Diesel heater service or ignore ?

[Momac]

Diesel heater issues have been mentioned on another forum. Also a couple of weeks ago a pal has needed a significant repair to his heater at a cost of about £500. I understand a new combustion chamber was required.

I have owned a boat with a diesel heater only a couple of years or so. This is our third winter with the present boat (how time flies).

My Eberspacher heater has been fitted from 2003 when the boat was new and I dare say the heater has never been serviced.
My only action is to run the heater at high setting for at least 15 minutes before switching it off. This is in an attempt to minimise any build up of carbon. The heater works as it should.

I see a service kit is available which seems to be a couple of gaskets and a fuel filter. Presumably a service involves dismantling and cleaning.

Is it advisable to carry out a regular service and will this prolong the life of the heater ? Or is it best to leave the heater alone if it is working okay?

 

[Stats007]

I belive the lifespan of a diesel heater is only ten years - then it should be replaced.

 

[oldgit]

I belive the lifespan of a diesel heater is only ten years - then it should be replaced.

Many Esperspachers go on for much longer than that.Some boats on our moorings have heaters over 30 years old, replaced simply because when finally it does refuse to fire up, the manufacturer have discontinued supplying spares.
It would appear that the authorised repair outfits simply do not want to get involved in on site repair work and will request that you remove older units and bring to their workshop to check if thing is salvable.
Have D5 (notoriously unreliable) in workshop which was stripped out as U/S and replaced with new unit.
After being installed in 1982 and recently lying idle for several years it finally refused to start.

The connecting wiring joints and connections were corroded and when cleaned and connected to decent 12V power it started immediately.Got to be worth a quick half hour to check joints and connections (if you find em ) before handing over to the professionals.
Suspect most faults are the usual boat problems,lack of use and neglect of simple mantainance.
It would help of course if the boat builders did not go to great lengths to hide the heater unit in the darkest deepest depths of the boat structure.

 

[Billy Blue]

Diesel heater issues have been mentioned on another forum. Also a couple of weeks ago a pal has needed a significant repair to his heater at a cost of about £500. I understand a new combustion chamber was required.

I have owned a boat with a diesel heater only a couple of years or so. This is our third winter with the present boat (how time flies).

My Eberspacher heater has been fitted from 2003 when the boat was new and I dare say the heater has never been serviced.
My only action is to run the heater at high setting for at least 15 minutes before switching it off. This is in an attempt to minimise any build up of carbon. The heater works as it should.

I see a service kit is available which seems to be a couple of gaskets and a fuel filter. Presumably a service involves dismantling and cleaning.

Is it advisable to carry out a regular service and will this prolong the life of the heater ? Or is it best to leave the heater alone if it is working okay?

When mine stopped working on my last boat, I had to have it fixed. It was the control unit which was expensive of course. Anyway, I asked the engineer who replaced it about servicing the unit at the same time. His advice was to not to bother and just wait till something goes wrong.

 

[rafiki_]

When mine stopped working on my last boat, I had to have it fixed. It was the control unit which was expensive of course. Anyway, I asked the engineer who replaced it about servicing the unit at the same time. His advice was to not to bother and just wait till something goes wrong.

I have been advised exactly the same.

 

[Stats007]

If you read any of the service manuals then they quote 10 years as the lifespan - in some countries this is also enforced I believe.

I suppose you could ignore the advice of any manufacturer about servicing and preventative maintenance .

 

[Trundlebug]

If you read any of the service manuals then they quote 10 years as the lifespan - in some countries this is also enforced I believe.

I suppose you could ignore the advice of any manufacturer about servicing and preventative maintenance .

Of course, manufacturer's guidelines and recommendations have to be taken into account, but you also have to consider the bigger picture. Manufacturers have a significant vested interest in selling spares and new units, so they are very likely to recommend regular replacement.

Clearly the units continue to work reliably for much longer than what the makers would have you believe, so their claims should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt.

I think my suggestion would be, buy a spares kit ready, but continue to use it so if/when it does break down you have the parts in stock and can fix it without delay.

One thing I would definitely recommend however is changing the fuel filter, always a good move and relatively low cost.

