Eberspacher And Webasto Problems Sooting Up The Flame Tubes

[mikesyam]

After over 2 years of problems with my Eberspacher D4 Airtronic sooting up every 2 months and giving me a £300 bill each time for a new flame tube, Eberspacher themselves fitted me a new heater in January which again wont start and just smokes, they have now cancelled my warranty claiming low quality fuel has caused my problems so have a read underneath please, theres quite a few pages but a very interesting read.
Do many people know that the Eber website actually states that there products are not suitable for Red Diesel/Gas Oil and are only approved for "City Gas Oil/City Red Diesel" which is low sulphur!

www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=13974&st=0

 

[Wiggo]

Oh, what rubbish! If it's sooting up that much then the air flow is restricted somewhere - the plastic lining in our intake hose had partially delaminated, for example. These things are not exactly complex. Make sure that the installation is correct - short piping runs, the pump should be angled slightly uphill and the pipe from pump to burner should be short and as straight as possible (again, only running uphill). Disconnect the exhaust and rod that through if you can - again ours was partially blocked with soot.

When the local Eberspacher guys ran it on the bench it was fine, but regularly failed on the boat, and they wanted to replace the burner etc etc. The burner tube can be cleaned out with a wire brush in ten minutes and only extreme clogging of the base would be cause for a replacement. I thought ours might need this, but patience and a sharp knife cleared it.

The other challenge we had was a dodgy pump - you can do a rough and ready calibration check in situ with no special tools, and sure enough it was knackered. I bought a replacement on Ebay for £50 (vs the £160+VAT that the local guys wanted).

Since being thoroughly cleaned and having the pipework reinstalled correctly and replacing the pump it has worked perfectly, lighting first time with no smoking.

 

[John_d_Smith]

I had a similar problem with my Wallas, fortunatly you can clean out the burner unit quite easlily but it becomes a pain when it packs in at the wrong time. I now run mine on Kerosene which is ok with Wallas and a lot cleaner (i've not had to clean the heater in the last 12 months). Not much good if you run it off your main tank though.