Chinese (5kw )air heater

Here is a useful FAQ distillation someone on that site produced

ok ill also answer 20 questions that people have asked over and over maybe it can be pinned to the top.
1 do they modulate up and down, yes they do,all heaters have a thermostat inside the heater that monitor the air temp and compares it to what is required on the your controller and will adjust to that setting.
2 do they have a 7day timer yes if you buy the one with the lcd display with round buttons.
3 do they show faults, yes they do either by way of fault code on lcd display or flashing lights on knob type.
4 can they be fitted sideways or external yes to both sideways you must have it glow plug up to work.
question.
5 how to connect in, you plumb the two bottom pipes and fuel to outside elements and connect the two blower inlet/outlets inside. 6 can spares part be obtained yes they are all available from china .
7 are they all from china on ebay ,yes just different sellers names, tho some people are buying them in bulk and selling them in uk with a added cost on this site.
8 will they burn your van down, err no no fire as of yet to my knowledge tho nice warm vans.
9 are they approved, a grey area this,there is a cert that conforms they have been tested for military use in some capacity for cezch military on here floating around. Copy of cert below.
10 are these genuine planar, no these are chinese copies of eberspacher, the genuine planer is similar to webastos and made in russian.
11. shipping times,it varies from seller to seller from a week to 8 weeks tho most of this is down to customs i feel and postage carrier.
12 do you have to pay import fees, some have had to pay i believe from dhl carrier about £30 extra, but most on the whole have got through with no extra charges.
13 do they come with a warranty, yes 12mths from the seller but how good this is,is yet to be confirmed tho most issues seems to be handled ok from sellers thus far..
14 how new are these to market, these heater have been sold in the usa for the last 10 years and can be brought of the shelf in many stores, they are more new to the ebay uk market.
15 whats the quality like, ok the main unit is very good,the jubilee clips weak and you may need longer hosing for ducting and exhaust runs as you only get 0.5mtrs of each, but they are only £150 and well worth the money thus far given the alternative prices of others.
16 parts missing, ok so some kits have came without the exhuast silencer, mine came with the floor plate missing but had a silencer, but on the whole all the major parts are there, either they packing is a little poor or they may be low on stock for the kits. but still for the money they are a worthwhile investment even with the odd minor part missing, missing parts can be brought from ebay from eberspacher dealers if need be.
17 fuel types, they can be run on road diesel or parrafin, red diesel and kerosene, they use 0.2ltr per hour on low and 0.6 ltr on high,tho mostly will be run low once modulated down.petrol version heaters are available.
18 tips run the heater on max for ten minutes before you turn them of helps to burn any carbon off, parrafin is useful for decoking them as it burns differently and cleaner to diesel as its the only fuel rated for indoor diesel heaters too.
19 can they be connected to vehicle fuel tanks, yes as long as its a diesel vehicle and you know what your doing otherwise use the free tank in the kit.
20 using them while travelling, yes you can use the heater while the vehicle or boat is moving tho make sure you fuel tanks are topped up so you dont suck any air into pipe lines.
21instructions yes they normally come with english instructions showing how heater is to be connected together as for fitting into vehicle you have to adapt the info across
22 remote control option.there are remotes and gsm mobile controller in the chinese aftermarket stores that may well be compatable.ive yet to test one of these
23 extending pipe work, yes you can, the exhaust is 24mm and can buy it per mtr of ebay also ducting etc of ebay
24 power, they come in 12v or 24v, 12v ones pull about 20 amps on start up for glow plug then drop down to under 2 amps
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Id recommend a look. She good videos there and lots of 'real world' experience including who are the good and bad suppliers
 
Thanks for the Facebook group heads-up - interesting reading.
I can recognise a few of the recent new members as posters from this thread just by the questions they are asking :-)
I see Owen Cox is on there too.

Still waiting for my 'UK Stock' (ahem) heater to arrive..
 
skyflyer said:
My son has just pointed out that there is a "facebook group" with over 2700 members who do nothing else but discuss their findings on these Chinese heaters, both good and bad. I think this is the link

https://www.facebook.com/groups/146837062640024/

If you dont 'do' facebook then (a) dont shoot the messenger and (b) please dont drift the thread into a discussion about social media :-)
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That's very useful, thanks for the link.
 
