Recommend me best heating method

Babylon

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Excellent and erudite video presentation. Note that he says his forced-air system is a Planar which is Russian-made and, whilst much cheaper than the Webasto and Eberspacher units (both recently found guilty, as I understand it, of price-fixing!), it is of the same quality, unlike the very cheap and problematic Chinese units.

When my Webasto got old and stopped working (after 20yrs), I went down the Planar route - supplied and fitted in a morning by Owen Cox (scion of our own Vyv Cox): BUILT TO ISO 9001:2015 - 2 YEAR WARRANTY - 100% MADE IN RUSSIA

To the OP: for a Contessa 26 my own advice would be to go down the Planar route - based purely on the fact that your interior is so tiny that (i) it won't take much running to keep the internal volume warm enough even in your latitudes, (ii) it won't take up any room inside the cabin - the whole unit would be fitted in the cockpit locker or lazarette and its supply taps off the main tank - and (iii) no external flue to worry about.
 
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Kelpie

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He has not fitted any insulation...it’s a stock boat.

For what it’s worth I lined my cabin with camping Carry mat to insulate it better on a previous boat - cured the overnight condensation drips. I removed all the lining panels, glued battens to the hull /deck head thick enough for a tiny air gap, stuck the carry mat to the hull with hot melt glue then refitted the panels. Cheap, simple, effective and invisible.

Surely an air gap between the hull and and the insulation is the last thing you want? Unless it was carefully designed to drain down into the bilge. Still not ideal.
 

wazza

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Hi, like most yachts I have no heating.
The plan is to cope with Norwegian nights down towards zero and not be an icicle, to be comfortable.
Hard to get any sleep when i am Cold.
The yacht in question is a contessa 26. Thus space is a strong consideration. Budget less so.
Thanks for any advice on my options.
The answer can not rely on shore power.
I’m in Sweden and I have a Cubic mini wood burner. Very toasty
 

wully1

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Surely an air gap between the hull and and the insulation is the last thing you want? Unless it was carefully designed to drain down into the bilge. Still not ideal.

the air gap is between the carry mat Glued to the hull and the lining.. the lining is unfinished ply towards the hull with foam backed vinyl glued to the cabin facing side. Moisture trapped there will cause problems over time. Apologies if that was unclear.
 

Babylon

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Still waiting...

I'm not interested in a pi$$ing competition, whereas you seem to have an axe to grind on this, see for example Bought a Chinese diesel heater, now tested...

I used the term "problematic" because compared to a European (ridiculously over-priced) or Russian (reasonably-priced) heater which meet EU standards, a random Chinese copy costing from roughly £100 from one sweat-shop factory or another isn't going to inspire the same confidence - refer to the above link, and if anyone has an entire week to waste there are also myriad discussions all over the web.

Now I'm sure that folk with a very tight budget but confident engineering skills could take a generic Chinese unit and fit it entirely safely to their boat. But this takes skill and knowledge as to what components are up to snuff and what aren't, and even so there is no long-term data on the lifespan of these.

Therefore, as an average boat-owner looking last year to have a 20yr old Webasto replaced with a safe, fit-and-forget unit, I personally took a decision as a consumer to avoid any potential "problems" and unknown lifespan of an extremely cheap Chinese unit and instead had Owen Cox fit one of the EU compliant Planar heaters he imports directly from Russia, along with reliable warranty, after-sales support, etc.

An entirely rational decision don't you think?
 

Gerry

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We live aboard in the UK and have a Cubic Grizzly Log burner- for a smaller boat they do a Cubic mini. It's amazing and produces a wonderful dry heat..as well as a cheery glow in the cabin. We never have any condensation issues now,. the downside is the tiny firebox takes regular stoking and will rarely last thru the night. We find that using compressed logs helps extend the burn time when needed. Cannot recommend highly enough- this will be our 4th season with it.
 

Kelpie

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I'm not interested in a pi$$ing competition, whereas you seem to have an axe to grind on this, see for example Bought a Chinese diesel heater, now tested...

