Webasto Parking Heater

[cb1111]

Does anyone here on the forum have one of these installed?

For those of you who don't know about these things, they are far better than a remote start.

It is a small gasoline (or diesel) powered engine/heater that is plumbed into your cooling system. They are controlled either by a timer, by a fob (with up to a half mile range) or via an app on your phone.

The little motor fires up and warms up your coolant. Once warm, it turns on your defroster to clear your windows and warm up the interior.

Your car engine never starts, immobilizer stays on and the thing uses about a gallon of gas in 24 hours of operation.

I had these in two of my cars in Europe and they were fantastic. Back then there were no fobs or apps, but the timer was great - you set the time that you wanted the car to be warm and it would figure out when to start the thing based on the outside temps - and that was in the 80's.

Yes, they cost about double of what a remote start costs, but the gas savings, the environmental impact and the ability to run this in areas where there are "no idling" laws makes up for some of the cost. The reduced wear and tear on the engine - both for the long idling during remote start and later starting a cold engine makes up for the rest. With this device, your car is effectively "pre-warmed)

 

[LandCruiser]

I'm sure these are both illegal here in CA and known to cause cancer.

 

[cb1111]

I'm sure these are both illegal here in CA and known to cause cancer.

Isn't everything illegal in California? I've yet to see anything I've bought that doesn't have a prop 65 warning.

 

[GripT4R]

California sucks, it needs to break away from the US and sink.

 

[epjfsa]

If you are really in the DC area, it just doesn't get cold enough to benefit from this. I use my remote starter maybe two dozen times a year, and even then I could really go without it. Remote start has a whole other benefit which is operating the AC during the summer. I use that to keep the dogs cool if I have to run into a store quickly.

 

[IanB]

I have a Webasto in my diesel 80 Series Land Cruiser, and it's amazing! Idling a diesel just doesn't generate enough heat for it to ever warm up, I could cold start it at -15 or colder, and let it idle for an hour and the needle would never budge from full cold. The webasto I can trigger from my command start remote, or use the timer, let it run for 45 min and when I go out to the truck and start it, the needle come about half way to operating temp, it blows heat, it doesn't run the glow plugs which means there's enough power for the windows to roll down and up properly in the cold, it's great. I can also continue to run the heater while starting my drive home until it gets up to full temp, as getting out of the downtown after work is just more idling.

That being said, they are way more than 2X the cost of a command start, more like 4-6X depending on what you pay for a command start.

 

[cb1111]

If you are really in the DC area, it just doesn't get cold enough to benefit from this. I use my remote starter maybe two dozen times a year, and even then I could really go without it. Remote start has a whole other benefit which is operating the AC during the summer. I use that to keep the dogs cool if I have to run into a store quickly.

Good point about the AC, but DC gets plenty cold to use a pre-heater/remote start. I have to park my car out in the middle of nowhere at one of my sites and the last thing I want to do is stand out there and scrape windows.

I have a Webasto in my diesel 80 Series Land Cruiser, and it's amazing! Idling a diesel just doesn't generate enough heat for it to ever warm up, I could cold start it at -15 or colder, and let it idle for an hour and the needle would never budge from full cold. The webasto I can trigger from my command start remote, or use the timer, let it run for 45 min and when I go out to the truck and start it, the needle come about half way to operating temp, it blows heat, it doesn't run the glow plugs which means there's enough power for the windows to roll down and up properly in the cold, it's great. I can also continue to run the heater while starting my drive home until it gets up to full temp, as getting out of the downtown after work is just more idling.

That being said, they are way more than 2X the cost of a command start, more like 4-6X depending on what you pay for a command start.

Yes, I forgot that prices here in North America are far more - and nobody knows how to install them. A thousand Euros will get one installed in Germany. In Germany, you can even order one installed from the factory that has it integrated with your climate control controls from VW, Audi and MB.

 

[IanB]

Good point about the AC, but DC gets plenty cold to use a pre-heater/remote start. I have to park my car out in the middle of nowhere at one of my sites and the last thing I want to do is stand out there and scrape windows.

Yes, I forgot that prices here in North America are far more - and nobody knows how to install them. A thousand Euros will get one installed in Germany. In Germany, you can even order one installed from the factory that has it integrated with your climate control controls from VW, Audi and MB.

In North America they seem to be used mostly for highway tractors and heavy equipment. I bought mine from a semi service shop when they had a sale on, it still ran me about $1400CAN after shipping. I don't think I'd bother with it for a gas engine as the command start will warm the engine up just fine, and a good command start is around $350 installed (2-way) unless you've got any security systems that need to be worked around. You can idle away a lot of gas for the price difference.