380 replies to this topic

[vaux2008]

1) Moneyhunster 2) VXed (pending pricing) 3) Aaron D 4) KurtVerbose 5) Stigg10 6) GiGo (pending pricing) 7) Zebwach (pending pricing) 8) Snotvomit (pending pricing) 9) Paulus H (pending piercing) count me in! 10) V220DR 11) Nicollow 12) drpau 13) Steve B 14) Graeme Lambert (pending pricing) 15) ormes (pending pricing) 16) gbobm (pending pricing) 17) Steffe 18) Vaux2008

[GiGo]

I really appreciate all the work your putting into this. Having a nice heater would be fantastic! But I'm a little concerned about the cost. Obviously all the research and development costs add up, not to mention your time and materials. What sort of price are you expecting to ship these out at? I only ask as most people (myself included) have put that we want one pending the price. I only ask as I would hate for you to all the work that you have and not cover your costs. Regards GiGo

[T7Design]

Hi, That's a fair point, development costs are negligible as initially I only have to pay for the cost of one prototype heater box and a heater bypass valve, if we find there is a noticeable improvement with the standard fans and heater matrices that I use then I shall move to the next stage which will be fabricating a design to satisfy the spec sheet until we get a production ready prototype. With regards to time spent on this project, well that doesn't matter as you don't get if you don't try but I can also use this as a learning curve for more accurately quoting custom projects in the future. I think the cost of the unit is going to be around £200-£240, please remember that those plastic heater cases can be mass produced for next to nothing whereas a hand made alu casing costs considerably more in comparison. The price will also include all mounting and fixing hardware, a new section of ducting to the inlet, a heater bypass valve and possibly a speed controller if the original resistor pack is not compatible.

[moneyhunster]

I paid £150 for my 1st replacement then £75 for the 2nd and still needed a new one, if it works as intended it will be worth the money to just forget about it and be toasty warm all winter

[Lou_m]

If it's going to be significantly better then I would be interested also. I used to have an MR2 turbo t-bar and the heater was good enough on that to have the roof off in the winter and still be warm. 1) Moneyhunster 2) VXed (pending pricing) 3) Aaron D 4) KurtVerbose 5) Stigg10 6) GiGo (pending pricing) 7) Zebwach (pending pricing) 8) Snotvomit (pending pricing) 9) Paulus H (pending piercing) count me in! 10) V220DR 11) Nicollow 12) drpau 13) Steve B 14) Graeme Lambert (pending pricing) 15) ormes (pending pricing) 16) gbobm (pending pricing) 17) Steffe 18) Vaux2008 19) Lou_m (as long as its really toasty)

[Steffe]

Hello T7! I have looked at the stuff in your shop. The heaters seems really nice. I think that if you can make a superior replacement VX220/Speedster heater, it might be a big seller. The most important thing is performance rather than price I would say. It would be really nice to have a good blower with lots of heat in the car. I drove my friends Lotus Exige once and I noticed that this car had a lot better heater performance. So it is at least possible to make it better. I know that the battery is placed in the back of the Exige so it has moore room for the heater though. One question: will this design work with both Speedsters and VX220? Keep up the good work.

[GiGo]

Fantastic. How long a job is it to install the heater box etc? As I don't have the confidence to do it myself.

Price seems reasonable as well

[Arno]

will this design work with both Speedsters and VX220?

If the design is flexible enough then RHD or LHD mounting would only mean relocating the air outlet and perhaps swapping some connections or attachment points. Should not be a major problem to make it possible to 'mirror' the housing.

This unit (if the design is succesful) would also be usable for the early non-A/C Elise S2's which have the idential heater unit as the VX220.

I'm just curious if the axial fans used in the heaters from T7 will be up to the job in this application of pushing air up the relatively long and convoluted path to the dash and footwell outlets as this will probably give a higher air-resistance compared to a heater in a 'normal' car with direct vent connections.

Radial fans (as used in the original heater) tend to allow (and work over) a larger pressure differential, which helps in this respect to get the required airflow. (tangential fan would probably work too, but is probably not really useful package-wise)

Bye, Arno.

[moneyhunster]

I'm gettin a tad more flow than standard with one of the T7 fans fitted.

[T7Design]

@ Arno: This is exactly my concern, the fans I use are not very good in situations requiring high pressure. They do flow a lot more air so if there is a low resistance application they will far out perform a squirrel cage fan and take up less space and power draw in the process. I have a backup fan in mind in case the difference between old and new is not enough, this fan flows 33% more air but more importantly operates over twice the pressures.

