chinese diesel heater installation

Elessar said:
Interesting. Does it carbon up less?
And I know nothing about kerosine. How flammable is it?
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The supplier that I use for my engine fuel, supplies many of the ferries on the West Coast. Consequently it is still high sulfur fuel, which is good for the engine, but gave problems with the Eberspacher. Apparently, running the Eber on Kerosene (paraffin) occasionally, is said to remove any build up of carbon on the heat exchanger, so having found a good convenient and cheap (about 70p/ltr) source of Kero, I just use it all the time. Been running it on Kero for about 3 or 4 years now at about 100 litres/year. Absolutely no problems. I know nothing about the Chinese heaters, but as they appear to be pretty much a straight copy, I see no reason why they wouldn't work equally well on Kero.
 
Paraffin (which people seem to be calling kerosene recently for some reason) worked really well in my Webasto blown air heater.. less soot, and I think a bit hotter, than diesel.
If you use a dedicated tank for the heater then you can chuck in anything you wouldn't use in the engine, and you can mix diesel, paraffin, jet fuel, which I have found handy.
(I also use this tactic in my drip feed heater which will burn any random central heating oil, dirty diesel, JetA1, whatever which saves money. )
 
I ran my Chinese heater on 'kerosene' - Domestic Heating oil - which I don't think is paraffin... just a lighter form of diesel but I stand to be corrected. I ran it on a temporary basis on 'Kerosene' for 20 hrs to check the operation in my workshop. It worked perfectly and when I fitted it in my boat I used diesel from the engine tank(road diesel as I can't get red from my boatyard).
 
PetiteFleur said:
I ran my Chinese heater on 'kerosene' - Domestic Heating oil - which I don't think is paraffin... just a lighter form of diesel but I stand to be corrected. I ran it on a temporary basis on 'Kerosene' for 20 hrs to check the operation in my workshop. It worked perfectly and when I fitted it in my boat I used diesel from the engine tank(road diesel as I can't get red from my boatyard).
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My understanding is that paraffin is a slightly more refined type of kerosene, but they are essentially the same thing.
 
PetiteFleur said:
I ran my Chinese heater on 'kerosene' - Domestic Heating oil - which I don't think is paraffin... just a lighter form of diesel but I stand to be corrected. I ran it on a temporary basis on 'Kerosene' for 20 hrs to check the operation in my workshop. It worked perfectly and when I fitted it in my boat I used diesel from the engine tank(road diesel as I can't get red from my boatyard).
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Sorry for the name confusion..to me 'kerosene' is a foreign word for paraffin, and in the UK, I have always known central heating oil as..central heating oil.
They should all be great in a diesel heater though. And if you have a friend whose house is actually heated by the stuff, with a huge tank in the garden, central heating oil costs pennies. ( I have a drip feed heater on board, going all winter so I can't bear paying tax on it..)
 
Right as a small update - I am currently waiting for my insurers to get back me regarding my cover (hopefully this will be ok).
on another note in my many hours researching youtube I came across this video where a chap had an old eberspacher which he states he's been using for ten years but has been in the boat about 20yrs.
on this particular eberspacher model it had a water trap attached to the exhaust. approx 1m 30 second in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_GDu-__0xI

can anyone chime in if the newer heaters still have this type of water trap ?

Jon
 
jon and michie said:
Right as a small update - I am currently waiting for my insurers to get back me regarding my cover (hopefully this will be ok).
on another note in my many hours researching youtube I came across this video where a chap had an old eberspacher which he states he's been using for ten years but has been in the boat about 20yrs.
on this particular eberspacher model it had a water trap attached to the exhaust. approx 1m 30 second in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_GDu-__0xI

can anyone chime in if the newer heaters still have this type of water trap ?
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The condensate drain is optional. I've never had one on any of my boat heaters. Once the heater gets going, the amount of condensation produced in the exhaust tube is minimal, as the tube gets so hot. Lagging the exhaust both protects the boat against heat damage and ensures that the exhaust pipe gets hot enough to minimise any condensation.

Edit: The YouTube video you linked to isn't a particularly good installation. Eberspacher say the exhaust outlet on the hull should be at least 300mm above sea level; it looks like the one in the video is close to sea level. And they suggest a max exhaust pipe length of 2m; again, the guy in the video says it's 2.6m and of course it isn't lagged either.
 
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Have just finished with installation on my Halmatic. I didn't go with a condensate drain for same reasons PVB mentions, and previous boat didn't have one either and didn't appear to be causing any problem. For the exhaust, I bought the heat resistant sleeve, and used tying wire at each end to hold it in position, then I ran the whole lot inside a length of 60mm aluminium ducting that I had from previous boat... a sort of belt and braces approach. With the heater on full chat, I can put my hand against the ducting over the exhaust... hot, yes... but not scorching. One time consuming part was deciding exactly where to position the exhaust skin fitting on the transom as there wasn't a lot of room inside the locker area at that position.
 
Tgank you stevie69p - if I do gi ahead with fitting one I have plenty of exhaust wrap and stainless tie wraps which I plan to use on the exhaust.
What kw heater did you fit and how hot does the heater casing get?
I am thinking of using e metal box to put the heater in - if it gets too hot

Jon
 
jon and michie said:
Tgank you stevie69p - if I do gi ahead with fitting one I have plenty of exhaust wrap and stainless tie wraps which I plan to use on the exhaust.
What kw heater did you fit and how hot does the heater casing get?
I am thinking of using e metal box to put the heater in - if it gets too hot

Jon
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I fitted the 5kw version. The casing doesn't get hot at all. It isn't weather proof though so would need to be protected in that sense.
 
Ohlin Karcher said:
Sorry for the name confusion..to me 'kerosene' is a foreign word for paraffin, and in the UK, I have always known central heating oil as..central heating oil.
They should all be great in a diesel heater though. And if you have a friend whose house is actually heated by the stuff, with a huge tank in the garden, central heating oil costs pennies. ( I have a drip feed heater on board, going all winter so I can't bear paying tax on it..)
Click to expand...

I did some research for an article about Ebers for PBO a few years back. I found a paper on the American site which recommended kerosine/paraffin as a decoke agent. They recommended running for an hour or so to decoke it. I put this in the article. I actually stripped a D2, took pix of the carboned combustion chamber, put it back together then ran it on kerosene from the local hardware shop, (it is almost impossible to buy paraffin as us old timers knew it) I then stripped it to show a clean combustion chamber. Eber UK blew a gasket with one particular chap saying Eberspacher did not recommend running on kerosene, yaddy yaddy yaddy! So I sent him the link to the American site and the text! It does work. I also ran my D3 on 28sec heating oil when we were in Holyhead for a winter, no ill effects except at 38p a ltr my wallet wasnt hit as bad!
PS
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...egular-monthly-use-decoking-with-paraffin-etc
 
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Stevie69p - is your heater loud?
When i have looked on YouTube I don't know if it's the sound on the pc or the recording or the heater that is loud

Jon
 
Kerosene is 28 Second heating oil, and used to be known in the UK as Paraffin.

Red diesel is 35 Second heating oil.

'Seconds' refers to Redwood Seconds - a measure of viscosity.

I believe kerosene has less energy but does burn cleaner hence less soot, but slightly less energy.

I have used Kerosene without any problems on my last boat - Eber D4 and current Chinaspacher. The issue I am having is getting a local supplier of just 20 litres of kerosene at a sensible price, so I might use a 50:50 mix for this winter.
 
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