Eberspacher D3LC vs Chinese brand vs Planar Russian ( Latvian)

[PaulRainbow]

The inherited exhaust hose on our Eber has reducers either end but can't remember whether the pipe or, the through hull & Eber are smaller or larger.

Might have 30mm hose, reduced to 24mm each end.

Just done a rough costing on the Planar conversion, quite a lot more expensive than when I last checked, now £850ish.

All you should need to buy is possibly an air duct adapter. The D3LC should have 24mm exhaust hose, so a direct swap. 99.99% that the mounting bracket will fit.

The heater kit without ducting etc is £530.25. Worth considering the comfort controller as an add on.

What else did you think you need ?

 

[Aja]

The Planar uses 24mm dia exhaust, same as the Eberspacher D3LC. No need to change anything.

The D3LC uses 75mm ducting, the 4kw Planar uses 90mm ducting, an adapter can be found here : Heater Ducting Adaptor 90mm to 75mm | 221000010012

All I can say is that I did need to change the exhaust. My Eberspacher was a 3DL non compact. A different beast from the 3DLC.

 

[PaulRainbow]

All I can say is that I did need to change the exhaust. My Eberspacher was a 3DL non compact. A different beast from the 3DLC.

Th D3l should also have a 24mm exhaust, same as the 4kw Planar. Some early Ebers had 22mm, perhaps yours was one of those ?

 

[Graham376]

Might have 30mm hose, reduced to 24mm each end.

All you should need to buy is possibly an air duct adapter. The D3LC should have 24mm exhaust hose, so a direct swap. 99.99% that the mounting bracket will fit.

The heater kit without ducting etc is £530.25. Worth considering the comfort controller as an add on.

What else did you think you need ?

Thanks Paul. I was looking at 4k kit + lagged exhaust with silencer (mine doesn't have silencer) extended wiring loom, comfort controller and possibly a through hull. However, looking at their site again, heater alone is £425 but that appears to be without loom or control. Have to look at it again when I've had a tinker with our Eber but if going for Planar, will need EU supplier (maybe SVB) for the bits to avoid carriage, duty, etc.

IIRC, my current exhaust had previously been fitted to a D3L which I swapped with the D3LC from previous boat before selling it.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Thanks Paul. I was looking at 4k kit + lagged exhaust with silencer (mine doesn't have silencer) extended wiring loom, comfort controller and possibly a through hull. However, looking at their site again, heater alone is £425 but that appears to be without loom or control. Have to look at it again when I've had a tinker with our Eber but if going for Planar, will need EU supplier (maybe SVB) for the bits to avoid carriage, duty, etc.

IIRC, my current exhaust had previously been fitted to a D3L which I swapped with the D3LC from previous boat before selling it.

You'll need the basic kit to get the wiring etc. Looking at the SVB website, it should be this : 4D URAL EDITION Diesel Warm Air Heater with control unit only 659,95 € | SVB

With VAT and EU to GBP conversion that translates to a little under £600 GBP

That includes the comfort timer, exhaust and silencer. Personally, i wouldn't buy the silenced exhaust at over £100. The included silencer is very quiet, in fact, the Planar is very quiet without the silencer. When i fitted mine it was going to be awkward to fit one, due to the heater location, so i left it out (the previous Webasto never had one), you can barely hear it outside the boat and nothing at all inside.

With the kit above, you would need a ducting adapter to get from the Planar 96mm down to 90mm, hoping yours is 90mm, if not you'd need to adapt that down to 75mm. If you intend to fit an intake duct, you'll need to do the same.

The D3LC should have a 24mm exhaust, your old one may have been 22mm (suspect that was the case for Aja). Your adapters are likely taking the 22mm hose to 24mm, just guessing. The Planar comes with 24mm exhaust and silencer, so you may find you only need to adapt that to fit the through hull. Worse way, you need a new through hull.

 

[PetiteFleur]

My experience with a 5kw Chinese heater fitted 3 yrs ago - firstly I carefully read all the problems experienced by others and looked at the Facebook site plus other sources of info. I used the Eberspacher instructions which I downloaded. I used Eberspacher exhaust pipe and exhaust outlet and replaced all the hoseclips with Hi-grip stainless. I have 3 outlets and insulated all the ducting. I insulated all the exhaust piping secured with stainless cable ties and Hi-Grip. The additional items came to £300 so total cost about £400. I fitted CO alarm near the heater which is situated at the stern so I didn't have a long exhaust. I did use the supplied silencer - maybe I'll change it. I did replace the cpu and controller as I couldn't make it work initially & cheap to upgrade. However it didn't start so I removed the heater and took home to investigate. The heating plug
wasn't working so replaced with spare I had and will refit. I'm sure it will start ok. Will post feedback afterwards.

 

[Geoff Wode]

Bin. The. Silencer.

The bundled silencer that comes with Chinese heaters is copied from an Eberspacher/ Webasto design. It is suitable for EXTERNAL use on a road vehicle, only. It is NOT suitable for marine use.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/607572d2d3bf7f400b462d33/2021-03-Diversion-Report.pdf

 

[14K478]

Bin. The. Silencer.

The bundled silencer that comes with Chinese heaters is copied from an Eberspacher/ Webasto design. It is suitable for EXTERNAL use on a road vehicle, only. It is NOT suitable for marine use.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/607572d2d3bf7f400b462d33/2021-03-Diversion-Report.pdf

Thank you.

 

[superheat6k]

... Can other makes of heaters run successfully on kerosene?

All the ones I have fitted - last and current boat, plus my workshop unit, are on kerosene. Indeed advice of an US Espar rep at SIBS a few years ago was to periodically run them on kerosene as it is an excellent way of de-coking them.

