Ardic heating (again)

Whitelighter

Whitelighter

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I posted a while ago that I thought my heating wasn't working. Anyway, had another go today, and tried to be a bit more patient.

Thisng makes all the right noises, pitch of the hum changed after about 8 minutes, blower running and exhaust emitting what looked like whiteish smoke or steam, so it is doing something.

Question is what? For a full 20 minutes, the air out of the vents remained tepid. Any suggestions?
 
Jez can you take it back to where you bought then they will...

fix it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

cheers Joe
 
Is your system a simple one or does it have remote units? By that I mean, the system heats water that runs to remote units that extract the heat via blowers. That is how mine used to work and was fairly tepid!
 
Whoops! "Temperature " correct spelling must be adhered to on here!
If the setting of the temp(that,s easier) dial is not set "higher"than the "ambient temp" she won,t ignite I believe.
The dial on mine is numbered--- 1 TO 12 whatever that means!
I have a comprehensive manual which deals with the model I have.
Which covers in length about "start up technique".
It may not be the same model/era as yours, but it,s fairly idiot proof (well it worked for me!) and probably the kickstart method will be the same.
I could copy the info tommorrow and fax it to you.
Don,t ask Me to Email 1. My E mail facility on this pute is nacked(for a few days)
2 I,m no good at it!.
Faxing and copying stuff I can do 9----5 during the week.
If that,s of any help pleases Holler.
 
Chuck it! Had one once, the most frustrating piece of boaty equipment I've ever had the misfortune to come across. Absolute crap.

Now have a Mikuni which has never missed a beay.
 
hate to agree but yes. Mine displayed exactly the same symtoms and after giving up my own attempts I had a boat guy to fix it. It worked for 3 days, he said it was beyond him and recommended sending it back to the manufacturers. I did and they completely overhauled it, virtually every part replaced, cost a small fortune. For reasons to long to go into, it was 6 months before I could get it refitted to the boat - damn thing was exactly the same.
Now have eberspacher - never misses a beat.
 
The Ardic on my 33 heated water that went through heat exchangers. The air then blew across the heater exchangers to get warm.

The problem was though that the system was set up with the same water loop heating one of the engines and the hot water tank.

So if the engine and water heater were cold it took forever to get the air to be anything more than the tepid you describe. The engine & the water had to get hot first.

I don't know if your system is the same or not. They say it is plumbed this way to 'pre-heat' the engine which is surely rubbish. The other one doesn't need pre-heating. Of course if the engine is running then you get hot water and hot air quickly.

If the engine is not running then it 'steals' all your heat so the air heating stays tepid. Indeed on my boat if you checked the engine it would be hot but the air would be cold.

I would suggest re-arranging the plumbing with two valves & an engine bypass. Then by isolating two valves the engine could be excluded from this hot water loop. The water would then only be circulating through the water heater & hot air unit, not the engine. You would open the valves if you wanted the engine to heat the system instead of the Ardic.

I was contemplating this modification myself but then sold the boat before I got round to it.

Hope this isn't too much gibberish or completely irrelevant to your system.
 
I think the Ardic units have an auto cutoff if ignition doesn't occur. When I was trying to get mine working, it would wirr for a while clicking the fuel pump and then give up and the fan would go to double speed for a short while before stopping.

If you have white smoke and it's running for 20 minutes - it suggests that it is working. Sounds like the heat exchanger theory is correct. Do you engines get warm?

S.
 
I concur - and can follow what you say... because I was speaking to a friend who has a 2001 year, small Nimbus Coupe, and he had investigated carefully why his Ardic heater gave tepid air even when set to 'high'. It was doing exactly as you say and just heating the engine water! But he reports that he has been unable to find any shut-off or 'switch-over' valves in the system, as per jimg's post. Just like the system on your 33 Nova Coupe, it only warms up the boat if the engine's running.
 
Recon I could say the same about my eberscratcher. Must have spent about six grand on it by now. New casting, err £600, new computer thingies umpteen times, cant think of anything that has not been replaced. Yet I'm told, if it goes wrong again, it's bolloxed. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
Mine was on a Nimbus 380 Commmander and the valve was fairly obvious being next to the port engine. I have to admit that we never tried changing it over, as the only time we used the heating was after a run and we ended up on a buoy or at anchor and the engine was warm anyway. If we were in a marina we used an electric heater.
If one is not present it should be fairly straight forward to put one in.
 
Change of fan speed should take place within 2 minutes for a proper ignition cycle. The white smoke is heated but unburnt diesel which implies the glowplug is not getting hot enough to produce proper fuel ignition. As already suggested, check wire and connection to glow plug, check volatage at glowplug, remove and clean glow plug, reassemble and try another start. If no improvement, replace glowplug. You may also have to depress the tiny reset switch on the heater body if you have had several "bad" starts.
 
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