The heat from my Focus isn't bad, in fact its the opposite, end up sweating eventually lol, its just the time it takes to get the hot air that is a bit annoying. If you're in the car for 45mins+ and have the temp knob in the red it gets unbearable!

Tried this this morning and.... IT WORKS!! :D

Heat knob as far into the red as possible, fan speed on 3 (probably not relevant), directed towards face vents and had warm air coming through in half a mile, if that.

But also got choked by an awful burning smell/taste shortly after...not sure if it was related or something outside lol! Noticed DPF was regenerating about 2 miles later, first regen on the new DPF and that smelt pretty bad, but not sure if it was that earlier on, thought it could only regen when coolant was up to temp but maybe that only applies for static regens. So I'll have to try the heater again to make sure it's not that melting anything lol.

Also - the regen warmed the coolant up quickly, was at 90c in just a few miles lol! So that explains why I never noticed the slow warm up before changing the DPF I guess.

As for the heat, this is exactly what mine does too! Is a lifesaver in the cold mornings!

No funky smell though. I am on the original DPF though :)

Temp gauge takes ages to get to 90. Getting hot air immediately regardless of gauge.

It's odd, some people seem to get a bad smell during regens and others don't, don't really know why!

When I forced a regen on the old/partly blocked DPF it smelt bad, but nowhere near as bad as the new one did today, even opened the bonnet when I parked up afterwards to check it hadn't melted through anything under there lol. It hadn't though, so hopefully it won't smell like that again after its first burn off.

Anyway, at least I know the supplemental heater works fine now. :D