We had a diesel heater in our narrow boat, then our static caravan and we now use it in our house. It warms our whole house very cheaply. It is well maintained, well ventilated and we also have a full kettle of water close to the vent but not to close which gives us hot water. These heaters are amazing and thank you John now I understand exactly how they work. Not going to let my husband know that though because perhaps one day I might just surprise him with the knowledge 😂😉
That’s interesting to hear. I keep saying to my hubby about getting a DH for our house, but didn’t think it was possible, plus we have zero knowledge of them, and I’m scared we’d blow the house up 🤣 But with the price of energy going up so much, it seems a good idea
@@cazicature Really glad we did it be cause our fuel bill is half. We buy our heating diesel from the boat yards on the canal system. That made me smile at blowing the house up there is nothing more explosive than gas. When I was a child in the 60s almost everyone heated their homes with paraffin heaters, thank god the modern diesel heaters if fitted correctly don’t smell as bad as the old heaters did.
👍🏼🛠🚐🇦🇪 never thought about the basic crudeness of the heaters until you pointed it out (I’ve even watched Alex’s videos) it just shows how your perspective can highlight such now obvious things. A diesel heater is on our to do list as a secondary heat source to save on LPG and it will 100% not be a German product beginning with a W and sounds like tabasco that we have had before. It worked perfectly but I’d rather keep the money in my bank.
Wow thanks for such a detailed but simple explanation of the whole system John. My first diesel heater a few years ago was from a batch that had faulty motherboards. Unfortunately timing played a part in my warranty. It was bought towards the end of the Winter so usage was low as you'd expect. When it came to needing to use it fully again it had a mind of it's own and error messages like a disco. In theory if you added the hours of use up it lasted a few months max but because it was spread over a period of months my warranty had expired and Amazon wouldn't assist. If anyone following is thinking about adding one to their build please learn from the curve I had. Check the warranty length and make sure it covers you over to the Winter ahead if you're fitting towards the warmer months. I thought mine was 12 months but it was 6. My fault entirely but it cost me another heater. On the upside my new heater has been fine from a different supplier. I originally had a 5kw but it was too warm in my LWB van. This one is a 2kw and does the job just fine with a lot less fuel!
Glad you caught it before anything nasty happened. Oddly enough, my cheapo diesel heater has a metal alloy case. No idea why, it wasn't even advertised as such when I bought it off Amazon.
Cool update John. I like that you took pains to explain the construction and operation of diesel heaters and the potential issues regardless of whether they the expensive or the pattern copy versions. I'm glad that it didn't escalate, but BOY was the leaf blower a genius idea!
I’ve got a couple of mates who swear by these heaters, and bought one myself, but haven’t used because I fitted a Truma. Am giving my Chinese one to another mate for his T5, but will warn him to watch this vid before fitting (and incidentally warn others to do the same). Thanks John for another informed and informative vid, and glad to see you’ve taken it in your usual, matter of fact, stride😅
Do those bolts and the seal on the diesel heater need to be checked periodically, especially if you go off road or over bumpy gravel roads a lot? Did you determine why your smoke alarm didn't go off?
Hi John really enjoyed your video glad everything ok now with your diesel heater the van looking great really looking forward to seeing your next video keep safe 😷👍🏻
Really helpful description of how the diesel heaters work, relatively simple when explained - thank you. Hope you manage to get yours fixed ok. Weird that the smoke alarm didn’t go off. All the best, David 👍
Great video - I'm going to go and check my heater later on to make sure the chamber bolts are tight! I guess if you noticed the smoke and dealt with it pretty fast the carbon monoxide alarm wouldn't have had time to go off - they mostly work on exposure over time so you might have cleared away the gas before it was present for long enough..
Hi John, some sound advice on the diesel heater mate 👍 Can I ask what lower seat base you've got & does it feel better and more normal/lower driving position? Also do the original plastic trim fit the replacement base? I find the original base with swivel a little to high..
The height with the lower base & swivel plate is roughly the same as the standard seat, so it feel no different. The plastic trim doesn’t fit onto the lower seat base.
