Planar or even Chinese ! Diesel hot water /heaters

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choppy

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Greetings all,
Seen lots of debate re the heaters but search not showing any info / pointers to Diesel heating & hot water heaters. Similar functionality to Eber Hydronic, Webasto Thermo top etc -
Do they exist / work ?
Basic application so 2.5K for the above is overkill
Thanks as always
 
I've never heard of any such thing and I suspect that they will be thin on the ground. Think about it - blown air heaters are fitted to road vehicles in cold climates - which greatly increases the market for them. They are pretty simple devices and easy to build cheaply. We boat owners can piggy back on that market.

There is far less demand for diesel water heaters outside the marine market - not that much demand for them inside the marine market for that matter. They are a lot more complex than blown air heaters and it would be difficult for the Russians or Chinese to significantly undercut the existing suppliers

... and, as I was writing that, ottow was posting a review of just such a beast! Oh, well.....
 
There are complications in fitting water heaters in our boats but plenty of benefits to make it worthwhile considering.
The unit linked by ottow looks good ( given the limitations of Chinese goods)
I have fitted the old eberspacher D5W on a boat, it heated water via a calorifier and fan assisted heaters. If my plumbing skills had been up to it we could have switched to using engine coolant heat when running the donk.
At the prices shown well worth considering. perhaps they do cheap calorifiers and heating elements as well!!?
 
Thanks for some swift info very possible then - would be in conjunction with a calorifier to give 240V capability
 
maby said:
I've never heard of any such thing and I suspect that they will be thin on the ground. Think about it - blown air heaters are fitted to road vehicles in cold climates - which greatly increases the market for them. They are pretty simple devices and easy to build cheaply. We boat owners can piggy back on that market.

There is far less demand for diesel water heaters outside the marine market - not that much demand for them inside the marine market for that matter. They are a lot more complex than blown air heaters and it would be difficult for the Russians or Chinese to significantly undercut the existing suppliers

... and, as I was writing that, ottow was posting a review of just such a beast! Oh, well.....
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There are a lot of water heaters around, many are fitted in diesel cars in cold climates, to pre-heat the car and to boost the heating while running. There a re usually plenty on ebay.
The device linked to by Ottow is 16kW, which is a tad OTT for most of our yachts?

The biggest problem with 'wet' heating is matrices to get the heat out of the water. Fans can be power hungry, and car matrices have the fins so close together you need a strong fan to get any airflow. Made for the job marine matrices are good, but add to the price.
But hot water is nice to have.
 
lw395 said:
There are a lot of water heaters around, many are fitted in diesel cars in cold climates, to pre-heat the car and to boost the heating while running. There a re usually plenty on ebay.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking of fitting one to my scruffy old Berlingo. Scottish mornings can be cold. In Ye Olde Days one fitted a Kenlowe Hotstart, but they are long off the market.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I'm thinking of fitting one to my scruffy old Berlingo. Scottish mornings can be cold. In Ye Olde Days one fitted a Kenlowe Hotstart, but they are long off the market.
Click to expand...
Some years ago, mate of mine fitted one to his Land Rover. With an SMS controller. So he could send a text message to pre-heat the chariot before getting out of bed. It was a soft top truck, often seen steaming in the street before he set off.
You need to switch on the heater fan too, ideally.

When I spent a winter in Scotland, I valued my Mondeo's electric windscreen heating. I used to start it, go back indoors to clean my teeth, and set off a few minutes later with a clear windscreen.
 
lw395 said:
When I spent a winter in Scotland, I valued my Mondeo's electric windscreen heating. I used to start it, go back indoors to clean my teeth, and set off a few minutes later with a clear windscreen.
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I had an old Volvo 240 for a few years. Heated seats are The Best Thing Ever.
 
ottow said:
They appear to be available in smaller sizes too:
FREE SHIPPING Liquid Parking Heater Belief 9kw 12v diesel hydronic engine water heater for Trucks Caravan Car Camper RV Boat Cabin Bus with 2 years warranty: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike
Diesel water liquid parking heater 5kw 12v: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike
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The prices on these (+£1000 ) look high compared to the 16kw model ( $300). I also see a matrix fan blower which could be used with the heaters ( £30 !)
 
