has anybody ever bought a plug in car heater?

[stainesy]

my heater matrix is buggered so till i get the cash to have it sorted i was going to buy one of the ceramic plug in car heaters that sit on the dash.
has anybody ever used one of these?
if so are they any good?
and where can i get one from that isnt huge like the ones iv seen so far.

[s-l-i-x]

Maplins?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/in-car-ceramic-heater-48775

[stainesy]

that looks to be the same one as iv seen in a shop and its actuly huge  cheers anyway thogh mate.
anybody ever used one?

[Len]

Did the heater in the Mk3 work? 

[stainesy]

Did the heater in the Mk3 work? 

Yeah but the rear main oil seal didn't 
Not to mansion the big rust holes under the car 

[brianpologti]

A mate has/had one of theses, he said he drove into London with it on as his heater packed up, only lasted one trip 25mins and the wire go hotter than the unit haha ,

[Khare]

I'd buy a big one, purely because big will give more heat out, and in this weather I wouldn't want an asthmatic warming me up with his breath 

Although I do agree they do put stress on the thin lighter cables, especially if on over a long period of time.

[danny_p]

they yare pritty much useless

ciggy lighter good for about 15 amps for a short while assuming your getting a heathy 14.7 volts  thats only about 220 W 

as far as heating a cold car goes 220w is next to erm useless

[snifferdog]

Yep!! They are useless as already said! Ive got one in the garage you can have for postage. Its cr@p!

[tobz.]

Don't bother, you'd be able to generate more heat with a damn good fart!!!

As Danny said best case output is 220W but realistically it probably wont be more than about 120W.
I'm pretty sure a typical heater system in a car is more like 6kW which is the necessary level of power output to keep a metal box warm on a cold morning.