Very interesting video John, thank you. I have a question about diesel heaters in general I would really appreciate your opinion on. When I turn my diesel heater down when going to sleep in really low / sub-zero temperatures (in order to keep the water pipes from freezing) I notice that when the heater reaches temperature it switches itself off. When the temperature falls below what I’ve set it to (I just have a on / off switch that has a physical dial on it) it starts up again. My question is about the noise it makes when starting up. I’m trying to understand if my heater is different to others. When the fan is on it makes the constant noise a fan makes. I have no problem with this and can sleep through it. The problem is when it turns itself on having been off for a while. It makes a loud ‘spooling-up’ kind of noise, like a jet engine. This doesn’t last long at all before the fan kicks in, but it always wakes me up. Is this normal? When I’m on electric hook-up and leave the Truma heating on it’s just quietly doing it’s thing in the background. If the starting / spooling-up noise is normal I guess I’ll just use the diesel heater when I’m awake, and switch to electric (when hooked-up) or LPG when going to sleep. I would appreciate your view.
Very informative video as usual John - many thanks. Every day is a school day for me! Regarding your lowered seat bases, I fitted a set on my Ducato for the same reasons you mentioned. I thought the new lower bases seemed quite chunky so I weighed them and was shocked to find that they weighed 22kg each compared to the 15kg of the originals. So 14kg less payload available once fitted. Quite the opposite of what I was expecting and, disappointing bearing in mind how close I am to my 3,500kg limit.
I had an Autosleeper Symbol (2002) which was fitted with Eberspacher diesel heater from the factory. It was metal case and mounted outside the van. I swore I would never get another diesel heater (noise, high current draw) but they seem to be making a big come back.
Hi John, There's a group down in Newquay who are doing regular collections for the Ukrainian cause and thought you could maybe join forces with them. Its being sourced from the Kilbirnie Hotel in Newquay.
You can buy more expensive diesel heaters with alloy metal outside cases. Everytime I buy a Chinese diesel heater I check the tightness of bolts and I always put silicone sealant around the glow plug rubber and sealant around the rubber were the fuel pipe goes to the burner these always leak a little too if heater blows out.
Good informative video John , concern for me would be the heaters have no quality control , how are they are allowed to be sold without any certificate of QC , someone should be held to account surely and if it did go on fire what about insurance , just MO take care
This is why I had an Eberspacher diesel heater fitted by the local main agent if it catches fire and damages the van I have at least got the paperwork to prove it’s been professionally fitted. You wouldn’t buy a cheap Chinese boiler and fit it to your house yourself would you ?
I have the 2kw looks the same. That tape and stuff around your hot end ducting could offgas and stink really bad in your van from the heat. I know I did the same thing and the entire van smelled really badly of melting duct tape. I switched to an all metal/zero tape hot end ductwork and no more smell
Interesting good to see the other side of things “Build a van they say” you should try doing it for a living definitely not fun all the time as I found out
think you need the branch for the ducting to be a longer distance from burner the heat will back up to much unless it’s just on the low burn this was a problem I ad resolved now atb jhon
Thanks for the tip. That’s my thought too and I’m moving the first branch further down the pipe, it’ll also take the heat off the front of the fridge & freezer too 👍🏻
Get a webasto turn it 2 20 degrees and forget about it it will come on when lower than 20 degrees mine really kicks in even when -3 outside never turn it off
I’ve had a safety fire stick in my van for the past 2 years, I’ve tried & tested them and they’re the best out there. www.firesafetystick.com/fssshop coupon code: jam for 10% off
Given the alarms didn't go off where they are I think it would be aswell to fit another Carbon Monoxide Alarm close to the heater. Having just had a new boiler fitted at home, the installer said it should be fitted within 1 metre of the potential source, just a thought!
hi Paul , advice given in good faith , I appreciate but we fit them to gas regs and manufacturers recommended , coupled with building regulations and trust me their is a lot more to it than 1m near a appliance which is wrong believe it or not, you should not install it within 1m !!!, I've seen gas safe engineers fit them wrong more than once , and when an appliance is in a bedroom ( camper van ) it changes again , if you have one read the installation instructions this will verify it , shame some so called professionals don't take the time to research or read instructions , but to be honest we all though instruction manuals away don't we lol !
