Generic Warm air Heaters Tale .A story so Far.

[oldgit]

Several now installed in boats on our club moorings and no adverse comments so far.
My old Eber was proving desperately unreliable and in need of repair and servicing.The estimate for repairing only what urgently needed doing, from a non authorised chap was £3-400 pounds.
A club member, whos brother was the local Eber/Web installer, bought a Planar with the intention of stripping it down and investigating the possibility of using it as source of spares for genuine Eber heaters.
He was so impressed at what he got for his money that he reassembled it and fitted it to his boat to replace an aging Webasto.
On his recommendation bought and installed a Planar in my Princess 35, required only a few minor mods to adapt to existing pipework, the supplied silencer was a absolute bonus.Total cost around £550.00
The Chinese versions came next and at around £150.00 have proved very popular indeed at our club, several now installed.
Suspect the vast majority of self installers or those replacing an existing unit will go for the clones, leaving only those able/willing to afford to be able to pay for a professional to supply and fit, choose the Eber/Web option.
Anybody who wants one, could now get warm air heating on their boat at a sensible price. .

 

[vyv_cox]

A correction. A Planar owes absolutely no design input to any other heater type. It is a very long way from being a 'clone' of anything. Many of the Chinese heaters are an exact copy of an Eberspacher, although it may well be that some innovative ones are beginning to appear.

 

[superheat6k]

The only issues looking at the Facebook group seem to concern whether you will get what you expected and that it will arrive undamaged. Certainly no horror stories of vehicles (for which most seem to be used) on fire.

Can you recommend specific EBay sellers. The number one hit now comes up at less than £125 for a 5 kW unit, including all the accessories except the exhaust skin fitting.

After years of ripping their clients, off if Eber and Webasto aren't worried then they are fools.

 

[Hot Property]

I'm thinking of installing a 2 kw heater in my Saver 690 so Swmbo is happy. With canopy up the cockpit should be significantly warmer than outside temperature even with high air changes. I am slightly concerned about fitting it alongside a 210 litre petrol tank though....

Alternative locations are being investigated.

 

[Robin]

Well this is a timely thread as our ancient Eberspacher D5L went tits up yesterday and repair guys say £500+ to rebuild or circa £2000 to replace. Old one was leaking both diesel and exhaust fumes into the boat As liveaboards in the UK it is kind of important to have working heating although pro tem we are running our small backup fan heater.They give a repair patch up job maybe 6 months in constant use they say so inclination is to bite thebullet and buy new. Time is of the essence however too. Roll on summer.

 

[pcatterall]

A correction. A Planar owes absolutely no design input to any other heater type. It is a very long way from being a 'clone' of anything. Many of the Chinese heaters are an exact copy of an Eberspacher, although it may well be that some innovative ones are beginning to appear.

I trade heaters and have had 3 different Chinese versions for testing. They have only a superficial resemblance to Eberspachers ( except on their brochure where they DO look identical!!)
I have not progressed to selling them as I cant find a Chinese company offering a clear comprehensive spares policy.
The 3 heaters in question have, however, all worked well over extended testing.

 

[Steve_N]

Can you recommend specific EBay sellers.

I've had 3 off of seller gogo-life-es. The payment gets processed during Chinese working hours and then they despatch from the UK (Hatfield) next UK working day.
Each time I've had a Yodel tracking no. provided within an hour of the UK end of the operation opening. They also trade as mm_498.
Their listings are different to other sellers in that they list UK postcodes which carry a surcharge (Highlands & Islands etc.), something the others pretending to be sending UK stock don't do (or know about..).
The only downside is that as their sales have increased so have their prices and they are now £20 more expensive than when I bought the most recent one.
My third one is due to be delivered on Tuesday.

 

[mbroom]

I've had 3 off of seller gogo-life-es. The payment gets processed during Chinese working hours and then they despatch from the UK (Hatfield) next UK working day.
Each time I've had a Yodel tracking no. provided within an hour of the UK end of the operation opening. They also trade as mm_498.
Their listings are different to other sellers in that they list UK postcodes which carry a surcharge (Highlands & Islands etc.), something the others pretending to be sending UK stock don't do (or know about..).
The only downside is that as their sales have increased so have their prices and they are now £20 more expensive than when I bought the most recent one.
My third one is due to be delivered on Tuesday.