Excellent. gives folks chance to weigh up the actual pros and cons from users .
As per usual our colonial cousins appear to have got wise to these budget heaters many years before us.
As regards quality and reliability , suspect many boaters have aboard their vessel invertors/ voltage droppers/ split diode devices/ chargers and a multitude of dubious electronic items that the importer has held their nose when worrying about safety compliance certificates.
It would help if a decent photocopier was used and the signature did not resemble M. Mouse.
As for the magic letters CE on the paperwork.
 
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Quote ...."Item 24) power, they come in 12v or 24v, 12v ones pull about 20 amps on start up for glow plug then drop down to under 2 amps "

'Tested' and under 10 amps ( glow pin not plug) at least on the 5wk and 3 kw that I have tested. 2 arrived in under a week ( by air) and I did pay duty on those ( £15 each)
 
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The current draw given in the FAQ does not match other posters' experiences. I read a more reasonable 10/4.2/2/1 A for startup/high/need/low power, for a 12v model.
 
Despite my scepticism in earlier posts, I have actually just ordered one of these. I will be using it to heat my workshop. Happy to report back on all aspects, from delivery, through to quality, use and reliability, as they happen. will take current and fuel flow readings and anything else that may be of interest. First hurdles will be: how long it takes from today to be delivered, and will the kit I ordered be the same as I receive, with all bits accounted for?
 
For those that are interested I bought one of these heaters to test in my workshop alongside a Planar from Russia. I ordered it and it took 6 weeks to arrive. When it did arrive it was broken and looked to ke as if it was packed in the box broken as the parts missing were not in the box. It was the cover damaged and pushed into the fan causing it not to spin. I repaired it and then proceeded to test it. The one I have has a very simple rheostat with no buttons and it is crude and basic looking. The wiring loom is obviously set uo for road vehicles and so the negative cable is very short as it is intended to use the body of the vehicle as the return. The display / control switch has an enormous plug that will mean cutting cables or drilling a large hoke to thread it through bulkheads. The fuel pump has the same plug as Eberspacher and Planar and is also pre fotted to the cables meaning it will also need cutting off and reconnecting to fit through a small hole. The fitting kit that comes with it is rubbish. Jubilee clips for exhaust pipe are hopeless and the mounting plate is also pretty rough and galvanised steel. They provide a metal P clip to mount the punp and this will nicely transmit every bit of noise throughout whatever it is fitted to.

I then switched it on. The first thing I noticed was that the fan and motor is very noisy. The second thing I noticed is that the pump pumps at at least twice the rate of other brands making the mounting P clip for it even more of a problem. Then it fored uo after the fuel was primed through and it had a no fuel fault code( i had to look this up online to check what it was as it was not in the fully comprehensive half a page of A4 gibberish that came with it.
The heater does heat up and runs ok. The heater is veey noisy and without a silencer is completely deafening and would be way too loud to use in a marina at night. With a planar silencer installed it is somewhat better.

I then tested the safeties and made sure that mine would not catch fire. It did as it should and did stop after i blocked the cabin air intake for a while and also if i removed the fuel line.
I can also show the current draw is way above what I would expect from one of these at low power the one I have draws about 3.5/4A. A Planar at the same power level draws 1.6 A.
As for the noise level between the two I found that I could run the chinese heater at low power at one side of my workshop and it would effectively drown out the noise of a Planar running when my ear is 40cm away from the Planar at the other.

Reliability I would say has been pretty well proven that the chinese are a lot less reliable. I have seen plenty of people say their glow plug failed within a few hours of running and they either replaced it with another chinese one and take the risk of premature failure or changed for an Eberspacher one which is half the price of a chinese heater. I have also personally had four people ring me up and ask for replacement circuit boards for them so they are already proving they are not particularly reliable considering the short time they have been for sale in the UK market.
I am sure they will get there eventually with the quality but surely the price will go up and then they may be worth it. I see a lot of people saying I will buy two so I have spares but I see this as a false economy because for a small amount more you can purchase a fully guaranteed CE marked heater which is more economical and reliable not to mention a lot quieter.

