Kerosene in a diesel heater?

[goeasy123]

I seem to remember someone saying that occassionally running a diesel heater on kerosene will clean it out. Any thoughts? Yes or no?

 

[pvb]

I've always kept my boats in the water all year round, and often visit in the winter so the heater gets a fair bit of use. I've never used kerosene in a diesel heater, and never had major problems with either Eberspacher or Webasto heaters.

 

[CLB]

I have a chinaspacher that I have only ever run on 28second heating oil, which I believe is the same as kerosene/paraffin. Lots of reports of these cheap heaters getting coked up, but mine is in year three now and has never missed a beat.

 

[Rappey]

The instructions for blown hot air heaters recomend using kerosene over diesel as it burns much cleaner.. I had a force ten pressurised heater which could run on either... ran it for 20 yrs on kerosene and it never blocked.
Someone on here (i think) but was ages ago had a sooted up eberspacher. He managed to get it going and ran it on kerosene for many hrs.. Then took it home to clean out the soot..
He opened it up to find it spotless as the kerosene had cleaned it out !

 

[goeasy123]

The instructions for blown hot air heaters recomend using kerosene over diesel as it burns much cleaner.. I had a force ten pressurised heater which could run on either... ran it for 20 yrs on kerosene and it never blocked.
Someone on here (i think) but was ages ago had a sooted up eberspacher. He managed to get it going and ran it on kerosene for many hrs.. Then took it home to clean out the soot..
He opened it up to find it spotless as the kerosene had cleaned it out !

Yes.... that's the source of my question. I can't find it and I don't think it went into detail.

 

[lw395]

My eber was pretty clean after several years of red diesel use.
A mate of mine got an ex-vehicle Webasto from a breaker's yard, that was pretty clean too.
Both 'wet' heaters.

 

[pvb]

The instructions for blown hot air heaters recomend using kerosene over diesel as it burns much cleaner..

This is untrue. Both Eberspacher and Webasto say that their heaters run on ordinary commercial diesel fuel (EN590). This makes sense as most of their heaters get installed in trucks and are fed from the truck's fuel tank.

 

[vyv_cox]

I understand that the USA Eberspacher (Esper) website recommends running on kerosene to decoke. Don't do the same with an Autoterm Planar, it will not survive this treatment.

 

[Rappey]

Its not untrue.. I have read it for myself .. I downloaded marine fitment pdf for planar, mikuni, eberspacher and webasto as was fitting a chinese heater and wanted all the available knowledge as chinese instructions were "not very helpfull" Just cant remember which recommended kerosene over diesel..
They run on diesel just fine and nothing says dont.. .. they run on kerosene even better !

Just read the above post, why would a planar die on kerosene? The fuel pump is a solenoid type and the rest is just a furnace.. what is there to kill ?

 

[pvb]

Its not untrue.. I have read it for myself .. I downloaded marine fitment pdf for planar, mikuni, eberspacher and webasto as was fitting a chinese heater and wanted all the available knowledge as chinese instructions were "not very helpfull" Just cant remember which recommended kerosene over diesel..
They run on diesel just fine and nothing says dont.. .. they run on kerosene even better !

Just read the above post, why would a planar die on kerosene? The fuel pump is a solenoid type and the rest is just a furnace.. what is there to kill ?

So you "cant remember" where you might have read it? Not in Eberspacher or Webasto instructions.

As for querying vyv_cox's advice re Planar heaters, you might note that his son sells the things and so he probably knows rather more than you do about them.

 

[Rappey]

So you "cant remember" where you might have read it? Not in Eberspacher or Webasto instructions.

As for querying vyv_cox's advice re Planar heaters, you might note that his son sells the things and so he probably knows rather more than you do about them.

Im asking why it will kill it ?

Converted my Eberspacher to Kerosene today

 

[pvb]

Im asking why it will kill it ?

Maybe vyv_cox will explain.

But your assertion that instructions recommend kerosene over diesel is still untrue, and isn't helpful.

