Heat for Feet

It's winter again. Every year about this time I get a raft of
messages asking what they can do about the poor heating in their bug
or bus.

Most don't like what I have to say :-)

The Volkswagen uses a single-pass heater. That is, air is drawn over
the heat-exchangers, ducted into the vehicle's interior, then
discarded. The 'discarded' is one of the Vast Mysteries of VW
ownership. (Well, maybe only Half Vast :-) 'Diiscardedd means you
need to provide an OUTLET for the heated air. Crack a window and you
may be surprised at the volume of heated air coming from the vents.

The part people don't like to hear is that, after working my way
though their list of symptoms, I have to tell about HALF of them that
they either don't have stock heat-exchangers, or they don't have a
stock blower housing.

The truth is, the VW has a pretty good heater, effective down to about
30 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. Any colder than that, you may
want to consider a gasoline heater, another bit of unwelcome news.

But for a majority of VW owners, simply tuning up their heater can
have remarkable results. How do you 'tune-up' your heater? You can
start by making sure all of the tin-ware is in place and that you
have a functioning thermostat and heater flaps. (More groans, along
with half-baked arguments about why they DON'T need a thermostat.
You need it.)

Some people have installed 'Recirculating' heaters. That's where
they've installed a bilge blower -- or similar air-mover -- to take
the air from the cabin and pass it back through the heat exchangers.
Each pass adds a bit more heat to the air until it gets hot enough to
melt plastic.. and bilge blowers :-)

So why didn't Volkswagen opt for a recirculating heater system?
Because of the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. With a
single-pass system the risk is very low but with a re-circuating
system a bad connection to the heat exchangers can kill you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cold weather always produces the same questions -- which have been
answered many times by myself and others. Most seem determined to
'prove' their car has a bad heating system, or want some miraculous
cure for a rusted-out heat-exchanger. Not gonna happen. Your bug or
bus plays strictly by the rules, one of which is that you've got
plenty of waste-heat. The trick is to provide the required pressure
differential and the necessary ducts to get that heat where it's
needed.

Cold toes in your bus? Odds are, someone has removed the lower belly
tin. That guarantees you'll never see much heat at your defrosters on
your feet. WITH the lower belly tin in place, the heated air is
dumped into the cabin... where it looks for an exit. Crack the wind-
wing and let the heat flow.

Good engineering, all the way through the system.

-Bob Hoover

On Nov 22, 10:42�pm, Bob Hoover > wrote:
> It's winter again. �Every year about this time I get a raft of
> messages asking what they can do about the poor heating in their bug
> or bus.
>
> Most don't like what I have to say :-)
>
> The Volkswagen uses a single-pass heater. �That is, air is drawn over
> the heat-exchangers, ducted into the vehicle's interior, then
> discarded. �The 'discarded' is one of the Vast Mysteries of VW
> ownership. �(Well, maybe only Half Vast :-) �'Diiscardedd means you
> need to provide an OUTLET for the heated air. �Crack a window �and you
> may be surprised at the volume of heated air coming from the vents.
>
> The part people don't like to hear is that, after working my way
> though their list of symptoms, I have to tell about HALF of them that
> they either don't have stock heat-exchangers, or they don't have a
> stock blower housing.
>
> The truth is, the VW has a pretty good heater, effective down to about
> 30 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. �Any colder than that, you may
> want to consider a gasoline heater, another bit of unwelcome news.
>
> But for a majority of VW owners, simply tuning up their heater can
> have remarkable results. � How do you 'tune-up' your heater? �You can
> start by making sure all of �the tin-ware is in place and that you
> have a functioning thermostat and heater flaps. �(More groans, along
> with half-baked arguments about why they DON'T need �a thermostat..
> You need it.)
>
> Some people have installed 'Recirculating' heaters. That's where
> they've installed a bilge blower -- or similar air-mover -- to take
> the air from the cabin and pass it back through the heat exchangers.
> Each pass adds a bit more heat to the air until it gets hot enough to
> melt plastic.. and bilge blowers :-)
>
> So why didn't Volkswagen opt for a recirculating heater system?
> Because of the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. �With a
> single-pass system the risk is very low but with a re-circuating
> system a bad connection to the heat exchangers can kill you.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------�-----
>
> Cold weather always produces the same questions -- which have been
> answered many times by myself and others. �Most seem determined to
> 'prove' their car has a bad heating system, or want some miraculous
> cure for a rusted-out heat-exchanger. �Not gonna happen. �Your bug or
> bus plays strictly by the rules, one of which is that you've got
> plenty of waste-heat. �The trick is to provide the required pressure
> differential and the necessary ducts to get that heat where it's
> needed.
>
> Cold toes in your bus? �Odds are, someone has removed the lower belly
> tin. �That guarantees you'll never see much heat at your defrosters on
> your feet. �WITH the lower belly tin in place, the heated air is
> dumped into the cabin... where it looks for an exit. �Crack the wind-
> wing and let the heat flow.
>
> Good engineering, all the way through the system.
>
> -Bob Hoover

Hey Bob I find about .o1% of the beetles I work on here in the south
that still have the flaps and termostat, but I can still get 150* at
the foot for people. I do tell them to open their pop outs and they
get better heat ( wonder why it doesn't bother me here that people in
my fourm here think I'm a little off?) I've on occation taken the tin
that wraps around rusted out mufflers and installed them on the "Cool"
aftermarket muffers.

