I heat 900sq ft detached shop with propane heater. Last year I wired a wifi thermostat inline so I can monitor the heat from a phone app. I turn it up a little before I go to the shop so its nice and warm when I get there. I had figure out the "C" constant power wire to keep the wifi thermostat running. I pulled the 24V from the transformer in the propane control panel. Works great. I never considered a Diesel heater such as this but I am glad you put this together to show the options. You make my head spin with the C vs F temps. I keep forgetting where you are!! I'm in Virginia USA.
Very cool idea! I did basically the same thing with a small homemade wood stove but ran the chimney out an existing window instead of the garage door. Just took the glass out and replaced it with a piece of sheet metal. Got a fan blowing behind the stove and it works incredible for a small amount of wood 👍
MUCH better idea, I have a slide up window in mine that I had to bust the window out because I locked myself out, & I will replace that window as you & insert the heater exaust
I Also live in a cold climate (Bemidji MN) whenever I need a vent/hole in the shop , besides a cover to stop the wind ,I stuff a piece of closed cel foam rubber in the hole for insulation. Then just pull out when in use. Enjoy your videos, thx Randy
I gotta just say your dialect is awesome. If lived-in namibia , germany and england and extensively travelled the uk. Your dialect is all them combined. Pretty cool!
His accent is from the east coast of Canada, probably from Newfoundland. Could also be a bit of Cape Breton accent in there as well. Brings back warm memories of my time as a Mountie. I have/had many incredible friends and co-workers from that region of Canada 🥰 🇨🇦
❤ Great info, I live in Uk and love old fords that always rust and need welding, I have picked up so many tips from your video's over last two years. I THANK Q FOR THIS ONE AND ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL WORK. 😊
Nice video, thanks for posting it and showing how the heater performed. These diesel heaters seem pretty useful for some applications. One item I'd like to share for you and others reading, is that when you run anything that creates exhaust in winter, the warmer air inside your house or garage will rise, and unless the house is extremely well sealed, as the warmer air escapes from your ceiling and roof, it will draw outside air from any tiny cracks at ground level (its called the stack effect). I found this out cooking on a grill right outside my back wall in winter one year. Although the grill was completely outside, and my house is reasonably insulated, the house created a draft and drew in the fumes from cooking outside. It was remarkable, you would have really thought one was cooking inside, but nope. It was the outside air being drawn in. So keep this in mind and have the exhaust as far as possible from the house. Having a CO monitor is also always a given. For your heater, it may have been diesel fumes from a drip, or the new plastic just off-gassing a bit, but its always important to take due care when you have any combustion exhaust.
Great little heater you have there. Good to see it working smoothly. I am amazed how much fuel costs up in the Great White North. Works out to about $6 U.S. for diesel. Keep us updated on how it works out for you.
Good content as usual. Your combustion air intake (smaller black hose) should be outside. That's how they are designed to be used in big trucks (the original target community). A CO detector is a good idea too. As far as stale air is concerned as long as you're not burning inside air (you are) or sucking in exhaust fumes the heater shouldn't affect air quality any more than your electric heaters. My shop use to be a barn, 30x40. It had small doors for goats to use. When I converted it I closed those doors off save one which I modified to seal off the air intake of an 80,000 BTU (23KW) fan forced kerosene/diesel 'torpedo' heater. (these diesel parking heaters were really expensive back then). It keeps my shop warm, 70+ F, even when it's 0 F outside and the CO detector never even goes above 0 ppm. (I know the detector works because it detects CO if I run an engine in the shop without connecting an exhaust hose. ). BTW, I have one of the 2KW Chinese diesel heaters in my van. It works great.
I just installed one in my shop, about the same size as yours with 11 foot ceilings, insulated. It does take a while to bring the temp up but it will bring the temp up from 43f to 57f and hold it while the temps are dropping outside at night. Sometimes I'll use my propane jet heater to preheat the shop, don't like to leave that one on full time as it's loud and stinky. You'll need about a 15amp 12v power supply to run this off the wall, anything lower and it doesn't seem to be able to get the glow plug going. Seems like a decent enough product if it's reliable long term.
Hope this doesn't mess up the top door seal when you raise the door. I'm sure you've taken this into account already. Those diesel heaters seem to have an excellent run time, much more efficient than torpedo heaters and no fumes. Nice project and review Tony!
a friend just got one for his workshop. Im doing a short bus/motorhome conversion and I picked up a China knockoff of another heater for it. It does air and hotwater with a lill 2.5gal reservoir tank inc. in the unit
Tony, Since it's a diesel heater, the unit starts the glow plug first. Once that heats up then the pump starts. The biggest power drain is on start up and shut down as that's when the glow plug is activated. Don't let the battery die or get too low! Use a "tender" type charger on it. If the unit is running while the power dies, the burner will overheat and the controller will cook... in seconds. The body of the burner itself gets over 210 or more Celcius. Some see 245C. Please don't wait for the green fuel line to fail. It tends to degrade and leak. Smells from the unit running are often because the exhaust pipe is leaking where it is clamped to the burner. Put a little muffler paste around the burner pipe to seal it and use an exhaust type clamp instead of the Jubilee clamp that comes with it. I run furnace oil in mine. It's cheaper than diesel here but diesel and furnace are both "middle distillates" and should have the same lubrication properties for the pump. Some oils like kerosene don't lube the pump well and may cause it to fail. If you haven't.. check out "John McK 47" on ewetoob he did a great series on these. The videos are a bit old but still very good. I put one in my brothers poorly insulated, drafty two-car garage. It takes the chill off on a windy day and does a great job on a calm day. Your shop should do well with it.
I've actually been watching videos from another CC about that very same diesel heater. Been looking into getting it, need a warm workshop for the winters.
I use one to heat our 160 Sq ft pig barn during winter, our overnight temperatures are typically in the 0* - 15*. It keeps it about 60* on the lowestest setting.
Excellent review, I have a friend using one to keep a similar space above 12c. He actually set up a remot fuel cell that he has an electric transfer pump so n o spilage around the actual unit. Thanks for your review.
Hi Tony. Looks like a good heater for the shop. Nice that you don't have to have a big stove pipe running through the shop and up into a chimney outside, like you would need with a wood stove. Here in the States, you can buy red colored diesel, for off-road use, which doesn't have road taxes added to it, so it's cheaper. Do you have a similar system in your area? Maybe it would burn waste oil or a mix to save some of the fuel cost.
