Diesel heaters now £75

[Greg2]

One other quick observation. I've seen plenty of premium boat gear that to me is cr@p quality. I think a lot of boat folk are hoodwinked into believing just because it's expensive, it's good. Too often, it's not.

I agree wholeheartedly with that!

As for installing a cheap copy heater on our lovely boat though, not a chance, but then we have a hydronic system that I don't want to swap out for a blown air system so a hypothetical point and it is a Webasto that will replace our ageing Ebby.

Just my opinion and I am not pushing or arguing it - each to their own as long as they do it safely

 

[Scubadoo]

Bigplumbs, have you fitted one of these heaters to a boat? I suspect others would find it more useful if someone like you installed a cheap heater and showing all the parts that have to be replaced. To me saying I got a cheap heater for almost nothing is not a great help, there are loads advertised for sale, I suspect some are of worse quality than others like most things. Yes, you could search the forum and Facebook to find all this info piece meal, but one post/thread showing a complete install to a boat not a shed or vehicle would be helpful.

My concern is a DIY installation of a cheap heater and not replacing all the parts not suitable for a boat, and being the boat alongside with the risk of co and any other risks.

 

[Fire99]

I agree wholeheartedly with that!

As for installing a cheap copy heater on our lovely boat though, not a chance, but then we have a hydronic system that I don't want to swap out for a blown air system so a hypothetical point and it is a Webasto that will replace our ageing Ebby.

Just my opinion and I am not pushing or arguing it - each to their own as long as they do it safely

I'm at pains to say I'm not trying to swing the pendulum the other way and suggest you shouldn't buy Webasto / Eberspacher gear. A friend of mine has a fairly new 5KW Webasto and it kicks out great heat. I don't think it's worth £2k but it's still a great heater.
My 'simple' point really is that the 'Chinese' ones by and large are extremely good for their price point and for many many boaters, with a few decent accessories would be all the diesel heater they need. They've opened up a much broader boat (and other pursuits) market to affordable heating.

(Let's not forget that it wasn't too long ago that Eberspacher and Webasto were fined for working as a 'cartel' and price fixing, so they've had their own issues)

 

[Croftie]

Didn't want to pollute another thread but I wonder if @jfm will be specifying 2 or 3 chinese diesel heaters, considering the size of boat. I assume Sanlorenzo will fit decent exhaust piping / silencer rather than the supplied stuff................................

 

[Bigplumbs]

Bigplumbs, have you fitted one of these heaters to a boat? I suspect others would find it more useful if someone like you installed a cheap heater and showing all the parts that have to be replaced. To me saying I got a cheap heater for almost nothing is not a great help, there are loads advertised for sale, I suspect some are of worse quality than others like most things. Yes, you could search the forum and Facebook to find all this info piece meal, but one post/thread showing a complete install to a boat not a shed or vehicle would be helpful.

My concern is a DIY installation of a cheap heater and not replacing all the parts not suitable for a boat, and being the boat alongside with the risk of co and any other risks.

Yes fitted one in a boat several years ago. I did a thread on it somewhere. So have many many other people. Do a YouTube Search

 

[Bigplumbs]

Didn't want to pollute another thread but I wonder if @jfm will be specifying 2 or 3 chinese diesel heaters, considering the size of boat. I assume Sanlorenzo will fit decent exhaust piping / silencer rather than the supplied stuff................................

I think he spent £46,000 on an upgrade to the music system so I think that might give you the answer

 

[Scubadoo]

Yes fitted one in a boat several years ago. I did a thread on it somewhere. So have many many other people. Do a YouTube Search

Can you provide a link to your thread.

 

[Rappey]

AFAIK they don’t actually put out 8kW.

I think many of us already know that. The 5kw is often around 3.4kw . At £60 just buy the 8kw and you will be close to 5kw.
Many know a lot of Chinese items are no where near the claimed output. Leds that are much lower power output then claimed, 12" solar panels that are 200w ? Many Chinese pwm charge controller advertised as mppt, 18650 cells that barely make 10% of their claimed capacity

 

[Rappey]

I fitted a 5kw nearly 5 years ago. Probably spent another £250 on ducting, vent outlets x4 ,exhaust and insulation etc. If my heater dies its an easy job to slot another in as everything else is good quality. I managed to use aluminium tube instead of the corrugated tubing for the hot air ducting as it was cheaper and much better air flow plus its crushproof . My exhaust is stainless tube/pipe rather than the corrugated stuff with a £40 quality silencer which is a cylinder type.
The vent outlets were the usual rip off as this was just before the chinese started selling them at a ⅙ of the price.
I read the marine install instructions for eber, planar and mikuni which were pretty similar before i fitted my heater. It's been brilliant.
If you have the skill set to fix most things on your boat then fitting a heater safely is easy.

