Heater ducting, do I pay 5 times the price for original?

skyflyer

skyflyer

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Erbespacher 75mm ducting approx £16 a metre
Aluminium ducting on eBay at £9.99 for 3mm Standard aluminium ducting £9.99 for 3 metres (it's the hard walled type not the thin foil with a spiral wire in it)

am i missing something that makes it worth paying almost five times the price?

PS, just realised this looks like a 'plug'. I have no connection its a genuine query.
 
The cheap eBay stuff is likely to be much less flexible than Eberspacher/Webasto ducting, so a lot depends on the proposed installation.
 
pcatterall said:
The ebay stuff looks good. Also consider alternatives to 'eberspacher' insulation. I believe domestic house stuff works well if you have space. I understand that there are no combustion issues but please check that.
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when you say "doemstic house stuff", what do you mean? I want to insulate a part of my heated air duct run and was thinking of cutting up a hot water cylinder jacket.

I also want to insulate the exhaust as the metal tube with some sort of white heat proof fabric is next to useless and my fenders keep getting melt holes each time I run it (it runs through the cockpit locker) - any suggestions for that gratefully received.
 
I used the foil coated bubblewrap designed to go behind radiators, and fixed it in place with sticky foil tape... all from local DIY for a fraction of the cost of the 'proper' stuff.... the difference good insulation makes is remarkable... it halved the time my installation took to reach the temperature where the thermstat cycled the Eberspacher down.
 
Buy the cheapest, nastiest stuff you can find and insulate it with the cheapest stuff you can find is my advice, there, that's what you wanted to hear isn't it?
By the way, PEK duct (there is no such thing as Eber, Webo or Mikuni duct, it's all PEK) can be bought for quite a bit less via Mikuni UK or I can do 75mm PEK at about £13.50 p.m.
 
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David2452 said:
Buy the cheapest, nastiest stuff you can find and insulate it with the cheapest stuff you can find is my advice, that's what you wanted to hear isn't it?
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Not sure if that is directed at me David, but no it wasn't what i wanted to hear. What i wanted to hear was what i actually asked, i.e. what do I get by paying 5 times the price. Sometimes in life you get what you pay for; often you just get a brand name - are Armani jeans at £500 a pair that much better than a pair at £100 - no. What advantage does the Erbespacher ducting confer - because I'll tell you this, I am only replacing it because the original has split and creased and I am struggling, looking at it, to see how it justifies the price.

Since 'sarky' comments are something you obviously appreciate, maybe I could suggest that the advantage that Erbespacher parts confer may lie with the margin offered to the dealer, rather than any benefit accruing to the customer?

[edited to add] actually I'd happily pay MORE for something that doesn't crush flat the first time a fender sits on top of it
 
skyflyer said:
Not sure if that is directed at me David, but no it wasn't what i wanted to hear. What i wanted to hear was what i actually asked, i.e. what do I get by paying 5 times the price. Sometimes in life you get what you pay for; often you just get a brand name - are Armani jeans at £500 a pair that much better than a pair at £100 - no. What advantage does the Erbespacher ducting confer - because I'll tell you this, I am only replacing it because the original has split and creased and I am struggling, looking at it, to see how it justifies the price.

Since 'sarky' comments are something you obviously appreciate, maybe I could suggest that the advantage that Erbespacher parts confer may lie with the margin offered to the dealer, rather than any benefit accruing to the customer?

[edited to add] actually I'd happily pay MORE for something that doesn't crush flat the first time a fender sits on top of it
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You are exactly right, I am simply interested in margins, no honest advice is given, any of my customers will confirm that for you, I suggest you go with the samples of one offered. That's me done on here.
 
Wow. Someone has turbo charged the forum escalator!!

Sky flyer - we used cheap industrial insulated ducting, but it was a bit of a bodge as it was 100mm diameter and although it was insulated I still think 75mm would've been better. Like you were weren't about to pay 000's for basically the same stuff. But perhaps we should've done. I think I would source some more appropriate stuff next time and I wasn't aware of David's better pricing at the time.
 
skyflyer said:
Since 'sarky' comments are something you obviously appreciate, maybe I could suggest that the advantage that Erbespacher parts confer may lie with the margin offered to the dealer, rather than any benefit accruing to the customer?
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I find that appallingly offensive to someone who in my experience is as straight as a die and spends hours helping people on here for no gain.
 