For all costs considered to buy and run this unit I'll stick with electric heaters, I warm up my shop with a propane unit for a few minutes and electric heater takes over from there to maintain the temperature. Shop is 36' X 18' with 7 1/2' ceiling, 15+ years and still good. I'm in the process of putting a woodstove in my woodshop now 32' X 18' and I think that'll be fine as I can burn waste wood as fuel. Good video as usual and look forward to more.
I have an 8k model. It heats my 576sq ft insulated garage to 71-74 degrees(F) here in northern Michigan........and that is during the night when it is in the 20's outside. One tip is to buy an expensive T-Bolt clamp for the exhaust where it connects to the heater from underneath.......those old style clamps cause a void when pinching. I found a tiny leak on mine and after installing the T-Bolt clamp, all was good to go!!!
Smell goes away after a tank or 2 of fuel. Also best to bring the combustion air tube outside also. What's happening is your creating negative air pressure in the shop. Thats sucking in the cold air from any gaps anywhere. I also find you get a better burn. I would not take the cold air in from the intake side for the actual heat. That's moisture from the cold and snow you will have water dripping all over your doors. And yes I have 3 so I know what I'm talking about. Best xmas presents to myself thank u vevor
I'm waiting on Walmart to receive mine so I can go pick it up. You're the only person I have found so far with the same control system as the one I'm getting, according to the pictures provided by Walmart.
If you're smelling fumes you may have a cross contamination of the combustion chamber. Easy to start pumping out carbon monoxide. Put a detector in the shop just in case. That stuff starts creeping in on you and puts you out quiet like. You get real slow and stupified, feels like your in a fog and takes forever to get anything done. Was working in my shop heating with and old kerosun heater laying on the floor changing a transmission. Worked all day till 2 in the morning could get anything accomplished. Finally started feeling real sick and went outside. 10 minutes of fresh air and finally figured out what was going on. A little bit more and I think I would have passed out and been dead... I was lucky. Trust me you won't know it's happening till it's too late. Be safe.
Hi Fitzee, I have a very similar setup in my garage (500 square foot) My heater is just a cheap no name one. Only thing I modified I changed a soft fuel hoses to a hard nylon one so its not pulsating and cavitating. It should make the pump more efficient and extend its lifetime.
Raise your door where a 2x4 or 2x6 etc can fit in the full length of the door while it is up & sitting ON the board, then cut a hole IN the board instead of the door
The best way to increase the efficiency of these diesel heaters is to do exhaust heat recovery. Checkout video by D&S Farm NS: Diesel heater upgade 200% more efficient
I was thinking if you pumped the exhaust through an old propane RV heaters combustion chamber before venting to outside, that would really capture all that heat and release to your space.
I've been tossing the idea around of one of these for a while now, just haven't pulled the trigger. My garage is the same dimensions as yours but I'm limited to 50 amps so the electric heater at full power, lights and 5hp compressor kicking on is right at the threshold of kicking out the breaker.
Hi! I use the same Vevor diesel heater. I have connected fumes output to copper (phi - 28mm) pippes to use warm from fumes. Remember, never disconnect car battery from the diesel heater until it cool dwn. When you turn off the heater, interior fan must to work some minutes after oil burning. When you disconnect hot unit from battery carbon deposit and tar will seal filament inside the heater. I have destroyed my Vevor filament in this way.
Well, I had bullet heaters and got rid of them and installed electric ones, but they were 110v. I have found that while a heater such as that gives quick heat, the real downside was always getting fuel. I thought why put a hole in the garage door, I was thinking above the grinder, so the doors can be opened on the fly without moving the thing. At least you still have the electric heaters, that is a real plus.
Funny. I’m in town and I just got one of these a few weeks ago as well. And I did exactly what you just did, cut a hole through the garage door, welded up a piece of pipe to run the exhaust through, I don’t have a cap or a flap on it yet I just stuffed some insulation in there when I’m not using it. I like your idea of cap, I’ve got an inch sticking out as well, so I think I’ll make one. Out of the box mine was pretty junky, one of the bolts had fallen out the bottom, and the four clips holding the cover on were falling off one of them was assembled wrong. First time I used it the control panel fell off, the two sided tape let go. Remote never did work. But, it did give off a surprising amount of heat. Though I couldn’t get it to heat the garage much more than 12-13°. I used kerosene in mine, as I had four litres of it on hand. The main hose leaked a little so I was getting fumes as well. I tightened the clamp a bit and it’s fine.
Just a thought fitze. Grab an old cieling fan and put leave on low speed. It will distribute the heat evenly and it will get rid of any cold corners and wick up any moisture that might accumulate. Just an observation from Saskatchewan Canada -38 celcious lol
I have the 8K version that has the tank separate from the heater. When the heater is off, simultaneously press and hold both the up and down buttons should put the pump in prime mode. Release the buttons to stop the prime. Mine has about 6 feet of fuel line and I have let it run out of fuel so priming is important otherwise it will error for fails to ignite. Also the small intake hose and filter should also be plumbed outside for the heater to get fresh air and may be the reason for the fuel smell.
I have one of those but the cube size, built a shelf on wall with a giant hole in the middle and ran the exhaust outside, got a 12 volt power supply from amazon cheap.
I have the same unit ( sold by a different seller ) and have been using it for > 7 years now. I use it to supplement my wood stove which is generally way to large to heat my 820 sq ft house with out roasting you out and this heater having a adjustable output works perfect for me. My " house " is an old converted camp with only half the windows being double pane and I only have an enclosed crawl space and this place is FAR from being air tight and not very well insulated at all, but these 8 KW heaters keep up quite well. So far I've had to replace 1 fuel pump, @ around 12 bucks and just replaced a fan assy that was getting noisy , otherwise I've had no issues and now I have 3 , one as a stand by unit held back unused in reserve , and one I heat my 780 sq ft garage with and the oldest one I heat my house with . I live high in the mountains of VT where it gets used pretty regularly 5 months out of the year so after 7+ years of use and hundreds if not thousands of hours of use it's only required < 50-60 bucks worth of maintenance, it's proven to be VERY cost effective to run fuel wise and has been very reliable IMHO for the amount of time mine gets used . For me with 20 ish degree weather outside and the house already warm , I can run mine on a 1 or 2 and the thermostat set @ a 72 F setting , I'll get around 25-30 ish hours of run time on 1 tank , which on mine is 7/8 of a gallon. It will easily maintain 70+ degrees inside and barely sips fuel, a suggestion though, try to avoid tinted fuels such as kerosene and some home heating fuels , as it seems to carbon up the glow plug quicker than the clear diesel does . I can't say enough good things about them and now many of my friends have them for many different uses and they all love them too . One friend in particular that has a damp basement that had mold issues , hasn't had any issues with that now after using his for the last 2 years and went from using > 4 tanks of heating fuel each heating season down to about 2 tanks a year counting what the diesel heater uses so in his case it's saved him a ton on heating costs and solved his damp basement issues. They are Chinese-um made though so I don't run mine while sleeping , but after 7+ years run time on my oldest one I've never really had any concerns with them. But still I don't generally leave them unattended all day , when sleeping or when I'm gone someplace. But that is just me being overly vigilant perhaps ? BTW, the clamps they come with absolutely suck , so replace them with a stainless marine or aviation grade hose clamps so you have no exhaust leaks / smell or CO issues. Very important and the only down fall I've found with them !!
