diesel heaters

[Graham7777]

We are going to install a diesel heater in our caravan 20ft Kingdom Kensington MK1, we are thinking of the Webasto.
Do you think we need a single or twin outlet. Thanks Graham & Narelle

[logcabinman]

Hi,

We have a single outlet in ours in a 23'6 van and it works fine. Try and position the pump away from your bed so the "clicking" is not an issue.

Cheers
Malcolm & Maya

[geri]

twin outlet is a good idea if you have an ensuite......if not the above info is spot on.....make sure you mount your fuel pump away from where you sleep......
geri (ian)

[PeterInSa]

Am thinking along similar lines. Heard that one brand can carbon up if not used on a regular basis, ditto about all brands with summer diesel use in winter, but suppose its a learning curve on their use.

Can the pump ( a separte unit to the heater?) be placed say 6m away from the tank on the back bumper behind the spare tyre?

Supplier with the best price for this and alternative brands ? (know the details re the Chinese brand)

Thanks

[Titch]

Peter .
My pump is mounted on rubber, on our rear bumper, next to our fuel tank.
About 4 mtrs away.
Cheers.
Titch

[Pat]

Purchased a Webasto last week from Caravan Services in Brisbane. Every thing you need, was $1395 plus $40 freight to Malanda FNQ. Included a muffler & mounting plate, in the kit. Tank extra. Good service so far, ordered tue arrived thursday. Fairly easy to install, just be certain where you want it placed. I only got the one outlet kit.
As soon a I installed the weather warmed up, was 6 deg of a night, now 16deg of a night, typical.
Will not be having it on when sleeping so pump placement not a problem. Deaf anyway.

[onedaysoon]

We are going to install a diesel heater in our caravan 20ft Kingdom Kensington MK1, we are thinking of the Webasto.
Do you think we need a single or twin outlet. Thanks Graham & Narelle

Hi Graham & Narelle,
I have just finished a diesel heater in our van. I fitted 2 outlets & the the unit under the centre club lounge. The main outlet I put facing the front of the van & the over outlet in the ensuite which we can close the door to allow the van heat up quicker. I put the inlet in the middle of the lounge which is in the middle of the van.
This set up works great for us & we will be going away for a weekend in a couple of weeks so we will try it out in earnest then.
Cheers, Phil & Lyn.

[toyocrusa]

Hi Graham. If you are doing it yourself and want to save about half the heater purchase cost,have a look here for a cheaper alternative
http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/108128595.html
Also for the fuel tank, this one is around half Aust price.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120888822447 ... 1497.l2649
These were listed on the forum a few weeks ago and I have received mine this week thanks to "titch"
Cheers,Bob

[Wanderer]

I have two outlets.
One points straight down the van and is adequate for the entire inside.
The other is a sealable outlet on the side of the van which heats the annexe when required.

[Titch]

I have two outlets.
One points straight down the van and is adequate for the entire inside.
The other is a sealable outlet on the side of the van which heats the annexe when required.

Great idea that , how well does it warm the annexe?
Cheers.
Titch

[Derek Camp Oven Cook]

Can anyone tell me if you get diesel fumes from these heaters???

Thanks


Derek

[NomadicNavara]

There is a slight odour of diesel fumes outside the van. It is far less than leaving a diesel tug idling or the smell from some generators. If the installation is done properly there will be no fumes or smell enter your van.

When you operate your heater the vans around you will be closed up. No smell or noise gets into them. I would rather have one of them next to me than an air conditioner any day.

[Wanderer]

I have two outlets.
One points straight down the van and is adequate for the entire inside.
The other is a sealable outlet on the side of the van which heats the annexe when required.

Great idea that , how well does it warm the annexe?
Cheers.
Titch

It's brilliant, 2400 watts of heat all going into the annexe.
I have a removeable plug in the outside vent which I relocate to the inside vent when using the heater for the annexe. This forces all of the heat to the annexe, and with the door of the van open, the heated air is then drawn back through the van to the return air vent (I positioned the return air vent at the opposite end to the door for this reason). This method allows the annexe to get as warm as toast without the inside thermostat shutting the heater down too soon as would happen if both vents were to be open.
Just a word of warning. Only have one plug that you need to relocate so that you don't accidentally close both vents at once.

[PeterInSa]

To me, the most cost effective air heater available is one that works off the hot water system, ie radiator type element with a fan behind it hot water is pumped from the hot water systen and the fan directs air over the radiator into the van, I understand it has been discussed on this forum on other threads. A good friend of mine is making up such a unit.

However we only run our hot water system for showers, water for coffee is boiled on the stove, with a gas bottle lasting around 2 to 3 weeks and where we go, 9Kg gas bottle refills are $45 to $50 a fill. Appreciate that with a cost of around $1,200+ for a diesel Heater DIY install, with the DIY hot water system/air heating alternative you can buy a lot of gas bottle refills with the install cost savings of a Diesel Heating alternative, and I believe this air heating alternative is probably the way of the future, and definetly if your tug is not a diesel..

