I am also planning on having this kit installed because of what we hear on 12v battery problems on Siennas. I cannot answer all your questions, but I read on other groups someone who was pretty satisfied with it ,but regarding your question on the cabin heater, someone else said it seemed insufficient in very cold temps. In fall temps during cold nights, it would not defrost the windshield. Mostly useful when warmer than -10C especially for heating cabin but not for ice and snow removal. He also said at -19C it was blowing cold air. Bluetooth range was also short.

 

Thanks. Will be reviewing it for another month. I have a silly two questions.

(1) can I plug in the home power cable and leave it whole night so that the ‘Timer’ function can turn on the cabin heater before next pick-up. By doing so will it over charge and danmage the 12V battery?
(2) I can see the battery charging and cabin heater turn on or off in Bluetooth app, but can I configure block heater -or can I see the block heater heating engine in the Bluetooth App?

 

Got checked to Toyota mechanic, the home power cable can be plugged in for over night and it will not create any issues. That’s the only why to use the Timer on the Bluetooth app. So it is resolved.

for engine block heater it does not explicitly show on the Bluetooth App but the moment I plug in the home power cable to electrical outlet, the engine block heater will be turn on and get heating the engine.

Cabin warmer can not be high heat and it will remain normal to little warm heat

 

So that means block heater will be working all night? I never used a block heater before, is this standard use?

 

I recently had the COMFORT+ option installed so the van is warm in the morning before taking the kids to school. I find it warm the cabin enough that it feel warm when I step inside even at temp -20C or -4F outside. Mine does not come with the block heater, just the cabin heater and the batter charger. I plug it in at night when I don't need to use the van anymore and I have it on Auto. I do hear the heater turn on at night way before my schedule pickup time, I guess to keep the cabin at whatever temperature it was design to, I cannot control this, I wish they would have this in the APPS. I think it worked for what I need but wish I can customize it more.

 

Now that you've had it for a couple of years, are you glad you have it? I'm wondering if it's worthwhile vs. getting a remote start put into the van. Does the scheduling in the app work well? I'm in Alberta, and the van will always be parked inside our insulated (but not heated) garage so I'll just want a bit of warming before taking kids to school in the mornings, or any time we're going out. Being able to have it warmed up without having to open the garage door seems nice.

 

I find it nice to have and work best when you don't have to use the van for a long period of time like the next day and plug it in. It is nice and warm when we ready to leave. It will turn off when you start the van when you have it on schedule, just have to remember to unplug it from the van. I did drive off with the cord still plug in a few times, no damage done, it just pull off the van. The schedule work well, I think the device turn on like 30 min or so before the time you setup for pickup time so it warm up the van. The device is made by a company in Norway and their apps is DEFA, it seem to work better than the Toyota apps. This does offer the trickle charger so the battery won't die which happened to me a couple times already, now I make sure to have it plug in when the van will not be use for long period of time.
I have both this and a remote start installed to use when we are out somewhere, not the one that came with the van from Toyota as I find it is hard to use and not responsive even with the apps when it was in the trial period. If you want to install the remote start, use the one from fortin (fortin.ca), it a company in Montreal and it won't turn off the van when you open the door. I am lucky to be inside the zone they offer the use on theirs apps without a subscription but of course you can always use the key fob, no subscription for this. Hope this help you decide if you want to install this option or not.

 

Can the Fortin be programmed to warn you of open windows, sunroof ans such? I wanted to go aftermarket but didn't want to lose the ability to be notified as the OEM setup does. If you could post pictures of what information is displayed from the app, that would be awesome!

 

The no subscription only work for part of Ontario and Quebec region and the apps I got is really basic, the LTE version of the apps probably will give more notification but this will need a subscription. See more here evostart.ca. I just annoy the Toyota apps does not work most of the time for me so I have this install instead. If the OEM work for you then I would just keep it.