@@user-st5rc9nz4j I guess it depends on whether your using on or off road diesel or #1 kero ? #1 Kero is normally clear and quite a bit more expensive that road diesel and I've found not much difference between the two . I've found red tint in Kero too and though kero is normally normally cleaner burning , it still clogs up the glow plug faster if tinted . The red tint fuel defiantly will coat you glow plug faster in the heaters, at least that is what I've found . Not that it's a big deal as the heaters are extremely simple and easy to work on so cleaning a glow plug once a year or so isn't that big a deal IMO. It seems I don't need to do anything to my heater if I run only "on road diesel" though . I honestly don't know the difference in octane ratings between them but I'm sure there is some differences other than color ?
You should not be getting ANY fumes, the intake air for the heat is coming only from the back of the machine, the other air intake (at the bottom) is only for the heater combustion itself. So if you are getting fumes in there, Its one of 2 things. 1. The Exhaust is not completely sealed at the bottom of the unit. or 2 the Gasket on the heat exchanger has a leak and is allowing combustion fumes in the fresh air. (kind of like a head gasket leak). Just wanted to put my 2 cents in there, because my heat exchanger has a gasket leak right from the factory and I had to replace it. Great Video I enjoyed your method of installation.
Hi Fitzee, i have a similar diesel heater, i would seal where the exaust pipe is clamped to heater with heat cement/paste Also have the air intake outside i believe this helps the air quality Good luck Bronx NY.
The smell might be fuel leaks. I've found 2 on mine. Cracked line at the barb, and a mangled barb. Going to fix today. But look out for those slow leaks at the fuel line connections.
I think a true test would be if the heater was drawing its air from outside. Like you said, if you are welding or even rattle canning a small bracket it would create fumes. It would be harder to heat -10 air to 18 degrees than 10 to 18 degrees.
I like those heaters I had those in my tractor when I was driving otr. Great for that small space but I wouldn't expect it to heat an 800sf garage maybe 2 or 3 units but fuel isn't cheap.
That's a cute little heater. My cinderblock garage has no insulation whatsoever and the door is just thin aluminum. I can heat it with diesel, but I usually just use kerosene as my torpedo style heater will run on either one. The garage door opening is an odd size so no door fits it right and always has the top panel tilted inwards (It originally had a rolling style barn door). The torpedo is loud, but in as much as I'm usually out there by myself it isn't like I have to shout to anyone over it. Ah well, I never have to worry about ventilation, LOL!
i think wair you have you air intake picking up it could be sucking fumes from the bottom of the door or off the floor.. you could just get a longer air intake tube and buile a air filter box on the wall put a hepa furnice filter in it ... pritty cool wonder why it clicks thank you for shair Fitzi
you might find when you put the cap back on the hole in the door that it ices up with the moist air escaping from the garage and you might not be able to get it off again.
HaHa I did the same. Just push the on/off button and let it do it's thing. It goes through it's modes and works. Same for turning it off. I've been heating the garage with propane. I have a feeling this will be cheaper.
No such thing as an 8Kw, they're only made in 2kW and 5kW (different size burn chambers), I suspect the 8kW was originally a typo, but more power sells! Those heaters are a copy of the Eberspacher truck cab heater, now long out of any design protection. I have two of the standalone units, one for my machine shop and the other for the main workshop. They're generally very good units, but can suffer from severe carbon build up if left running at low load for long periods. I run mine in power mode, not thermostat, so they're at 100% all the time. If it gets too warm, I just shut them down (let them go through their shutdown routine). If you know someone with an exhaust gas analyser, it's not a bad idea to tweak the fuel pump rate and fan rpm for the cleanest burn (information online on how to access the hidden menu).
You would need to have a charger capable of delivering up to 15 amps at start up and shutdown while the glow plugs is being powered. You would also run the risk of overheat damage to the ECU if you lost power while the heater is running, since it wouldn't have power to cool itself before shutting down. best power for these is a 12v battery with a cheap smart charger connected to the building power source, this provides the amperage to run the glow plug but also allows the heater to automatically go into proper shutdown if the voltage in the battery drops too low.
Your accent sounds exactly like Dan Danowski of Ingrams Water and Air (an HVAC supplier, and they have tech videos on their site). That's pretty awesome.
Another convert!!! I have been running one for a while now. "All dem ole VW bugs are diesel aren't dey?) LOL at Ray Joy. You need the high amp hour rating of the battery to get the glow plug heated up at the start, after that the draw is very low. I use a 1 amp battery maintainer (from princesses A) to keep the battery up. I also have a furnace to heat my house 😉 So have experimented with red fuel with great success. People on the internet have used chip fat and everything... The heaters like to be run flat out, otherwise they have a tendency to carbon up. Chinese diesel heaters, Blair likes em too!