Edited by T7Design, 13 February 2011 - 11:35 PM.

[moneyhunster]

this fan flows 25% more air but more importantly operates over twice the pressures.

sounds perfect

Might get warm feet while demisting the windscreen.

Edited by moneyhunster, 13 February 2011 - 11:34 PM.

[KurtVerbose]

@ Arno:

This is exactly my concern, the fans I use are not very good in situations requiring high pressure. They do flow a lot more air so if there is a low resistance application they will far out perform a squirrel cage fan and take up less space and power draw in the process. I have a backup fan in mind in case the difference between old and new is not enough, this fan flows 33% more air but more importantly operates over twice the pressures.

Adam, please remember that these heaters performance seems to vary enormously. Some are happy with their heaters, some, like me, are not. If you're measuring against a good non-leaky one and there's a small performance improvement that is sustained during the cars lifetime that might be enough.

[moneyhunster]

Adam, please remember that these heaters performance seems to vary enormously. Some are happy with their heaters, some, like me, are not. If you're measuring against a good non-leaky one and there's a small performance improvement that is sustained during the cars lifetime that might be enough.

If their honest im sure they would upgrade too.
My 2nd replacement was all sealed up on the heater box and the heater pipe available on eBay added too and it was ok, bearing in mind i warm my car up every morning before i drive it, it did warm up ok time i got to work but not like any regular car would.

[John Boy]

Hi,

That's a fair point, development costs are negligible as initially I only have to pay for the cost of one prototype heater box and a heater bypass valve, if we find there is a noticeable improvement with the standard fans and heater matrices that I use then I shall move to the next stage which will be fabricating a design to satisfy the spec sheet until we get a production ready prototype.

With regards to time spent on this project, well that doesn't matter as you don't get if you don't try but I can also use this as a learning curve for more accurately quoting custom projects in the future.

I think the cost of the unit is going to be around £200-£240, please remember that those plastic heater cases can be mass produced for next to nothing whereas a hand made alu casing costs considerably more in comparison.

The price will also include all mounting and fixing hardware, a new section of ducting to the inlet, a heater bypass valve and possibly a speed controller if the original resistor pack is not compatible.

Following this thread with interest. If it works as well as it promises to, this is a good price and I will be purchasing one.

John

[soupdragon]

To help with some of the points raised... The heater in my vx, used as the bench mark, seemed to be pretty average based on comments from others. I had manually pushed the valve fully open and my system was completely std and in reasonable condition. The only wear and tear was a couple of cracks around the riveted bracket on the fan housing. (the brittle casing suffered a bit more damage on the way out) I had some warmth on mild days (6°C and above outside temp) but this became unnoticeable below this temp. And at freezing or below there was only cold air blasting from the vents, although this did slowly demist the screen with the fan on max. Interestingly with no heater and the hole blanked off my screen still demists as long as I have a window partially open and use a squeegee to clear the inside of the screen for the first few miles! it's far from ideal though and I'm dreading the temps dropping before Adam gets a new heater sorted There is much talk about the practicality of the vx and I think a decent heater will make the vx a far more practical car. And more enjoyable with the roof off

[techieboy]

decent heater will make the vx a far more practical car. And more enjoyable with the roof off

Unless you've got a gas turbine in the passenger seat, I can't see it making any difference with the roof off. It's not like we've got direct face level vents like the Elise has that might, vaguely, belch some warm air in your direction occasionally.

[soupdragon]

decent heater will make the vx a far more practical car. And more enjoyable with the roof off

Unless you've got a gas turbine in the passenger seat, I can't see it making any difference with the roof off. It's not like we've got direct face level vents like the Elise has that might, vaguely, belch some warm air in your direction occasionally.

If there is enough airflow, I'll be modding the footwell vents. I've never cared much for warm air in the face. I spout enough hot air for that !

[KurtVerbose]

Went out today with the roof off. Was fine for 1/2 hour or so then got too cold. A bit of heat in the footwells will make all the difference.

[Steve B]

Went out today with the roof off. Was fine for 1/2 hour or so then got too cold. A bit of heat in the footwells will make all the difference.

It is still winter . Hard top on and nice and snug!

In all fairness even the MX5 thats heater puts out air so hot it'd burn your hand if left by a vent, roof down at this time of year you still need a wolly hat, gloves, ten layers

[KurtVerbose]

roof down at this time of year you still need a wolly hat, gloves, ten layers

I was wearing my skiing clothes.