I used the term "problematic" because compared to a European (ridiculously over-priced) or Russian (reasonably-priced) heater which meet EU standards, a random Chinese copy costing from roughly £100 from one sweat-shop factory or another isn't going to inspire the same confidence - refer to the above link, and if anyone has an entire week to waste there are also myriad discussions all over the web.

Now I'm sure that folk with a very tight budget but confident engineering skills could take a generic Chinese unit and fit it entirely safely to their boat. But this takes skill and knowledge as to what components are up to snuff and what aren't, and even so there is no long-term data on the lifespan of these.

Therefore, as an average boat-owner looking last year to have a 20yr old Webasto replaced with a safe, fit-and-forget unit, I personally took a decision as a consumer to avoid any potential "problems" and unknown lifespan of an extremely cheap Chinese unit and instead had Owen Cox fit one of the EU compliant Planar heaters he imports directly from Russia, along with reliable warranty, after-sales support, etc.

An entirely rational decision don't you think?

Nor am I interested in, as your put it, a 'pi$$ing competition'.
I'm just picking you up on your statement that the Chinese heaters are 'problematic'. That is your statement, and I was wondering why you made it since in my experience they are no more problematic than any other type of blown-air diesel heater.
You say I have an axe to grind- what exactly does that mean? I have nothing to gain if somebody buys one of these heaters. I don't like to see baseless assertions go unchallenged though.

From the rest of your post it seems that the 'problems' are entirely in your own head.

The Chinese heaters are sold as vehicle kits, and fitting one safely to a boat is exactly the same as fitting a Webasto etc that is sold for use in a vehicle. In other words, you need to add the marinising components. This is not rocket science.

I'm happy that you must have sufficient means to ignore the price difference between Chinese heaters and other brands. For me, it is not a question of Chinese vs German/Russian. It's a question of Chinese vs no heater at all.
 

convey

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When it comes to boats I have an eye for detail, but did not notice anything other than standard looking cabin side windows in any of them.
For strength, I agree. I was musing for the same of insulation/condensation and to stop runs of water. I've got curves to deal with and not sure how to seal them, as in the centres would have considerably more pressure upon them than the outsides. I'm thinking I need some kind of tape that does not squish out, perhaps? From memory, it's about 1cm to bend either edge and I just can see how I can do so on a thick enough piece of flat acrylic.

FWIW, although stronger against impacts, polycarbonate is more flexible which may lead to sealing problems.

Does anyone know if any company in the UK makes trims to go around external style windowing? External and internal trims?
 

convey

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You say that like it’s a good thing.
Well, put it this way, a) Russians have been building submarines for a lot longer than Chinese, so I think I'd trust them first, and b) it's generally a lot colder in Russia and for longer than anywhere in Guangdong. Many things they actually do very robustly.

The manufacturer (link) is based in Samara on the Volga.

I am sorry, but I would not trust anything Chinese where my life was potentially threatened if for no other reason that all their products are designed to break and be replaced (I would not buy their tools either). Compare them to all of the totally garbage generators they are flooding the market with, some of which have killed people, all of which wrapped up in completely fallacious claims of where they are made, how much power they put out etc etc.

The Chinese do not build real things. They build fake copies of real things designed to extract foreign currency.

Interesting facts,
Teplostar/Advers, which manufactures the Planars, is a large company with over 1000 employees, $3.6m turnover, serious R&D and research facilities and make several hundred thousand units a year.

98% of the heater is made in 1 factory, including software.

76% of the Russian engineers that make them are female

Every heater is tested and ran for 1 hour before leaving the factory

The heater works down to temperatures of -50℃

Quality control randomly selects heaters that are tested for 1000 hrs

Brushless motors rated for 12,000 hours
But, I'll stick to a no moving parts heater, thanks.
 

peteK

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The erberspacher heaters are now made in China,I fitted a Chinese diesel diesel heater 18 months ago and very pleased with it.
 

convey

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Thanks but I don't have a Contessa, the OP has. Who actually forms the trims to suit is my question.

Some nice items there though.
 
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