 

[Croftie]

I think many of us already know that. The 5kw is often around 3.4kw .

I think the claim of 5kw is prob total heat produced based on fuel used per hour, of cause prob ~25% of that goes out the exhaust.

 

[Fire99]

My boat currently has a '5kw' (ish) Chinese one plumbed in to replace an old Eberspacher D5LC and I'll be soon replacing that '5kw' with a HCalory 6-8.5KW one and the current '5kw' will be moving forward to heat the forward cabins. I'll do a few videos etc of this if anyone is interested. I say upfront it won't be a tutorial in that I don't claim to be more than an amateur fitter but it may be of interest (or not of course ) to see what i've done..

 

[Bigplumbs]

I fitted a 5kw nearly 5 years ago. Probably spent another £250 on ducting, vent outlets x4 ,exhaust and insulation etc. If my heater dies its an easy job to slot another in as everything else is good quality. I managed to use aluminium tube instead of the corrugated tubing for the hot air ducting as it was cheaper and much better air flow plus its crushproof . My exhaust is stainless tube/pipe rather than the corrugated stuff with a £40 quality silencer which is a cylinder type.
The vent outlets were the usual rip off as this was just before the chinese started selling them at a ⅙ of the price.
I read the marine install instructions for eber, planar and mikuni which were pretty similar before i fitted my heater. It's been brilliant.
If you have the skill set to fix most things on your boat then fitting a heater safely is easy.

+1 to that

 

[Nauti Fox]

My boat currently has a '5kw' (ish) Chinese one plumbed in to replace an old Eberspacher D5LC and I'll be soon replacing that '5kw' with a HCalory 6-8.5KW one and the current '5kw' will be moving forward to heat the forward cabins. I'll do a few videos etc of this if anyone is interested. I say upfront it won't be a tutorial in that I don't claim to be more than an amateur fitter but it may be of interest (or not of course ) to see what i've done..

I've got two Hcalory 6-8 KW and it certainly has a higher output than the 5's,David McLucky tested it at just under 5KW, the 5 came out at just under 3.5 KW.

 

[Fire99]

I've got two Hcalory 6-8 KW and it certainly has a higher output than the 5's,David McLucky tested it at just under 5KW, the 5 came out at just under 3.5 KW.

Thanks for that. I did think the figures were something like that (I remember David McLucky's videos too). I'll be interested to see how I get on with mine once I plumb it in.

 

[Boat2016]

Didn't want to pollute another thread but I wonder if @jfm will be specifying 2 or 3 chinese diesel heaters, considering the size of boat. I assume Sanlorenzo will fit decent exhaust piping / silencer rather than the supplied stuff................................

I’ve yet to find a production boat builder that fits a Chinese heater…wonder why

 

[oldgit]

Rolex or Timex.
Both do exactly the same job perfectly well .

 

[Fire99]

I’ve yet to find a production boat builder that fits a Chinese heater…wonder why

Because when you're paying hundreds of thousands (or millions) of pounds for a boat, you are going to want what is perceived as a premium product and the difference in what the builder will pay for a 'WebSpacher' and a Chinese heater, in the big schemes of things isn't very much. I don't see builders fitting Autoterm/Planar heaters either and their quality is usually heralded as being equal if not higher than current 'WebSpachers'.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Because when you're paying hundreds of thousands (or millions) of pounds for a boat, you are going to want what is perceived as a premium product and the difference in what the builder will pay for a 'WebSpacher' and a Chinese heater, in the big schemes of things isn't very much. I don't see builders fitting Autoterm/Planar heaters either and their quality is usually heralded as being equal if not higher than current 'WebSpachers'.

Builder won't fit non CE approved heaters, that's the real reason, neither would i (for a customer).

 

[Fire99]

Builder won't fit non CE approved heaters, that's the real reason, neither would i (for a customer).

Good point but Autoterm are CE approved and I'm not seeing them fitted on new builds either...

 

[julians]

I dont suppose there's any chance of us not doing the Chinese heater thread all over again?

The pros and cons are well known by now, and there are several threads on those pros and cons, can this thread just be used to discuss new points regarding Chinese heaters Like the new cheaper price which was why the thread was started, and not just another argument between those who like them and those who don't.

Neither side of the argument is going to convince the other side to change their mind so can the protagonists just agree to disagree?