Decision in principle. If I ever do do that I'll be having two diesel heaters in case one fails. Because there are many horror stories of heaters failing in the cold.
Not sure how loose bolts is your fault for not checking. I would pay the German price as this could have ended very badly. Oh it's a burn not an explosion - hopefully !.
Great video - but where do you draw the line with checking all parts that have been installed - unless your a “ Gadget John “ how would you know to check “ so the heater in this case tell you to check the all various parts you explained. I myself am fairly handy but I’ve never heard of this b4 John. You seem very relaxed and professional about this whole episode but Hmmm - maybe you could do a video sometime about what yo check and what not to check when buying, building etc A new MH, or Caravan etc? Personally it’s not all down to common sense , so is of course but it would be a very worthwhile educational video etc cheers Chris “The Aussie living in the the Netherlands “ 😎🇦🇺🙏⛷️🍺🍾
Bag luck. Diesel heater trouble. Mine had the original fuel line that gave up after a year. Seeing you busy with the seats. I hav a question about swifel seats: in my Boxer I left the partition wall in, made a little door in it. Can I stil use a swifel to turn my front seat 90 degrees? Will that work? thx
Hi John. Definitely worth sharing your experience with the diesel heater. I noticed that you appear to be fitting CTA swivels. Could I ask what your experience has been of them? I've got Scopema and have been disappointed by the amount of shake when travelling without a passenger sat in it. I've resolved the issue by fitting rubber buffers between the upper and lower plates but given the price it was disappointing.
CTA seats work fine. The bearing is plastic but no wear problems yet however it leaves the front seat higher than the original seats. While you can notice the difference in height I find it ok but I’m not the tallest.
I’ve had no issues with the swivel base rattling and it’s been in for almost 4 months now and half of that time it’s been driven without a passenger in the seat.
They have a temperature sensor nestled within the fins above the combustion area. This is not a 'trip' or any sort of safety device, it is a device for telling the control unit how hot the combustion area is. When the sensor tells the controller "Hey its way to hot in here" the control unit I would expect, will shut off the fuel and continue to run the fan in an effort to bring the temperature down and we would assume this happens before the plastic case melts. Well, look what John showed us, a melted case. The flip side of this which I know because I had this problem the other way around, is having shut off the heater and it went off, when I came back hours later the fan was on again blowing cold air. In this condition this same sensor has 'disappeared' to the controller which now thinks the unit is still hot, so it blows air. As the sensor has disappeared to the controller, the controller never knows the unit is cold and the unit will stay in this condition until the power runs out. What this tells us is the controller unable to talk to the sensor, in this condition the controller says the unit is hot. In effect there is an open circuit or the sensor is missing, or melted. When the unit is running, the more of a 'short circuit' the sensor becomes, the colder the unit is as sensed by the controller. On the fan spinny bit, there are two tiny magnets and a sensor that measure the RPM of the fan. If the unit is powered on and the fan cannot be sensed as going around, the unit will throw an error code, and not start. But what happens if the fan simply stops while the unit is running ? While there are any number of reviews and how to fit stuff, no one as far as I've seen, [and that doesn't mean much] has explored these units in failure mode to see what does happen. What happens if the unit is running on max heat and is well hot for this, and power is suddenly lost ? Does this cook the electronics board ? Will the plastic case melt away to become useless ? What happens in this condition when the unit is at minimum power ? Do we get away with it ? What about fan failure ? Does the fuel pump continue to deliver fuel ? If so for how long ? What about a sudden constricted air intake duct ? A Tesco's carrier bag get blown under your van during the night and catches/ latches on to the intake pipe ? Or exhaust duct ? The sensor I've spoken about has two leads to it. What happens if either of these wires loose their insulation and short to the aluminium of the combustion chamber ? Or both wires ? There is a video exploring these issues to be made by someone which may save someones life one day, or their van going up in flames. Moreover what steps could we usefully take to reduce the risks of the worst failure modes ? Prevention being better than cure. There seems to be less and less quality control coming out with these units that it might be prudent to rebuild them and do upgrades before ever fitting them.