Wow, you must have a big boat to need 3 heaters!

 

[pagoda]

Wow, you must have a big boat to need 3 heaters!��

I have heard of people buying 2 or 3 - to have spare parts.

I bought a Planar 44D . Why ? If they are designed to keep trucks warm and cosy in Siberia with whatever diesel is available - I reckon they will cope with a Scottish season quite well. So far without issue.

(To be honest you could easily buy 2 complete Chinese clones for the cost of almost any Webasto/Eber module repair !)

 

[mbroom]

I have heard of people buying 2 or 3 - to have spare parts.

I bought a Planar 44D . Why ? If they are designed to keep trucks warm and cosy in Siberia with whatever diesel is available - I reckon they will cope with a Scottish season quite well. So far without issue.

(To be honest you could easily buy 2 complete Chinese clones for the cost of almost any Webasto/Eber module repair !)

Yep. I had an old Eber which needed repaired. It was replaced by a Planar which cost less than the potential repairs and has been totally superb. About to buy 2nd boat, and will look at Chinese cheapos, or another Planar. Eber and Webasto had good products, but were totally overpriced....I would not buy shares in them, they may go bust!

 

[Steve_N]

Wow, you must have a big boat to need 3 heaters!��

No, my modest boat is fully Eber'd up with the genuine articles.
Of the Chinese ones the first is in my shed/workshop, another is in the motorhome and the third is as yet still in its box.
To be honest I probably would have bought Planars instead of Chinese ones but their inability to run on kerosene ruled them out for me.

 

[oldgit]

Just a tip , go to trouble of purchasing sufficent extra 100 mm ducting to provide a cold air feed to your new heater from outside of the boat.
My heater is located in lazerette right next to engine compartment with several limber holes and control cable holes in bulkhead.
Was fortunately easily able to source fresh air from an external locker during installation, however , while doing some other work disconnected the cold air pipe.to heater inlet , almost immediatly on start up you could dectect that familar whiff present on many boats of diese/oil/ bilges in the warm air coming from vents.
This does seem to eventually permeate throughout the interior of many boats.
Presumably the heater was sucking such vast quantities of air that it was creating a vacuum thoughout entire hull including the engine compartment. My engines are not in the first flush of youth .
Reattaching the external pipe,instantly provided whiff free warm air. again .

 

[superheat6k]

I clicked the buy it now button on eBay yesterday from a UK seller based in Liverpool. It says delivery in about a week.

I will let this thread know if what arrives is correct, complete and undamaged.

I will be fitting this is a void area under my side deck on the Corvette, directly next to the main cabin. Rather than dragging in cold air from the outside I owl prefer to have a return hose from the cabin on the main vent warmed air flow system. The combustion air will have a separate external feed skin fitting well away from the exhaust outlet, or I could draw combustion air from the engine room, which would provide additional engine room ventilation.

Any reason not to do either of these things ?

I intend to use the supplied tank and run it on kerosene. My last Eber D4 smelt sweeter and cleaner running on kero, and as these Chinese are essentially copies I assume these will work OK on kero too.

 

[Hot Property]

I clicked the buy it now button on eBay yesterday from a UK seller based in Liverpool. It says delivery in about a week.

I will let this thread know if what arrives is correct, complete and undamaged.

I will be fitting this is a void area under my side deck on the Corvette, directly next to the main cabin. Rather than dragging in cold air from the outside I owl prefer to have a return hose from the cabin on the main vent warmed air flow system. The combustion air will have a separate external feed skin fitting well away from the exhaust outlet, or I could draw combustion air from the engine room, which would provide additional engine room ventilation.

Any reason not to do either of these things ?

I intend to use the supplied tank and run it on kerosene. My last Eber D4 smelt sweeter and cleaner running on kero, and as these Chinese are essentially copies I assume these will work OK on kero too.

Can I pop along to see it when you've finished Trev. I can then learn from you mistaks!!!

 

[sarabande]

I must admit to a certain amount of concern if you are going to provide intake air for the heater from warm air already in the boat. I can see the the thermal advantages but the idea of recycling interior air on a repeat basis makes me wonder if you could be feeding air with a depleted oxygen level into the heater intake, which is a bit of recipe for a CO problem bcs of incomplete combustion ?