But with a surburban large capacity hot water system ( more heat loss than for smaller systems), am still going for a diesel air heater.

Peter

[Wanderer]

To me, the most cost effective air heater available is one that works off the hot water system, ie radiator type element with a fan behind it hot water is pumped from the hot water systen and the fan directs air over the radiator into the van, I understand it has been discussed on this forum on other threads. A good friend of mine is making up such a unit.

However we only run our hot water system for showers, water for coffee is boiled on the stove, with a gas bottle lasting around 2 to 3 weeks and where we go, 9Kg gas bottle refills are $45 to $50 a fill. Appreciate that with a cost of around $1,200+ for a diesel Heater DIY install, with the DIY hot water system/air heating alternative you can buy a lot of gas bottle refills with the install cost savings of a Diesel Heating alternative, and I believe this air heating alternative is probably the way of the future, and definetly if your tug is not a diesel..

But with a surburban large capacity hot water system ( more heat loss than for smaller systems), am still going for a diesel air heater.

Peter

Water to air heaters, commonly called hydronic systems, have one large disadvantage, and that is the heat loss incurred over the length of both supply and return piping.
If you are going to heat your van and/or annexe using this type of system, be prepared to insulate all piping well as the wind losses to pipes under the van can be very large.
If you intend to heat your van with some type of addition to your existing water heater then consider the calorific input of the existing burner against the requirements for the water to air heat exchanger for adequate heating of the van.
Unless the van is very small, I would seriously doubt the ability of a standard RV type water heater to be able to heat enough water quickly enough to satisfy the heating demands of the van.
I would think that the money would be better spent on a direct air heat gas or diesel alternative, efficiency would be higher, weight would be lower as would operating costs.
I would also question your last comment.
Large capacity hot water containers traditionally lose less heat than their smaller counterparts.
This is directly a result of the smaller ratio of surface area to volume exhibited by the larger vessel.
As an example, take 2 square vessels, one is 2 metres cubed and the other is 4 metes cubed.
The first will have a surface area of 32 square metres, capacity of 8,000 litres and a surface area to capacity ratio of 4:1
The second will have a surface area of 128 square metres, capacity of 64,000 litres and a surface area to capacity ratio of 2:1
You can see that the capacity has increased eight fold yet the surface area has only increased four fold.
The same holds true for any shape vessel.

[Motherhen]

As we only light our HWS ready for showering for 15 to 20 minutes, and not at times when we may want the van heated such as first thing in the morning, i would opt for an in built diesel heater if we were having a caravan built from new. As we have not needed heating in the past (except when my husband had bronchitis so we chose to stay in a caravan park and use a small electric fan heater), i have not seen the need for us to add a heating now. I know we are a bit unusual; on our last group outing, when i was returning from my early morning walks wearing light summer clothes, i heard the diesel heaters starting up in some of the caravans .

[PeterInSa]

Recently when camped in the bush during a cold spell, I developed a form of the flu (previously had a Flu shot) and early in the morning around 2am say, the very cold air in the van would start me choughing, having a hot drink ++, the only way I could get back to sleep was to have my head partly under the bedclothes, re breathing warm air. never happened before, hence the Diesel air heater decision.

We could have got by with other forms of heating, but all night for nights on end, and choughing your lungs out and giving the love of your life a fright, is not having a goodtime holiday.

Peter

[Motherhen]

Like our experience Peter. Luckily we were able to stay in some lovely quiet edge-of-town caravan parks in Tenterfield and Walcha and do easy day trips to all the sights instead of staying out in the National Parks as previously planned. As soon as he woke in the morning, the coughing started. Running the fan heater for about half an hour was enough, and similar during the evening. We had come from hot September weather in Queensland, and the very sudden change to cold and wet weather in NSW was a very marked contrast. At least i was able to drag him off to the hospital in Tenterfield as he had been sick for a couple of weeks and refused to seek medical assistance.

[Oz Gypsy]

Something to keep in mind with diesel heaters is that the air inlet and the exhaust pipe need to be kept clear of obstructions - like hornet and wasps nests. We had that situation last year after being in a national park during February and the hornets were madly nesting all around us. When we next went to run the diesel heater it nearly choked us with fumes.

A visit to the dealer who installed it (still under warranty) and several hours of frustrating "can't find what's wrong with it" later, they checked the pipes under the van and both the air inlet and the exhaust were totally blocked with mud nests.

The fix is some aluminium mesh over the exhaust outlet, and some fly-mesh over the air inlet.

[PeterInSa]

Titch, Toyocrusa, all
is your air heater the Snuggler as in:
http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/108128595.html

Why I ask is I am questioning the kw rating of the SF23000, is it 2.3kw. I understand that the units sold in Oz are around 2.2kw and at this rating the unit will just idle all night on a cold night. Larger units eg 4.6 or 5kw will tend to cycle ie van will get to hot and the units will close down then restart when the van cools down. To my inexperienced view, its probably better ( for a good sleep)for the unit to just run on idle during a cold night.

Like the price of the snuggler and have dealt with aliexpress before but..........

Peter