Taylor heater or Eberspacher?

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jollysailor17

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I am planning a cruise up to Northern Norway, so want to install a cabin heater on my 27ft sloop. I like the simplicity of the Taylor's heater but would like to know if I can run it whilst underway as we have some quite long legs to sail and all in chilly climes. Does the Taylor have a chimney that can handle spray and occasional green water sloshing back along the coachroof or would it simply die with a soggy hiss?
Before anyone states the obvious we will also wear several layers of woollen base and mid layers, but a heater would be nice to keep the condensation at bay....
 
AFAIK the Taylors cabin heaters, 79 and 89, are primus-type burners in a fancy cover. Over many years of outdoor life it has always been a rigid rule that you never leave a primus stove unattended. Add in the effects of sailing in a seaway and it begins to sound worse. As a lifelong primus enthusiast I am reluctant to vote against it but I think it might be a risk too far.
 
vyv_cox said:
AFAIK the Taylors cabin heaters, 79 and 89, are primus-type burners in a fancy cover. Over many years of outdoor life it has always been a rigid rule that you never leave a primus stove unattended. Add in the effects of sailing in a seaway and it begins to sound worse. As a lifelong primus enthusiast I am reluctant to vote against it but I think it might be a risk too far.
Click to expand...

I agree. I would not sail with my drip fed 079D alight.

However, in port or at anchor - brilliant. Far nicer than any blown air system.
 
RE Heaters

I would go with the blown air system every time. Very reliable and almost maintenance free, I have just replaced an Erberspacher after 20 years of service during which time nothing was spent on repairs. It should take up less space than a Taylors and will not create any extra condensation through combustion. The only downside is power supply if you continually keep switching it off and need to relight the burner. Run it continually and it consumes very little.
Keep warm,
 
I think the concensus re blown air is probably right. Switch it on and hey presto, without messing about with preheat, flues, downdrafts..
At 27 feet, you probably have unused space high up inside a cockpit locker for an Eber/Webasto, whereas a good Taylors installation will take up precious space and likely be noticeable in the cabin. It needs to be mounted quite low down to be truly effective, and the chimney flue well guarded to prevent hand burns!


Having wrote all that, I have an 079D with which I replaced an Eber, and I do indeed sail with it and very nice it is too!
When you nip below to make a cuppa, or stop sailing, I have to say it is like that feeling when you come home to a real fire, silent, simple, a definite focal point, no blowing air noise or drafts. I leave it on for weeks on end during the winter, and very economical it is too.
I DO have a drip tray underneath it, and whilst the standard flue seems fine at sea, in harbour I have an ondeck 1.2m extratall flue with an angled top section that can be manually aligned downwind-this is genuinely useful sometimes if there are bad eddies, to prevent downdrafts.
Mine runs off the main tank so no header tank to top up.
So, should a nice inexpensive example come your way, I certainly wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, just work out how and where you will install it( eg let in to the loo bulkhead wall is pretty safe and heats both areas..) and be prepared to have to do more to start it.

Sounds like a fun trip, enjoy!
 
Heater on passage

Have a wonderful Dickinson diesel heater on board - bit like a posh Taylors, well recommended. Having any stove burning when underway however is in my opinion far to dangerous. If it blows out, someone on deck might not realise it and the resulting smoke/fumes could quickly poison anyone asleep below. Have never tried the Eber. The answer for me is to run oil lamps below. I usually have two gimballed ones running all the time when on passage in winter as they keep damp at bay, no fumes, no smoke and no danger. They provide a surprising amount of warmth and the light is very comforting without being bright enough to hinder sleep.

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
 
Barometric damper....

Barometric dampers are designed to prevent stove chimney blow back.

The damper is installed in the chimney, designed to stop a downdraft from blowing out the diesel stove....

Used in virtually all the fish boats on the west coast of Canada, Alaska too.
 
I can honestly say the only time I have been sick whilst at sea or on a boat was on a cruise on a friends boat where he had the Taylors heater lit under way. As he put up the sails there was a certain amount of 'turbulance' adjacent to the chimney and the cabin got a 'blow back' shortly there after I lost my breakfast!! It seemed to be very efficient upto this.

Mal
 
Sultans_Kapitein said:
I can honestly say the only time I have been sick whilst at sea or on a boat was on a cruise on a friends boat where he had the Taylors heater lit under way. As he put up the sails there was a certain amount of 'turbulance' adjacent to the chimney and the cabin got a 'blow back' shortly there after I lost my breakfast!! It seemed to be very efficient upto this.

