Eberspachers - are they worth it?

Eberspachers are completely pointless and very complicated unless you happen for some reason to enjoy having the ability to make your cabin go from freezing ambient temperature to T shirt snug in 15 minutes flat, or extend your comfortable cruising season to a mere 12 months of the year, or to be able to dry out wet kit mid winter, or to enjoy a solitary mooring instead of plugging in at a marina.

I was fortunate that my boat had one when I got her, and I consider it to be a pretty much essential bit of cruising equipment. SWMBO and I had a very pleasant week's cruise in December which would have been an endurance test otherwise.

Hands up...never serviced it. It packed up once...furry contacts on a plug...2 minute fix.
 
Iain C said:
Eberspachers are completely pointless and very complicated unless you happen for some reason to enjoy having the ability to make your cabin go from freezing ambient temperature to T shirt snug in 15 minutes flat, or extend your comfortable cruising season to a mere 12 months of the year, or to be able to dry out wet kit mid winter, or to enjoy a solitary mooring instead of plugging in at a marina.

I was fortunate that my boat had one when I got her, and I consider it to be a pretty much essential bit of cruising equipment. SWMBO and I had a very pleasant week's cruise in December which would have been an endurance test otherwise.

Hands up...never serviced it. It packed up once...furry contacts on a plug...2 minute fix.
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You need contralube

I have one on my sabre27. I want to sail all year so consider it essential.
 
Get yourself a small "silent" generator and:-

a, Get a small electric heater.

b, Solve your charging problems.

c, Save a penny or two.

d, Even an electric cooker.

Don't tell me Eberspachers are "silent".
 
The Propex heaters may not quite compete, but they are very very reliable, and simple even if they fail. No servicing required (Although a good de-fluff might help every now and then, as the sensors get clogged with fluff from the passing air)

My Eber 4KW is awesomely powerful, although a bit whooshy at full chat, and the clicking pump is also a constant reminder...not gone wrong yet, but I'm sure it will....LOL

both are fine IMHO.
 
No Regrets said:
The Propex heaters may not quite compete, but they are very very reliable, and simple even if they fail. No servicing required (Although a good de-fluff might help every now and then, as the sensors get clogged with fluff from the passing air)

My Eber 4KW is awesomely powerful, although a bit whooshy at full chat, and the clicking pump is also a constant reminder...not gone wrong yet, but I'm sure it will....LOL

both are fine IMHO.
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Been on three boats in the last year , 2 with almost new heaters and they were all clicking at the pump !
 
Bobc said:
Kerosene or Paraffin (are they the same?).

What do you use as a fuel tank for it?
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OK
the garage has a big sign KEROSENE. I am sure it is actually 28sec heating oil. I am aware that americans call paraffin kerosene, I am aware that JET A1 is allegedly paraffin. However the smell of paraffin and jet a1 tells me that they have a bit of aromatics,, naptha? in it?
Bottom line, I buy the garage kerosene at 63 p a ltr. The eber burns it great, when i did my article i used a similar substance called paraffin, it didn't smell or feel like the esso blue that i used to know, it smelled and felt like the kerosene i buy from the garage. My eber d3 has lived on it for the last two winters, it is half the price of red diesel from the marina. I buy 10ltrs at a time in a plastic bidon, I unhook the inlet from the tick tick pump and put it in the bidon so that it goes to the bottom. Tick tick tick and away she goes, half price, nice clean combustion chamber and nice and toastie!
Stu
 
My boat is joint owned by me and my sister. She gets cold very easy so we bought her an Ebby for christmas when I was restoring the boat. We all thought it was a bit of a silly thing to get and cost a bit even though it was off ebay but she liked the idea. We were used to using a Tilley lamp for light and heat. I fitted it and I service it. 4 years in and it has never failed and has been one of the best things we bought. The boat is always toasty warm, it helps keep it dry and it is very nice to come in to the cabin from a miserable, wet, cold beat up some part of Scotland. I leave it on all night at a low setting and then crank it up to full for a bit before turning off in the morning. The only problem it ever gave was one night the dingy decided to get too friendly with the exhaust and melted a bit!
 
