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Portable Car Heater

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:50 pm
by footyste123
Has anyone tried using a portable car heater that plugs into the cigarette lighter (Front Heater Fan in Bongo is tempramental!!!!!). I tried one that was for a 12v DC cigarette lighter socket (15 amps or higher) and it blew my fuse. Any ideas?? Anyone know a make that does work in a Bongo??

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:58 pm
by missfixit70
Pop into Thorntons & get them to make you a chocolate fireguard, it'll be more use. 12v heaters just won't cut it due to the power needed. If you need it go for a mains heater, diesel heater such as eberspacher or webasto, or a propex heater, Plenty of recent threads.
Bongo heater works great when it works right, what's temperamental about it? FAQ here may help - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 43&t=28727 - it may be an indicator of more serious issues than an iffy heater, ie coolant system issues, get it checked out.

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:02 pm
by g8dhe
The cigar lighters are really only good for about 10Amps Max. and even then you will suffer at least 0.5 volt drop possibly 1.5volts so you may get only about 12 volts even with the alternator running - this means that you will have a 120Watt heater which really isn't a lot at all, personally I wouldn't even bother.
If the heater is intermittent then you may just find that its one of the connectors that needs pushing home - which of the two types do you have the fully electronic one or the manual one with sliders ?

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:06 pm
by mister munkey
footyste123 wrote:(Front Heater Fan in Bongo is tempramental!!!!!).
Meaning what exactly?

There may well be a cheap fix for that.

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 1:37 am
by The Great Pretender
missfixit70 wrote:Pop into Thorntons & get them to make you a chocolate fireguard, it'll be more use.

:lol: :lol: :lol: Words of wisdom. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:04 pm
by Bogmonster40
This happened to me yesterday - Had one of these little heaters given to me, and as it was extremely cold I thought why not give it a go. After about 30 seconds I thought what a load of garbage, the damn thing did not work.
Then I had to pop up to aberdare so needed my satnav - which is when I noticed my cigarette lighter was not working !!

Grrrrr - spent the next hour and 40 mins trying to find somewhere in the south wales valleys......

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:51 pm
by perros huevos
bolt on bits do a 12v 240w one but you would need the engine running as it will draw about 20amp they do come in handy for the old air cooled vw's that have had the heat exchangers blanked off
chris

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:03 pm
by dandywarhol
You'd be warmer setting fire to your farts

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:17 pm
by perros huevos

Re: Portable Car Heater

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:54 am
by teenmal
dandywarhol wrote:You'd be warmer setting fire to your farts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bB5xL577r4