Parking heater: 1-10

[acer]

I’m in the van with auxiliary heater on. I’ve plenty of diesel and electricity.
Using “heat continuously” I can always generate instant heat by selecting level 10. However, if I select say level 7, as I just did, I can wait an hour and nothing happens. Conversely, yesterday the heater was on overnight on level 3 and came on and off regularly throughout the night as desired. The manuals don’t really explain how to use the parking heater, other than which buttons to press. So, what am I doing wrong? How do I know what number to select to make the thing work, other than by guessing and increasing by one each time? Or, do I just put it onto level 10 until it’s a furnace in here and turn it off? Is any of this sounding familiar to anyone or, is there a problem with my parking heater.
That feels like a lot of rambling, but hopefully this makes clear the issue.

 

[CC44853]

I read somewhere the temperature sensor is in the door footwell, perhaps that's blocked/not working?

 

[acer]

I read somewhere the temperature sensor is in the door footwell, perhaps that's blocked/not working?

Thanks for the quick reply. Don’t worry, by the way, this isn’t an emergency situation.

The two grills in that area are clear and the heater was coming on and off on level 3 last night (although it was about 5 degrees).

 

[Kimbo]

Does this help?

 

[Hawthorn37]

There’s probably nothing wrong with your heater.

From the digging I’ve done, for the T5 Cali, the air temperature sensor for the diesel heater is in the air intake in the right front footwell at the entrance step. I’ve no reason to think it was moved for the T6 or T6.1. If others know better please correct me!

So I guess if you’ve been driving with the cabin heater turned up, it could take a while for the air temperature to even out. As per post #4 by @Kimbo the diesel heater won’t kick in until the air temp drops below the relative setpoint. For us, we often set to 7, or 21degC during the early morning/ evening, then 2, or 14degC during the night if we think the outside is dropping to frost levels.

Maybe try opening the drivers door to chill the sensor, and see how that goes?

Hope this assists you.