Ebby's and Webasto's - a fire hazard?

[asteven221]

Ebby\'s and Webasto\'s - a fire hazard?

I have just been informed by a pal who has a transport company (and a boat) that it's not unknown for these heaters to ignite into flames! It's happened in several of his trucks (he has about 60 on the road 24/7) and naturally has specific precautions in place to stop his employees going up in flames. A fire is possibly my worst nightmare on our boat. I can only imagine how serious that would be on a mooring in a freezing cold night miles from anywhere! That got me thinking about fitting an automatic fire extingusher in the same location as the heating unit. Does that sound feasible? Would the extingusher be happy to sit next to the heater unit without going off when all is working normally? I must admit I have not given any thought to the heating system setting the boat on fire, but now that I have it's a bit scary!

 

[poltergeist]

Re: Ebby\'s and Webasto\'s - a fire hazard?

I have just had my D4 airtronic serviced by Krueger of New Milton in Hampshire, and was talking about this very subject to the service technician. He told me that he'd never known a Erberspacher to be the cause of a fire, and that it was almost impossible for it to happen.

I guess that's not the case ......

 

[Richard10002]

Re: Ebby\'s and Webasto\'s - a fire hazard?

My insurers insisted that I fit an automatic extinguisher in the same space as the ebby - it will create a right mess if it goes off, but will hopefully prevent the flames from burning my bum - it's under the bed in the aft cabin /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Wiggo]

Re: Ebby\'s and Webasto\'s - a fire hazard?

Having pulled ours apart a fair few times, I really can't see many mechanisms for one of these on its own to cause a fire. If the exhaust is partially blocked, the thing will overheat and shut down. If the combustion air intake is blocked, it will smoke badly for a few moments before going out. If the fuel pipe splits, it will leak diesel, but it's very hard to get that to catch fire.

About the only mechanism I can think of would be leaving the top cover off the unit and having something flammable fall onto the body of the combustion chamber and even then I think it would be hard to start a fire.

But if you can get an auto dry powder extinguisher at a good price, I suppose its worth it for peace of mind. Having said that, in the scenario above the fuel pump would still continue to run and the flame in the combustion chamber would not be extinguished, so I'm not sure it would put out the fire permanently.