Diesel cab heater

[J1nx]

'Eberspächer opened in June 2013 a new Asia headquarters and production site in Shanghai/China.'

Probably the same design on the same production line with a couple of cost cutting changes. The price of the Eberspacher is partly due to testing regimes and propping up a massive company with marketing departments and the like.

 

[supaimpy]

Well Eberspacher does have a Chinese partner, but its for that market (Asia), European Heaters are made in Europe , Poland and Germany. As for cost cutting changes - that's the labour costs and transport.

Yes the testing of heaters before mass production or introduction into both the OEM and Aftermarket costs money and time infact the Airtronic has just been updated, the Hydronic was done a while back , and its the OEM's that drive the development,

Propping up ?, Eberspacher is huge , employs 10000 worldwide (EUR 4,480.9 million in 2017) and actually the Heater or rather Climate Control Division is a very small part of the Group , which is still family owned. The main Group products are exhausts and cats, but there's also Automotive Controls, Electric automotive heaters (ptc).

 

[mrsbruce]

Speaking of diesel heaters.

I’m finally getting round to fitting mine in the hut, and I wondered about using some kind of insulation around the exhaust pipe. It’s more for filling the gap safely between the pipe, and the hut walls. Would exhaust bandage do the job, or is there something better/more sensible.

 

[supaimpy]

marine exhausts are generally wrapped and then covered with ducting , be careful though , the length of exhaust is critical to getting the heat away as well as the fumes

example

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Eberspache...d-Fittings/2231644649?iid=302685115871&chn=ps

 

[mrsbruce]

marine exhausts are generally wrapped and then covered with ducting , be careful though , the length of exhaust is critical to getting the heat away as well as the fumes

example

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Eberspache...d-Fittings/2231644649?iid=302685115871&chn=ps

It’s the usual cheapy Chinese 2 foot length of exhaust, but has a dinky box on the end, so bandage it, and fabricate some ducting.

I can do that.

 

[supaimpy]

make sure the silencer is outside , they are NOT sealed

 

[Can'tWeld]

I've recently put a 5kw in my L1H1 Ducato van. Works pretty well (though I'm not convinced it actually is a 5 to be honest). It's my understanding that the glow plug that comes with it is prone to failure so it's probably worth getting a replacement or two to keep as a spare. Also the controller has the most annoying UI on the planet. Not bad for the price though

 

[doubleboost]

The heater turned up today .
First impressions .
How can they do this for the money .
Hoping to get it fired up this week end .
I will be doing a video for Banggood showing the heater .
This will be a no holds barred review as usual.
First impressions are very favorable .
I need to find a decent battery and some fuel .

 

[Can'tWeld]

They are very good value. Though they're also pretty simple devices. To be honest looking at the Eberspacher/Webasto units I found myself asking the opposite question - how can they cost this much?

When I first started considering buying a heater some years ago I even thought about making my own - so when I found out someone in China had already done the hard work (and far better and cheaper than I could) it was a no-brainer

What controller did you get with yours John - mine is the LCD one and I think it's rubbish - slow and unresponsive and really fiddly to use. Does the job though. Would rather have had the rotary one. Looking into hacking it to add GSM support so I can text the heater to fire up on a cold morning!

Not sure if you're on Facebook but there's a good group full of info about these heaters - it's called "Chinese Diesel Vehicle Air Heaters - troubleshooting and parts sales". Well worth joining up. Has a good FAQ/files section full of all kinds of info.

A word of advice - I found my 5kw overheated after a few minutes every run when I first installed it - E05 error on the display. Solved by reducing the maximum fuel pump rate from 5.5hz to about 4. Also they need a good battery, if the voltage drops too low they either won't fire up or will shut down.

Will be interesting to see how it gets on with heating your shop. It's more than enough in my van but a workshop's a bit bigger than that

 

[doubleboost]

Had the heater running for a couple of hours
Worked straight away no problems at all
Plenty of heat as well

I will be making a decent stand for it and a silencer
ONE THING I MUST RECOMMEND IS A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR
Mine ran with no problems but you can not be too careful
I had it running on kerosene

 

[Kayos]

Common on domestic warm air units, if the heat ex cracks then you blow CO around the house. I imagine it’s the biggest danger on these but I don’t know how likely it is for it to crack

 

[mrsbruce]

Getting yourself a cheap power unit is a very good upgrade, if it’s for heating your workshop. Way more useful than using a battery.

 

[rtcosic]

This chap has decent test equipment. Seems OK as new, so the outstanding question will be durability.


You Tube

Getting yourself a cheap power unit is a very good upgrade, if it’s for heating your workshop. Way more useful than using a battery.

Note the 9 amp start up current though.

 

[Johnnybravo]

Sever powersupply would be just the ticket to power it up.
12v 20A minimum for under a tenner...

 

[Robotstar5]

Sever powersupply would be just the ticket to power it up.
12v 20A minimum for under a tenner...

Or an old CB power supply

 

[doubleboost]

Sever powersupply would be just the ticket to power it up.
12v 20A minimum for under a tenner...

have you got a link for one

 

[Johnnybravo]

have you got a link for one

Something like this
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/253995876260

You do need to connect a couple of pins on the board to make it fire up,but loads of info on how to do it. The R/C plane and helicopter guys use them for a charging source for charging high capacity lithium ion batteries..I have one in the garage. Will see if its the same model as the one in the link and post up the connections needed to make it sing...

 

[daedalusminos]

I bought one of these (12V/15A) delivered in a couple of days. Fires up fine but yet to try it under load as still waiting for my heater to arrive.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-5V-12V-24V-Universal-AC-DC-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-LED-CCTV-PSU-New/283252152448?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&var=583724798715&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

EDIT: Doh! I see that the 12V/20A one on the above link is even cheaper at £6.99 each! Just ordered one of those as well in case 15A is marginal.

 

[mrsbruce]

I bought one of these (12V/15A) delivered in a couple of days. Fires up fine but yet to try it under load as still waiting for my heater to arrive.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-5V-12V-24V-Universal-AC-DC-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-LED-CCTV-PSU-New/283252152448?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&var=583724798715&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

EDIT: Doh! I see that the 12V/20A one on the above link is even cheaper at £6.99 each! Just ordered one of those as well in case 15A is marginal.

I think it was the 12v/15 amp I bought (must check). The computer power supply I had been using before was faulty, and caused the heater to keep shutting down.

This piwer unit handles the startup fine, and the heater warms up my big hut quite easily on the lowest setting (with doors open as not set up properly yet).

 

[Can'tWeld]

Pretty much any PC power supply should do the trick. Connect the green and black wires in the ATX plug to make it fire up. Not sure about the connections on that server one above, it appears to be non-standard, i assume it plugs into some kind of backplane to make it hot-swappable.