Sorry but i need to correct on heater covers are all plastic. check out David McLuckie testing the First built in12v/24v/ and 240v mains heater This heater is amazing that its 240 power supply is built in to the machine, Its a alloy body heater. but single ducts are made, I can only find them in 4 port outlets that will ship to UK on Alixpress for £86 +shipping and tax. or £400+ on amazon some times If I had put the link in this coment, it would most likely be stopped as spam by UA-cam If you would like links I am happy to Email them to you.
What a silly comment, I had the same heater in my Motorhome for nearly 2 years without any problems. This isn’t about a cheap product, it’s about a bad product and every brand has them.
In my experience everyone one I’ve bought had been run before they boxed it up. It’s just a fault of one item I’m showcasing, just in case it might help others.
We had a diesel heater in our narrow boat, then our static caravan and we now use it in our house. It warms our whole house very cheaply. It is well maintained, well ventilated and we also have a full kettle of water close to the vent but not to close which gives us hot water. These heaters are amazing and thank you John now I understand exactly how they work. Not going to let my husband know that though because perhaps one day I might just surprise him with the knowledge 😂😉
That’s interesting to hear. I keep saying to my hubby about getting a DH for our house, but didn’t think it was possible, plus we have zero knowledge of them, and I’m scared we’d blow the house up 🤣 But with the price of energy going up so much, it seems a good idea
@@cazicature Really glad we did it be cause our fuel bill is half. We buy our heating diesel from the boat yards on the canal system. That made me smile at blowing the house up there is nothing more explosive than gas. When I was a child in the 60s almost everyone heated their homes with paraffin heaters, thank god the modern diesel heaters if fitted correctly don’t smell as bad as the old heaters did.
Knowledge is power
👍🏼🛠🚐🇦🇪 never thought about the basic crudeness of the heaters until you pointed it out (I’ve even watched Alex’s videos) it just shows how your perspective can highlight such now obvious things. A diesel heater is on our to do list as a secondary heat source to save on LPG and it will 100% not be a German product beginning with a W and sounds like tabasco that we have had before. It worked perfectly but I’d rather keep the money in my bank.
Wow thanks for such a detailed but simple explanation of the whole system John. My first diesel heater a few years ago was from a batch that had faulty motherboards. Unfortunately timing played a part in my warranty. It was bought towards the end of the Winter so usage was low as you'd expect. When it came to needing to use it fully again it had a mind of it's own and error messages like a disco. In theory if you added the hours of use up it lasted a few months max but because it was spread over a period of months my warranty had expired and Amazon wouldn't assist.
If anyone following is thinking about adding one to their build please learn from the curve I had. Check the warranty length and make sure it covers you over to the Winter ahead if you're fitting towards the warmer months. I thought mine was 12 months but it was 6. My fault entirely but it cost me another heater.
On the upside my new heater has been fine from a different supplier. I originally had a 5kw but it was too warm in my LWB van. This one is a 2kw and does the job just fine with a lot less fuel!
Glad you caught it before anything nasty happened. Oddly enough, my cheapo diesel heater has a metal alloy case. No idea why, it wasn't even advertised as such when I bought it off Amazon.
Cool update John. I like that you took pains to explain the construction and operation of diesel heaters and the potential issues regardless of whether they the expensive or the pattern copy versions.
I'm glad that it didn't escalate, but BOY was the leaf blower a genius idea!
Thanks for the info John.. mine has been acting up recently. I'm gonna check the bolts.. much appreciated
Thanks for that John simple but interesting am going to fit one in my house
I’ve got a couple of mates who swear by these heaters, and bought one myself, but haven’t used because I fitted a Truma. Am giving my Chinese one to another mate for his T5, but will warn him to watch this vid before fitting (and incidentally warn others to do the same). Thanks John for another informed and informative vid, and glad to see you’ve taken it in your usual, matter of fact, stride😅
Thanks John for the info I will be checking my diesel heater
Do those bolts and the seal on the diesel heater need to be checked periodically, especially if you go off road or over bumpy gravel roads a lot? Did you determine why your smoke alarm didn't go off?
Thank goodness you were awake!!!
Hari OM
Excellent review and instruction, John... though it is a tad disturbing that the alarms didn't set off! YAM xx
Great video mate about the diesel heater and problems, I've had mine out again and given it a good once over!