Installed a proper in my 24' boat. Best thing I did to her. Used to put the heater on in the run-in ip the estuary so boat was toasty when we'd moored. Mate who moored behind me said it was noisy although it never bothered me in the cabin.
New boat came with a Taylor's heater and the eber that was previously fitted supplied loose from the shed. Looking forward to trying both of them.
 
skipper_stu said:
The rover 75 used a simple webasto water heater (the emgine was that efficient it didnt produce enough heat to warm the heater sufficiently, go figure!)
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Apparently some models of diesel Freelander were the same. I read about someone who was in a shop when the tannoy read out his number plate and warned that the car was on fire! Turned out to be the self-contained heater running a bit rich and emitting smoke from its exhaust just above the front bumper :)

Pete
 
we have an ex BT van D1LCc. £100 ebay. fitted myself years ago plumbed into 3 cabins. I use it for hours every weekend we stay on the boat its on all night on all but the mildest summer evenings. never serviced it. never had any problems. only criticism its a bit small for a 32 foot motorsailer. it heats it up nice and toasty but its on the high setting most of the time so its quite noisy. doesnt bother me that much I live near an airport it just sounds like a gas turbine.

prevous boat had a taylors 079D fitted by me also. looking back I'd choose the eber over the taylors any day. The eber takes the edge off the cold quickly and the heat is distributed evenly. no screwing about with meths to prime. can sleep with it on or leave obat un attended with it on. can use at sea with out worry. most importantly no red hot metal for my 2 year old to burn herself on.

ebers are great go get yourself one. sure mikuni and webasto are just as good. My wifes citroen c8 also has a webasto water heater which keeps the HDI engine warm by burning diesel which surely defeats the object of having such an efficient engine? sadly theres no way to manually run it before starting the car to save engine wear and heat the cabin, but I believe some luxury marques like range rover have this feature! nice!
 
Croak said:
Get yourself a small "silent" generator and:-

a, Get a small electric heater.

b, Solve your charging problems.

c, Save a penny or two.

d, Even an electric cooker.

Don't tell me Eberspachers are "silent".
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seriously?

silent generators cost a fortune.

really? petrol engine generating electricity to power an electric heater must be just about the most un-economical way of heating a boat and indeed the earths atmosphere I have ever heard of. petrol engines are something like 35% efficient. so you are taking an expensive fuel and using nearly 2/3rds of its energy to heat the air outside of your boat? thats bonkers.

dont fancy a passage aboard your boat..... fancy a cuppa and a bacon roll? start the genny........
 
contessaman said:
seriously?

silent generators cost a fortune.

really? petrol engine generating electricity to power an electric heater must be just about the most un-economical way of heating a boat and indeed the earths atmosphere I have ever heard of. petrol engines are something like 35% efficient. so you are taking an expensive fuel and using nearly 2/3rds of its energy to heat the air outside of your boat? thats bonkers.

dont fancy a passage aboard your boat..... fancy a cuppa and a bacon roll? start the genny........
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Tea!!! Bacon!! bread!!! is that the most efficient way to eat protein, carbs and drink water!!!
 
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I hate Ebers.
My new one failed just out of warranty.
Very expensive to fix.
Very unhelpful agent in the UK.
Terrible communication from their head office.
Very unresponsive attitude.

My Webasto on the other hand worked perfectly every time so I cannot fault it.
 
contessaman said:
. My wifes citroen c8 also has a webasto water heater which keeps the HDI engine warm by burning diesel which surely defeats the object of having such an efficient engine? sadly theres no way to manually run it before starting the car to save engine wear and heat the cabin, but I believe some luxury marques like range rover have this feature! nice!
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If you really want the pre start feature you can convert what you have now I.e. a supplementary heater to a parking heater fairly simply by adding a water pump and a means of introducing a W bus trigger like a remote control. The supplementary hearer is simply TTC - the pump, usually controlled by the vehicle bus.
 
nigelmercier said:
Surely the answer to this question depends on another: do you pay by the KWh for shore power?
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Not nesacarily, if you want have heating underway or at anchor, you need some kind of independant heating. Solid fuel doesn't cut it IMHO. By all means use a fan heater (or radiator) when shore power is available - much simpler.
 
We have 2heaters on Cherry Ripe. The Eberspacher offers the considerable advantage of being usable under more or less any conditions so long as there is sufficient energy in the batteries to start it. The downsides are the considerable current needed to get it going, the modest but significant current to run the fan when it's going, and the somewhat temperamental starting behaviour arising from rather poorly executed wiring. It's very effective as a heater. More reliable and economical is our Dickinson Newport stove which however is only usable at rest, the chimney being a rather unseamanlike demountable affair that would quickly be destroyed by sails and sheets if we were to attempt to run it underway
 
KenMcCulloch said:
We have 2heaters on Cherry Ripe. The Eberspacher offers the considerable advantage of being usable under more or less any conditions so long as there is sufficient energy in the batteries to start it. The downsides are the considerable current needed to get it going, the modest but significant current to run the fan when it's going, and the somewhat temperamental starting behaviour arising from rather poorly executed wiring. It's very effective as a heater. More reliable and economical is our Dickinson Newport stove which however is only usable at rest, the chimney being a rather unseamanlike demountable affair that would quickly be destroyed by sails and sheets if we were to attempt to run it underway
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I wired mine in with starter motor gauge cable and a maxi fuse holder. Never failed to start. I hasten to add its only because of reading about peoples woes with voltage drop on this excellent forum that I did that. So I mean to say thanks not to boast!
 
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