Supplemental Cabin Heat.

[Jetpilot86]

Little chilly in the Bravo at FL180. 
 

Any supplemental heat options? as Maxwell is telling me “she’s giving me all she’s got, Captain”

[Schllc]

That seems odd, I cannot pull the heater out more than one notch in my acclaim, or it will get sweaty in the cabin. 
do the heaters in the bravos not work as well?

[Brandt]

https://www.travelandleisure.com/style/best-heated-socks

 

In all seriousness, I find mine to be lacking as well, particularly on descent since there’s no hot bleed air available.  Haven’t found a good solution other than a coat.

[IvanP]

Bravo heater is not very good. Uggs sheepskin lined boots work well to keep my toes from freezing in the levels  . 

[LANCECASPER]

15 hours ago, Jetpilot86 said:

Little chilly in the Bravo at FL180. 
 

Any supplemental heat options? as Maxwell is telling me “she’s giving me all she’s got, Captain”

Sometimes the cable going out to the box in the engine compartment needs to be adjusted. In the cabin it appears to be full ON, but out there, the slack only has it open part way.

[LANCECASPER]

15 hours ago, Schllc said:

That seems odd, I cannot pull the heater out more than one notch in my acclaim, or it will get sweaty in the cabin. 
do the heaters in the bravos not work as well?

Same here.

[M20F]

15 hours ago, Schllc said:

That seems odd, I cannot pull the heater out more than one notch in my acclaim, or it will get sweaty in the cabin. 
do the heaters in the bravos not work as well?

At what OAT?

[Schllc]

Just now, M20F said:

At what OAT?

lowest i have personally seen is -20F

[exM20K]

There is a SB at least in the acclaim that permits a modification to the mixing box. Dunno if there’s anything for the Bravo.

https://mooney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/SBM20-308B.pdf

plenty of heat for me, even at night, after that was done, though might could use a few more BTU’s in the descent at night.

-dan

[Pinecone]

Plenty of heat in my 252, but I wish I could direct some to the feet.

[Marc_B]

8 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

Plenty of heat in my 252, but I wish I could direct some to the feet.

I wonder how a collapsible hose would work to just act as a redirect from the center console vent forward to the area in front of the seat?  Something lightweight, collapsible, and something you could store in the seat pocket?  As others have noted, my cabin heat goes from cold to fire in one click.

One thing I'd double check is making sure you don't have any leaks and make sure you don't have any vent hoses that are disconnected.  I previously had an overhead vent that wore out and disconnected so it couldn't be controlled with overhead vent to close.  You could put gaffer tape on the tail vent and see if that makes a difference.  Still, a leak would effect how cold it is, but wouldn't effect the "heat" of the cabin heat.

[donkaye, MCFI]

In nearly 33 years of ownership I never had an issue with getting any amount of heat I wanted.  The heating mechanism needs to be checked in your plane.

[Patrick Horan]

Im my Bravo when up at 230 it gets really hot. One issue i found though is that i can't run the defroster and the cabin heat at the same time. I guess the heat source is one of the other.

[Jeff Uphoff]

2 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Plenty of heat in my 252, but I wish I could direct some to the feet.

I usually feel the same way in my Ovation. In general, I've only found the heat to be lacking on really cold winter days well up into the teens where it's simply not making the power of its turbocharged brethren. That said, my feet still get cold at other times because a) I usually feel cold compared to most people, especially in the extremities, and b) it just doesn't blow that direction.

--Up.

[Bolter]

52 minutes ago, Jeff Uphoff said:

I usually feel the same way in my Ovation. In general, I've only found the heat to be lacking on really cold winter days well up into the teens where it's simply not making the power of its turbocharged brethren. That said, my feet still get cold at other times because a) I usually feel cold compared to most people, especially in the extremities, and b) it just doesn't blow that direction.

--Up.

Make sure you use your mixture aggresively on the high altitude flights.  Peak and LOP gets more EGT and more heat for the cabin heater.  In my Ovation, I never have the heat wide open, and usually fine tune with the vent slider to mix the air back a little cooler.  

