Blown Air Heating Installation

Farmer Piles

Farmer Piles

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I am look at a S/H 30 foot boat and by the looks of it it has no heating system. I thought that I might tap into forum source of knowledge to ask how easy/difficult is it to fit and roughly what could I expect to pay for the unit and fitting. I am thinking Webasto or similar.
Any experience and info appreciated.
 
Well, I fitted a Chinese diesel heater last year and it works well BUT you do have to upgrade some of the fittings as they are C***. And of course fit proper marine exhaust outlets etc. It cost me over £400 in the end, over double what I paid for the basic heater but considerably cheaper than a Webasto/Eberspacher. There is a Facebook site which tells you all about them, mostly for road use not marine. Most problems seem to be down to poor installations. You can find Eberspacher installation info on line which is a good starting point for good info. Also look at Planar Russian heaters - look good value and UK help.
 
Not difficult to fit, but you do have to fit them properly. A proper marine Eber or Webasto kit will set you back around £1400, plus fitting if you don't do it yourself. At the other end of the scale, a Chinaspacher, fitted yourself, could be done for around £200 all-in, including swapping out the crap exhaust hose and buying a stainless skin fitting (add another £50 if you want to fit a decent, sealed silencer).
 
The metal hot air trunking is 4 inches in diameter and lies across your engines, so every winter when you have serious maintenance to do, it all has to be pulled out first. And then clipped and clamped backed together again afterwards. That takes quite a long while but no big deal, you just need to factor it in to the time taken to work on your engine.
 
JerryC said:
The metal hot air trunking is 4 inches in diameter and lies across your engines, so every winter when you have serious maintenance to do, it all has to be pulled out first. And then clipped and clamped backed together again afterwards. That takes quite a long while but no big deal, you just need to factor it in to the time taken to work on your engine.
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Doesn’t that depend on your installation? And yours appears to be crap!
 
JerryC said:
The metal hot air trunking is 4 inches in diameter and lies across your engines, so every winter when you have serious maintenance to do, it all has to be pulled out first. And then clipped and clamped backed together again afterwards. That takes quite a long while but no big deal, you just need to factor it in to the time taken to work on your engine.
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Eh, if you have such an installation you'd want to re-think it.

Mine came fitted when I bought the boat but the whole installation is tucked away nicely, not in the way of anything. When I bought the boat, I removed the heater itself to service it - had it out in about 10 mins.
 
CLB said:
Not difficult to fit, but you do have to fit them properly. A proper marine Eber or Webasto kit will set you back around £1400, plus fitting if you don't do it yourself. At the other end of the scale, a Chinaspacher, fitted yourself, could be done for around £200 all-in, including swapping out the crap exhaust hose and buying a stainless skin fitting (add another £50 if you want to fit a decent, sealed silencer).
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This. Never worry about servicing, parts etc again. Parts are super easily available and dirt cheap. Decoking etc? Why bother. They are so cheap you just slide a whole new unit in. If boating was this easy, everybody would have one.
 
A friend decided to go for at 5kW (which was a bit unclear from the advert, but when it arrived it was marked 8kW). To utilize shipping he ordered two and before 3 months had to fit the spare control panel as first gave up the ghost.

Realized that an Eberspächer or Webasto controller wouldn't work as the Chinese device had different properties and 'color' graphics. Apart from that stilll running with no issues.

If installing make sure you get ducting right. The heater depends on the airflow/heat dissipation and may overheat if tubes are too small dia, too long, have too many bends or you fit adjustable outlets. The sum of resistance counts.

Another thing to consider is whether you'll recirculate the heated air, take fresh or blend it. If the boat is fairly airtight recirculation may cause build-up of humidity. Partial or full fresh air supply will help keeping you dry but of course takes more heating capacity.
 
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Out of interest I joined the Chinese Heater FB a good few years ago and whilst I get the feeling a lot of the problems encountered are due to installation issues, personally I wouldn't -

A/ Take a chance - Quality/Safety

B/ Waste my money - See above
 
The Chinese heaters are great value if you are a capable engineer, but are difficult for less experienced folk to deal with. The professionals won't touch them because they have dodgy CE marking, so that means Planar which a PBO forumite installs for his business, and these are very good and still around half the price of an Eberspacher / Webasto.

The vent will likely cost as much as the heater to install if done professionally.

Done by myself my complete install cost ~ £350, two years ago and still working absolutely fine.
 
ChromeDome said:
To utilize shipping he ordered two and before 3 months had to fit the spare control panel as first gave up the ghost.
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5 quid for the control panel. I ordered 5. Still have 5. Bought remotes for 3 quid and some gubbins to text it to start up for a few pennies more.

Installation is everything. For perceived safety I have a dedicated auto fire extinguisher mounted above it. 3 years on and it works perfectly. Had my insurance's surveyor survey my boat. He was absolutely fine with it and recommended a better exhaust lagging. 230 quid all in. What's not to like? The most hassle free upgrade and installation I ever made to the boat
 
I would say instalation of the heater is quite easy as lots of available info to guide you, but routing and fitting all the ducting takes a lot of time.
It really needs to be thought about to make sure your intended route is actually possible.
Something you can think about as who knows every part of your boat like you do?
 
Installation and fitting is crucial indeed.

My thinking was that since it is DIY, in many cases replacing an existing unit and that people are not equally skilled, one should do a proper planning and not be tempted to use old parts if not of the dimension required by the new device.
Fuel line, exhaust, power and air supply etc. The hazzle of replacing ducting could tempt some keep the old and potentially prevent proper function
 
You can also check Wallas heaters. Similar to Webasto, but also have paraffin models (not sure for power output)
 
A good friend got a Wallas with a Flipper boat. It didn't work and spares were not available for that specific model so it was removed/scrapped.

Just received the 2021 SVB catalog (PRINTED.. not common these days) and noted Wallas heaters. Not in any way priced to compete with the Russian (Planar) or Chinese (NN) copycats.. more in the price range of the Eber and Webasto devices.

Of course those big German names need to generate a profit, not least to pay their €68 million fine in cartel settlement
and you can't blame Wallas for piggybacking their pricing levels :cool:
 
ChromeDome said:
A good friend got a Wallas with a Flipper boat. It didn't work and spares were not available for that specific model so it was removed/scrapped.

Just received the 2021 SVB catalog (PRINTED.. not common these days) and noted Wallas heaters. Not in any way priced to compete with the Russian (Planar) or Chinese (NN) copycats.. more in the price range of the Eber and Webasto devices.

Of course those big German names need to generate a profit, not least to pay their €68 million fine in cartel settlement
and you can't blame Wallas for piggybacking their pricing levels :cool:
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Indeed! I have no sympathy for them. Seems to be a trait vis a vis VW emissions cheating....
 
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