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‘Just let me do my psychological thing’: Mechanic shares common mistake you are probably making when it comes to your car’s heater

‘The amount of people who don’t know this!’

Photo of Beau Paul

Beau Paul

man shares how to properly use vehicle heat feature(l) Hand placed above car vent(r)

When you turn your car key, do you set your heat controls to full-blast? Does your car heater work immediately? Or do you find it takes a few minutes before things warm up?

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Car tipster and TikTok user Matt Vong (@mattvong) is telling his viewers to cool it when it comes to cranking their heaters—or at least to wait until the engine’s had a chance to run a bit.

He posted his advice to TikTok on Thursday and it already has over 177,300 views but he’s stirred up a lot of emotions in some of his snow-bound followers. And they’re feeling left out in the cold.

‘A tip from your mechanic buddy’

In a video captioned “A tip from your Mechanic Buddy,” Vong tells viewers to hold their horses before they reach for their car heater.

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“Something people do all the time that they shouldn’t be doing is right as they get into the car and start it they put their heater on full blast,” he states as he demonstrates on his own car’s heater.

He then claims, “Your engine has to be warm before your heater actually works.”

“You should wait to let your car warm up for a little bit and then turn your heater on. It’ll warm up way faster,” he claims as the video ends.

However, some viewers weren’t having it.

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“Hey it’s 9 degrees out in Ohio today, Just let me do my psychological thing,” one of them shot back in the video’s comment section.

So should you wait for your engine? Or not?

How your car heater works

Matt is certainly right about one thing—your car heater uses engine heat to warm the passenger cabin. (For gas-powered cars. EVs use different heating systems.)

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In most cases heat from the engine is dissipated through the vehicle’s exhaust systems. But when you engage the car heater some of that heat is diverted to the car’s interior.

According to All About Automotive, “Once the vehicle gets to operating temperature the thermostat opens and allows the coolant from the cooling system to circulate through the engine passages.”

This removes “the heat from the engine sending it into the radiator and circulating to the heater core that distributes this heat into the cabin of the vehicle.”

The passenger controls the desired temperature as well as the air flow but ultimately the heat comes from the engine itself. If the engine is off the heater won’t function.

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To wait or not to wait

While Matt states that you “shouldn’t” turn your heater to full blast, it really does not harm your car if you choose to do so. Although, it’s important to note that the system will likely be blowing cold air through the fan until the engine warms up.

According to Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the former hosts of NPR’s CarTalk, leaving the heater off until the engine gets hot will likely get the passenger cabin warmer faster.

“So when you have the heat on, you are removing heat from the engine and are transferring it to the passenger compartment,” Tom told a listener.

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“If your goal is to get the engine to warm up as quickly as possible, you want to keep that ‘passenger compartment radiator’ off until the engine is warm.”

Ray added, “Using the fan while the engine is cold does nothing to warm up the engine faster. In fact, it slows down the process.”

They advise turning the heat control knob to the maximum while keeping the fan off. When the engine warms up, then you can turn off the fan. Your car heater works better that way.

Readers fire back

Despite the advice of experts, some viewers said they would continue to turn everything up as far as it can go.

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“Hey Matt it’s 10 degrees outside and we have to get work hope this helps,” one user insisted.

“I will continue blasting my heater right when I turn my car on I’m too impatient,” another viewer added.

However, a few people in the comment section agreed with Vong (and Tom and Ray).

“It may not warm up faster, but it beats not having cold air blasting into the car on high. Turn the heat all the way up, keep the fan on low until the engine is warm, then turn up the fan,” one noted.

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The Daily Dot reached out to Vong via TikTok messenger and comment for further statement.

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