I've thought about making a 3-D printed duct, kind of snorkel shaped, that would "click" into the output duct and run the air forward towards my feet.  It happens so rarely that it gets that cold, I have yet to take action.  

[Fritz1]

make sure none of the cold air hoses are leaking on the right side, none of the WEMAC valves are leaking, no cold air getting in through cabin floor, heat valve in front of firewall opens completely, the heat valve in the control box in the passenger footwell has bleed holes in the the butterfly, I closed those, cozy cabin down to -30F ambient in cruise, climb different story airflow insufficient, need all heat for defrost, the real critical part in really cold conditions is taxi, even with full defrost blower windshield starts icing up internally, I run alien heater in the cabin in the hangar and keep clean microfiber cloth handy to wipe off frost internally, once airborne defrost blower has plenty power and heat, I typically climb on full defrost and slowly switch to cabin heat during the climb, in cruise no defrost required everything she got goes into cabin heat, all air vents closed, still, fur lined boots and warm coat help

[Jeff Uphoff]

On 4/16/2025 at 2:54 PM, Bolter said:

Make sure you use your mixture aggresively on the high altitude flights.  Peak and LOP gets more EGT and more heat for the cabin heater.  In my Ovation, I never have the heat wide open, and usually fine tune with the vent slider to mix the air back a little cooler.  

My recent super-cold-winter-day flight was at 15k (5 hours, Nebraska -> Virginia) and at peak. At that altitude, LOP was sapping to much power for me, and peak was still running super cool.

--Up.

[Schllc]

On 4/16/2025 at 10:58 AM, Pinecone said:

Plenty of heat in my 252, but I wish I could direct some to the feet.

If you prop something up preventing the vent from pushing directly to the back it goes right into your footwells pretty nicely. I usually put a pillow there. Not the best idea if you have passengers but it works great for two. 

[Fritz1]

I do the same, put old Jepp binder with POH in front of fuel tank selector to deflect airflow from vent up, no passengers in rear seats, plenty warm in cruise for pilot and copilot down to -30dF ambient, even open headliner cold air vents a tad sometimes, fly 100 dF ROP, 

[gabez]

I have gone to 26 OAT and I just need about 1/2 open of the heather and I am toasty 

[Will.iam]

Geez none of y’all slide your seat all the way back? Not only does that help put cg aft and allows me to pickup a few knots but then my feet are right next to the floor heat vent which like other 252 pilots is scary hot at anything close to full open so i mix it with quite alot of cold air so that i don’t melt the plastic by the fuel selector. 

[Jetpilot86]

I found a few corners that go on pallets that are hard plastic that I’m gonna use to deflect the air. I need to get a thermometer down there to check the temperature as the air was lukewarm at best. 
 

I already run LOP, so no help there

[blaine beaven]

My J has a good heater, but I also fly it in -25C. What I do in the wintertime is I hang a vinyl curtain behind either the front two seats or the rear seat. I have Velcro on the interior panels that matches up with Velcro on the curtain. This effectively reduces the area I am trying to hear by 1/2 to 2/3. 

[joepilotmooney]

Since we're talking heaters, I got my J back from annual and when I ferried it from Mpls. down here to FLA in March I noticed my heater was only putting out ambient air plus maybe 10 degrees or so. I had to put my down jacket on my lap and knees to keep warm. It has always been super hot air the last 20 years. What do you think my mechanics did down there?

[EricJ]

10 hours ago, joepilotmooney said:

Since we're talking heaters, I got my J back from annual and when I ferried it from Mpls. down here to FLA in March I noticed my heater was only putting out ambient air plus maybe 10 degrees or so. I had to put my down jacket on my lap and knees to keep warm. It has always been super hot air the last 20 years. What do you think my mechanics did down there?

There's a scat tube that is supposed to be connected between the muffler shroud and the mixing box on the passenger side firewall.   If that hose is loose or disconnected, or the mixing box control not working, you could get what you're describing.

Edit:   You can see a lot of that just by looking into the oil hatch.