How to heat a Defender?

Our LR Defender Td5 CSW 110 (2005) has, according to the manual, a thing called a “heater” but it doesn’t heat, at all (nada, rien, nichts). In hot countries such as Oman and the UAE the a/c never really worked; we regarded that as just another feature of the Defender with which one up had to put. Now, though, we are in the midst of the European winter, at present in Austria, travelling in warm, thick, winter clothing, woollen hats and with ‘granny rugs’ over our legs.
I was having a look at the 12-volt and mains-operated, blower-heaters on Amazon. Some, I wasn’t surprised to read, were described by reviewers as an utter waste of money. Others seemed OK.
We need a heater both when moving and when parked. I’m not sure just at the moment if our inverter, running off the second battery, is powerful enough to support a 2-kw heater. Anyway, wondered if heating off this kind might work, if anyone reading this has tried anything similar.

Why not fix your heater? They do work if your cooling system is in good condition and the heater is set up correctly

Make sure that the cable from the dash heat control is fully opening the lever on top of the heater box under bonnet.

Mine gets so hot I have to open the window

i fitted an eberspacher D2 heater last month, bought it new so cost a fortune, but on an icy cold Scottish winters morning, i can only describe it as sheer bliss. I do believe if you look hard enough they are always up for grabs on evil bay....nothing worse than a freezing cold defender.

Col

get yourself a night heater like they have in long distance trucks for staying warm overnight.
I am lucky enough to have 1 in my 90 when it is really cold i run it standing or running they are bloody brill.

You could also take yeh viscus fan off as yeh not going to need that at the moment (36mm cranked spanner) normal thread if I remember rightly !

A properly set up heater in a Landy is more than capable of keeping you more than warm, my OS window don't shut properly, the door has an inch gap at the top and the truck cab window is always open and i get too hot in it with the heater on.

Personally i think LR made a mistake with the heaters, they should be on a switch On/Off...so that's what i did, less components to go wrong

I use a rad muff and a 300w ceramic heater in my td5.

I'd love an eberspacher but can't afford one at the mo. A diesel heater such as an eberspacher would be your best bet though

I fitted a new heater matrix and renewed all the foam seals in the heater box. Adjusted the cables properly and now it is lovely and toasty. Used to need a rad muff to get luke warm but now no longer needs a muff. Viscous fan is still on as well. My fan speed switch never worked so I modded it to work either full tilt or not at all. Works for me.

As previous people have said if sorting the heater and door alignment/seals don't sort it, fit a Eberspacher D2 Airtronic, I've one in my 110 and it is the best modification I've done so far, they come with a 7day timer, so you can set them to heat the Landy before you get in it! They use very little fuel and don't take up much room, provided they are installed properly. I got mine secondhand out of an old works van £150 complete with only 19hours service (plugged it into mates laptop) I can even sleep in the wagon on a very cold night in the mountains of Ireland camping!

I was thinking of getting rid of my Defender at one stage as it was bloody freezing in the winter even with a rad muff.
I changed the thermostat which I think was ok anyway. I removed the visco fan and replaced it with a Kenlowe Electric fan. My heater problem is now solved. Oh, I also renewed the door seals. As a quick fix if you are in Austria, I would remove the visco fan as someone has already mentioned. |can't remember if its a 32 or 36 spanner you need. I ran mine here in France during the summer in temperatures of 35 degree C without any fan and it never went into the red , so I would not worry about it in Austria during this time of year. Fitting the Kenlowe fan for me was the best mod I have done. Engine warms up much quicker and heat does come through.

a 2kw heater with no loss is going to be drawing 166amps before any other electrical bits are running given that your alternator is probably going to be 100AMPS at best I think you can see the answer is no, ive just followed a few bits of advice on here and sorted my heater box, matrix and enlarged the bulkhead hole and it gets too warm for the good lady now and she has icicles for feet :0

wont really help your heat when stationary issue though so erbspacher is the way to go

Cheers Steve

does the engine need to be running for the eberspacher to work / how does it work?

Eberpacher Airtronic run off a fuel line from your tank (or separate tank if you can be bothered), on a separate pump and connect to your battery. Initially on start up they draw 20amps to run the glow plug and then draw 2-4amps, fuel wise expect a litre per hour max, obviously the fuel consumption depends on how insulated the Landy is. The 7 timer can be used to run it no matter if the engine is on or off, it is completely independent.

camosteve said:

Eberpacher Airtronic run off a fuel line from your tank (or separate tank if you can be bothered), on a separate pump and connect to your battery. Initially on start up they draw 20amps to run the glow plug and then draw 2-4amps, fuel wise expect a litre per hour max, obviously the fuel consumption depends on how insulated the Landy is. The 7 timer can be used to run it no matter if the engine is on or off, it is completely independent.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I have been looking at gas powered Propex heaters,I have just bought me a 110 hardtop for fishing weekends and was wondering how to heat it, thats why I thought of Propex, I had one in my vw camper.

Everybody I know from the forums has fitted a Webasto or Eberspacher, my Eberspacher was cheap because they are fitted standard in Telecom works vans, I've no experience with gas, but I do know that a lot of air moisture is produced as byproduct of gas heating, unless the propex works differently?

Shifty1962 said:

I fitted a new heater matrix and renewed all the foam seals in the heater box. Adjusted the cables properly and now it is lovely and toasty. Used to need a rad muff to get luke warm but now no longer needs a muff. Viscous fan is still on as well. My fan speed switch never worked so I modded it to work either full tilt or not at all. Works for me.

Click to expand...

I did the same with the foam seals( and the switch ), they have a habit of disintegrating over time, but in all honestly, the box isn't sealed properly from the factory, extra dense foam can improve any heat escaping and give you extra into the cab.

Also you have a CSW, have you considered some sort of barrier between the cab area and the back to help heat the cab area up quicker, a heavy duty curtain or something similar, once nice n toasty, the curtain can be drawn back to help heat the back up

I just fitted a propex gas heater it's the nuts
Secondhand off eBay instant heat no condensation as someone said it would draws very little from battery's