Diesel cabin / engine heaters

[Chris]

Has anyone fitted one of these things or had experience at any rate? I see that there are ones that simply warm the cabin and ones that can warm the block and therefore provide heat via the heater matrix and give you a nice warm engine to start in the morning. I know some Discos have them fitted. I looked at Webasco and nearly died at the price, but there are ones about on ebay for less.

If it made hot water too, well I'd be jolly happy. Just thinking about sleeping out in a fortnight's time in Wales! Wouldn't have one for then, but being nice and snug is the key to a good night's kip in a car.

Chris

 

[karl webster]

Hi cris, I to am buying one for the same reason. Know people who use them and there great. I used to deal in the eberspacher hot air blowers and there great still got a few of them in bits. One in my work van. The wter ones im going to use for my veg oil as well to heat the tank. I also have 7 day timers so you can set the heater to fire up at six in the morning to defrost the truck and nice and hot as soon as you get in. Thats why i put the post on regarding the leisure battery to run it.
karl

 

[karl webster]

Found one new cris quite cheap just need pump with it. If there is a few interested in them i can work on a deal to get a good group price?

Item number: 270665928460 on ebay
You couldnt be able to pipe it into the cooling system as well as have it on a tap as well though cris unless u had a seperate tank that you diverted the flow into so you can ad the water you want to heat up. They are a good idea i think and i will be buying very soon
karl

 

[J66P]

I used to have one in my van when I was on breakdown call just so van could always be jumped in and go, top notch bit of kit

 

[karl webster]

Did you have the hot air blower or the water one then? I have the blower one in my van for the dog to keep warm in winter when she comes to work with me. I tried everything preivious but nothing else to do the job cheaply.
karl

 

[Chris]

Looks tidy. Obviously need the pump too. Thing is that I don't know enough about the product and what it does, to say yes at this stage. It's not cheap even though it is much much cheaper than ones elsewhere. What does it do? Does it heat the engine coolant? Heat the cabin air, make a cup of tea?

I am interested, I think it would be neat. I would like to pipe warm air into my roof tent!!!! Where would it go, how would it plumb in? Oh questions questions.

Chris

 

[J66P]

Did you have the hot air blower or the water one then? I have the blower one in my van for the dog to keep warm in winter when she comes to work with me. I tried everything preivious but nothing else to do the job cheaply.
karl

I had the water one but I also rigged up a timer relay into the heater so that the heater came on every hour for 10 mins, ran it all off aux batteries so no worries of main battery failure

 

[karl webster]

Well Someone who knows more about them may correct me but, The heaters ive had and got that just warm the air use diesel as the fuel,in my van i use a small tank so i can run it on red. Easy way to expain it is that it is like a mini space heater i am told then the fan blows the hot air out. !2v supply and fuel is all that is needed.
The one on ebay is new and the pump costs 39 on top i think. I think that these will just tap into your hoses somewhere,i think i will be going into the rear ones and wire it up to come out of the rear heater only using the swith on the dash and my 7 day timer.
As for hot water i would have to have a word with the bloke selling them. I would have thought that something like i will be doing with my kit should do the job where you have a insulated tank with a tap on and your hot cooling system pipes running through it that would heat it up fin. I may even do that myself yet aswell. I have a 12v handwash for hot water at the min but have yet to fit it.
You can fit it anywhere but one thing you have to remamber is that you need a eghust for the heater plus air in pipe for it to work.
Hope i have been abit of help cris. If i can manage to sort one out you wont have any probs.
karl



J66p, Is the 10 min timer what come standard on the bt vans. I have a few of them but always took them off for what i wanted. Do the water ones only run at one temp or can you have them on low or high settings as you can with the blow heaters?