I think it would be better to use steel uni-strut instead of wooden framing members for the base. When I finally buy one of these that’s what I’ll do. Propane went way way up in California this year. 30 bucks to refill a 5 gallon size tank now. Time to get one of these.
if its anything like a webasto heater, if you dont let it wind down on its own, itll build up soot on the basket inside and youll have to replace it. on a webasto, thats like $500 to replace
I have a similar heater in a workshop half the size of yours and around my Citroen SM restoration. I did away with ALL the plumbing and move the heater around the workshop where I need it. I have a 220v to 12v dc transformer cable tied to the case and plug it into a wall socket. The only fumes you get is on start up, when hot it’s fine. In a camper or truck cab you would most definitely need the plumbing and it would dangerous not to do so. You get 8kw from the heater plus another 8kw from the exhaust. Why waste it through your door. Try it I did and I am still here at 79 years old. Back to your film
People just stop guessing, plug your shop dinensions into an online calculator and figure out how many BTU you need. These diesel heaters can push about 27k BTU on max, for my 20x24 insulated garage in Canada, doesn’t put out nearly enough heat as I need closer to 40k. So many what ifs and anecdotes when there’s a simple way to measure. These heaters aren’t magic, they’re designed to heat up the cab of a truck.
The weather is opposite to yours here in Queensland Australia with temperatures in the mid 30's C and high humidity and a lot of rain. Not to mention the cyclone (hurricane) that just hit further North to us, which didn't affect us much here.
I've got an 1800sq ft shop (12ft ceilings) that's really well insulated. My heater (same as yours) will get the whole place warm. Not instantly, but... I need to figure out a better exhaust routing. As someone else below said, get an old cast iron radiator and push the exhaust through that, THEN to the outside. Doubles its effective heat output.
@@markmainse3387 - would for a short while. But then the acids in the exhaust would eat through the thin copper/brass walls of the radiator and you'd just end up pumping ever growing amounts of CO into your room. :(
@@markmainse3387 - it’s almost free heat, as the exhaust temp is SO high. And just getting spat outside otherwise. Also saves having to route an otherwise very hot exhaust pipe through a wall. Experiments have shown it drops it from about 200c down to about 30c.
@@DrFiero if it's proven to work then by all means. I could see it working for a bit as those old cast heaters are pretty robust or even better a steam one as it'd have a provision for condensation.
Should have your air intake come from the outside instead of sucking up the air in shop and blowing out exhaust. I always take off the heater end cap to let more air flow too. On those "portable" units I found they have a different ecu than the older non "portable" parking heaters. The ecu's could be adjusted by fan speeds and pulse rates(pass number was 1866 on my heaters) ,I have mine set at 6.0 pulse rate .I am heating several small garages and my weight room /man cave .
i just got one for my 850 sq ft garage it works great but im making a sand battery out of a old water heater and going to mount it to it with the sand battery i'll recover all of the waisted exhaust heat and it will keep my shop warm during the overnight so i wont have to run the heater 24 hrs a day
The initial start up when they're new is Pretty nasty smell and a little bit of smoke from the exhaust pipe And whatever they coat them with to keep them shiny looking.
These look like a great option for people that only have 120v 15 or 20amp service to their garages kind of makes electric heat impossible to use and run anything else.
Stating heating in kW instead of the traditional btu/hr is a bit confusing. Being able to buy cheap fuel at the corner gas station is a plus even if the smell has to be piped out of your space (either that or run it outside and pipe the clean heat into your space). I'm curious how much electric power it uses.
The energy requirements that I could find aren’t very detailed and are kind of contradictory. While some sources say it needs to be hooked up to a 15-amp power source, 40 W is printed on the back of the unit. That’s quite a difference and it’s hard to believe it draws 40 W continuously, if ever. Most of the power goes to pumping a tiny amount of fuel and some goes for a short time to start the glow plug and later to run the glow plug in the shut-down cleaning cycle. My real question is, can my 7 AH LiFePO4 battery run this heater long enough to go through a full tank of diesel?
We use to heat with kerosene, this yr. We cant get it here so we got one of the cheapest ones they got. It doesn't even have the remote just a pust button on an off. It will heat our house easy and here even if we could find it, diesel is over a dollar a gallon cheaper than kerosene.
I heat 900sq ft detached shop with propane heater. Last year I wired a wifi thermostat inline so I can monitor the heat from a phone app. I turn it up a little before I go to the shop so its nice and warm when I get there. I had figure out the "C" constant power wire to keep the wifi thermostat running. I pulled the 24V from the transformer in the propane control panel. Works great.
I never considered a Diesel heater such as this but I am glad you put this together to show the options. You make my head spin with the C vs F temps. I keep forgetting where you are!! I'm in Virginia USA.
Very cool idea! I did basically the same thing with a small homemade wood stove but ran the chimney out an existing window instead of the garage door. Just took the glass out and replaced it with a piece of sheet metal. Got a fan blowing behind the stove and it works incredible for a small amount of wood 👍
MUCH better idea, I have a slide up window in mine that I had to bust the window out because I locked myself out, & I will replace that window as you & insert the heater exaust
Your ingenuity is only surpassed by your talent for inventiveness (yes, it's a word). Kudos Mr. Fitzee.
I have been debating getting this heater. After watching you...I ordered mine. Thanks Fitzi
I Also live in a cold climate (Bemidji MN) whenever I need a vent/hole in the shop , besides a cover to stop the wind ,I stuff a piece of closed cel foam rubber in the hole for insulation. Then just pull out when in use. Enjoy your videos, thx Randy
I gotta just say your dialect is awesome. If lived-in namibia , germany and england and extensively travelled the uk. Your dialect is all them combined. Pretty cool!
In other words it's mixed up ??? : )
His accent is from the east coast of Canada, probably from Newfoundland. Could also be a bit of Cape Breton accent in there as well. Brings back warm memories of my time as a Mountie. I have/had many incredible friends and co-workers from that region of Canada 🥰 🇨🇦
@@REVNUMANEWBERN Grrrage. Love it.
@@DanielSon69 well, his about info here on channel says Newfoundland. So that's what I'm going with my son.
@@daroccotmmmmmmyyyyyy son.
Yes saw them on a couple in Alaska they use it in there chicken coop.So thinking on my garage as well thank you for sharing well done sir Tony
Hello Fitzee, thanks for the review of this little heater. I currently use a woodstove, but this could be a good backup. Take care and stay safe 👍
❤ Great info, I live in Uk and love old fords that always rust and need welding, I have picked up so many tips from your video's over last two years. I THANK Q FOR THIS ONE AND ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL WORK. 😊
Nice video, thanks for posting it and showing how the heater performed. These diesel heaters seem pretty useful for some applications.