Just to clarify the one I bought is a 2kW version of Eberspacher clone.
 
Mine is still working perfectly . The eBay Chinese heater Facebook group started a poll a few days ago which showed a ratio of 10:1 in favor of satisfied users of the heater.
In the group there are pics of installations, test setups , and solutions to problems.
The truth of the matter is that at the price that they Chinese heaters are selling, I will not complain over a few niggles with it taking into account that a spare fan for my Eberspächer D4 plus can buy a couple of Chinese ones.
 
owen-cox said:
For those that are interested I bought one of these heaters to test in my workshop alongside a Planar from Russia. I ordered it and it took 6 weeks to arrive. When it did arrive it was broken and looked to ke as if it was packed in the box broken as the parts missing were not in the box. It was the cover damaged and pushed into the fan causing it not to spin. I repaired it and then proceeded to test it. The one I have has a very simple rheostat with no buttons and it is crude and basic looking. The wiring loom is obviously set uo for road vehicles and so the negative cable is very short as it is intended to use the body of the vehicle as the return. The display / control switch has an enormous plug that will mean cutting cables or drilling a large hoke to thread it through bulkheads. The fuel pump has the same plug as Eberspacher and Planar and is also pre fotted to the cables meaning it will also need cutting off and reconnecting to fit through a small hole. The fitting kit that comes with it is rubbish. Jubilee clips for exhaust pipe are hopeless and the mounting plate is also pretty rough and galvanised steel. They provide a metal P clip to mount the punp and this will nicely transmit every bit of noise throughout whatever it is fitted to.

I then switched it on. The first thing I noticed was that the fan and motor is very noisy. The second thing I noticed is that the pump pumps at at least twice the rate of other brands making the mounting P clip for it even more of a problem. Then it fored uo after the fuel was primed through and it had a no fuel fault code( i had to look this up online to check what it was as it was not in the fully comprehensive half a page of A4 gibberish that came with it.
The heater does heat up and runs ok. The heater is veey noisy and without a silencer is completely deafening and would be way too loud to use in a marina at night. With a planar silencer installed it is somewhat better.

I then tested the safeties and made sure that mine would not catch fire. It did as it should and did stop after i blocked the cabin air intake for a while and also if i removed the fuel line.
I can also show the current draw is way above what I would expect from one of these at low power the one I have draws about 3.5/4A. A Planar at the same power level draws 1.6 A.
As for the noise level between the two I found that I could run the chinese heater at low power at one side of my workshop and it would effectively drown out the noise of a Planar running when my ear is 40cm away from the Planar at the other.

Reliability I would say has been pretty well proven that the chinese are a lot less reliable. I have seen plenty of people say their glow plug failed within a few hours of running and they either replaced it with another chinese one and take the risk of premature failure or changed for an Eberspacher one which is half the price of a chinese heater. I have also personally had four people ring me up and ask for replacement circuit boards for them so they are already proving they are not particularly reliable considering the short time they have been for sale in the UK market.
I am sure they will get there eventually with the quality but surely the price will go up and then they may be worth it. I see a lot of people saying I will buy two so I have spares but I see this as a false economy because for a small amount more you can purchase a fully guaranteed CE marked heater which is more economical and reliable not to mention a lot quieter.

Just to clarify the one I bought is a 2kW version of Eberspacher clone.
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Give it a rest mate.
 
guardian said:
Give it a rest mate.
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Why, do you think he is not entitled to comment. I, for one, am pleased he took the trouble, I think you learn a lot more from critical posts than from adulatory ones, particularly if the poster has actual real experience of the product and while you may think he has an axe to grind we are surely capable of separating fact and opinion. Shame that Eber or Webasto are not capable of a response, I would like to hear from them too.
 