Thanks again all - Does anyone have any experience of these actually working (in conjunction with a calorifier) to the level where we could run a shower - Just been told by Planar guys that all "hydronic"regardless of manufacturer(Including the big 2) need to run v.hot (Makes sense) or they get coked up and this would not work for heating up water for a shower ?
 
choppy said:
Thanks again all - Does anyone have any experience of these actually working (in conjunction with a calorifier) to the level where we could run a shower - Just been told by Planar guys that all "hydronic"regardless of manufacturer(Including the big 2) need to run v.hot (Makes sense) or they get coked up and this would not work for heating up water for a shower ?
Click to expand...
On our old Atlanta in winter the heater ( A D5W ) was running all the time and the water to the sinks (No shower ) was always hot. Most of the time in sumer the heater was off but I guess we could have fired it up just to get a calorifier full or ( in your case) while showering
 
I ran a Webasto on my last boat with radiators and a calorifier and a towel rail and it worked really well. Rather than spend silly money on a Webasto marine set up I bought one brand new from Jaguar Landrover as they use them to preheat - it was £495 and to that I had to add a standard digital timer to start and stop it and a through hull for the exhaust so all told it cost about £550 and was 5kw of silent heat with very low power drain and kept a 35 foot catamaran toasty warm and made decent hot water. I think Webasto Marine quoted £2K for the exact same unit!
 
My boat has 10kwatt Eber Hyrdonic fitted, it was on the boat when I bought it.
It heats the domestic hot water via a coil in the calorifier, which also has a second coil, so it can be heated by the engine as well.
I can confirm that it can provided very hot water, depending on how you set the mixing valve, and heats the domestic hot water quite quickly. We can get two relatively luxurious showers from it in a morning without a problem, but the amount of water we can use can also be a problem:rolleyes:.
The system has 3 matrix heater, each with 3 hot air outputs, so it get boat toasty warm relatively quickly. However, I don't think that the system is very efficient. On the rare occasion we're along side with a mains power supply, I sometimes run a 2kwatt fan heater, and I find that the fan heater is just as effective as the 10kwatt Eber Hydronic.
The whole system needs between 16 and 20 amps at 12 volts, depending on how fast the fan is running in the Eber, so it's quite power hungry. I'd quite like to replace the matrix heaters, or at least the fans and electric motors with something more efficient and quiet, perhaps using brush less motors, but haven't stumbled across anything that I think is practical as yet.
All the hot water pipes are insulated, as are the hot air ducts from the matrix heaters.
I'm not sure where all the heat goes, the exhaust is well lagged, but the exhaust gas doesn't feel that hot.
If and when I ever get around to changing the boat, I'll be looking for a more efficient and quieter heating system.
 
I have a Autoterm flow 5D heater with an external standalone timer and controller. I want to run the heater only from the external controller. I have disconnect the data in and out from the Autoterm controller. it seems to be running ok. Will this eliminate this two hour maximum running time?
 
Ian_Edwards said:
The system has 3 matrix heater, each with 3 hot air outputs... 10kwatt Eber Hydronic.
The whole system needs between 16 and 20 amps at 12 volts, depending on how fast the fan is running in the Eber, so it's quite power hungry.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? The current Eber 10kW hydronic takes 5 Amps on high (12 Volt version) & a typical 5 kWatt matrix heater Kalori Silencio 2 takes 1.2 Amps, which makes a maximum of 8.6 Amps with all 3 matrix heaters running.
 
pcatterall said:
I have fitted the old eberspacher D5W on a boat, it heated water via a calorifier and fan assisted heaters. If my plumbing skills had been up to it we could have switched to using engine coolant heat when running the donk.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking of fitting a Planar water heater but only have a single coil calorifier. Is there a way to plumb both the engine and water heater in? Switchable valves maybe? Perhaps on a solenoid so they switchover when engine starts?

I'd rather not have to buy a twin coil calorifier as they're nearly as expensive as the heater!
 
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