Quite. My Original post was neither accusatory or offensive as far as I can see and suddenly out of nowhere I'm being painted as some sort of cheapskate rabble rouser on a one man mission to undermine someone's business
David made -and continues to make -some big assumptions, based essentially upon some replies to my question and not what I actually asked, to which he STILL hasn't offered an answer.
Sorry guys and girls but if you throw a punch (completely unwarranted at that) don't be surprised if the recipient punches back
He may have given hours of free and helpful advice to others but I didn't specifically ask for it and he clearly wasn't interested in offering any (useful) advice to me
Thank you everyone else who has responded in a calm, sensible and adult fashion
 
David2452 said:
Buy the cheapest, nastiest stuff you can find and insulate it with the cheapest stuff you can find is my advice, there, that's what you wanted to hear isn't it?
By the way, PEK duct (there is no such thing as Eber, Webo or Mikuni duct, it's all PEK) can be bought for quite a bit less via Mikuni UK or I can do 75mm PEK at about £13.50 p.m.
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Important for latecomers to the thread to appreciate that the second sentence was not added to this post until after my reply - ie it was just the rather unpleasant and unwarranted first sentence I took offence at
 
When I fitted my heater I was gobsmacked at the price of the ducting. I got some off E-bay from a local company selling to the car trade and it was £18 for 2 meters which was roughly half price of the stuff advertised for Ebbers and such. £13 odd a meter is the sort of price I would have paid for better than "make do " stuff that I ended up with, but I didn't know about that at the time.
Only being able to get it in 2m lengths turned out to be an advantage 'coz it was easier to thread through lockers and to lag too. I did buy branded lagging but that was eye watering too, £10 a meter.
I have listened carefully to Davids previous contributions and value his expertise.

I don't want the cheapest nastiest botch available, I want a reasonably priced, good value, solution to the ducting problem that works.
 
David2452 said:
You are exactly right, I am simply interested in margins, no honest advice is given, any of my customers will confirm that for you, I suggest you go with the samples of one offered. That's me done on here.
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You're in the the wrong lounge ole chap!
 
Sorry guys, bad day, bad back an very grumpy, still I should not have made assumptions and tried to give a more helpful answer, less pain and grumpiness this morning so perhaps a little late but here it is. The reason PEK is used a lot is because it forms lovely bends and is pretty crush resistant, more so than the eBay stuff linked, which in protected areas is perfectly adequate by the way, but you never get the full extended length from it when you introduce bends, so increasing the price per actual M of run. PEK is not cheap but it is good. However the OP may not have PEK for all I know, Eber used some cheaper grey stuff in their kits a while ago which was not so good. As part of a more considered response I would also look at the install, if the Heater, duct and exhaust are sited low enough down in a locker to get crushed by stuff being bunged in there anyway it may make sense to move it a bit. For areas where this is unavoidable, very few in my experience if the install is well planned, and if the run is fairly straight I have used thin wall solid tube or tube with PEK for the bends, but that is even more expensive.
 
David2452 said:
Sorry guys, bad day, bad back an very grumpy, still I should not have made assumptions and tried to give a more helpful answer, less pain and grumpiness this morning so perhaps a little late but here it is. The reason PEK is used a lot is because it forms lovely bends and is pretty crush resistant, more so than the eBay stuff linked, which in protected areas is perfectly adequate by the way, but you never get the full extended length from it when you introduce bends, so increasing the price per actual M of run. PEK is not cheap but it is good. However the OP may not have PEK for all I know, Eber used some cheaper grey stuff in their kits a while ago which was not so good. As part of a more considered response I would also look at the install, if the Heater, duct and exhaust are sited low enough down in a locker to get crushed by stuff being bunged in there anyway it may make sense to move it a bit. For areas where this is unavoidable, very few in my experience if the install is well planned, and if the run is fairly straight I have used thin wall solid tube or tube with PEK for the bends, but that is even more expensive.
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You're a good egg David many in the lounge need to take aleaf from your book.
 
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