One item I'd like to share for you and others reading, is that when you run anything that creates exhaust in winter, the warmer air inside your house or garage will rise, and unless the house is extremely well sealed, as the warmer air escapes from your ceiling and roof, it will draw outside air from any tiny cracks at ground level (its called the stack effect). I found this out cooking on a grill right outside my back wall in winter one year. Although the grill was completely outside, and my house is reasonably insulated, the house created a draft and drew in the fumes from cooking outside.
It was remarkable, you would have really thought one was cooking inside, but nope. It was the outside air being drawn in. So keep this in mind and have the exhaust as far as possible from the house. Having a CO monitor is also always a given. For your heater, it may have been diesel fumes from a drip, or the new plastic just off-gassing a bit, but its always important to take due care when you have any combustion exhaust.
Great little heater you have there. Good to see it working smoothly. I am amazed how much fuel costs up in the Great White North. Works out to about $6 U.S. for diesel. Keep us updated on how it works out for you.
Good content as usual. Your combustion air intake (smaller black hose) should be outside. That's how they are designed to be used in big trucks (the original target community). A CO detector is a good idea too. As far as stale air is concerned as long as you're not burning inside air (you are) or sucking in exhaust fumes the heater shouldn't affect air quality any more than your electric heaters. My shop use to be a barn, 30x40. It had small doors for goats to use. When I converted it I closed those doors off save one which I modified to seal off the air intake of an 80,000 BTU (23KW) fan forced kerosene/diesel 'torpedo' heater. (these diesel parking heaters were really expensive back then). It keeps my shop warm, 70+ F, even when it's 0 F outside and the CO detector never even goes above 0 ppm. (I know the detector works because it detects CO if I run an engine in the shop without connecting an exhaust hose. ). BTW, I have one of the 2KW Chinese diesel heaters in my van. It works great.
I just installed one in my shop, about the same size as yours with 11 foot ceilings, insulated. It does take a while to bring the temp up but it will bring the temp up from 43f to 57f and hold it while the temps are dropping outside at night. Sometimes I'll use my propane jet heater to preheat the shop, don't like to leave that one on full time as it's loud and stinky. You'll need about a 15amp 12v power supply to run this off the wall, anything lower and it doesn't seem to be able to get the glow plug going. Seems like a decent enough product if it's reliable long term.
As with any heater that burns stuff, get a CO and CO2 air quality meter or alarm. Just a few bucks but prevents bad things in case of leaks.
Good heater I ran 1 inch water pipe the length of my work shop hooked the exhaust through it acts like a radiator
Hope this doesn't mess up the top door seal when you raise the door. I'm sure you've taken this into account already. Those diesel heaters seem to have an excellent run time, much more efficient than torpedo heaters and no fumes. Nice project and review Tony!
It clears no problem
WHAT was the temp you said was a good working temp Fahrenheit?? @@fitzeesfabrications
a friend just got one for his workshop. Im doing a short bus/motorhome conversion and I picked up a China knockoff of another heater for it. It does air and hotwater with a lill 2.5gal reservoir tank inc. in the unit
They are ALL SHY NA produced
Tony,
Since it's a diesel heater, the unit starts the glow plug first. Once that heats up then the pump starts. The biggest power drain is on start up and shut down as that's when the glow plug is activated.
Don't let the battery die or get too low! Use a "tender" type charger on it. If the unit is running while the power dies, the burner will overheat and the controller will cook... in seconds. The body of the burner itself gets over 210 or more Celcius. Some see 245C.
Please don't wait for the green fuel line to fail. It tends to degrade and leak.
Smells from the unit running are often because the exhaust pipe is leaking where it is clamped to the burner. Put a little muffler paste around the burner pipe to seal it and use an exhaust type clamp instead of the Jubilee clamp that comes with it.
I run furnace oil in mine. It's cheaper than diesel here but diesel and furnace are both "middle distillates" and should have the same lubrication properties for the pump. Some oils like kerosene don't lube the pump well and may cause it to fail.
If you haven't.. check out "John McK 47" on ewetoob he did a great series on these. The videos are a bit old but still very good.
I put one in my brothers poorly insulated, drafty two-car garage. It takes the chill off on a windy day and does a great job on a calm day. Your shop should do well with it.
Great info. Thanks
Fitzee thank you for showing this as it answered all I needed to know about the heater before I buy it for my camper I’m building
I've actually been watching videos from another CC about that very same diesel heater.
Been looking into getting it, need a warm workshop for the winters.
I have the same pattern aluminum garage doors that I painted last summer. I bought a Vevor inspection camera which is great.
The air intake on the back is to aid in keeping the box cool and the intake underneath is for the actual combustion chamber.
I use one to heat our 160 Sq ft pig barn during winter, our overnight temperatures are typically in the 0* - 15*. It keeps it about 60* on the lowestest setting.
Been seeing these around more and more . Seems straightforward
Excellent review, I have a friend using one to keep a similar space above 12c. He actually set up a remot fuel cell that he has an electric transfer pump so n o spilage around the actual unit. Thanks for your review.
Hi Tony. Looks like a good heater for the shop. Nice that you don't have to have a big stove pipe running through the shop and up into a chimney outside, like you would need with a wood stove. Here in the States, you can buy red colored diesel, for off-road use, which doesn't have road taxes added to it, so it's cheaper. Do you have a similar system in your area? Maybe it would burn waste oil or a mix to save some of the fuel cost.
There is fuel here like that for fishing boats.
For all costs considered to buy and run this unit I'll stick with electric heaters, I warm up my shop with a propane unit for a few minutes and electric heater takes over from there to maintain the temperature. Shop is 36' X 18' with 7 1/2' ceiling, 15+ years and still good. I'm in the process of putting a woodstove in my woodshop now 32' X 18' and I think that'll be fine as I can burn waste wood as fuel. Good video as usual and look forward to more.
I have an 8k model. It heats my 576sq ft insulated garage to 71-74 degrees(F) here in northern Michigan........and that is during the night when it is in the 20's outside. One tip is to buy an expensive T-Bolt clamp for the exhaust where it connects to the heater from underneath.......those old style clamps cause a void when pinching. I found a tiny leak on mine and after installing the T-Bolt clamp, all was good to go!!!
Smell goes away after a tank or 2 of fuel. Also best to bring the combustion air tube outside also. What's happening is your creating negative air pressure in the shop. Thats sucking in the cold air from any gaps anywhere. I also find you get a better burn. I would not take the cold air in from the intake side for the actual heat. That's moisture from the cold and snow you will have water dripping all over your doors. And yes I have 3 so I know what I'm talking about. Best xmas presents to myself thank u vevor
I'm waiting on Walmart to receive mine so I can go pick it up. You're the only person I have found so far with the same control system as the one I'm getting, according to the pictures provided by Walmart.
