Do Chinese Cabin Heaters Come With a Room Thermostat?

[cygnusv]

Does anyone know if a standard room thermostat could be used with the £89 Chinese diesel heaters? I may be fitting one of these heaters but have already found that some of the supplied kit is not suitable for boat use - exhaust quality and none compliant fuel pipes are an issue. Given that these parts (and some others) would NOT be used, and a CO alarm is essential, my thoughts turn to the practical.
Fot ease of use, thermostatic cabin heat control is very necessary.
Has anyone dealt with this issue successfully?
Thanks in advance, Stu

 

[lustyd]

Generally diesel heaters work by controlling the fuel as they need a warm up and cool down cycle. A room thermostat is unnecessary, you just need to balance heat loss with new heat. I believe the cheap ones actually have direct control of fuel flow whereas Eberspacher shows this as heat output, either way it achieves the same, a consistent heating effect from the ducting. It's actually better to do this with houses too, although not terribly popular since people think cycling on at certain times would be cheaper. Physics doesn't work that way though, the heating just works much harder for short periods rather than less hard for long periods.

 

[wingcommander]

My £89.00 cheap Chinese 3 kw heater came with a smart digital display control which incorporates a thermostat.Just need to position it far enough from any other heat source ..
Also included is a key fob remote . So on a cold morning I can switch on as I arrive at the boat to pre heat before I even open the hatch.
True the exhaust supplied was far too short and the silence was binned immediately. Also no skin fitting so thats an extra

 

[fredrussell]

I have a Chinese number on the boat and I just control it by increasing or decreasing the fuel pump rate. It has a thermostat but I don’t bother with it.

 

[SandyP]

Yes, ^^^^ the thermostat is in the control unit

 

[mrangry]

I may be wrong here but on my cheap diesel heater the digital controller and key fob do not act as a thermostat. Yes you can adjust output in either hz or degrees, but this is simply adjusting the fuel burn rate.

 

[oldharry]

I may be wrong here but on my cheap diesel heater the digital controller and key fob do not act as a thermostat. Yes you can adjust output in either hz or degrees, but this is simply adjusting the fuel burn rate.

Mine is the same. Heat is controlled by the pump rate

 

[cygnusv]

Thanks everyone. If you've used yours very regularly over the last year or so, would you recommend it? I only ask because it will be used as back up heating on a live aboard boat.

 

[wingcommander]

The way my stat operates is to cut down from high fire rate to tick over fire rate when it reaches the user adjustable temperature on the control. ( kinda like a regular thermostat). .Obviously if it shutvof completely it would be an inefficient drain on the battery due to continued glow plug operation. Used to be an cheap effective way to heat up , but with the price of diesel now ...

 

[Steve_N]

I've had quite a few of these now with various controllers and they've all allowed switching between thermostat mode (sensor in controller) and fuel pump frequency modes.

 

[QBhoy]

I may be wrong here but on my cheap diesel heater the digital controller and key fob do not act as a thermostat. Yes you can adjust output in either hz or degrees, but this is simply adjusting the fuel burn rate.

The lcd controller for these definitely act as the thermostat on these.

 

[[70521]]

but with the price of diesel now ...

Thank goodness it does not burn beer!

 

[lustyd]

definitely

That's a strong word, given that nobody has mentioned a brand name. Eberspacher don't have a thermostat in the controller, it's a separate and optional accessory. Eberspacher manufacture heaters in China, so qualify as a "Chinese heater".

 

[QBhoy]

That's a strong word, given that nobody has mentioned a brand name. Eberspacher don't have a thermostat in the controller, it's a separate and optional accessory. Eberspacher manufacture heaters in China, so qualify as a "Chinese heater".

Ok. But I think we all know he didn’t mean an Eberspacher. They take their temp reading from the air inlet, or the old one I had did anyway. That’s why it’s important for them to have the air taken from the area you are heating. Amazingly some don’t do this. But anyway…
the generic Chinese heaters I presume he refers to, all are compatible with the lcd controller, no matter who has stuck their brand on them. The controller has the temp sensor on it.

