Quartz heater

Has anyone installed a quartz heater in their car? A company called "DC Thermal" makes one that looks tempting.

Huh. I don't think I've ever seen one of those before!

The smallest one is $200., runs on 12 volts and it looks like it could mount under the dash easily.

How many btu's do they claim it puts out?
In the past any 12v heater performed poorly....hey buy this and let us know how it does but save the receipt :~)

How many amps does it pull?

The smallest 12volt pulls 30 amps, 360 Watts and has max output of 1764 BTUs. The biggest 12 volt one pulls 50 amps, 600 watts and 2720 Btu's. Can our batteries handle this load?

here is the company website.
http://dcthermal.com/paypal1.htm

Not surprisingly, these heaters pull a substantial load at 12V. Prior to purchase, a buyer would want to check alternator outuput, then factor in cost of wiring, relays, heater, and an alternator upgrade if necessary. If real heat is important, and a gas headter is not feasible, these other factors can be overcome.

Jody Henson, another "Speedstahguy" in the Beaufort car club, installed something similar to this in his car. He has an older VS with a 1776 and nothing special about the build, meaning that his alternator is whatever VS installed back in the late 80's - early 90's. His heater works well enough to keep his wife, a GRIT (girl raised in the South) happy when it's in the 40's outside and they have the top up and windows in. Of course, she augments the heater with a car blanket, but she's a GRIT after all.......

I'd say that's pretty good.

The club (or me, for that matter), has never had to charge out and rescue him/them for a dead battery when using the heater.

gn

The average alternator only supplies 55 amps, although you can get more powerful units. A 30 amp heater doesn't seem to leave a lot for the other systems in the car to use.

The 12 Volt DC heater rated at 40 Amps, 2352 Watts and 2352 BTU's. model S12-4000 at $210.00. With the below misc items the total would be in a bit over $400.
I ran the numbers and it would be functional, (if, it actually has the rated btu's) I'm mean were not cooking burgers but would take a good chill out of the drivers area the installer could get away with an inexpensive Ford starter reply, utilize battery cables as power in leads and of course a higher amp alternator would be required. I would also add a heavy duty battery to complete the pkg..........."Your thoughts?"

40 amps wouldn't need feed wires any bigger than 10 gauge. OK, so maybe 8 gauge if you're worried, but battery cables? (Like 4 "0"?) I don't think so. The Ford starter solenoid to switch it would work, but that's overkill, too - a 40-50 amp relay would be fine. Mostly it's not maintaining the current after the circuit is closed, it's rapidly closing/opening the circuit that would kill the relay.

I honestly don't think there would be a problem with a 55 amp alternator/generator.

Why?

Because at the outside temps when this would be needed, the trip duration would be short and the battery would make up the difference. It would still have enough sauce left to start the engine unless you were traveling for a couple of hours or more at a whack.

Try it and let us know how it works.

Gordon
The Speedstah guy from Beaufort

Oh, and make sure that whatever relay you use automatically turns the thing "OFF" when the ignition is turned off. That way you can't walk away from the car with the heater on - That would SURELY kill your battery in an hour or less.

You will need some pretty stout heat there in MD. I went the route of the Espar gas heater and am 100% satisfied.

Buying CMC project #27 this week from NY, I'll be the ginny pig, buy one of these and see if and how it works. ~Alan

Alan
I emailed DC Thermal about their heaters and their appropriateness for our cars and he sent me the following response:

Sure. You have plenty of amperage to run an S12-3000 30 amp and probably could get away with an S12-4000 40 amp as well. We are about two weeks away from production of a vented version that you can use up to 4 vents including a defrost if that interests you?

Rob

Rob, I ordered the 40 amp unit on line earlier today, I'll call them in the am and see if I can get the vented version as I'm in no real hurry.

I got the heater today, hot wired it to a battery charger, set it to 40 amps and it works decent. You're not going to bake Toll House cookies with it but I believe it will be sufficient to warm the car up.
It has a two speed fan switch and now mfg'd in a black finish with stainless front grill, nice looking heater... a great improvment over those 12v ceramic cigarette lighter plug in types. I would rate this similar to heat that would come out of one side of a good working heater box.

"GRIT (girl raised in the South)"
I've heard of "Grits", but I have never actually ate one.....
sounds like I have been missing out on something...

Update I have an 50-60 amp alternator on the car, so went with the 40 amp unit. As I mentioned the 2 speed fan forced heat that it generates is decent, then I discovered that only 2 of the 3 quartz elements was working, so back it goes for a replacement. That should produce yet another 1/3 heat output .... I like what a I see so far, stay tuned for details.

Actually it would be 50% more than you felt with 2 elements.

Good catch, Mike. Unlike George Costanza, you may really be an architect.

Mike, I truely believe your post but do tell me how you arrived at that so I can learn something today.. ~Alan

Suppose each element is good for 10 heat units.

Two elements would be good for 10 + 10 = 20 heat units total for 2.

50% of 20 is 10 which is the same as the third element.

Now if all 3 elements were working that would total 30 heat units.

If you lost one of the 3 you would lose 10 units which in this case would be 1/3 of your heat.

I experience something like this with the stock market. If I loose half my money I have to make 100% on what is left to get back to my original position.

Thanks Mike !

Michael.
How do you get back to your original position if you loose all of your money in the stock market?

Q. How do you get back to your original position if you loose all of your money in the stock market.

A. The share value being at zero technically does not mean you don't own the share & when the share value goes back up to whatever price, then it again has value. For example: If you have one share worth one dollar and it losses 50% of its value your left with one share worth 50 cents. I think Mike was eluding to the fact that you need to make 100% back to have one share worth one dollar again (which is correct).

Jim, I did not know that 3/4 thinggy neither. Thanks:)

Ooooh, after reading the last four posts, I think blood just shot out of my ears.

~WB

Ummmm. Your answer is correct, but it was a tongue in cheek question. Need that sarcastic key on our keyboards.

Vince, we need a Tounge an Cheek Icon:-)Keep it PG-13

How about a little lower

Bravo!

OK. I just ordered the smallest version of their heater, SA-12-3000. This is the 30amp, 360 watt model. The BTU rating has changed from some of the previous posts, it is now rated at 6012 BTUs. They say the reason for the increase in BTUs is that they are using a newer heat element. Total cost with 16 feet of 8 gauge wire with connectors is around $215. This one is going in the Yellow Cab.
Troy

Please let us know how that works, Troy.

CRAP! I forgot to check out Alan's heater last week!

~WB

Say what? ...I beg your pardon ?

Tested it but it's back in the box, waiting until I move the custom IM into the shop this winter for a few changes...you're welcome to stop down check it out and consume some left over PR beers.

I ended up installing the heater in a CMC I've just sold.
Simple one hour installation, ran their ground to chassis ground and ran a #6 wire to battery positive. The heater is bolted in the upper passenger foot well.

Well, how did it work and what did it look like installed?

Alan.
How did you deal with the switch location issue? If you put it on the passenger side, that would put the switch quite a ways away from the driver.