If you're smelling fumes you may have a cross contamination of the combustion chamber. Easy to start pumping out carbon monoxide. Put a detector in the shop just in case. That stuff starts creeping in on you and puts you out quiet like. You get real slow and stupified, feels like your in a fog and takes forever to get anything done. Was working in my shop heating with and old kerosun heater laying on the floor changing a transmission. Worked all day till 2 in the morning could get anything accomplished. Finally started feeling real sick and went outside. 10 minutes of fresh air and finally figured out what was going on. A little bit more and I think I would have passed out and been dead... I was lucky. Trust me you won't know it's happening till it's too late. Be safe.
Hi Fitzee, I have a very similar setup in my garage (500 square foot) My heater is just a cheap no name one. Only thing I modified I changed a soft fuel hoses to a hard nylon one so its not pulsating and cavitating. It should make the pump more efficient and extend its lifetime.
They say these china heaters are all the same. Except for the USA/German makes
Raise your door where a 2x4 or 2x6 etc can fit in the full length of the door while it is up & sitting ON the board, then cut a hole IN the board instead of the door
The top of the door will be open
The best way to increase the efficiency of these diesel heaters is to do exhaust heat recovery.
Checkout video by D&S Farm NS:
Diesel heater upgade 200% more efficient
I was thinking if you pumped the exhaust through an old propane RV heaters combustion chamber before venting to outside, that would really capture all that heat and release to your space.
I've been tossing the idea around of one of these for a while now, just haven't pulled the trigger. My garage is the same dimensions as yours but I'm limited to 50 amps so the electric heater at full power, lights and 5hp compressor kicking on is right at the threshold of kicking out the breaker.
I’ve recently learned about Vevor. I’m very happy about their products so far.
Hi! I use the same Vevor diesel heater. I have connected fumes output to copper (phi - 28mm) pippes to use warm from fumes. Remember, never disconnect car battery from the diesel heater until it cool dwn. When you turn off the heater, interior fan must to work some minutes after oil burning. When you disconnect hot unit from battery carbon deposit and tar will seal filament inside the heater. I have destroyed my Vevor filament in this way.
Well, I had bullet heaters and got rid of them and installed electric ones, but they were 110v. I have found that while a heater such as that gives quick heat, the real downside was always getting fuel. I thought why put a hole in the garage door, I was thinking above the grinder, so the doors can be opened on the fly without moving the thing. At least you still have the electric heaters, that is a real plus.
I want to use think unit in my camper but that's full right now. So wanted to see could it heat my shop. It's only temporary
Funny. I’m in town and I just got one of these a few weeks ago as well. And I did exactly what you just did, cut a hole through the garage door, welded up a piece of pipe to run the exhaust through, I don’t have a cap or a flap on it yet I just stuffed some insulation in there when I’m not using it. I like your idea of cap, I’ve got an inch sticking out as well, so I think I’ll make one. Out of the box mine was pretty junky, one of the bolts had fallen out the bottom, and the four clips holding the cover on were falling off one of them was assembled wrong. First time I used it the control panel fell off, the two sided tape let go. Remote never did work. But, it did give off a surprising amount of heat. Though I couldn’t get it to heat the garage much more than 12-13°. I used kerosene in mine, as I had four litres of it on hand. The main hose leaked a little so I was getting fumes as well. I tightened the clamp a bit and it’s fine.
I never check for leaks!!
Not a good idea to use kerosine, as it has reduced lubricity when compared to regular diesel - i.e. is likely to shorten the life of the pump.
Just a thought fitze. Grab an old cieling fan and put leave on low speed. It will distribute the heat evenly and it will get rid of any cold corners and wick up any moisture that might accumulate. Just an observation from Saskatchewan Canada -38 celcious lol
Good idea
I’m surprised how well it works in such a large shop Fitzee with snow outside to it’s doing a fine job all things considered pretty impressive 👍
I have the 8K version that has the tank separate from the heater. When the heater is off, simultaneously press and hold both the up and down buttons should put the pump in prime mode. Release the buttons to stop the prime. Mine has about 6 feet of fuel line and I have let it run out of fuel so priming is important otherwise it will error for fails to ignite. Also the small intake hose and filter should also be plumbed outside for the heater to get fresh air and may be the reason for the fuel smell.
I have one of those but the cube size, built a shelf on wall with a giant hole in the middle and ran the exhaust outside, got a 12 volt power supply from amazon cheap.
I have the same unit ( sold by a different seller ) and have been using it for > 7 years now. I use it to supplement my wood stove which is generally way to large to heat my 820 sq ft house with out roasting you out and this heater having a adjustable output works perfect for me. My " house " is an old converted camp with only half the windows being double pane and I only have an enclosed crawl space and this place is FAR from being air tight and not very well insulated at all, but these 8 KW heaters keep up quite well.
So far I've had to replace 1 fuel pump, @ around 12 bucks and just replaced a fan assy that was getting noisy , otherwise I've had no issues and now I have 3 , one as a stand by unit held back unused in reserve , and one I heat my 780 sq ft garage with and the oldest one I heat my house with . I live high in the mountains of VT where it gets used pretty regularly 5 months out of the year so after 7+ years of use and hundreds if not thousands of hours of use it's only required < 50-60 bucks worth of maintenance, it's proven to be VERY cost effective to run fuel wise and has been very reliable IMHO for the amount of time mine gets used .
For me with 20 ish degree weather outside and the house already warm , I can run mine on a 1 or 2 and the thermostat set @ a 72 F setting , I'll get around 25-30 ish hours of run time on 1 tank , which on mine is 7/8 of a gallon. It will easily maintain 70+ degrees inside and barely sips fuel, a suggestion though, try to avoid tinted fuels such as kerosene and some home heating fuels , as it seems to carbon up the glow plug quicker than the clear diesel does .
I can't say enough good things about them and now many of my friends have them for many different uses and they all love them too . One friend in particular that has a damp basement that had mold issues , hasn't had any issues with that now after using his for the last 2 years and went from using > 4 tanks of heating fuel each heating season down to about 2 tanks a year counting what the diesel heater uses so in his case it's saved him a ton on heating costs and solved his damp basement issues.