 

[rafiki_]

Manufacturers will quote a life and service interval based on their assumed duty cycle. Most marine diesel heaters are basically designed for trucks, to be used daily over the winter. If your marine duty cycle is similar, then expect a similar life. If the duty cycle for your use differs, then the life expectancy will differ too, all other things being equal.

 

[NormanB]

I think lifespan may be a rather ambiguous term as applied in this context.

Lifespan = the expected lifepsan of the unit.
Lifespan = the time period from purchase when the manufacturer will support with spares.

I favour the latter - the former can only be a guess and for the population of heaters will represent a proportion that reach this age with some failing very much earlier and some going on for very much longer (the bathtub curve?).

 

[No Regrets]

Mine was last serviced before I owned the boat in 2006.

It gets a regular good hard blast, and on occasion for hours on end.

It always starts and runs perfectly, with a wisp of smoke on start up only.

This is the 4Kw Eber. A beautiful thing indeed!!

 

[oldgit]

My wee beastie is an ex post office van castoff sourced from a forumite,.
Self installed with components from the Turkish Ebay bloke, it fired up first time and has been giving sterling service over the last 6 years and has never failed to start or run despite some serious winter boating. Usually running nearly flat out.
Seriously believe a good session in mid summer helps things enormously.

 

[maby]

Having had terrible trouble with a serviced Eber, I now intend to run it into the ground, then junk it and put in a Webasto. My only concern is carbon monoxide - if the thing leaks, it has the capacity to kill you pretty quickly - make sure you have a good CO alarm in the boat!

 

[Stats007]

I think that's why they have a ten-year service life as the heat exchanger starts to leak with fatigue blowing partially combusted fumes into the cabin. You wouldn't ignore salt water leaking into the bilge if this happened on your engine would you?

 

[No Regrets]

I think that's why they have a ten-year service life as the heat exchanger starts to leak with fatigue blowing partially combusted fumes into the cabin. You wouldn't ignore salt water leaking into the bilge if this happened on your engine would you?

You clearly have no idea how these things work :nonchalance:

 

[[2068]]

The thing about the 10 year service life of the exchanger is all very odd.
Some very old models had heat exchangers made of steel that could fail, and it ended up being a legal requirement in some countries to replace the exchanger after 10 years.
But the new heaters have alloy heat exchangers. The instructions still tell you to replace the exchanger after 10 years, and the law was never updated.
Go figure...

 

[[2068]]

You clearly have no idea how these things work :nonchalance:

I think I've got a pretty good idea about how these things work at a basic level.
If for some reason part 19 (heat exchanger) becomes porous, then the exhaust gasses (A) could mix with the output warm air (W), which would be very bad indeed.

 

[David2452]

If you read any of the service manuals then they quote 10 years as the lifespan - in some countries this is also enforced I believe.

I suppose you could ignore the advice of any manufacturer about servicing and preventative maintenance .

You are confusing the quoted service life of the heat exchanger, which should be changed every ten years as a preventitive measure. This is because they can become porous and pump exhaust products around the boat, fortunately they are the least expensive component, at least on Webastos

 

[David2452]

The thing about the 10 year service life of the exchanger is all very odd.
Some very old models had heat exchangers made of steel that could fail, and it ended up being a legal requirement in some countries to replace the exchanger after 10 years.
But the new heaters have alloy heat exchangers. The instructions still tell you to replace the exchanger after 10 years, and the law was never updated.
Go figure...

Ali ones fail too and become porous, warp etc.

 

[Stats007]

You clearly have no idea how these things work :nonchalance:

Clearly you don't .

 

[oldgit]

Having had terrible trouble with a serviced Eber, I now intend to run it into the ground, then junk it and put in a Webasto. My only concern is carbon monoxide - if the thing leaks, it has the capacity to kill you pretty quickly - make sure you have a good CO alarm in the boat!

Agree 100%, decent alarm should have priority on just about everything that floats that has aboard anything that can produce carbon monoxide from whatever source,you would think that regular as clockwork fatalities would be enough to scare even the most foolhardy ?
At least you can smell Propane or Butane.
Alarms a bargain at around £20.00.