Quandary said:
Why, do you think he is not entitled to comment. I, for one, am pleased he took the trouble, I think you learn a lot more from critical posts than from adulatory ones, particularly if the poster has actual real experience of the product and while you may think he has an axe to grind we are surely capable of separating fact and opinion. Shame that Eber or Webasto are not capable of a response, I would like to hear from them too.
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+1
 
Quandary said:
Why, do you think he is not entitled to comment. I, for one, am pleased he took the trouble, I think you learn a lot more from critical posts than from adulatory ones, particularly if the poster has actual real experience of the product and while you may think he has an axe to grind we are surely capable of separating fact and opinion. Shame that Eber or Webasto are not capable of a response, I would like to hear from them too.
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+ 9999999 Well said :encouragement:

Small wonder so few industry professionals post here.

Not only has Owen spent his own money on one of these to evaluate it, he's taken the time to post his findings.
 
Quandary said:
Why, do you think he is not entitled to comment. I, for one, am pleased he took the trouble, I think you learn a lot more from critical posts than from adulatory ones, particularly if the poster has actual real experience of the product and while you may think he has an axe to grind we are surely capable of separating fact and opinion. Shame that Eber or Webasto are not capable of a response, I would like to hear from them too.
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+1
Stu
 
Quandary said:
Why, do you think he is not entitled to comment. I, for one, am pleased he took the trouble,.
Click to expand...

+1
Nowhere is he saying dont buy one just pointing out its shortcomings compared to something around twice the price in one case and over three times in the other.
Folks can make their own mind up and the unit is probably perfectly suitable for most applications provided you do not mind sourcing elsewhere the stuff not included in the budget price.
Personally am happy that I bought the Russian unit that came with everything that we needed for installation in boat that previously had an Eberspacher.
Mine was working well on Sunday with outside temps around 4C.
Friends who bought the Chinese versions still have intact boats.
 
As someone wavering between a Chinese and a real Planar (not for a boat, I have a working Beer [that was supposed to be Eber, but let autocorrect direct me down that route instead, I can live with it] on that) I found Owen's posting very very useful because gives me a reasonable comparison. I reckon for a couple of hundred pounds more, its worth it for the UK support, quieter unit and - by the sound of it - better build quality (= longevity).
It's a personal choice. Others might prefer to buy cheap and take the chance or replace more often.

As an aside, I find it quite amusing that when Planars first appeared on the scene much the same worries and concerns were raised about them as are now being raised about the Chinese ones! Same old same old!
 
I have tested 3 Chinaspachers from different manufacturers a 5kw and 2x3kw.
I found the noise levels similar to Eberspachers ( I have tested 100s of those)
The pump rate was very similar to the equivalent Eberspacher.
The main heater body seemed to be of robust construction but the wiring and other components were of poor quality.
I cant speak ( from experience) about reliability and will not quote on rumour and anecdotal experience.
I have no intention of selling Chinaspachers.
 
This entire thread is reminiscent of the Honda EU20 Generator clones!

Originally Kipor, which undeniably had issues with quality and reliability, and to this day lack the longevity or finesse of the Honda, but undeniably work for many careful low-hour users over quite a few years.

I have seen the Wiring on a mates Kipor which failed to start (The ignition circuit is run via the generator control panel, presumably for some kind of safety cut out, and a wire had fallen out of it's multi-plug) and it's a mess compared to the Honda, or even a twenty year old Honda, but it's quite a few years old and undeniably works well enough, even if it's noisy.

I had a Hyundai once, but sold it after the fuel lines started cracking and it leaked Petrol while running (I sourced proper fuel hose for replacement, but didn't ever trust it) and my current Stanley 2Kw (Chinese Honda clone but in Blue!) works very well and is a tad lighter than the Honda, but I'll be servicing it very carefully to see if it has any safety related issues such as fuel hoses cracking, having been bit once...

I have no doubt an Eberspacher is better, judging by my current one which was last serviced 8 years ago and runs perfectly, but see the thrill of buying a Chinese knock-off at such a lowly price. I just wouldn't kid myself it's as good as the real thing :nonchalance:
 
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