They are Chinese-um made though so I don't run mine while sleeping , but after 7+ years run time on my oldest one I've never really had any concerns with them. But still I don't generally leave them unattended all day , when sleeping or when I'm gone someplace.
But that is just me being overly vigilant perhaps ?
BTW, the clamps they come with absolutely suck , so replace them with a stainless marine or aviation grade hose clamps so you have no exhaust leaks / smell or CO issues.
Very important and the only down fall I've found with them !!
Isn't kero clear / cleanest burn? No 2 is red. Road diesel is yellow??
@@user-st5rc9nz4j I guess it depends on whether your using on or off road diesel or #1 kero ? #1 Kero is normally clear and quite a bit more expensive that road diesel and I've found not much difference between the two .
I've found red tint in Kero too and though kero is normally normally cleaner burning , it still clogs up the glow plug faster if tinted .
The red tint fuel defiantly will coat you glow plug faster in the heaters, at least that is what I've found .
Not that it's a big deal as the heaters are extremely simple and easy to work on so cleaning a glow plug once a year or so isn't that big a deal IMO.
It seems I don't need to do anything to my heater if I run only "on road diesel" though .
I honestly don't know the difference in octane ratings between them but I'm sure there is some differences other than color ?
Tony, thanks for the review. If you take the combustion air from outside you might lose the diesel odor.
I just picked one of these up. I haven't had a chance to hook it up yet.
You should not be getting ANY fumes, the intake air for the heat is coming only from the back of the machine, the other air intake (at the bottom) is only for the heater combustion itself. So if you are getting fumes in there, Its one of 2 things. 1. The Exhaust is not completely sealed at the bottom of the unit. or 2 the Gasket on the heat exchanger has a leak and is allowing combustion fumes in the fresh air. (kind of like a head gasket leak). Just wanted to put my 2 cents in there, because my heat exchanger has a gasket leak right from the factory and I had to replace it. Great Video I enjoyed your method of installation.
I have that exact heater sitting in its box in my shop..waiting for camping season
I love this guy's accent lol...he sounds like he's austrailian and from the southern US and Canadian and Scottish and Irish at the same damn time 😂
Thats a clever port you made for the door. Subbed!
Very nice I'm in Canada and that looks great good video gday
Hi Fitzee, i have a similar diesel heater, i would seal where the exaust pipe is clamped to heater with heat cement/paste
Also have the air intake outside i believe this helps the air quality
Good luck Bronx NY.
that silicone sealer he used on the door is good for 600 degrees F. That should be enough to seal the pipe connection.
I was gonna suggest turning the chain so it faces the top. That way you don't catch and damage your hoses. lol
The smell might be fuel leaks. I've found 2 on mine. Cracked line at the barb, and a mangled barb. Going to fix today. But look out for those slow leaks at the fuel line connections.
Just found this old video. You want air put the unit outside and have the heat hose blow through the hole in your door. Much quieter inside also.
I think a true test would be if the heater was drawing its air from outside. Like you said, if you are welding or even rattle canning a small bracket it would create fumes. It would be harder to heat -10 air to 18 degrees than 10 to 18 degrees.
I like those heaters I had those in my tractor when I was driving otr. Great for that small space but I wouldn't expect it to heat an 800sf garage maybe 2 or 3 units but fuel isn't cheap.
That's a cute little heater. My cinderblock garage has no insulation whatsoever and the door is just thin aluminum. I can heat it with diesel, but I usually just use kerosene as my torpedo style heater will run on either one. The garage door opening is an odd size so no door fits it right and always has the top panel tilted inwards (It originally had a rolling style barn door). The torpedo is loud, but in as much as I'm usually out there by myself it isn't like I have to shout to anyone over it. Ah well, I never have to worry about ventilation, LOL!
The combustion air intake needs to be outside, that might be where your smell is coming from as it might be occasionally backpuffing.
i think wair you have you air intake picking up it could be sucking fumes from the bottom of the door or off the floor.. you could just get a longer air intake tube and buile a air filter box on the wall put a hepa furnice filter in it ... pritty cool wonder why it clicks thank you for shair Fitzi
Great tip 👍 I was thinking about getting one myself 🤔
Good video you need to rotate your exhaust silencer so it's verical keeping the little hole at the bottom of it
Run the exhaust through a radiator in bottom out the top then outside . Put a fan on radiator get double the heat
you might find when you put the cap back on the hole in the door that it ices up with the moist air escaping from the garage and you might not be able to get it off again.
Good point.
HaHa I did the same. Just push the on/off button and let it do it's thing. It goes through it's modes and works. Same for turning it off. I've been heating the garage with propane. I have a feeling this will be cheaper.
No such thing as an 8Kw, they're only made in 2kW and 5kW (different size burn chambers), I suspect the 8kW was originally a typo, but more power sells! Those heaters are a copy of the Eberspacher truck cab heater, now long out of any design protection. I have two of the standalone units, one for my machine shop and the other for the main workshop. They're generally very good units, but can suffer from severe carbon build up if left running at low load for long periods. I run mine in power mode, not thermostat, so they're at 100% all the time. If it gets too warm, I just shut them down (let them go through their shutdown routine). If you know someone with an exhaust gas analyser, it's not a bad idea to tweak the fuel pump rate and fan rpm for the cleanest burn (information online on how to access the hidden menu).
Those are great little heaters
Nifty noodles. Could you have used a 12V battery charger to provide the power for it rather than the battery?
It should work.
You would need to have a charger capable of delivering up to 15 amps at start up and shutdown while the glow plugs is being powered. You would also run the risk of overheat damage to the ECU if you lost power while the heater is running, since it wouldn't have power to cool itself before shutting down. best power for these is a 12v battery with a cheap smart charger connected to the building power source, this provides the amperage to run the glow plug but also allows the heater to automatically go into proper shutdown if the voltage in the battery drops too low.
I have one under the back seat of my pickup, gets the cab up to temperature in ten minuets.
Very cool 🤙 I got lucky my 40×40 has heated floors. It heats well
Your accent sounds exactly like Dan Danowski of Ingrams Water and Air (an HVAC supplier, and they have tech videos on their site). That's pretty awesome.
Another convert!!! I have been running one for a while now.
"All dem ole VW bugs are diesel aren't dey?) LOL at Ray Joy.
