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Red Ryder
Samba Member
Joined: June 26, 2021
Posts: 951
Location: Northern California
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 Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:15 pm Post subject: Climate controls?? |
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For those who struggle like me to remember the correct position for each of the four climate control sliders to direct heat/air to the right place, this label from GW is a godsend:
https://www.gowesty.com/product/air-conditioning/24794/climate-control-decal-for-vanagon?v=
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“Most everyone’s mad here. You may have noticed I am not quite all there myself.” — Cheshire Cat, Adventures of Alice in Wonderland
“Scarlett” — 1990 Vanagon Carat Wolfsburg Edition
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Yellow Rabbit
Samba Member
Joined: August 31, 2005
Posts: 1146
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| Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:11 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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Think of it like this..
Regular ———— Dry Eyes
Warm ————-Hot
Hot feet ———— Warm feet
Nothing ———— basically nothing |
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SyncroHead 
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Joined: May 23, 2005
Posts: 1141
Location: Northern Nevada
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| Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:30 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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Remember this acrostic and you'll never need to look at a label again:
WTF?
W is for Windshield Top lever. (Throttles air flow to the windshield vents from full off to full on.)
T is for Temperature 2nd lever. (Throttles flow of hot coolant to the heater core from mostly off to full on. Ideally fully off, but most leak by some even when they're supposed to be closed.)
F is for Floor 3rd lever. (Throttles air flow to the floor vents from full on to full off.)
Then there's R. Makes it really WTFR.
R if for Rear Bottom lever. (Throttles air flow to the rear vent(s) above the side window(s) from full off to full on. Westies only have one on the passenger side.)
The OFF direction is at the pointy narrow end of the slim triangle and the ON direction is at the blunt end of the triangle in the diagram.
Jim Davis
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| sphet wrote: |
| I have *no* idea what the previous owner carried in his Westy... angry donkeys? |
Last edited by SyncroHead on Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DuncanS
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Joined: October 17, 2013
Posts: 4583
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:49 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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It's much easier than that.
The defroster symbol for the front windshield shows all four levers to the right. For that to work, the air to the window needs to be to the right, thus full window air is to the right and to the left is off. Again for the defrost to work, the temp has to be on high, thus it's off to the left. And for the window defrost to work, all the air has to be directed to the windshield, thus both the foot wheel and the rear air have to be shut off. So the foot well, which is the third lever and you can feel it if you put your hand down, is off to the right and full on to the left. Ditto the fourth lever which is rear air. The rear is not very important and so it's at the bottom of the list.
You don't have to remember, just look at the symbol and it will pop back into mind.
Duncan |
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djkeev
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Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32586
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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DuncanS
Samba Member
Joined: October 17, 2013
Posts: 4583
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:39 am Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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I knew a guy who did a beautiful job creating an internal damper to close off the outside air so in cold weather the heater didn't have to work so hard. Maybe you know him and could duplicate what he did?
Duncan |
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wbailey2112
Samba Member
Joined: October 02, 2015
Posts: 483
Location: Grove City, OH
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 6:56 am Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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| SyncroHead wrote: |
Remember this acrostic and you'll never need to look at a label again:
WTF?
W is for Windshield Top lever. (Throttles air flow to the windshield vents from full off to full on.)
T is for Temperature 2nd lever. (Throttles flow of hot coolant to the heater core from mostly off to full on. Ideally fully off, but most leak by some even when they're supposed to be closed.)
F is for Floor 3rd lever. (Throttles air flow to the floor vents from full on to full off.)
Then there's R. Makes it really WTFR.
R if for Rear Bottom lever. (Throttles air flow to the rear vent(s) above the side window(s) from full off to full on. Westies only have one on the passenger side.)
The OFF direction is at the pointy narrow end of the slim triangle and the ON direction is at the blunt end of the triangle in the diagram.
Jim Davis |
Interesting way to remember for a water-cooled Vanagons but does not apply to early air-cooled models.
For air-cooled:
Lever #1 - Warm Air Distribution: Right = Windshield & Side Window, Center = Foot & Side Window, Left = Foot/Rear/Side Window
Lever #2 - Temperature Control: Right = Hot, Left = Cold
Lever #3 - Fresh Air Distribution: Right = Decrease, Left = Increase
Lever #4 - Rear Air Distribution: Right = Decrease, Left = Increase
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Red Ryder
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Joined: June 26, 2021
Posts: 951
Location: Northern California
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 9:26 am Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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Clever ideas, but I think I will stick with my label!😉👍
_________________
“Most everyone’s mad here. You may have noticed I am not quite all there myself.” — Cheshire Cat, Adventures of Alice in Wonderland
“Scarlett” — 1990 Vanagon Carat Wolfsburg Edition
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jlrftype7
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Joined: July 24, 2018
Posts: 3577
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:37 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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While I like the Label for the controls, I'm so used to German HVAC weirdness having owned several 80's E-28 Five Series BMWs with their even more mystical slider controls and symbols, that the Vanagon seemed right at home with me when we got it..... Google a picture of that panel and you'll see what I mean.
