California T7 – Continuous Heating Issues

[kaifetzer]

California T7 – Continuous Heating & Start Issues
Hi everyone,
I’m having some problems with the continuous heating mode:
Tank is full
Hooked up to shore power
Batteries fully charged
Runtime limit from instant heating excluded — not used

Still, the heater sometimes doesn’t start at all — for example, in the afternoon it won’t start, but this morning it did. Could it be because the interior is simply too warm?

It’s honestly frustrating that there’s no thermostat to simply set a temperature and let it regulate automatically — that’s how it works in the Mercedes Marco Polo. ‍

My questions:

• For me, noticeable warm air only comes from level 10.
  Do you already feel a difference from level 5?
• In continuous mode, can the heater really run all night, or does it still switch off automatically after 180 minutes?
• I honestly assumed that if I set it to the maximum level 10, it would always start — after all, it should be my decision how warm I want it to be inside the car.

I’m not happy about it either at the moment.
Has anyone experienced something similar?

 

[sidepod]

It’s truly staggering just how complicated VW have managed to make the on or off function of the simplest heater in the world.
If it wasn’t so annoying I’d actually give them credit for their ingenuity.

Is there a German phrase for “fixing a problem that doesn’t exist “?

If we keep the van much longer I intend to disconnect the heater form the van and simply fit the Eberspacher controller. At least then the heater will do what I want when I want it to.

 

[kaifetzer]

It’s truly staggering just how complicated VW have managed to make the on or off function of the simplest heater in the world.
If it wasn’t so annoying I’d actually give them credit for their ingenuity.

Is there a German phrase for “fixing a problem that doesn’t exist “?

If we keep the van much longer I intend to disconnect the heater form the van and simply fit the Eberspacher controller. At least then the heater will do what I want when I want it to.

I didn’t even know that was possible! Have you already looked into it in more detail?


I’d definitely be interested in that as well.


How would you control the heater then – would it work via a remote control?


And do you happen to know what the costs for such a setup might be?

 

[WelshGas]

It’s truly staggering just how complicated VW have managed to make the on or off function of the simplest heater in the world.
If it wasn’t so annoying I’d actually give them credit for their ingenuity.

Is there a German phrase for “fixing a problem that doesn’t exist “?

If we keep the van much longer I intend to disconnect the heater form the van and simply fit the Eberspacher controller. At least then the heater will do what I want when I want it to.

Not unless you flash the Eberspacher hardware as VW use a different software to Eberspacher.

 

[Hawthorn37]

California T7 – Continuous Heating & Start Issues
Hi everyone,
I’m having some problems with the continuous heating mode:
Tank is full
Hooked up to shore power
Batteries fully charged
Runtime limit from instant heating excluded — not used

Still, the heater sometimes doesn’t start at all — for example, in the afternoon it won’t start, but this morning it did. Could it be because the interior is simply too warm?

It’s honestly frustrating that there’s no thermostat to simply set a temperature and let it regulate automatically — that’s how it works in the Mercedes Marco Polo. ‍

My questions:

• For me, noticeable warm air only comes from level 10.
  Do you already feel a difference from level 5?
• In continuous mode, can the heater really run all night, or does it still switch off automatically after 180 minutes?
• I honestly assumed that if I set it to the maximum level 10, it would always start — after all, it should be my decision how warm I want it to be inside the car.

I’m not happy about it either at the moment.
Has anyone experienced something similar?

We have a 6.1 but I guess the heater hasn’t changed much. The heater does work off a thermostat. When the cabin “set temperature” is reached then the unit turns off/ goes into stand by.
The Heat Continuously mode doesn’t have a max run time. We only use Heat Immediately first thing in the morning when it’s too cold to get out of bed, or in the morning at home, or returning to a cold van - all using the remote. Otherwise we use Heat Continuously.

This video is useful.