What Do You Think of This Heater?

[forsailbyowner]

I can take the heat but winters around the corner and I detest cold. Im definately going the route of a heater this winter and came across this on Ebay. What do you think?

Planar 4DM 12 Diesel Air Heater Truck RV Boat Cabin 30 Days Sale Start Today | eBay

[Dennis.G]

Make sure that device is setup to have products of combustion vented to outdoors via a vent pipe. Product description mentions "exhaust pipe" so maybe it has such venting connection available.

[cal40john]

Do a google on planar heater review. The 2 I looked at said:

Cheap Russian knockoff of Webasto/Espar. Reliability unknown. Apparently parts hard to obtain.

[Vasco]

What's the draw on the batteries?

[barnakiel]

There are some very good Danish boat heaters. They are named REFLEX I think. G oogle them out and see if they are good for you.

You can read on Kaskelot blog about the installation etc.

b.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by forsailbyowner

I can take the heat but winters around the corner and I detest cold. Im definately going the route of a heater this winter and came across this on Ebay. What do you think?

Planar 4DM 12 Diesel Air Heater Truck RV Boat Cabin 30 Days Sale Start Today | eBay

I did a little research, seems they are Russian.

I dunno. For the extra I'd go with an Espar D4.

I have one in my 33' Brewer and it is fine.

We also have one in the 44' Pape and it really is limited to the saloon. But that's OK, we keep the v-berth closed off and have a kero unit in the aft cabin, if needed.

[forsailbyowner]

What's the draw on the batteries?

specs put it at 9 watts on low and 30 watts on high.


As for feedback on the heaters I just looked at his feedback and it seems all hes sold is 74 of these units and has a perfect 100% feedback rating; All I saw said High quality unit. After reading some feedback in other places ive read service is good and parts readilly available. I use duckduckgo.com for a search engine. Google never gives me pertinent results in comparison.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I did a little research, seems they are Russian.

I dunno. For the extra I'd go with an Espar D4.

I have one in my 33' Brewer and it is fine.

We also have one in the 44' Pape and it really is limited to the saloon. But that's OK, we keep the v-berth closed off and have a kero unit in the aft cabin, if needed.

I had an Espar D2 and it carbon'd up so much it needed frequent cleaning and was unreliable. Service was expensive and involved shipping with minimum 1-2 weeks of turn-around time. YMMV. If I were buying a boat heater I'd be inclined to chose another brand. These Russian units are 1/3 the price of an Espar. You could keep an entire spare unit aboard and still be ahead.

[jpemb7]

It's windy, raining and cold. Nothing else to do, so thought I'd reply to this thread and add my experience with a Planar heater on my boat.
I have had a Planar 4dm 12 installed on my Farrier Command 10 trimaran for 2 years now. It is just out of warranty.
As I type I am sitting on my boat in Port Esperance, Southern Tasmania, Australia. It is 10 degrees celsius outside with a 20-25 knot wind chill.
My planar 4DM 12 is operating on half power and pumping warm air through 2 ducts into the main cabin and one into the aft cabin.
It is 21 degrees C inside and I can't describe how comfortable it is compared to the squally mess outside.
I bought the unit off ebay and knew I was taking a chance with a relatively unknown product (but $600 ?).
The Planar operates the same as the Webasto or Espar, produces more heat but draws a bit more power. The advertised specs on fuel consumption and power draw are about right. It has a thermostat control option which I did not install because I didn't want it wasting power cycling on and off. I set the power to the level I want and can control heat to various areas of the boat by opening and closing vents.
For someone who had no experience with ducted diesel heaters I found the installation relatively straight forward but i got to say the translated Russian to English instruction manual caused some anxiety at times.
My unit came with a fuel tank (didn't use), fuel pump, exhaust hose, fuel hose. I had to spend another $200 on mounting bracket, ducting hose, mufflers, vent outlets.
I teed directly into my engine fuel line as it exits low on the fuel tank. This has worked fine.
Overall I am very positive about this heater but it hasn't been without issues.
I have had to replace the electronic control unit twice. Once after the first year and once again a month ago. These were covered under the warranty and a replacement was sent promptly, although it took a few weeks to arrive to Australia via snail mail. So, I am very happy with the support. The unit really is easy to open up and the ecu plugs straight in. The heater needs to be mounted where it can be accessed easily and removed for maintenance and servicing.
My boat is plywood so vibration is an issue. When I first fitted it it sounded like a jumbo jet taking off. I installed a muffler on the exhaust but what really quietened it down was a muffler on the air intake. All I hear now is a slight buzz in the main cabin which I think i could eliminate with some insulation on the cockpit locker bulkhead where it is mounted. In the aft cabin where we sleep, we hear nothing but a slight reassuring hiss from the air vent. We have installed 2 carbon monoxide monitors in main and aft cabin for safety.
The flashing control panel is a little complicated but we quickly got used to operating it.
From my perspective, I like that there is a company with a reliable, affordable product taking on the established operators. My experience with them has been very positive so far and i wish them well.
My unit is now out of warranty but I would be very surprised if i didn't continue to get support at a reasonable cost.
In terms of servicing and maintenance in the long term there is no one in Australia to send it to for repair.
But as SailFastTri has said " These Russian units are 1/3 the price of an Espar. You could keep an entire spare unit aboard and still be ahead."
So if i get to the stage where it is not cost effective to service or maintain the heater myself, I'll just buy another one.

[Petar]

I'd second 'jpemb7' comments and experience. I am owning it for two months only so i do not have any breakdown experience and we have local representative here in Vancouver, Canada so am sure parts and service will be available.
I just bought and installed 8DM 12 Planar heater (the biggest one) costing $1000. I placed it inside the engine room on my Hatteras 37 Convertible. Only noise i have is the ticking from the fuel dosing pump which i believe is because i fastened it onto a piece of plywood that is glassed into the side of the hull transmitting the ticking across the boat. I will be adding some rubber backing and will wrap it up with some 'duct seal' $3 per LB in Home Depot.

My 37 convertible (entire boat served with three 4 inch vents) heats up from 8C to 21C in 45 minutes and after that is simply maintaining the set temperature. It needs wiring straight to the battery so an inadvertent flipping of the breaker does not interrupt the cool down and purging sequence when shutting it down as it may cause the error code and needing the reset.

The price is right, the technology is Russian (they were first in space) . Guess they know a bit about cold and heating up.

[Badsanta]

Any updates or comments on this?

[CaptTom]

I have no complaints with my Planar. I'd agree with the sentiment that for "a few more bucks" I'd buy a name brand. But when I looked, the name brands were close to three times as much. I could have bought two Planars, kept one for parts, and still come out ahead. That's not "a few bucks" in my book.

Oh, and they're made in Russia. One thing Russians know a thing or two about...is cold. Well, they're pretty good at making vodka, too