2022 Hiace rear heater

Newbie here.

I live in Japan and am buying my dream hiace new so that I can choose all the options I want. I have had a 2002 2.0 gasoline high roof for 8 years now and am upgrading to my dream van.

I am trying to decide if I want the rear heater. It is not a particularly cold climate where I use it but it would be nice. As of now, we are fine in the rear now with the rear passengers using a blanket or sweater though.

The rear heater only works when the engine is on and warmed up like a normal car heater, right?

How nice is it to have the rear heater for those who have one?

Thanks

Hello haildamage and welcome to the forum!

I think the rear heater is a nice to have. For rear passengers if you rely on just the main front heater output then not much of it gets to those in the rear and those in the front are often too hot to try to push out enough heat for everyone.

I’ve spent cold hours as a rear passenger in vans without rear heaters while those in the front are fine.

Yes, the heating system relies on the engine coolant system so there’s only heat when the engine is warm and being pumped around the system.

To counter this most people who want to use their vans for camping etc fit aftermarket diesel air heaters that can run off the main fuel tank (if the van is diesel) or a separate ~10L tank if the van is gasoline. There are a couple of well-known European makers for this kit such as Webasto and Eberspacher at the high end. Then there are several worldwide mid-market companies, (I went for one of these) then there are loads of cheap units.

Bigger motorhomes and boats now tend to have diesel water heaters for sinks and shower water and might have a pumped liquid heating system using radiators or fan-assisted heat exchangers that are quieter and more efficient than the warm air type, but all of these vent a lot to heat with the combustion exhaust.

I’d expect the rear heater on new vans to be more sophisticated than on older, but it’s probably the same in principle. You can see the parts for the rear heater on my van here:https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t4317-my-lh119 (and scroll down to the long post on cooling).

If you’re planning to overnight in the van consider getting a diesel heater. Is that on the options list?

Cheers.