Mal
Click to expand...

I'm thinking I might know the boat in question?
 
Sultans_Kapitein said:
I can honestly say the only time I have been sick whilst at sea or on a boat was on a cruise on a friends boat where he had the Taylors heater lit under way. As he put up the sails there was a certain amount of 'turbulance' adjacent to the chimney and the cabin got a 'blow back' shortly there after I lost my breakfast!! It seemed to be very efficient upto this.

Mal
Click to expand...

Didnt stop you going back to sleep either :)

Tom
 
Barometric damper?

I don't think the addition of a damper makes small fuel stoves safe to run underway in a yacht. I have a damper fitted in the chimney of my (Canadian) Dickinson heater but it does not mean that the heater can safely be run with crew asleep down below or that it will with certainty prevent the heater being blown out. If the stove does blow out or the damper is activated excessively there is definitely a risk of carbon m. poisoning. The manufacturers themselves issue dire warnings of this danger in their manual so too risky in my boat.

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
 
just a quick plug for the best option - a solid fuel heater. I have a Bengco - left it on for weeks over winter - night and day, sailing and when I'm away from the boat. Can't fault it - great fun too.
 
I had a solid fuel heater on a junk rigged kingfisher 21. Brilliant but the flue was to port and although it worked fine under sail on the starboard tack it filled the cabin with smoke on the port tack, so if you are going for anything with a flue you need to be able to tack the chimney if you are wanting to use it under sail. I know that it's possible to fit an extension on deck which slides over the flue and goes across to the other side of the sail but it'd be a a bit of a nuisance and I've not tried it myself.
 
I had a solid fuel heater on a junk rigged kingfisher 21. Brilliant but the flue was to port and although it worked fine under sail on the starboard tack it filled the cabin with smoke on the port tack, so if you are going for anything with a flue you need to be able to tack the chimney if you are wanting to use it under sail. I know that it's possible to fit an extension on deck which slides over the flue and goes across to the other side of the sail but it'd be a a bit of a nuisance and I've not tried it myself.
 
pugwash60 said:
I had a solid fuel heater on a junk rigged kingfisher 21. Brilliant but the flue was to port and although it worked fine under sail on the starboard tack it filled the cabin with smoke on the port tack, so if you are going for anything with a flue you need to be able to tack the chimney if you are wanting to use it under sail. I know that it's possible to fit an extension on deck which slides over the flue and goes across to the other side of the sail but it'd be a a bit of a nuisance and I've not tried it myself.
Click to expand...

never a problem on my boat - perhaps your flue is too short to provide enough heated lenght to give updraft. - It cant be more than 65cm or so - it was that on my kingfisher.
 
Pleiades said:
I don't think the addition of a damper makes small fuel stoves safe to run underway in a yacht. I have a damper fitted in the chimney of my (Canadian) Dickinson heater but it does not mean that the heater can safely be run with crew asleep down below or that it will with certainty prevent the heater being blown out. If the stove does blow out or the damper is activated excessively there is definitely a risk of carbon m. poisoning. The manufacturers themselves issue dire warnings of this danger in their manual so too risky in my boat.

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
Click to expand...

We, too, have a Dickinson and have used it underway. It does blow out occasionally but we don't get CO we get lots of diesel fumes. We have a CO detector adjacnet to the heater and it has yet to sound in 6 years.

We also have an Eber and have been to northern Norway. We used the Eber when motoring, which you do a surprising amount of in Norway. My vote, however, would be for a stove rather than an Eber because of the reliance on electricity which, if you anchor a lot is in short supply.
 
Another vote for the Dickinson diesel drip feed heater. Ours is on a 42ft steel yacht - we had it fitted in Victoria BC after sailing from NZ. Used it all last season including regularly sailing in 20 to 30 knots. It never once blew out and we only got a puff of fumes 2 or 3 times when the barometric damper was over powered. Carbon monoxide is not a product of normal combustion in a properly adjusted stove, but as with the previous poster we have a CO detector near the stove just in case. We ran ours regularly all night - stove in saloon, we sleep in forward cabin with hatch cracked open in our cabin and companionway partly open. The heat is lovely and dry and no condensation. The moving glowing flames through the glass creates a great ambiance. Hundreds of fishing boats in Alaska and BC run their diesel heaters (mainly Dickinsons) 24 hours a day. They are also 1/3rd the price of an Eber.
 
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