Eberspächer heating. Do you leave yours on through the night?

[davefromoregon]

Sorry if this is a tangent, but do other people have Esperbachers that take forever to turn on? The clicking starts pretty quickly, but actual hot air takes forever.


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[AFKASAP]

Mine provides heat in no more than 5 mins. I did read about a delay with heating in a troubleshooting article somewhere on the net.

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[Ufoysterman]

Pretty well the most anti-social device on a sailing boat. Do you consider your neighbors from the noise when you're in a quiet anchorage? Do you consider the effect of fumes if you use it in a marina?

Thanks to an inconsiderate big boater who in early evening took himself and his loud-mouthed tarty family ashore for a meal and left a TWIN diesel heater installation running while next to us on a pontoon, we were nearly asphyxiated in our cabin. We had to evacuate the saloon and stay in the cockpit until they returned at midnight on a fairly cool, damp summer night. Scant apology received, and they were very reluctant to turn the things off.

Take note that over the past few years, there have been several deaths in the UK linked to asphyxiation from diesel cabin heaters both due to fumes inside the boat because of installation faults, and from external exhausts.

Why use one of these bits of lorry kit in a marina when you could hook up to shore power and run cheaper, safer oil-filled rads (1k portables cost around €30).

[AFKASAP]

I think you must be referring to much larger installations than we have. There is very little noise from our unit. I know as it is mounted on the other side of the bulkhead I sleep next to. I would say I agree the exhaust could possibly be smelt by people in certain wind conditions. But we have not been near other boats when using it. I would rate slapping halliards and wind generators far more antisocial from a noise point of view.

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[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by davefromoregon

Sorry if this is a tangent, but do other people have Esperbachers that take forever to turn on? The clicking starts pretty quickly, but actual hot air takes forever.


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Mine always takes two goes at starting.... turn on...click click click....whir... pop-pop-pop...belch...phart...stop.

Switch off and then on again and away she goes.

Blows a bit of smoke most days at start up despite open heart surgery a few years ago and running kero through it every now and again.

I don't think I would be running mine if I had neighbours.

[hpeer]

Units like the D4 are installed in over the road trucks to they don't have to run the motor over night while sleeping. Yes to CO monitor.

We ran ours hard last 2 winters, stayed aboard many nights in the low teens and down to 1F. Replaced the glow plug in the spring. That's on a 44 CC.

number 1 rule is don't argue below 40F, and snuggle.

No problem with noise or fumes.

[deblen]

I think you will find the click sound is the heater's lo pressure fuel feed pump.
If it is externally mounted you may be able to soundproof the pump somewhat.

My old 1984 Mascot 28 (Denmark) came with an Ardic 04D heater. Similar to Espar/Eberspacher,Webasto.
The ext. fuel pump clicks.
The exhaust goes out the side of boat & smells a bit depending on wind direction. I would not dare run it next to another boat-it would be equiv. to idling the main eng. & suffocating the neighbors.
But then again,I'm a nice guy.
/ Len

[deblen]

Not to hi-jack this thread-but if any of you have an Ardic 04D,could you message me. Mine doesn't seem to keep it's fuel prime or wasn't designed to lift fuel 3ft or so. Tks / Len

[Sandero]

The clicking is the fuel metering pump... it can be insulated and it's not very noisy... but if there is no clicking... there is no fuel and no combustion and no heating.

The airtronic4 when it reaches design temp goes into a very quiet mode and maintains the room temp. Of course you need a well insulated boat and not super cold conditions... and sized properly for the interior volume.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by Sandero

The clicking is the fuel metering pump... it can be insulated and it's not very noisy... but if there is no clicking... there is no fuel and no combustion and no heating.

The airtronic4 when it reaches design temp goes into a very quiet mode and maintains the room temp. Of course you need a well insulated boat and not super cold conditions... and sized properly for the interior volume.

This is correct. If the clicking annoys you, you can wrap some sound insulation around it and it will barely be noticable

[El Pinguino]

If wintering alongside with shore power available I would be using a $20 electric fan heater.

[akkebeng]

CO (carbon monoxide) is actually a fraction lighter than air but not as much to prevent it from rapidly mixing with the air. Warm exhausts even more so. Unburned fuel and particles in the exhaust fumes are heavier than air so the odors may under windless conditions be more noticeable lower down. (CO is completely odorless, which together with it's high toxicity makes it so dangerous.)

If you are at anchor, it virtually takes a leak in the exhaust piping to get any exhausts into the cabin. At a pier, conditions are more cramped though but probably your neighbour stands a greater risk to be asphyxiated from your exhausts, aside from having to put up with the noise from the burner and fan. With correctly mounted mufflers, both on combustion air intake and exhaust pipe and a reasonably contemporary unit it is more or less inaudible outside the boat. On our Airtronic D3 even the sound inside the cabin dies down to a very tolerable level once the thermostat makes the unit go into low gear.


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[Cowboy Sailer]

Carbon monoxide is not heavier than air. It is slightly lighter than air. It diffuses very well in air.


I see that two of us posted almost at the same time.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Ufoysterman

Pretty well the most anti-social device on a sailing boat. Do you consider your neighbors from the noise when you're in a quiet anchorage? Do you consider the effect of fumes if you use it in a marina?

Thanks to an inconsiderate big boater who in early evening took himself and his loud-mouthed tarty family ashore for a meal and left a TWIN diesel heater installation running while next to us on a pontoon, we were nearly asphyxiated in our cabin. We had to evacuate the saloon and stay in the cockpit until they returned at midnight on a fairly cool, damp summer night. Scant apology received, and they were very reluctant to turn the things off.

Take note that over the past few years, there have been several deaths in the UK linked to asphyxiation from diesel cabin heaters both due to fumes inside the boat because of installation faults, and from external exhausts.

Why use one of these bits of lorry kit in a marina when you could hook up to shore power and run cheaper, safer oil-filled rads (1k portables cost around €30).

In six years of cruising on my present boat, I've never had a single complaint about my generator, which is inaudible and unsmellable from outside.

But I did get a complaint once about my Eberspacher. I immediately shut it off.

It is indeed fairly noisy from outside (not from inside). I have just bought a muffler for it; we shall see how much it helps.

In marinas, I always use electric heat. Except in France. Where the carpy 6 amp shore power (usually with a defective ground or reverse polarity) will not support an electric heater. The aforementioned incident occurred in France, in North Brittany.

Ironic since France has the best and one of the cheapest electrical power grids in the world, and electric heat is common in French homes.

[akkebeng]

The older units could sound like a jet engine, mainly outside the boat. A friend of mine told about a poor ignorant that received a standing ovation from a whole anchorage when he shut his Eberspächer down for the night.


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