Hi John really enjoyed your video glad everything ok now with your diesel heater the van looking great really looking forward to seeing your next video keep safe 😷👍🏻
Really helpful description of how the diesel heaters work, relatively simple when explained - thank you. Hope you manage to get yours fixed ok. Weird that the smoke alarm didn’t go off. All the best, David 👍
Thanks for run down on heater John ,ive got one in my lounge at home ,i will check mine 👌👌
Great video - I'm going to go and check my heater later on to make sure the chamber bolts are tight! I guess if you noticed the smoke and dealt with it pretty fast the carbon monoxide alarm wouldn't have had time to go off - they mostly work on exposure over time so you might have cleared away the gas before it was present for long enough..
Hi John what sort of silver lagging did you use around your pipes
Hi John, some sound advice on the diesel heater mate 👍
Can I ask what lower seat base you've got & does it feel better and more normal/lower driving position? Also do the original plastic trim fit the replacement base?
I find the original base with swivel a little to high..
The height with the lower base & swivel plate is roughly the same as the standard seat, so it feel no different. The plastic trim doesn’t fit onto the lower seat base.
@@GadgetJohn Ok, thanks mate 👍Where did you get the new base from?
Very interesting video John, thank you. I have a question about diesel heaters in general I would really appreciate your opinion on. When I turn my diesel heater down when going to sleep in really low / sub-zero temperatures (in order to keep the water pipes from freezing) I notice that when the heater reaches temperature it switches itself off. When the temperature falls below what I’ve set it to (I just have a on / off switch that has a physical dial on it) it starts up again. My question is about the noise it makes when starting up. I’m trying to understand if my heater is different to others. When the fan is on it makes the constant noise a fan makes. I have no problem with this and can sleep through it. The problem is when it turns itself on having been off for a while. It makes a loud ‘spooling-up’ kind of noise, like a jet engine. This doesn’t last long at all before the fan kicks in, but it always wakes me up. Is this normal? When I’m on electric hook-up and leave the Truma heating on it’s just quietly doing it’s thing in the background. If the starting / spooling-up noise is normal I guess I’ll just use the diesel heater when I’m awake, and switch to electric (when hooked-up) or LPG when going to sleep. I would appreciate your view.
Diesel heaters need to start the burn process on full each time they’re started up, so this is perfectly normal.
Very informative video as usual John - many thanks. Every day is a school day for me!
Regarding your lowered seat bases, I fitted a set on my Ducato for the same reasons you mentioned. I thought the new lower bases seemed quite chunky so I weighed them and was shocked to find that they weighed 22kg each compared to the 15kg of the originals. So 14kg less payload available once fitted. Quite the opposite of what I was expecting and, disappointing bearing in mind how close I am to my 3,500kg limit.
That’s strange, I weighed the ones I bought and they were identical to the original base.
@@GadgetJohn Maybe different manufacturers?Mine were "Sportscraft Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer, Citroen Relay 2007 Onwards Lowered Single Seat Frame"
Russian diesel heater is the way to go John. Not silly money but tough and reliable.
Should the alarms of warned you John or not. You said they hadn’t been set off(?) . Glad you and the van survived ok.
Thanks John for the update!
I had an Autosleeper Symbol (2002) which was fitted with Eberspacher diesel heater from the factory. It was metal case and mounted outside the van.
I swore I would never get another diesel heater (noise, high current draw) but they seem to be making a big come back.
flippin eck John 😳😳😳 gonna check mine for sure. Thanks for the video. Bessy regs-Kenny
Hi John,
There's a group down in Newquay who are doing regular collections for the Ukrainian cause and thought you could maybe join forces with them. Its being sourced from the Kilbirnie Hotel in Newquay.
Thank you
You can buy more expensive diesel heaters with alloy metal outside cases. Everytime I buy a Chinese diesel heater I check the tightness of bolts and I always put silicone sealant around the glow plug rubber and sealant around the rubber were the fuel pipe goes to the burner these always leak a little too if heater blows out.