 

[lustyd]

There are many variations of such heaters and controllers so without knowing which OP has its impossible to know what it does. To say a completely unknown model definitely has a thermostat is just not useful.

 

[LittleSister]

Ok. But I think we all know he didn’t mean an Eberspacher. They take their temp reading from the air inlet, or the old one I had did anyway. That’s why it’s important for them to have the air taken from the area you are heating. Amazingly some don’t do this. But anyway…

That's incorrect, I believe. Recirculating the heating air is not a requirement for proper Eberspacher operation, nor is it normal, and my elderly Eber, at least, does not have intake air temperature monitoring.

The Eberspacher D3L & B3L manual certainly shows no such thing. Recirculating the air for heating is not a requirement, but the installation instructions do mention that taking air from the area you are heating is an option, with the implication this is not standard.

The only temperature control identified in the description of operation is (a) monitoring the flame (not inlet air) and turning off the glow plug when the a pre-set temperature is reached, and (b) shutting down the heater in the event of an over-heat.

It has two temperature settings, low and high, achieved, I believe, simply by means of metering fixed amounts of fuel supply (with two corresponding fan speeds). Thermostatic control can be achieved only by addition of an external (i.e. 'room') thermostat, which can be wired to either (i) switch between on and off, or (ii) switch between low and high heat settings.

Later Ebers have more sophisticated temperature control, but I don't believe this requires air recirculation.

 

[wingcommander]

Mine cheap Chinese heater is now permanently installed in the boat . However it has been used for two winters to heat up my garage. It most definitely has a built-in thermostat in the hard wired control. Even mentions not obstructing the temp sensor in the very basic manual. This however is also on board, ime sadly not at the moment.. Agreed ,as I mentioned it goes to tickover on reaching temp, then back to full rate if temp drops sufficiently.

 

[Neeves]

As lustyd queries, or I think queries, don't any of these Chinese models have any means to identify them from one another, no name no model number? Are they all identical clones of each other (I doubt it)..

Jonathan

 

[Rhylsailer99]

my CO alarm monitor keeps bleeping when i use mine so now not been used for a while. think i need to check exhaust connections.

 

[QBhoy]

That's incorrect, I believe. Recirculating the heating air is not a requirement for proper Eberspacher operation, nor is it normal, and my elderly Eber, at least, does not have intake air temperature monitoring.

The Eberspacher D3L & B3L manual certainly shows no such thing. Recirculating the air for heating is not a requirement, but the installation instructions do mention that taking air from the area you are heating is an option, with the implication this is not standard.

The only temperature control identified in the description of operation is (a) monitoring the flame (not inlet air) and turning off the glow plug when the a pre-set temperature is reached, and (b) shutting down the heater in the event of an over-heat.

It has two temperature settings, low and high, achieved, I believe, simply by means of metering fixed amounts of fuel supply (with two corresponding fan speeds). Thermostatic control can be achieved only by addition of an external (i.e. 'room') thermostat, which can be wired to either (i) switch between on and off, or (ii) switch between low and high heat settings.

Later Ebers have more sophisticated temperature control, but I don't believe this requires air recirculation.

It’s not in correct. It’s a fact, as far as I know. You may be correct about the models you

That's incorrect, I believe. Recirculating the heating air is not a requirement for proper Eberspacher operation, nor is it normal, and my elderly Eber, at least, does not have intake air temperature monitoring.

The Eberspacher D3L & B3L manual certainly shows no such thing. Recirculating the air for heating is not a requirement, but the installation instructions do mention that taking air from the area you are heating is an option, with the implication this is not standard.

The only temperature control identified in the description of operation is (a) monitoring the flame (not inlet air) and turning off the glow plug when the a pre-set temperature is reached, and (b) shutting down the heater in the event of an over-heat.

It has two temperature settings, low and high, achieved, I believe, simply by means of metering fixed amounts of fuel supply (with two corresponding fan speeds). Thermostatic control can be achieved only by addition of an external (i.e. 'room') thermostat, which can be wired to either (i) switch between on and off, or (ii) switch between low and high heat settings.

Later Ebers have more sophisticated temperature control, but I don't believe this requires air recirculation.

It’s certainly not incorrect for some Eberspacher.