And one of the last buses I had to clean a mouse house out the center
tuben which I find in alot of these that have sat for any amount of
time.

> wrote in message
...
> Hey Bob I find about .o1% of the beetles I work on here in the south
>that still have the flaps and termostat, but I can still get 150* at
>the foot for people.

I get 140-160F at the defroster vents in my ghia(typically 30F higher at the
footwell)... I have all the proper cooling and heating components installed
and I end up pushing the lever way down after the first few miles even in
zero degree weather...

> I get 140-160F at the defroster vents in my ghia(typically 30F higher at the
> footwell)... I have all the proper cooling and heating components installed
> and I end up pushing the lever way down after the first few miles even in
> zero degree weather...

I have the stock heating system with thermo and flaps on my '73
Beetle.
I hardly ever drive more than 3 miles.
The oil temp guage will say 120 F, so 120 + 40 degrees for the gauge
being off = 160 F right?
Anyway, my point is by the time I get to my destination there is just
a little heat coming out.
I guess I will have to live with it.
At last it doesn't get that cold where I live anymore.

> *At last it doesn't get that cold where I live anymore.

Correction this should read,
"At least it doesn't get that cold where I live anymore."

wrote:
>> I get 140-160F at the defroster vents in my ghia(typically 30F higher at the
>> footwell)... I have all the proper cooling and heating components installed
>> and I end up pushing the lever way down after the first few miles even in
>> zero degree weather...
>
> I have the stock heating system with thermo and flaps on my '73
> Beetle.
> I hardly ever drive more than 3 miles.
> The oil temp guage will say 120 F, so 120 + 40 degrees for the gauge
> being off = 160 F right?
> Anyway, my point is by the time I get to my destination there is just
> a little heat coming out.
> I guess I will have to live with it.
> At last it doesn't get that cold where I live anymore.

You could try the fix posted here some years ago. Disconnect the heat
duct tube where the come inside the car under the back seat and put on
new tubes that run all the way under the front seats. The problem is by
the time the heat gets through all the cold steel of the heat channels,
there's no heat left. I did this on my bug and the difference was
amazing.

Tony

"Anthony W" > wrote in message
...
> You could try the fix posted here some years ago. Disconnect the heat
> duct tube where the come inside the car under the back seat and put on new
> tubes that run all the way under the front seats. The problem is by the
> time the heat gets through all the cold steel of the heat channels,
> there's no heat left. I did this on my bug and the difference was
> amazing.
>
> Tony

I get too much heat in the ghia, and rarely run with the lever more than a
quarter of the way up it's travel... 140-160 at the defroster vents is as
hot as the heater in my watercooled cars...

On Nov 24, 12:17�pm, "Joey Tribiani" > wrote:
> "Anthony W" > wrote in message
>
> ...
> �> You could try the fix posted here some years ago. �Disconnect the heat
>
> > duct tube where the come inside the car under the back seat and put on new
> > tubes that run all the way under the front seats. �The problem is by the
> > time the heat gets through all the cold steel of the heat channels,
> > there's no heat left. �I did this on my bug and the difference was
> > amazing.
>
> > Tony
>
> I get too much heat in the ghia, and rarely run with the lever more than a
> quarter of the way up it's travel... 140-160 at the defroster vents is as
> hot as the heater in my watercooled cars...

LOL I some times forget to warn people about resting the foot to close
to the floor vent and have to laugh my ass off as they fight to get
there right shoe off to cool their foot )

On Nov 24, 4:31 pm, " > wrote:
> On Nov 24, 12:17 pm, "Joey Tribiani" > wrote:
>
>
>
> > "Anthony W" > wrote in message
>
> ...
> > > You could try the fix posted here some years ago. Disconnect the heat
>
> > > duct tube where the come inside the car under the back seat and put on new
> > > tubes that run all the way under the front seats. The problem is by the
> > > time the heat gets through all the cold steel of the heat channels,
> > > there's no heat left. I did this on my bug and the difference was
> > > amazing.
>
> > > Tony
>
> > I get too much heat in the ghia, and rarely run with the lever more than a
> > quarter of the way up it's travel... 140-160 at the defroster vents is as
> > hot as the heater in my watercooled cars...
>
> LOL I some times forget to warn people about resting the foot to close
> to the floor vent and have to laugh my ass off as they fight to get
> there right shoe off to cool their foot )

Drugs makes things seem a lot funnier than they really are.

> You could try the fix posted here some years ago. *Disconnect the heat
> duct tube where the come inside the car under the back seat and put on
> new tubes that run all the way under the front seats. *

I saw that post.
I have done that.

The problem is by
> the time the heat gets through all the cold steel of the heat channels,
> there's no heat left. *I did this on my bug and the difference was
> amazing.
>
> Tony

I think my prob. is that I do not drive far enough for the heater
boxes to start working.

Hmmmmmm. About ten years ago, I replaced my stock heater boxes with
the ceramic fins inside with Danish Dansk made stock heater boxes with
metal fins inside.

Gym saunas have lava rocks.
Maybe if I put some small lava rocks in the heater boxes they would
give off more heat. They might do the same job as the ceramic fins in
the original heater boxes.
Or they might get too hot and cause a fire.
any ideas?
TIA!