Ebersplutter woes

tico

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As the title says... The eber heater fires up OK, but seems to misfire frequently (every 2-3 secs) and emit a puff of black smoke each time rather than a constant roar.. Heat output is well down on expected. It's a DL5.
Is this likely to just coked up and need a new gauze or something else?
 
I recently serviced my D4 because it was cutting out after 10-15 minutes. Very straightforward job and there are lots of good YouTube videos showing what’s involved. Buy a service kit because the gasket between the two main chambers is not reusable. Once it gets heated up it gets brittle. The gauze will probably be the main culprit.
one video I watched recommended using Coca Cola to soak the heat changer to remove the soot.
 
tico, can't help with your issue per-se.

However, when I bought my current boat a while back, I bought a full service kit, as Dino mentions. There was nothing wrong (preventative) and to this day, again nothing wrong. I can only put it down to that we full blast. On the rare occasion we don't run at full blast, we bring her up to full blast for 10 mins before shutting down.

If you want to be cheeky, try running it on Kerosene on full blast for a few hours... it just *might* clear things out.

If it's any consolation, they're not hard to service.

Checkout this FB page (based on the Chinese heaters, but still a wealth of knowledge): Facebook Groups
 
We've used it for the last 15 months mostly at full chat but it has run for several hours at about half load at a time. I normally turn it up for 5 mins before shutdown.
Suspect it hasn't been serviced for many years so , for the sake of it, i'll strip down and change gauze and clean out the burner chamber.
One resource I found helpful is the tips on 'Le Tonkinois' , I know it's a wood protector but they have an excellent section on ebers.
 
It's recommended to service them every few years and it's not a hard job (infact the hardest part may be removing it from the boat!)

When changing the glow-plug, you need a slotted socket. They come with some kits. This is to allow the socket to fit over the power cable.
 
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