Chinese Diesel Heaters

[jims-terrano]

Has anyone had anything to do with the chinese diesel heaters that’s sold on eBay for about £100?
Thinking about getting one and fitting it under slung on my vw van because it’ll be protected by plastic shields underneath the van. All I need is the controller and hot air vent inside the van.

[solarman216]

Link please Jim, Rick

[solarman216]

OK found them £129 can only say my experience is with the Eberspecker (forgive spelling) one for trucks boats etc, 5Kw same but cost 20 odd years ago was £1200.00 and while very good maintenance was high, and a barstuard to do, no idea how these cheapies will last but we were live aboards so got used every day, guess occasional camping prob OK and lets face it cheap enough,Rick

[solarman216]

Eberspacker ones around £800 today, Rick

[jims-terrano]

Yeah those are the ones Rick, some really good reviews on YouTube and some are even cheaper at different outlets. There’s a new model just coming onto the market that heats what too but that’s excessive for my needs.
To be honest if one lasts two or three years I wouldn’t be too upset.

[solarman216]

I am thinking of getting one for the Mobile we rent out, Calor is so expensive, Rick

[jims-terrano]

Rick do a search on YouTube for a channel called David McLuckie

He seems a bit ex centric but he plays about with these things and has tried running them on alsorts of mixtures of fuel with varying degrees of success and failure. Once you get used to his “hello” at the beginning of his videos then the content is actually quite interesting.

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

looked at these other day when looking at block heaters, certainly price dropped
on clones, fact clones even exist.

neat that dont need mains hook up and if were in vehicle parked up be more
efficient than engine running, can they do part of block heater too to ease cold
starting of engine?

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

Originally Posted by solarman216

I am thinking of getting one for the Mobile we rent out, Calor is so expensive, Rick

can you not get butane/propane from an independent.

In trailer caravan, have a gaslow refillable tanks, fill up at auto lpg sites
which is dearer with road based tax but still way less than calor exchanges.

proper valved cylinders that limit fill to 80%, not like cheap adaptors some
use.

[solarman216]

Nah oil is far cheaper than propane, Rick

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...5775508518582/

Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk

[rayf3262]

There is a Chinese diesel heater group on FB:
"Chinese Diesel Vehicle air heaters" there are many useful user comments experiences here.

I have had no direct experience with the Chinese products.

There are principally two common types of Eberspacher vehicle heaters; the D2 and D5. The D2 is the unit is rated at 2KW and most copied by the Chinese.
This unit is intended to be fitted inside the vehicle and delivers hot air diectly to the cabin.

The D5 is a similar product rated at 5KW BUT is is designed to heat water and is typically fitted to provide direct heating of the engine coolant system. This type of heater is fitted to many modern vehicles with efficient diesel engines as at low load these engines struggle to provide useful heat to the cabin and take a long time warm up.

The VW/Ford Sharaxy is often fitted with a D5 unit, it can be found mounted on the underside of the vehicle beneath the rear N/S passenger seat. I have purchased two of these from my local breaker for the princely sum of £20 each.
Including stainless steel exhaust silencer, which if you are parking in proximity to other campers you will need as they do sound like a small jet engine when running at full chat.

I have one fitted in the camper to provide hot water (calorifier) and additional heater matrix to heat the rear cabin.
The other is fitted in my workshop for heating. This consists of the D5, a car heater matrix mounted with a 230V AC blower and a CH circulation pump.
The workshop is around 90 M3 in volume, this arrangement can raise the workshop temperature from ~5deg C to ~18deg C in around 35~40 mins and easily maintain or exceed that. It uses less than 0.5L of fuel per hour, so even using DERV it costs around 65 pence/hour to run. Central heating oil or red diesel would of course cost less.

These heaters are also happy to run on kerosene/paraffin and this will reduce the servicing requirements due to the cleaner burn, however the heat output will be a little lower due to the superior calorific value of diesel. Given internal the volume of a van the option of a small (5-10L) tank that you can fill with the fuel of choice allows some flexibility here. It is also somewhat easier than fitting an addition fuel take off from the vehicle tank.

[terranosaurusdoug]

I will be getting one eventually Jim, I want to set mine on a timer so I don't have to scrape ice on the winter mornings

[jims-terrano]

Originally Posted by terranosaurusdoug

I will be getting one eventually Jim, I want to set mine on a timer so I don't have to scrape ice on the winter mornings

This morning I really Wished I’d got one brrrrrrr it wa freezin

It’ll be a whole lot easier to fit in a Terrano especially plumbing into vehicle tank

[panelbeater]

i fill my gas bottles up at petrol stations,not the expencive refillable ones,my addaptor has a one way valve built in,in fact jim tightened it all up after i stripped it down to reseal all the joints when i was at jims having my 3l sorted.
on the road lpg prices vary but a lot of stations wont let you fill up unless fitted in unit.
when van parked up i connect a 47kg to heat it when i stay in it,needed a calour refill but cost £72 delivered,my mate there had 2 as well but when he told me how much i nearly fainted,he is near thetford forrest,i am in clacton,i phoned around here as i have lpg at home for cooking and the same was £52 calour or £53 flowgas,he was not happy and phoned calour and got thats the price,so i say why the difference.
i took my 1 of my 47s up there but its not worth the 140 mile and heaving about to get them there from here.
he used to turn upside down a 47 to fill his smaller bottles but i sort them now as he had a leak when i was ther and stoped him doing that for safty.he is 84 still able bit like jim.
when i was at jims for the extended stay i put my last bottle of gas on and jim offered me some but i had enough,want to talk to jim about his lpg set up sometime.
i am thinking about a chinese heater to boost my large front room 28x19 as it takes so long to heat it so i leave oil heating on 24 seven .