It is rather like changing the air intake on your car's heating system form external to internal. It's OK for a short while to avoid smoke from a fire or a dirty lorry, but if you drive any distance with the selector on internal, you soon get a very muzzy head..


Somewhere in your system you need an intake from outside, but are there any small heat exchangers you can introduce to warm the external air from cabin air ? Heat recovery is great for economy, but not at the expense of recycling used air. Or perhaps I have misunderstood your description of proposed intake source(s) ?

 

[Murv]

I clicked the buy it now button on eBay yesterday from a UK seller based in Liverpool. It says delivery in about a week.

I will let this thread know if what arrives is correct, complete and undamaged.

I will be fitting this is a void area under my side deck on the Corvette, directly next to the main cabin. Rather than dragging in cold air from the outside I owl prefer to have a return hose from the cabin on the main vent warmed air flow system. The combustion air will have a separate external feed skin fitting well away from the exhaust outlet, or I could draw combustion air from the engine room, which would provide additional engine room ventilation.

Any reason not to do either of these things ?

I intend to use the supplied tank and run it on kerosene. My last Eber D4 smelt sweeter and cleaner running on kero, and as these Chinese are essentially copies I assume these will work OK on kero too.

Shouldn't be a problem, most people on the facebook group are running on recirculated air.
My combustion air is drawn from the engine bay, there isn't enough flow to make any significant difference to engine room ventilation, but I haven't had any issue with it and can't really see that there would be. There certainly shouldn't be any depleted air in there I wouldn't have thought?
They reportedly run hotter and cleaner on kerosene although mine didn't show any measurable difference, being perfectly happy on either red diesel or kerosene.
I would strongly recommend sourcing a spare glow pin, it does seem to be a weak area, mine failed very early on. Ali express sell a D4 copy which looks virtually identical to an original for around £17, I've had no issues at all since swapping mine out.
I also swapped the basic rotary controller for the rather flashy LCD version which is a lot better if you're easily impressed by animated graphics and flashing lights (like me.) This also caused some heater envy during a recent club cruise!

 

[Plum]

I clicked the buy it now button on eBay yesterday from a UK seller based in Liverpool. It says delivery in about a week.

I will let this thread know if what arrives is correct, complete and undamaged.

I will be fitting this is a void area under my side deck on the Corvette, directly next to the main cabin. Rather than dragging in cold air from the outside I owl prefer to have a return hose from the cabin on the main vent warmed air flow system. The combustion air will have a separate external feed skin fitting well away from the exhaust outlet, or I could draw combustion air from the engine room, which would provide additional engine room ventilation.

Any reason not to do either of these things ?

I intend to use the supplied tank and run it on kerosene. My last Eber D4 smelt sweeter and cleaner running on kero, and as these Chinese are essentially copies I assume these will work OK on kero too.

I fitted my heater in a void which has vents into the engine room which, obviously, has lots of ventilation to the outside so in effect both the cabin air intake and combustion air intake is via the engine room. Could you do this?

I recommend you do not have a recirculation heating system as this will add to condensation. Taking the main air intake from the outside actually dries out the cabin making it much more comfortable.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[Porthandbuoy]

To draw in fresh air or recycle cabin air?

My Eber is located under the cabin sole, just aft of the engine. I have a short length of 100mm flexible ducting on the inlet turned through 90deg, through the engine box, so that it draw air from the foot of the quarter berth. The advantages of doing this are twofold. The boat heats up significantly quicker and the quarter berth, notorious for lacking ventilation and a breeding ground for mold and damp, gets a change of air.
Stale air gets drawn out of the dorade vents and is replaced by fresh air coming in through the always cracked open hatch.
Depending on the starting temperature my Eber will throttle back to near silent, low current draw, fuel sipping mode within 15 to 20 minutes of firing up.

 

[Barbican]

Plum - Does this mean that any leaks in your engine or heater exhaust systems may lead to those gases being pushed into the cabin by the heater, or have I misinterpreted?

 

[Plum]

Plum - Does this mean that any leaks in your engine or heater exhaust systems may lead to those gases being pushed into the cabin by the heater, or have I misinterpreted?

You are right and I appreciate your point but have followed the Eber marine installation guide and have installed the same as Beneteau did when they installed in production on this boat.