I have only used the 5kW which is the direct replacement for the D4 Eber. I suspect the 5Kw includes the waste heat that goes out the exhaust pipe, but the 4 kW has my boat, which although 36' has the internal volume of most modern 45' boats, toasty warm within ~20 minutes. I also always allow the unit to cycle through its full shut down cycle.

I also glue with epoxy a simple 100oC Klixon to the vent outlet hood on the reducing section just before the hose attachment, and wire the electrical feed to the fuel pump through this. If a casing overheat were to occur this would immediately cut the fuel supply. So far the klixon has never operated, but this does in my view satisfy the only real concern ever explained on here of an inlet blockage (possibly) leading to the unit severely overheating. As part of my periodic checks I make sure the Klixon has not detached, and again it never has.

When I removed the Eber, which died within a couple of months of me buying the Grand Banks, the changeover was a 30 minute job. Because I simply re-used all the original vent and exhaust parts the cost was just that for the heater itself, which I recall at the time late Summer of 2022 was £95. I have run the fuel pump to the supplied tank, but I do not drill the fuel take off through the bottom, as this is just asking for a leak, instead I use a metal cable gland drilled into the filler cap through which the fuel pick up tube passes, with a very small vent hole drilled to one side. The supplied in line filter is positioned to sit up against the gland, with the pickup tube about 10 - 15mm from the tank low point. The tank is mounted close by using elastic cord to secure it in place. The original diesel pipe is parked nearby with the fuel valve tied shut, and the end sealed with self amalgamating tape, but if I ever ran out I could have it running on diesel in short order. I also found a nearby bin for most of the awful accessory parts.

I have noticed that if it hasn't run for a few months it will take at least two and sometimes three start attempts to prime the line. I know it is possible to run the pump on its own, but it takes longer to decipher the instructions.

Another tip I would give all with a heater of any make is to place a prominent "No Fender" label directly above the position of the exhaust outlet. Don't ask me why I suggest this !!!

 

[PetiteFleur]

Update for # 150 - refitted the heater this morning and - it didn't work!! Had smoke from the exhaust, little bit of heat and then shut down with error 08... Investigation suggests it's a fuel problem - fuel pump was ticking, perhaps air in the pipework (copper pipe from tank to heater) or the supplied small filter blocked? fuel bug? or?? Fuel from dip tube in boat tank, road diesel not red.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Update for # 150 - refitted the heater this morning and - it didn't work!! Had smoke from the exhaust, little bit of heat and then shut down with error 08... Investigation suggests it's a fuel problem - fuel pump was ticking, perhaps air in the pipework (copper pipe from tank to heater) or the supplied small filter blocked? fuel bug? or?? Fuel from dip tube in boat tank, road diesel not red.

I will also fit a proper exhaust silencer.

 

[ChromeDome]

Update for # 150 - refitted the heater this morning and - it didn't work!! Had smoke from the exhaust, little bit of heat and then shut down with error 08... Investigation suggests it's a fuel problem - fuel pump was ticking, perhaps air in the pipework (copper pipe from tank to heater) or the supplied small filter blocked? fuel bug? or?? Fuel from dip tube in boat tank, road diesel not red.

If the fuel line was not full (air in it), the E-08 might occur because the heater didn't receive fuel before the pump timed out.

Normally solved by letting it rest for a moment, then start again.

It, of course, is a prerequisite that the fuel line & filter is free and tight.

 

[vyv_cox]

Update for # 150 - refitted the heater this morning and - it didn't work!! Had smoke from the exhaust, little bit of heat and then shut down with error 08... Investigation suggests it's a fuel problem - fuel pump was ticking, perhaps air in the pipework (copper pipe from tank to heater) or the supplied small filter blocked? fuel bug? or?? Fuel from dip tube in boat tank, road diesel not red.

If error code 08 on your unit is equivalent to 13 on a Planar (fuel supply) it can take numerous start attempts to draw the fuel through a van installation. I see numbers as high as 20 attempts on the Planar forum. Advice is to suck fuel to the pump supply, by mouth if you like the taste of diesel, or hypodermic otherwise.

 

[Rappey]

There is a setting on a chinese heater where you can use pump only to get fuel all the way to the heater. Avoids many restarts to purge.
Changing the fuel line from original can cause problems if the bore is larger than the original.

 

[peteK]

E08 is flame extinguised,usually through lack of fuel or temp senser faulty,it has 2 goes of trying to start and then comes up with code E10 if still not fired up.

 

[ChromeDome]

There is a setting on a chinese heater where you can use pump only to get fuel all the way to the heater. Avoids many restarts to purge.
Changing the fuel line from original can cause problems if the bore is larger than the original.

There is a priming feature on some of the control panels and their ECU.

Others just tell the user to press start again, but if the installation has very long lines a syringe can be a faster/better way.

 

[NormanS]

I saved myself a lot of trouble by slacking off the union nearest the pump, and then slightly pressuring the tank with a dinghy pump. As soon as fuel arrived at the pump, nipped up the union. Job done.

 

[snowbird30ds]

12V via an old indicator relay would prime the pump nicely as it would just sit there ticking away till fuel appeared without involving the ECU in any way.

 

[vyv_cox]

12V via an old indicator relay would prime the pump nicely as it would just sit there ticking away till fuel appeared without involving the ECU in any way.

Care is needed with powering from an external source. I have no idea whether all pumps run on 12 volts but the Planar does not. Several have been burnt out by owners trying this.

 

[snowbird30ds]

Care is needed with powering from an external source. I have no idea whether all pumps run on 12 volts but the Planar does not. Several have been burnt out by owners trying this.

That's handy to know.