Chinese (5kw )air heater

PaulRainbow said:
I've asked some of those before, but didn't get a response of any sort.

Seems no one who claims to be happy with these heaters is brave enough to actually do any of the tests.

Oh, wait, i do know one person that did some proper testing............. the heater caught fire :)
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Sounds like you use the same laundry service old git uses.............................
 
NormanS said:
How do Eberbastos fare in all these tests?
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I can only state that my Webasto came with detailed installation, operating and maintenance instructions in my native language. They are a minimum requirement for any "type approval" on safety grounds.

Yes my Webasto has been operated under the conditions not recommended in the manuals.
In all cases it has failed safe.

The only evidence of potential conflagration was my fender had started to melt and is now a combination cylinder fender but with a new optional balloon protrusion! :encouragement:
rather
 
Regards the Russian sourced heater.
The warm air outlet on the Planar heater at 102mm is larger than most existing ducting on boats. ie mostly 75mm.
Being a lazy cheapskate in a hurry I went down the route of purchasing a metre of 100mm ducting and a pressed tin reducer ( 100mm to 75mm ) from Ebay. You can now get the proper thing and probably cheaper and simp-ler.
If you smooth out the wrinkles on the 100mm ducting it will nicely fit the slightly larger 102mm on heater.
Used the new supplied inlet air combustion pipe and used the new supplied stainless exhaust pipe and silencer which fitted perfectly my prexisting hull exhaust fitting.
Must confess just fitted new fuel pump into old fuel line.
Total cost was around £600 quid and two morning work.
Only comment when in difficulty RT*M :)
All this arose simply because of non functioning D3 needing several hundred pounds of work and it then being reinstalled with 30 years old ancilleries and how long would any of it last ?
No brainer really.
 
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Steve_N said:
I presume that the advertised 5000w output of the Chinese heaters is just a made-up figure, much as they make up lumens figures for their torches, bike lights etc.
If you want a smaller one they will also sell you a 2000w model which costs the same and looks identical in every way.
I'm sure that if you told a seller exactly what output you want he'd put up an Ebay listing to your exact output specification, using the same 2000-5000w unit.. :-)
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What matters to me is the current draw. Our D3LC is about 3.5kw (which by the way decided to start just now:confused:) is sufficient for 3 outlets on our boat and shuts down to tickover on the thermostat when up to temperature, very miserly battery usage. Bigger heater would be overkill and around here only occasional use at night.
 
oldgit said:
All this arose simply because of non functioning D3 needing several hundred pounds of work and it then being reinstalled with 30 years old ancilleries and how long would any of it last ? No brainer really.
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Thanks for the info, very useful. My Eber has done around 16 years now (moved from previous boat) and in that time has just had a new glowplug and programmer so I've certainly had value for money. Looks like it's just had a reprieve but, when it does finally pack up, I'll most likely go for the Russian version.
 
For what it's worth, I have just spent 8 days in a cold Amsterdam on my boat with my 4kw Russian Planar heater going 24/7.
Toasty.
Just remember to run it on high heat for a few minutes every several hours to prevent soot build up (a Planar weakness).
GrahamM376 said:
Thanks for the info, very useful. My Eber has done around 16 years now (moved from previous boat) and in that time has just had a new glowplug and programmer so I've certainly had value for money. Looks like it's just had a reprieve but, when it does finally pack up, I'll most likely go for the Russian version.
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Noisey old ebers....awful row sans silencer.

the other advantage is the new heater comes with silencer which is most effective.
Can well remember to reluctance to fire up the Ebers and Ardics of previous boats due to the howling roar of the exhaust which must have been annoying to say the least to any nearbye crew trying to sleep.
You could hear it for some distance on a still night...and if you were unfortunate enough to be moored along side me :(
 
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Re: Noisey old ebers....awful row sans silencer.

The silencers that I have seen with the Chinese heaters look like the square eberspacher type. According to eberspacher, these are not guaranteed gas tight, and are not designed for use in enclosed places like a boat. The boat silencers that eberspacher sell are long tubular shape. What do you get with teh Planar heaters?
 
Re: Noisey old ebers....awful row sans silencer.

There's a short article in PBO about silencers. Critical thing seems to be whether the seams are fully welded or not.
 
PaulRainbow said:
Oh, wait, i do know one person that did some proper testing............. the heater caught fire :)
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Not really in the market for these, but rather interested in this—could you supply a video (it was earlier mentioned there was a video of one of these catching fire on YouTube—haven't been able to find anything) or a more detailed report of the circumstances leading to the fault? In what way did it catch fire: were the flames contained by the casing? Exhaust configuration, fuel feed, etc etc. You can make most things catch fire if you try hard enough...
 
weustace said:
Not really in the market for these, but rather interested in this—could you supply a video (it was earlier mentioned there was a video of one of these catching fire on YouTube—haven't been able to find anything) or a more detailed report of the circumstances leading to the fault? In what way did it catch fire: were the flames contained by the casing? Exhaust configuration, fuel feed, etc etc. You can make most things catch fire if you try hard enough...
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The air intake was restricted, which led to the heater overheating and ultimately catching fire. The overheat sensor obviously wasn't effective. It's something that could easily happen on a boat, where the heaters tend to be installed in lockers full of stuff.

I believe there are some photos, i'll ask the person that carried out the tests if he'll post them.
 
Tradewinds said:
For what it's worth, I have just spent 8 days in a cold Amsterdam on my boat with my 4kw Russian Planar heater going 24/7.
Toasty.
Just remember to run it on high heat for a few minutes every several hours to prevent soot build up (a Planar weakness).
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Good to hear it works well, i suspect i'll be needing one soon.

The high heat thing was a feature of the early Ebers too, not sure what the later ones do.
 
Re: Noisey old ebers....awful row sans silencer.

CLB said:
The silencers that I have seen with the Chinese heaters look like the square eberspacher type. According to eberspacher, these are not guaranteed gas tight, and are not designed for use in enclosed places like a boat. The boat silencers that eberspacher sell are long tubular shape. What do you get with teh Planar heaters?
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A friend has just bought one of the planar heaters and the exhaust silencer ( square eberspacher style) appears to be seam welded all round the edges including the inlet/outlet stubs as opposed to the crimping on the eberspacher ones.
 
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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well not quite.. I just became 2701st in order to read it., but I have no findings to offer!

How many of the 2700 knows anything about them?
 
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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Thanks for that, very useful :)
 
I havent trawled through it all but a quick summary would be:

1. Most of the participants seem to be installing them in vans or campervans - some in sheds some elsewhere!
2. many have ordered direct from China, but time to delivery is highly variable - some arrive within days, others havent arrived yet after weeks
3. Most seem happy with the product, but
4. There are regular examples of people having heaters that are either missing accessories or give error codes
5. Seems to be a theme that temp cant be regulated low enough - but if you have a 5KW heater in a panel van thats probably no surprise.
 
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