Good informative video John , concern for me would be the heaters have no quality control , how are they are allowed to be sold without any certificate of QC , someone should be held to account surely and if it did go on fire what about insurance , just MO take care
This is why I had an Eberspacher diesel heater fitted by the local main agent if it catches fire and damages the van I have at least got the paperwork to prove it’s been professionally fitted. You wouldn’t buy a cheap Chinese boiler and fit it to your house yourself would you ?
If the bolts are loosening due to travel vibration it may be worthwhile using Loctite thread locker to ensure they stay tight.
Nicely explained. Thanks.
I have the 2kw looks the same. That tape and stuff around your hot end ducting could offgas and stink really bad in your van from the heat. I know I did the same thing and the entire van smelled really badly of melting duct tape. I switched to an all metal/zero tape hot end ductwork and no more smell
Great vlog John thanks 😊
Interesting good to see the other side of things
“Build a van they say” you should try doing it for a living definitely not fun all the time as I found out
thanks john.
think you need the branch for the ducting to be a longer distance from burner the heat will back up to much unless it’s just on the low burn this was a problem I ad resolved now atb jhon
Thanks for the tip. That’s my thought too and I’m moving the first branch further down the pipe, it’ll also take the heat off the front of the fridge & freezer too 👍🏻
Get a webasto turn it 2 20 degrees and forget about it it will come on when lower than 20 degrees mine really kicks in even when -3 outside never turn it off
What desiel heater is it?
You don't say if you fitted a fire extinguisher in your van and I haven't seen one. Please do.
I think he has a fire stick - sure I saw one somewhere
I’ve had a safety fire stick in my van for the past 2 years, I’ve tried & tested them and they’re the best out there.
www.firesafetystick.com/fssshop coupon code: jam for 10% off
Given the alarms didn't go off where they are I think it would be aswell to fit another Carbon Monoxide Alarm close to the heater. Having just had a new boiler fitted at home, the installer said it should be fitted within 1 metre of the potential source, just a thought!
hi Paul , advice given in good faith , I appreciate but we fit them to gas regs and manufacturers recommended , coupled with building regulations and trust me their is a lot more to it than 1m near a appliance which is wrong believe it or not, you should not install it within 1m !!!, I've seen gas safe engineers fit them wrong more than once , and when an appliance is in a bedroom ( camper van ) it changes again , if you have one read the installation instructions this will verify it , shame some so called professionals don't take the time to research or read instructions , but to be honest we all though instruction manuals away don't we lol !
Fit a minimum of 1m away and ideally within 15cm of the ceiling.
Do not install close to the appliance
Decision in principle. If I ever do do that I'll be having two diesel heaters in case one fails.
Because there are many horror stories of heaters failing in the cold.
Not sure how loose bolts is your fault for not checking. I would pay the German price as this could have ended very badly. Oh it's a burn not an explosion - hopefully !.
Great video - but where do you draw the line with checking all parts that have been installed - unless your a “ Gadget John “ how would you know to check “ so the heater in this case tell you to check the all various parts you explained. I myself am fairly handy but I’ve never heard of this b4 John. You seem very relaxed and professional about this whole episode but Hmmm - maybe you could do a video sometime about what yo check and what not to check when buying, building etc
A new MH, or Caravan etc? Personally it’s not all down to common sense , so is of course but it would be a very worthwhile educational video etc cheers Chris “The Aussie living in the the Netherlands “ 😎🇦🇺🙏⛷️🍺🍾
Bag luck. Diesel heater trouble. Mine had the original fuel line that gave up after a year. Seeing you busy with the seats. I hav a question about swifel seats: in my Boxer I left the partition wall in, made a little door in it. Can I stil use a swifel to turn my front seat 90 degrees? Will that work? thx
I think it’ll need more space that the bulkhead would allow.
yay.. oh
Hi John. Definitely worth sharing your experience with the diesel heater.
I noticed that you appear to be fitting CTA swivels. Could I ask what your experience has been of them? I've got Scopema and have been disappointed by the amount of shake when travelling without a passenger sat in it. I've resolved the issue by fitting rubber buffers between the upper and lower plates but given the price it was disappointing.
15 29.
CTA seats work fine. The bearing is plastic but no wear problems yet however it leaves the front seat higher than the original seats. While you can notice the difference in height I find it ok but I’m not the tallest.