 

[J66P]

water one had 3 settings if I remember correctly and yes it just taps into the heater hoses. The timer I had wasnt a proper jobbie it was a standard timer relay that we used to fit for a totally different application but it did the job and didnt cost owt which is always good

The air blown ones can be run as you say off a little tank and yes they can run on red, thinking of doing this on my Caravelle as its petrol and the petrol heaters fetch an absolute fortune

 

[karl webster]

and can i run the water one off a small tank as well then? Think some of the parts will be the same as parts i already have here. I know where there is a couple of heaters that would be cheap Water ones that is but they have no controll ecu with them

 

[J66P]

no reason why not thats for sure

 

[Ecky Thump]

I used to run an Eberspacher in one of my LRs years ago and have had a few lorries and coaches with them in.
There are two voltages i.e. 24v and 12v.
The hot air ones are very basic. It is just a spray head inside a cylinder that sprays a tiny amount of diesel. An igniter much like a spark plug and a fan to circulate the hot air. The cylinder heats up and air is blown over the surface to heat up.
Mine came with a timer but it burnt out so I just wired it to a switch.
There is a tiny fuel pump that pumps a tenth of a teaspoonful every 10 seconds ish. You can pipe directly to your fuel tank or I had a 1 litre bottle of diesel for the heater. I used to turn it on when I took the dogs out and by the time I got into the motor to go to work (30mins) it was like getting into an oven. Superb for this weather and great for drying the car out after an off road session. My 1 litre bottle would last all winter with some left over using it most mornings.

The water ones work the same way but have a heat exchanger, hot air one side and water the other.
If you dont have a pump, you just need the fuel to flow down to the heater but this can leak.

As for mounting, it can all be in the car except for the exhaust which on mine just needed a 1" hole. I vented the exhaust towards the sump so that the engine warmed up at the same time as the interior of the car. That exhaust gets bloody hot mind you.

Cracking piece of kit which can be found second hand wherever BT, RAC, AA vans etc are scrapped.

 

[Chas]

I would like to pipe warm air into my roof tent!!!! Where would it go, how would it plumb in? Oh questions questions.Chris

I've got one of those small 12v 200w fan heaters (runs off the leisure battery) that you use for demisting the windscreen to use for my roof tent, only used once so far and it worked well, I don't know how it would cope with current temperatures though.

 

[silvercruiser]

Ive got a warm air one in the van bloody excellent this time of the year. my van is ex bt and it did have a hot water cylinder in the back for hand washing and this was piped in to the main engine water system so you only had hot water when the van had been running and im not sure if you could use it for drinking.

Its a shame Chris that you didnt ask this about a year ago as i had the cylinder in my garage but is now gone to the scrappy.

Joe

 

[Paul]

How about converting something from an old caravan.

http://www.caravanbreakers.net/90300/info.php?p=7

 

[Chris]

It's a good idea Paul, but I think that I'd favour a purpose built item that is designed to heat the engine block. I think that I'd look at something like you suggest or having hot water for washing etc. That would be good. OK one system that does everything is the ultimate. This German thing has me quite interested. The pump and heater can be in different places which make it a bit easier. Pump could be connected into the heater pipes on the bulkhead, possibly and the heater unit might fit in somewhere else out of the way where the exhaust isn't a problem.

We need that bulk buy guys!

Chris

 

[chadr]

Are we talking about "pre-heaters"?

No experience personally but from lots from another forum I'm a member of....many people seem to rate the Kenlowe ones.

 

[karl webster]

Hi chad, when you say pre heaters do you mean to heat the diesel? If so,no. These are to either heat the cab or the cooling system in the engine so the truck is up to temp before the engine even starts.


Cris, Ive just brought a second hand one off ebay. If you manage to get one of those new ones at the right money i will still buy one as these types of things will never loose money. All the units will be the same so my thoughts are i can pipe it and get it running with the heater i have brought then exchange it for a new one if we can sort a good deal out.
Also ive started asking around for some of these types of heaters and may have a selling purge on them if i can find some second hand ones at the right money.
Ill keep you posted mate
karl

 

[Chris]

Bet you got the one I was watching!

I think it's a great idea. OK maybe you don't need it that often in the UK, but when we are shooting, you don't want to be sitting at 4 in the morning with your engine idling trying to demist the window whilst people are next door sleeping.

Chris

 

[karl webster]

Thought you didnt want a second hand one mate. There is a new one on there on 100 quid at the min.ill send you the num in amin.
Ill use mine everyday mate to thin the oil in the tank. The dog will be happy in the day as well through winter