How long should the heater heat up in cold weather
When you turn on the car heater, it should start blowing warm air. If the engine has already warmed up to operating temperature, this should happen immediately. However, if your engine is cold, it will take longer, and if the weather…
When you turn on the car heater, it should start blowing warm air. If the engine has already warmed up to operating temperature, this should happen immediately. However, if your engine is cold, it will take longer, and if the weather is cold, the process will take even longer.
There is no real answer to how long it takes a heater to warm up in cold weather. It really depends on several different factors. One of them is the type of car you are driving. Most older vehicles may take a few minutes or so to reach operating temperature and start the heater. However, some new cars only need one or two minutes. Temperature is another factor: if it's very, very cold (think Northern Minnesota in January), even new cars can take longer to build up enough heat to create warm air in the cabin. Other considerations include the following:
Thermostat status: The thermostat in your vehicle limits the flow of coolant depending on the operating temperature of the engine. If it's stuck open, your heater may never blow warm air because the engine's operating temperature never reaches the correct level.
Low coolant level: If your engine coolant level is low, your heater may blow slightly warm air or only cold air. That's because your car's heater runs on coolant—the coolant travels through the engine, absorbs heat, and then transfers it to the heater core in the dashboard, where it's used to heat the air blown out of your air vents.
If your heater takes a long time to heat up or doesn't heat up at all, this is a sign that something is wrong and you need to have the heater checked and diagnosed by a professional mechanic.