You need the high amp hour rating of the battery to get the glow plug heated up at the start, after that the draw is very low. I use a 1 amp battery maintainer (from princesses A) to keep the battery up. I also have a furnace to heat my house 😉 So have experimented with red fuel with great success. People on the internet have used chip fat and everything...
The heaters like to be run flat out, otherwise they have a tendency to carbon up. Chinese diesel heaters, Blair likes em too!
Irishman was always gonna have a mk2 escort lurking around :)
Hopefully you have enough clearance on that external pipe to clear everything when you open the door.
Few other ms said that. Checked it yesterday. All kinds of clearance
I like the intro music 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😎
I think it would be better to use steel uni-strut instead of wooden framing members for the base.
When I finally buy one of these that’s what I’ll do. Propane went way way up in California this year. 30 bucks to refill a 5 gallon size tank now. Time to get one of these.
if its anything like a webasto heater, if you dont let it wind down on its own, itll build up soot on the basket inside and youll have to replace it. on a webasto, thats like $500 to replace
32 COATS OF HAND RUBBED LACQUER!!
Oooh, flow indicators. YEAH!
😂
Had a coffee through the noise laugh at these two comments too🤣
I have a similar heater in a workshop half the size of yours and around my Citroen SM restoration. I did away with ALL the plumbing and move the heater around the workshop where I need it. I have a 220v to 12v dc transformer cable tied to the case and plug it into a wall socket. The only fumes you get is on start up, when hot it’s fine. In a camper or truck cab you would most definitely need the plumbing and it would dangerous not to do so. You get 8kw from the heater plus another 8kw from the exhaust. Why waste it through your door. Try it I did and I am still here at 79 years old. Back to your film
It's air intake is supposed to be outside also.
What is a gradge?
Your mom
People just stop guessing, plug your shop dinensions into an online calculator and figure out how many BTU you need. These diesel heaters can push about 27k BTU on max, for my 20x24 insulated garage in Canada, doesn’t put out nearly enough heat as I need closer to 40k. So many what ifs and anecdotes when there’s a simple way to measure. These heaters aren’t magic, they’re designed to heat up the cab of a truck.
The weather is opposite to yours here in Queensland Australia with temperatures in the mid 30's C and high humidity and a lot of rain. Not to mention the cyclone (hurricane) that just hit further North to us, which didn't affect us much here.
Can I then assume that you have fitted a refrigerated air-conditioning unit in your garage?
@@georgebettiol8338 No, I just use a fan in my shop.
I've got an 1800sq ft shop (12ft ceilings) that's really well insulated. My heater (same as yours) will get the whole place warm. Not instantly, but...
I need to figure out a better exhaust routing. As someone else below said, get an old cast iron radiator and push the exhaust through that, THEN to the outside. Doubles its effective heat output.
What might work good is an old water to air radiator(a metal one like an old car or truck would have) with a fan blowing through it.
@@markmainse3387 - would for a short while. But then the acids in the exhaust would eat through the thin copper/brass walls of the radiator and you'd just end up pumping ever growing amounts of CO into your room. :(
@DrFiero agreed I mean trying to economise on the egt of a 8kw heater seems not worth while
@@markmainse3387 - it’s almost free heat, as the exhaust temp is SO high. And just getting spat outside otherwise. Also saves having to route an otherwise very hot exhaust pipe through a wall. Experiments have shown it drops it from about 200c down to about 30c.
@@DrFiero if it's proven to work then by all means. I could see it working for a bit as those old cast heaters are pretty robust or even better a steam one as it'd have a provision for condensation.
The problem with putting it outside is if the outside air is 20° you're not gonna get as much heat out of it as if you're inside in your air is 60°
Should have your air intake come from the outside instead of sucking up the air in shop and blowing out exhaust. I always take off the heater end cap to let more air flow too. On those "portable" units I found they have a different ecu than the older non "portable" parking heaters. The ecu's could be adjusted by fan speeds and pulse rates(pass number was 1866 on my heaters) ,I have mine set at 6.0 pulse rate .I am heating several small garages and my weight room /man cave .
The fumes may be the burning of thinner vapor being burned.
8 kw works out to around 27000 BTU For old school types
Very interesting machine
i just got one for my 850 sq ft garage it works great but im making a sand battery out of a old water heater and going to mount it to it with the sand battery i'll recover all of the waisted exhaust heat and it will keep my shop warm during the overnight so i wont have to run the heater 24 hrs a day
My buddy has one in his camper he speaks more highly than his first born. He loves his
The initial start up when they're new is Pretty nasty smell and a little bit of smoke from the exhaust pipe And whatever they coat them with to keep them shiny looking.
These look like a great option for people that only have 120v 15 or 20amp service to their garages kind of makes electric heat impossible to use and run anything else.
Pretty cool but definitely run the fresh air intake from outside as well and away from the exhaust.
Mine never would work off of a regular 12 volt battery I had to run a transformer until I got a high out put deep cycle battery
Looks like it sticks out a lot… I hope it doesn’t hook the header on the way up
Never checked that yet. Lol
It's interesting how these diesel heaters work. Decades ago, I stayed at a caravan park that had a diesel hot water heater.
Stating heating in kW instead of the traditional btu/hr is a bit confusing. Being able to buy cheap fuel at the corner gas station is a plus even if the smell has to be piped out of your space (either that or run it outside and pipe the clean heat into your space). I'm curious how much electric power it uses.
@19mitch54 there are alot of very detailed videos out there on all that information. I watched a bunch and alot of great info out there
The energy requirements that I could find aren’t very detailed and are kind of contradictory. While some sources say it needs to be hooked up to a 15-amp power source, 40 W is printed on the back of the unit. That’s quite a difference and it’s hard to believe it draws 40 W continuously, if ever. Most of the power goes to pumping a tiny amount of fuel and some goes for a short time to start the glow plug and later to run the glow plug in the shut-down cleaning cycle. My real question is, can my 7 AH LiFePO4 battery run this heater long enough to go through a full tank of diesel?
@19mitch54 put a charger on it and it work for long time. I run mine on a battery with no charger for half a tank for sure.
How the heater after 10 months of using it any more tips on the heater
We use to heat with kerosene, this yr. We cant get it here so we got one of the cheapest ones they got. It doesn't even have the remote just a pust button on an off. It will heat our house easy and here even if we could find it, diesel is over a dollar a gallon cheaper than kerosene.