Eberspacher heating

Alan1

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Hi
Does anyone know a rough cost of installing a two outlet heating system like Eberspacher into a a 34 ft boat.

Any help appreciated

Regards
 
Alan,
I got a quote to install an Eber D4 with 2 (or was it 3?) outlets in a 34 foot boat by a very good local agent it was around £3500 (3 years ago, probably not change much). I bought the full marine 3 outlet kit myself for around £1700 and fitted my self, quite straightforward using the Eber documentations. Has to be done properly, with no shortcuts, or there may be issues with reliability/safety. I added extra outlets, used 90mm tube as far as I could added exhaust and duct silencers, Webasto insulation and many other features. All in would estimate £2500. I am sure David will be along here soon:-)
Angus
 
Both Webasto and Eberspacher have boat show deals on, and the cost for a 3 outlet Webasto system, with installation, is approx £2500. Eberspacher is slightly more expensive for the same system (about another £200-300). Both 4kW systems.
 
Butler Technik offer a new Airtronic D2 marine kit with single outlet for about £1020 plus vat. the bits for the second outlet will add about another £50. They will sell you a D2 with fuel pump for about £450 plus vat then you need the pipes ducting outlets and insulation as well as the transom terminal which can be £80 or over £200 if you buy a Webasto one. A controller which senses temperature in the cabin with fault finding (801series?) costs about £80? There is plenty of advice available about does and donts. The best site is a sideline of the guys who sell LeTonkinois varnish. Read it before you order anything particularly controllers. Or you can go down the Ebay route and buy second hand bits, some of the established sellers on there are very reliable.
Eber. (and Webasto) are typical German companies with hundreds of rules and warranty get outs.

For a 2 outlet system on a 34' boat they recommend a D2, a D4 will be cycling far too much most of the time unless you live in the far North.
 
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My eber never worked. I got a quote for replacement (webasto) was meant to be better and it was like £1800 cash in hand (IIRC) for webasto + installation.

Anyway, I decided it would be better to just wear more clothes :) Theyre quite expensive, if it was really a big deal, I think I would just use a diesel generator + electric fan heater. bit of a bodge, but saves you £1500-2000 surely?!
 
I put in an eberspacher myself from bits I bought on ebay. Well under £1000 and going strong ~5 years later. It has been a very good buy. I initially thought it was pointless but required to keep my sister happy (down below skipper) and now I love it. Being warm and dry has a lot to recommend it. It is easy to install and only requires basic DIY skills.
 
I've just taken one out and ditched it, for the second time in my boating career. I know some people swear by them but I have found them to be temperamental, noisy and expensive.

I know a lot of people don't like gas, but I'm about to install a Propex warm air heater. Providing you have very good pipework and safety features, gas is fine and the heaters are much more reliable and far, far quieter.
 
Does anyone know a rough cost of installing a two outlet heating system like Eberspacher into a a 34 ft boat.

As others have said, you can buy the hardware fairly cheaply, but can pay as much again for installation labour. If you're handy at DIY, it's a job you could easily do yourself. It's essential to install the heater in line with the maker's guidelines - most of the people who grumble about hot air heaters have got poorly-installed ones. Eberspacher have a Marine Heater Installation Guide, which is worthwhile reading. In particular, it tells you how to calculate the required ducting size to ensure that the heater isn't overloaded. You can download it here.
 
I put in an eberspacher myself from bits I bought on ebay. Well under £1000 and going strong ~5 years later. It has been a very good buy. I initially thought it was pointless but required to keep my sister happy (down below skipper) and now I love it. Being warm and dry has a lot to recommend it. It is easy to install and only requires basic DIY skills.

I too did a DIY installation for just over £800 all in. Fitted it end of last summer and it was great to have and worked very well last winter. Ran it again yesterday to check it now cooler days are here and it worked perfectly. Mine is a D2 with 2 outlets which needed 4m of ducting which I insulated. I mounted the unit as far away from our sleeping area as possible and put a silencer in the exhaust so the noises did not keep me awake when it was on all night.

Colin. Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
There's a guy on the VW T4 (van) forum that refurbs Eberspacher D2's and sells them with a 3 month warranty, so whilst thats a short period, at least you know you are not being sold a non-runner, unlike some of the dubiously described ones on ebay.

Some of the pro install prices above are eye-wateringly expensive. Its really not a tricky job to install one of these if you're even a little bit handy.
 
Hi
Does anyone know a rough cost of installing a two outlet heating system like Eberspacher into a a 34 ft boat.

Any help appreciated

Regards
Depends a great deal on which 34' boat, cost for installing carefully and unobtrusively with the outlets in the right places and not just taking the course of least resistance as so many appear to be done can vary wildly due to disassembly and reassembly with care and without damage. Number and particularly positioning of vents also varies and can affect costs. Generally speaking a 34' boat does need something like 3.5 kw to be properly comfortable and almost silent once up to temperature using fresh rather than stale moisture laden air. The heater will run hard and be noisier (thought not overly so if silenced) and then ramp down to maintain the temperature which is what they are designed to do and using a modern heater and current ULSD fuels this is not an issue at all as it was in the past. It is important to understand an owners expectations before embarking on an install as much as any other factor. But to answer the OPs question with the above reservations. for a straight forward install the supposed "offer" of 2.5k at the boat show seems about right and around what I would normally charge for a simple two outlet install to Webasto protocols with three year warranty including duct silencing & lagging but excluding any travel and major dismantling.
 
Ebers are not that complicated, a burner inside a fluted metal case that can burn diesel paraffin or even a petrol mix, makes heat and the air is blown between it and the casing by a fan. The complexity is in the control system which has to cope with this fairly crude heat source. I am told that failures can often be attributed to lack of use and the manual recommends that they are run for half an hour at least once a month. I think failure to do this contributed to the last one going after about 8 years when it was only started occasionally. The one on our Sigma 38 survived about 18 years of mainly neglect. One of the issues is that the three year warranty requires annual servicing by an approved workshop and most of the marine guys know how to charge, but since the main users are trucks and vans there are other specialists inland. If I was starting from scratch again I think I would put in a separate tank and burn some of our heating oil.
 
I'm with Ash2020, don't like them. My newly & properly installed D2 was great to start with but soon began to coke up badly which led me to conclude that they don't like to be run on low heat for extended periods (FT liveaboard) therefore unsuitable for living aboard. Noisy and expensive to run, needed spares that were comedy prices. Running them on paraffin once in a while helps. So I guess if your use is infrequent & you run on high heat and you run it up once a month it might suit. For a lot less money you could have a drip fed heater which would be my choice were I to go down the diesel route again...
 
If you had been sailing in Scottish waters this past "summer" you would bless the day that you installed your Eber.
 
If you had been sailing in Scottish waters this past "summer" you would bless the day that you installed your Eber.

And the following "summer" when it coughed and spluttered and belched out smoke and died you'd rue the day you installed your Eber and wish you'd installed something else...:rolleyes:
 
Mine has actually worked hard and perfectly since I replaced a defective burning tube several years ago. I also stopped using high sulphur fuel, and have had no problems at all. Comes highly recommended by me.
 
I am wondering how long it will be til this discussion morphs into a 'you'd be better with parafin/charcoal/coke heater'.
If you've got a good battery and can keep it charged, diesel blown air is wonderful.
 
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