 

[Rappey]

Prove its untrue instead of just repeatedly posting your opinion?

 

[pvb]

Prove its untrue instead of just repeatedly posting your opinion?

Not my opinion, just facts from Eberspacher and Webasto instructions.

 

[Rappey]

That does not really state anything to do with paraffin. But I appreciate your effort ?
I did actually look myself but non of the instalation instructions mention anything about what fuel is used, let alone fuel specs.
There is certainly an official article somewhere that I got my posted info from, but that was two years ago so can't back anything up.
There is a youtube guy (David mcluckie) that has tested heaters to destruction and beyond.
What was interesting was a petrol parking heater. He took it apart to compare internals to a diesel fired one, not actually that much different.
After running it on petrol he tried diesel and it ran even better than petrol!
What they didn't like was veg oil and similar.
There are many posts on here going back over 10 years where users have ran on kerosene without issues and ones that have used it for decoking only, to good effect.
So in the spirit of the original question many would state it's OK occasionally, others are happy to use it all the time

 

[pvb]

That does not really state anything to do with paraffin. But I appreciate your effort ?
I did actually look myself but non of the instalation instructions mention anything about what fuel is used, let alone fuel specs.
There is certainly an official article somewhere that I got my posted info from, but that was two years ago so can't back anything up.
There is a youtube guy (David mcluckie) that has tested heaters to destruction and beyond.
What was interesting was a petrol parking heater. He took it apart to compare internals to a diesel fired one, not actually that much different.
After running it on petrol he tried diesel and it ran even better than petrol!
What they didn't like was veg oil and similar.
There are many posts on here going back over 10 years where users have ran on kerosene without issues and ones that have used it for decoking only, to good effect.
So in the spirit of the original question many would state it's OK occasionally, others are happy to use it all the time

I appreciate your effort too! But I still maintain that your claim "The instructions for blown hot air heaters recomend using kerosene over diesel as it burns much cleaner" is untrue. These heaters are primarily sold for vehicle use, and use the same diesel as the truck's engine uses.

 

[NormanS]

The diesel that I use is still high sulfur, because my supplier also supplies many of CalMac West Coast ferries. Although good for the engine, I found that my Eberspacher hated this fuel. The burner pot became totally clogged up with a hard deposit, which was almost impossible to remove. I changed to white diesel for a while, before finding a source of kerosene. I've now been using exclusively kerosene for about three years, at the rate of about 100 litres per year. Absolutely no problems, and it's half the price. ?

 

[Bru]

The older Webasto Airtop manuals listed several suitable fuels including Kerosene

The newer Evo range manuals only list diesel (EN blah white and BS blah gas oil)

That's not to say a Webasto Evo wouldn't be happy on kerosene but then again ...

 

[Refueler]

Kerosine is at the lighter end of Middle Distillate ... Heating oil as in GasOil is only a part way up the middle distillate scale from that.

We look after GasOil for Alaska (classed as Nanuk Diesel) .... its kerosine. Unadulterated Kerosine .... in fact what we call DPK ... Dual Purpose Kerosine .....

The only item that could be a concern is the flammability or Ignition point of Kero is far lower than GasOil ... which might be a factor to take into account.
Kero also has a terrible habit of building up static ... and can be more hazardous than Gasoline - because people do not think a 'heavier' fuel like Kero would ignite so easily ... but it does. So I would suggest that a company may advise against it for safety reasons ?

As to cleaning systems .... I can believe that ... because of its cleaner burn.

Kero is also used to alter GasOil winter characteristics .... Cloud Point and CFPP ..... its a cheap way to alter a GasOil for winter ... as is adding Gasoline to the GasOil. Both break down the parafinic content and delay its precipitation as the fuel cools.

 

[Rappey]

So you can get sulphur diesel, or marine diesel, whereas I can only get bio diesel, but I have a 4000 litre kerosene tank ? Hmmmm. ?

Refueler - Can you please explain a little more about the static aspect as I know nothing about that