Do you have a heater in your boat?

Do you have or want a heater in your boat?

  • No and I do not want one

    Votes: 6 2.5%

  • No, but I'd like to have one

    Votes: 22 9.1%

  • No and I'd like to have one but the ones that are available are too expensive to use and/or buy

    Votes: 17 7.0%

  • Yes but I rarely use it

    Votes: 15 6.2%

  • Yes, I use it but less than 10 days per year

    Votes: 33 13.6%

  • Yes, I use it more than 10 days per year

    Votes: 149 61.6%
  • Total voters
    242
pvb said:
If diesel heaters are used regularly, there's very little need for maintenance. Even then, it needn't be expensive, as simple cleaning is a DIY job.
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Indeed. If you are primarily marina dwellers, an electric fan heater is probably fine. If you are going to spend significant amounts of time away from shore power in the winter, diesel is a very valid option provided you have sufficient electricity generation to keep it going. Undoubtedly, it is not as cheap as some other options such as charcoal bricks or diesel drip feed, but it is far more pleasant to operate. Maintenance is not a bif issue and in a small boat, diy installation should not be beyond most people.
 
Last boat was 9m. As it had no HW and a raw water cooled Yanmar, I installed an Eberspacher Hydronic. No problems; done in a weekend. We sold the boat before we got round to fitting heaters or radiators: HW had been the priority as we didn't use that boat in the winter.

Current boat(11m) came with a D3Lc, now 14 years old. We found that the best maintenance is to run it regularly for at last 1 hr at a time. In ten years, we have had two failures due to corroded terminals in the main loom to unit plug; decked it once (2 years ago) and last week the bearings on the blower unit failed: replaced with a nearly new unit, via a friend.

Would not be without it. When it is run on the timer for an hour every winter morning, there is no need for a dehumidifier (boat kept afloat all year round in Plymouth).
 
Eber Airtronic D4 for instant heat.
Eber Hydronic D5 for the water.
And the heart of the boat - a Taylors 079D - what a gem!
 
Did I mention having no permanent heater on board and planning to install? :)
There is electric one, for marinas, very useful it was in your UK "summer" with temperatures in 15-20'C while we came there - since we came from over 30'C at home...

Christ almighty, every native walking around in T-shirts, while we wore arctic clothes :eek:
 
Yes, we have a Ardic heater and the fuel pump is on the blink! Anyone know where I may be able to get a replacement, as I understand Ardic are no longer manufactured. Maybe someone has an old one that's no longer used - pump is a Vac Diesel Pump No.107-3728770 12v, supplier 114, date 960522, Fabri No.4987985.
Please advise if you know of a potential source.
Thanks, dcr
 
dcr said:
Yes, we have a Ardic heater and the fuel pump is on the blink! Anyone know where I may be able to get a replacement, as I understand Ardic are no longer manufactured. Maybe someone has an old one that's no longer used - pump is a Vac Diesel Pump No.107-3728770 12v, supplier 114, date 960522, Fabri No.4987985.
Please advise if you know of a potential source.
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Why not use an Eberspacher pump designed for a similar-output heater? It's not a particularly sensitive item; you just need to be able to pump roughly the right volume of fuel into the burner.
 
SvenH said:
Thanks for all the replies guys!

The results seem to suggest that the great majority has a heater but that seems odd to me...

Maybe it is just the people that do have one like to vote more that the ones that do not? Or do you think the percentages are a good representation?
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I suspect that the majority of people who voted on this are those who have a heater, like it and use it a lot. I fitted a Webasto AT2000 2 yrs ago, mainly because DCoS wanted to be warm in the evenings, particularly at the begining / end of the season. I think it is excellent - so far been perfectly reliable, if a little noisey, and it get plenty of use. I suspect if I had seen this poll a few years ago, I wouldn't have responded as I would have thought I didn't have anything to add.
 
Ebay Eber D1L installed 8 years ago. Only used occasionally and always run on paraffin. Never been serviced and still fires up without a problem. Normally only used start/end of season but got some use mid-summer(?) 2012.
 
When the engine is running I use a Red Dot heater. This make is widely used in Canada and Alaska and operates using the hot coolant from the engine. My first was home made from a car heater matrix and a 12v computer fan. The other heater is a Sigmar 100 diesel heater made in British Columbia and is excellent with the right chimney and cowl. The fuel is direct from the main tank via an SU car fuel pump and filter. As the heat tends to go up a small fan, such as a computer cooling one, is useful to disperse the warm air through the cabin. The Webasto and Ardic heaters use too much electricity for a sail boat and I found the noise intrusive.
 
Webasto 3900 airtop - 4 outlets. Tucked away in the Transom and not intrusive at all. Wouldn't want to be without.
 
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