Customer Reviews

Rally 7426 12V Auxiliary Automotive Heater Fan and Defroster

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Unfortunately, the heat in my car isn't working right now. Being right around Christmas, I don't want to fork over the $400 it is to fix it (I drive a Jaguar - ha!) until after the Holidays. Hey, times are tough! Anyway, I read so-so reviews about this heater, and decided to go for it. $10 with free 2-day shipping, thanks to Amazon Prime.

The heater had a sticky velcro thing you can attach to your dashboard, and you can adjust the heater to blow anywhere you want it to blow. Pretty cool so far. It plugs into your cigarette lighter, and has a green light come on when the car turns on. I cranked it up, at first, it blew out 100% room temperature air. After about 30-45 seconds, I noticed some heat coming out. A tiny bit of heat, but certainly not would come out of a normal heater. After driving multiple times with this heater on (in 25 degree weather), I can say that it's better than nothing. It DOES blow out heat, but it's not going to make a huge difference in your car, if you want to replace normal heat. I understand that's not what this unit is for. I'm just giving my feedback.

For $10, this is definitely a smart investment, because I'm pretty sure this thing would raise the temp in my car from 25 to maybe 40 degrees. It's not going to make me comfortable, but it's going to get me by a few weeks just fine. There's no chance this little heater brings my car up to 70 when it's freezing out, but it does make SOME difference at least! 3 stars!

Update 1/3/10: After exactly 3 weeks of use, this heater blew my fuse. It was an annoyance, but I bought a 5-pack of 20 amp fuses for $3, and replaced it. So far, so good. We'll see how long it is before another fuse blows.
Update 1/24/10: Well, exactly 3 weeks after my update, this heater blew 4 of the 5-pack of fuses. LOL. That's now a total of 5 fuses blown in 6 weeks. Lately, it's been blowing a fuse every other day. Comical.
Update 2/13/10: This heater has officially blown a total of 8 fuses. I'm done with it from this moment forward. It was pretty good for awhile, but blew a fuse 2 days in a row recently. My final thought -- stay away from this heater.

I bought one of these heaters even after reading the negative reviews about the fuse blowing and I am glad I did. If you plug the unit into an Aux Power port that is rated to 20 amps, and not a regular cigarette lighter port it works great and does not blow the fuse. I bought this unit because the heat in my vehicle is out and this was a much cheaper alternative to paying a lot of money to fix something in a car I will not keep much longer.

Over the past few weeks I have had this heater, I have seen temps drop to -14 and this unit made my commute not only bearable but actually comfortable after about 8 minutes. There have been times when the outside temp was in the twenties that I have had to turn the unit off after 10 minutes or so because I was getting hot.

This unit does have a couple of disappointments however, there is not a variable speed fan or settings for heat, so you have to turn it off instead of being able to just turn it down, and the heat does not come out across the entire face of the unit just the left third or so.

I would give this heater a 3 1/2 but since there are not half stars I gave it a four. If you have a 20 amp power port in your car and need heat or just want a little extra heat before your car warms up this unit is great. Do not try to use a regular cigarette lighter plug though, it seems that is what those who had all of the problems were doing.

I bought this as it say ..."to direct heat/fan where needed for instant defrosting of your vehicle windows". This is very inaccurate! There is no instant defrosting. In fact, it takes direct contact with the window to even defog a very small (3 inch circle) area of the window in 10 seconds. The directions say it has 200 F (Farenheit, which is only about 15% the heat output of my hair dryer), and the heat blows at about 4 mph - the hair dryer 25mph. It uses a 20 amp car fuse, which works easily in the cigarette compartment. The directions say not to use it unless the engine is running, as it could run down your battery. If you have to run the engine, why use this device at all, as the engine will be warm by the time this device starts to work. I doubt its ability to defrost anything. I only used it for 30 minutes, and now must decide if it is worth the trouble to return or just throw it away. How they can say "instant defrosting" is deceptive & highly inaccurate! From Seattle Nov 7, 2010

This heater blows your fuse I do have 20 amp fuse on that circuit. You would have to put this heater 2 inches from your face to even feel it. I bought 2 of these heaters at same time was only using 1 in my car bought the other for wife since she is always cold but she said same thing I did these things dont work so I know it cant be that I bought 1 defective one.

This thing only blows just a little stronger than my 7 year old grandson from the back seat. The product is what it looks like - a very small nail dryer. It took 10 minutes to register on the windshield and made a hole in the condensation the size of an orange over the next 15 minutes. I don't believe it could EVER heat a car up in winter.

purchased this because my 2003 mitsubishi lancer had an issue with the heating/ac unit, it would not turn off ac, thought this would at least defrost the car enough to drive. should have known better :)

well i put 30 amp. fuses in and it still pop them so i mean we cant even use it i should have gotten my money back its in my trunk if anyone wants it!!

This heater is a complete waste...Not only did it not produce enough heat to make any kind of difference, it broke within 3 weeks...

You have to use a little common sense, It's a little plug in heater, it's not going to toast marshmallows, but it heats pretty well for its size, I'm happy with it.

This heater does not blow air harder than my breath and it is definitely no warmer either. The unit whirred for about thirty minutes and then gave up. Pathetic. Luckily I can return it still.