I’ve had no issues with the swivel base rattling and it’s been in for almost 4 months now and half of that time it’s been driven without a passenger in the seat.
Is there not a thermal overload trip on the combustion chamber
They have a temperature sensor nestled within the fins above the combustion area. This is not a 'trip' or any sort of safety device, it is a device for telling the control unit how hot the combustion area is. When the sensor tells the controller "Hey its way to hot in here" the control unit I would expect, will shut off the fuel and continue to run the fan in an effort to bring the temperature down and we would assume this happens before the plastic case melts. Well, look what John showed us, a melted case.
The flip side of this which I know because I had this problem the other way around, is having shut off the heater and it went off, when I came back hours later the fan was on again blowing cold air. In this condition this same sensor has 'disappeared' to the controller which now thinks the unit is still hot, so it blows air.
As the sensor has disappeared to the controller, the controller never knows the unit is cold and the unit will stay in this condition until the power runs out.
What this tells us is the controller unable to talk to the sensor, in this condition the controller says the unit is hot. In effect there is an open circuit or the sensor is missing, or melted. When the unit is running, the more of a 'short circuit' the sensor becomes, the colder the unit is as sensed by the controller.
On the fan spinny bit, there are two tiny magnets and a sensor that measure the RPM of the fan. If the unit is powered on and the fan cannot be sensed as going around, the unit will throw an error code, and not start.
But what happens if the fan simply stops while the unit is running ?
While there are any number of reviews and how to fit stuff, no one as far as I've seen, [and that doesn't mean much] has explored these units in failure mode to see what does happen. What happens if the unit is running on max heat and is well hot for this, and power is suddenly lost ? Does this cook the electronics board ? Will the plastic case melt away to become useless ? What happens in this condition when the unit is at minimum power ? Do we get away with it ?
What about fan failure ? Does the fuel pump continue to deliver fuel ? If so for how long ? What about a sudden constricted air intake duct ? A Tesco's carrier bag get blown under your van during the night and catches/ latches on to the intake pipe ? Or exhaust duct ? The sensor I've spoken about has two leads to it. What happens if either of these wires loose their insulation and short to the aluminium of the combustion chamber ? Or both wires ?
There is a video exploring these issues to be made by someone which may save someones life one day, or their van going up in flames. Moreover what steps could we usefully take to reduce the risks of the worst failure modes ? Prevention being better than cure. There seems to be less and less quality control coming out with these units that it might be prudent to rebuild them and do upgrades before ever fitting them.
Sorry but i need to correct on heater covers are all plastic. check out David McLuckie testing the First built in12v/24v/ and 240v mains heater This heater is amazing that its 240 power supply is built in to the machine, Its a alloy body heater. but single ducts are made, I can only find them in 4 port outlets that will ship to UK on Alixpress for £86 +shipping and tax. or £400+ on amazon some times If I had put the link in this coment, it would most likely be stopped as spam by UA-cam If you would like links I am happy to Email them to you.
Maybe time to invest in a quality heater...I've been using an Espar D2 for five years with no problems.
What a silly comment, I had the same heater in my Motorhome for nearly 2 years without any problems. This isn’t about a cheap product, it’s about a bad product and every brand has them.
@@GadgetJohn Naw not silly at all...what is silly is to invest good money in cheap crap that has been proven to be a bad investment.
My opinion of cheap copies is that they are physically the same, but they don't have any quality control.
In my experience everyone one I’ve bought had been run before they boxed it up. It’s just a fault of one item I’m showcasing, just in case it might help others.
Propex HS2000 is worth the money
That’s not a diesel heater and I’ve made a point of making my van lpg free.
👍
GAS John surely its a diesel heater,don't really know if there is a petrol one? Chrome on vancity vanlife couldn't return his to amazon.
Eberspacher do a petrol fired heater these were optional on the old T2s Beetles and Trekkers etc.
I hate diesel the smell. I've a propex heater it failed I was going to get a diesel heater but can't stand diesel smell
Good discription of how they work it wasnt from max speedingrods was it ive had nothing but trouble with them wont buy anything from them now
You can get ally case diesel heater