Red diesel for an espacher diesel heater?

Tim Good

Tim Good

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Someone told me that if i run a espacher diesel heater regularly on standard red diesel then it will pack up after about 300 hours and I'm better using decent stuff from a garage if I can.

However, if you only have one diesel tank that is problematic.

1. Is that true and 2. Is there a solution?
 
Don't know about 300 hours,but true in my experience. Road diesel is of a higher cetane value and burns cleaner. If yours is coked up ,but still runs, feed it some paraffin or kerosene---works wonders.
Fit a seperate tank---that's what I did ,but for the opposite reason (to allow me to run it on red diesel!) . I now use the best diesel ,as Eber themselves recommend.
 
I understand that red diesel at one time was inferior to road diesel, particularly in sulphur content, but this is no longer the case and the only difference now is the dye. Not discussing anything that MDL provide, which is supposedly bio free.
 
Some people have problems, some don't, the issue has become less common since the introduction of ULSD as it was mostly the high sulphur that caused the problem. The reason that some people don't have problems is because their heaters are burning properly, either just by good luck or because they have been set up correctly, even high sulphur was less of a problem with heaters correctly adjusted. Some marina fuel, particularly high turnover F.A.M.E. free ULSD red is actually better than DERV now due to the lack of Fatty-acid methyl ester which all DERV must contain by law. Paraffin was always a better fuel, again due to its low sulphur content but that advantage has now been somewhat negated. Eberspachers are the worst of the lot for this largely due to the fiddly hit and miss method of adjusting the burn which means it is rarely done.
 
I think it depends on the type of red diesel. The red diesel that I buy is still the high sulphur stuff, as used by ships and fishing boats. I had increasing problems getting my Eber to light. I tried paraffin, but with little improvement. On stripping it down, I found that the inaccessible end of the burning tube was very badly coked up. I tried mechanical cleaning, and also ammonia, but it was taking such a long time that I bought a new burning tube. I now burn expensive Derv, and have no problems at all.

I give it a blast with paraffin, twice a year, and while I do not know if this helps to prevent coking in the burning tube, I do believe that it discourages a build-up of soot on the heat exchanger.
 
There used to be "bog standard "diesel to which was added red dye if without duty.According to my delivery driver the dye was added to the delivery tanker.
This was what is now refered to as high sulphur diesel.
Then in recent years the new generation road diesels with additives including biodiesel appeared with high sulphur just being sold dyed red for off road,plant,central heating and marine use.
Then last year as I recall as usual because of Europe the legislation demanded that all terrestrial diesel powered equipment whether on or off the public highway use low sulphur diesel.
My tanker driver when using multiple tank tankers now can find himself carrying kerosene,white low sulphur road diesel,red dyed low sulphur off road diesel and classic high sulphur red diesel for boats and heating.our local trout hatchery uses high sulphur red to keep the water warm in the hatcheries.
 
My ebby runs off red from the only tank I have. It has never been dealer serviced and runs without any problems. We heard that they like to run hard so I make sure it gets a good blast from time to time.
 
Ok that gives me confidence. This one is on a prospective boat and hasn't been run op for at least 6 years so likely will need a good service.
 
northcave said:
Ok that gives me confidence. This one is on a prospective boat and hasn't been run op for at least 6 years so likely will need a good service.
Click to expand...

Like most stuff on boats lack of use is not a good thing, they should be run once a month even in the summer to keep the bearings free and fresh fuel in the pump which can stick if left for long periods, having said that I have had heaters that have stood for around 3 0r 4 years and they fired up fine on the test rig after a simple clean out service.
 
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