Really should lag the exhaust and put it into a 2" ally ducting/tube/hose those exhausts get red hot over a short periodPut a kit one into the boat last year, cost me £88 and worth every penny. Saying that I have ruined a nice Patagonia fishing jacket by leaving it beside the stainless exhaust
8kw Diesel heater.
- Thread starter gixer1
- Start date
on some forums for camper van conversions etc they advice against lagging due to overheating a sensor within the item
If the exhaust exits straight out of the floor or side of the van then there is no need for lagging but boats or anywhere the exhaust can come in contact with anything slightly flammable or skin then it has to be lagged. As for the temp sensor or flame sensor they are rated to far exceed temperatures the heater will produce. Any failure would be down to the part itself not caused by lagging of the exhaust. Straight runs as much as possible on the ducting is always best as bends keep the heat in the blower longer which then causes the temp sensor to think it's up to temp and the shuts down.
paul o'
Well-Known Member
Link please
I believe it is dry... at least I had no issue with condensation from the night heater in my landy
It's a dry heat.
We have two free standing ones. One is set up in my wife's 8' x 16' workshop . I have it wired to a 40ah 12v pigeon magnet battery , with one of those tiny low powered battery chargers that cost about a tenner from amazon.
The other one is in our tiny caravan . It runs on 2 x 110ah 12v batteries , that are charged by 2 x 100 watt solar panels.
Both of them work fantastically well , and cost pennies to run ( the caravan one was a bit expensive to get set up).
They keep the workshop and the caravan , very warm , and very dry .
It was nice to wake up at 4am this morning in the caravan, with below freezing temperatures outside , and just reach for the remote control, then go back to sleep.
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
Will these heaters run off central heating oil/kerosene?
Swedish
Well-Known Member
Yes, I run mine on kerosene with no issues but remember that it doesn't lubricate the pump very well unless you add a touch of oil, I was using 10% hydraulic oil with mine. I have now swapped my pump for a silent diaphragm custom made unit which doesn't require lubricant.
I think the official line is that you only run them on diesel , but people that have much more experience than me , reckon that kerosene burns hotter and cleaner , and is cheaper.
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
I have lots of hydraulic oil, so that is good to know.
I know someone who ran an Escort van on 75% kerosene and 25% white diesel for 10 years, then sold it and the new owner ran it for another four years with zero issues. I still can't get my head around it.
Thanks for the info.
So, I was trying to replicate the below set-up with a milwaukee battery, I hooked up a single battery and when I turn the heater on the voltage on the heater display shows 6-7 volts, a multimeter shows 7, and the heater fan seems to get slower and slower until it stops and throws up a fan error code.
So I’ve got the battery fitting going to voltage cut out , My voltage cut out is set at 17v low and 18v restart, then out of the voltage cut out to a regulator that is 36-18v step down to 12v, then onto the heater connectors….
What am I missing here?? Why is it not working? Do I need to run two in parallel?
So I’ve got the battery fitting going to voltage cut out , My voltage cut out is set at 17v low and 18v restart, then out of the voltage cut out to a regulator that is 36-18v step down to 12v, then onto the heater connectors….
What am I missing here?? Why is it not working? Do I need to run two in parallel?
Swedish
Well-Known Member
The heater uses a glow plug to ignite it that runs for a couple of minutes during startup. The fan uses around 1-2Amps but the glow plug takes around 10Amps. You probably need a bigger battery, try a car battery or do what I do and run it from a 30A 12v DC supply. Something like this:
Would the 2 in parallel be enough? Odd that the same heater runs on two 5ah batteries in the vid I posted…
Swedish
Well-Known Member
Your problem is that the battery capacity is very small in relation to the load that it is trying to support on startup meaning that the glowplug load pulls the terminal voltage down dramatically. On two batteries you'd probably run the heater (once the ignition cycle was over) for maybe 6 hours but really you need a bit more capacity to support that ignition load.Would the 2 in parallel be enough? Odd that the same heater runs on two 5ah batteries in the vid I posted…
Swedish
Well-Known Member
@gixer1 Also meant to mention that you should not really use a separate low battery cutout on the supply to these heaters as cutting the supply while the heater is running means that it can't shut down through its cooling cycle in a controlled way. If supply is cut then the it simply stops and combustion chamber overheats due to lack of air circulation which can damage the unit and may be dangerous. The heater itself already has it's own low voltage sensing which can perform a controlled shut down when the threshold is reached.
The issue there is the heater is £59, a Milwaukee 5ah battery is £70 each, so I’d rather risk damaging the heater on the off chance I miss a battery change than risk damaging the battery by over depletion.