Recirc feature meant you slid all the levers over to the right, we were forever having to explain the controls to any relative that borrowed one of our 528e's since they were used to Japanese HVAC controls that had easy to understand drawings showing what was happening with a Vent selection...... 
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'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto |
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valvecovergasket
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Joined: October 10, 2018
Posts: 1491
Location: pnw
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:47 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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i remember seeing a new hvac lever set with a red knob for the cold/hot lever. i didnt think to buy that when i was replacing all of the broken knobs after we got our van and cant seem to find it again... but being able to quickly spot the heat knob would be handy.
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vanis13
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Joined: August 15, 2010
Posts: 3092
Location: ABQ NM USA.... Except when not
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:38 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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| valvecovergasket wrote: |
| i remember seeing a new hvac lever set with a red knob for the cold/hot lever. i didnt think to buy that when i was replacing all of the broken knobs after we got our van and cant seem to find it again... but being able to quickly spot the heat knob would be handy. |
My temp one has blue dot on one side and red dot on other
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83.5 Westy with Subaru 2.5, 4 spd manual, center seat, COLD A/C on 134a!, Winter camp heated with an Espar B4 gasoline furnace
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djkeev
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Joined: September 30, 2007
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Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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MsTaboo
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Joined: June 02, 2006
Posts: 4087
Location: East Kootenay, British Columbia
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:28 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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| djkeev wrote: |
| valvecovergasket wrote: |
| i remember seeing a new hvac lever set with a red knob for the cold/hot lever. i didnt think to buy that when i was replacing all of the broken knobs after we got our van and cant seem to find it again... but being able to quickly spot the heat knob would be handy. |
It's easy,
Reach out with your hand, feel the levers, slide up to the top lever, go down one.
You have the temperature lever.
Dave |
Yep, so much easier than the new cars where you have to take your eyes off the road to use a touch screen  !
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Help the fight against Truth Decay.
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DuncanS
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Joined: October 17, 2013
Posts: 4583
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 6:46 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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Maybe I missed it, but no one seems to have mentioned that levers 2 and 4 have bumps on the sides so night work with eyes on the road is no prob as you can feel them. Sometimes if the defrost is all the way to the right, the temp on low and the foot well to the left, it can be hard to know by feel which is one down from another.
Duncan |
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jlrftype7
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Joined: July 24, 2018
Posts: 3577
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 1:39 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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If they glowed at the end of each slider knob with a dim LED that wasn't distracting, that might be a cool upgrade to have, but as noted, they're a simple affair and you just learn to live with them.
Plus they won't go out or need a software update like the Touch Screens that MsTaboo posted about..... 
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto |
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PDXWesty
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Joined: April 11, 2006
Posts: 6243
Location: Portland OR
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| Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 1:45 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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Visual aid
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89 Westy 2.1 Auto |
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djkeev
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Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32586
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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Red Ryder
Samba Member
Joined: June 26, 2021
Posts: 951
Location: Northern California
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| Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:30 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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That’s the one! I found that location a bit hard to see from the driver’s seat, so I placed mine on the dash near the lower right corner of the instrument cluster.
_________________
“Most everyone’s mad here. You may have noticed I am not quite all there myself.” — Cheshire Cat, Adventures of Alice in Wonderland
“Scarlett” — 1990 Vanagon Carat Wolfsburg Edition
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djkeev
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Red Ryder
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Joined: June 26, 2021
Posts: 951
Location: Northern California
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| Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:17 pm Post subject: Re: Climate controls?? |
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| djkeev wrote: |
Here are my 90 control knobs, see the bumps on the edges of two of them?
I never noticed the little square of radiating heat next to the red dot until I looked at the photo.
What does this mean?
Red dot is hot but the square heat waves???
Dave |
“Defrost” icon…
_________________
“Most everyone’s mad here. You may have noticed I am not quite all there myself.” — Cheshire Cat, Adventures of Alice in Wonderland
“Scarlett” — 1990 Vanagon Carat Wolfsburg Edition
Tornado Red |
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