passengers to listen to something separately on headphones then the driver.

What about lower priced seat massagers that use vibrations from built in subwoofers at hard to hear frequencies.

Also how about technology that partly rolls windows down/opens sunroof for a certain amount of time while the driver is out of the car to keep the car interior cooler and rolls them up when sensors detect rain or someone without a key near the car.

geko29

Yup, my 335d has an electric heater as well. One of the main reasons I didn't bother having a remote starter installed. Today, when we were out of degrees, the coolant barely made it to 165F on my 2 hr commute home.

ABC

Heated seats fire up relatively quickly.

FrankReynoldsCPA

The one in the Super Duty is 1500 watts. I believe it requires an alternator upgrade option(you can choose between a single high output alternator(200a) or dual alts(357a)). Needless to say, the system can handle it.

My friend has it in his 11 F250 and says it works well.

Toys4RJill

What a great thread!