aux heater on Sharan/Galaxy/Alhambra

davierobb

davierobb

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Prestwick, Scotland
www.guesthouseprestwickayr.co.uk
I have a VW Sharan with an auxiliary diesel heater fitted under the back passenger side seat. The heater is diesel powered, heats water and subsequently heats the rear of the car up via a self contained heat exchanger. The heater unit is very small.

The setup looks ideal for a small boat, power usage for the fan might be a problem but no different to eber and propex units. I guess that these units are readily available from scrappies, has anyone tried to use one of these on a boat and did it work ok?

Also, it might/should be an easy job to use the engine cooling water to feed unit when engine is running.
 
Funny you should mention that! We're throwing away some similar units (Webasto) at work at present and I was wondering about theiving one. Ours don't work in quite the same way (they're off diesel Peugeots) but they burn diesel and dump the heat into the car's cooling system.. They are about 5kW and have a small water pump (also electric) to keep the coolant circulating after the burner shuts off. I'd need to plumb it into a suitably sized heater matrix but it doesn't seem impossible. Current draw might be more of an issue though - the electric water pump plus the fan plust the fuel pump for the burner jet might be a bit "greedy" when it comes to electricity consumption.
 
I had exactly the same thought as I have a Galaxy for the first time and on the first cold morning I thought, thats an eber starting up! with the tell tale half burnt diesel smell as I loaded up the back of the car.

I know of boats that have a water circulated heating system with a small radiator low down in the saloon, apart from being heavier than a forecd air heating system It should work well.

I'd go for a water and radiator system seeing as it is heating and circulating water already, and at least holes in bulheads will be smaller thanm the hot air pipes.
 
Eberspacher

and Webasto are the two largest manufacturers of in-vehicle diesel-burning heating systems.
Eberspacher actually produce a hot-water system to drive a central heating system, though I don't know about Webasto.

I've been on a Swedish boat fitted with the Eberspacher system, the boiler was very little different in weight to the warm-air Eberspacher, the 3 heat-exchangers in the cabins were fan-supplemented and together with piping weighed <5kg. Most of the extra weight was compensated for by having a small (5 litre) hot water cylinder. In -4C outside temperatures it kept the boat interior at a delightful 22C. Start-up current draw was almost the same as the hot air Eberspacher (about 6 amps) but running power-draw (without the fans on) was considerably less than the hot-air Eberspacher at 1 amp.

Definitely the way I'd go if I needed to replace the electric fan heater I use at present.
 
I second Steves warning!!
Many of these heaters ( both air and water) fitted in modern vehicles rely on inputs from the the vehicles electronic system. You may need to replicate the required inputs for the heaters specially adapted electronics to work.
Eberspacher units generally seem easier to run 'stand alone' wherease Webasto seem to modify their electronics to suit vehicle manufacturers.
Regards
 
I haven't checked it, but this sounds like the same heater (Eberspacher) which is a standard fit on Transits for cold climates. They're configured to preheat the cooling system - rather like they used to run a wing engine on fast patrol boats to warm up the main to avoid it cracking! It would be interesting to get a handle on the control requirements, even if it only allowed a manual switch on/off and maybe a simple thermostat.

Anyone know how it's done?

Rob.
 
With most of these heaters you can just run it through the normal coolant system, then by getting the heater to fire up and your vehicle heater to switch on you can prewarm your engine and get your interior all toasty.
If you wish you can extend the coolant pipework to a fan/matrix in the rear of the vehicle.
 
i have tried the water heaters from sharans and galaxys and have to report that as mentioned already they are entwined in the ecu and the air con system, the best you can hope for is to get the heater then change the controller on the end. i have done this but its a pain as the wiring to the sensors and glow plug etc needs changing.
see this ebay link for product to eliminate need for ecu on water heater.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EBERSPACHER-HYDRON...A1%7C240%3A1318

expensive so i dont see the point


steve
 
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