Thinking to buy a Chinese forced air diesel heater

[Oeanda]

Thanks again for all the great info and I’ll definitely keep the cautions in mind. I ordered a heater a few days ago. In the end just threw a dart at the 5kw selections which kind of all looked more or less the same to me, and bought this one below. It comes with all sort of extraneous stuff which I’m guessing is pretty low quality. But since I have all the Webasto stuff in place already I think I can probably use most of the old stuff without much fuss. The existing Webasto exhaust looked good at a glance but I’ll check over everything thoroughly.

Considering the price and generally favourable reviews I feel ok with the cosmic balance of the thing. Seems like overall it would make a bigger ripple in the space time continuum for me to have to scurry around scratching up $4000 for an Espar.

I’ll update when I get the thing installed. Cheers.

[Cpt Mark]

Originally Posted by Shaneesprit

Well I bought one and it didn’t work, it was without the LCD.
Anyway figured out the fan didn’t start - i don’t have the time so I sold it on ebay with the fault listed.
Bought a 2nd one with LCD so I could see the faults at least. Got it all working ran it for 15 mins, maybe a few months later ran it again, didn’t smell right, Carbon Monoxide I guess although my alarm never went off.
And Yes i crimped the exhaust muffler drain
These mufflers cannot be used indoors (in boat) unless you crimp the drain.
Anyway tried to start it and it didn’t work.

For me it’s not easily accessible and I am pretty pissed with it,

Don't be pissed. figure out whats wrong. These things are stupid easy. Youtube "John Mck diesel heaters". Like any diesel fuel is an issue. You HAVE to use the plastic fuel hose they provide. Next concern is sooting. This can happen really fast if you don't burn it out regularly. I run my heater every day now and run of highest setting , 6.2 pulses for 15-20 minutes and so farm that issue is gone. Next biggest thing is the crappy quality of their fuel pumps. I'm probably going to drop $120 USD on a planar brand pump. Russians have better quality control it seems.

The fuel pump must be slightly angled upwards for it to work. level, pointed down or too far up forget it. It's little things that make problems is my experience. if you want to learn what your lcd can do, you tube ukpreppers guide, chinese diesel heater. He has the best vids on this

[admiral 31]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Well, my mind has been changed.

Over a decade ago I had an awful experience with a piece of small engine Chinese equipment I bought. I have had several bad experiences with Chinese junk over the years.

This time I bought Chinese small engine equipment and it is absolutely flawless! I can’t believe how well it runs.

I think the times are now changing.

I can go even further back than this, I remember as a child in the 1950s cheap sh*tty plastic moulded toys with a made in China imprint on them,



however a couple of months ago when I last went to my official VW dealer for some oil filters they were stamped with the same 'Made in china' text I think if they are good enough for VW quality control to fit & promote then they are good enough for me!



not that I am trying to say that all chineese products are created equal or to make any political comment over this

[pau-hana]

Good luck and watch the install vids on Youtube. That controller has an extensive menu so make sure its set for your voltage 12/24V I thought my first one was defective but it was just set on 24v instead of 12v. Also there is lots of info on tweaking the fuel air ratios and its really pretty easy.

[admiral 31]

After seeing all the information on here & also on you tube, I am going to buy this heater https://www.ebay.nl/itm/113838828272? &see what happens after it is fitted hope fully it will work well

[tkalfaoglu]

I don't own one but I saw many good things about them -- the only thing they said, was that the exhaust metal was not as strong as it could be.

[goboatingnow]

Could we contain the anti China jingoism into some far away thread. This is about diesel heaters.

[Pegu Club]

From reading replies in this thread, and doing some of my own research, it appears that the Planar Diesel heater offers a better level of quality to include the installation parts, customer service and parts availability than the Chinese made units, (which apparently were never intended to be installed in a boat). Planar does this at a much lower price than either Espar or Webasto, to me, they as well present themselves far more forth right than what appears to be fly by night Chinese manufacturers, that have no web presence or customer service to speak of. Planar appears to be a real company that attends trade shows and has a dealer network, I am currently leaning in their direction for my own upcoming purchase for the heating option on our Bristol. Any insight from Planar users would be much appreciated. Thanks to all that have responded in this thread.

Fair winds

[Windpilot]

If you have the money, why not buy the Planer. I'm pretty handy with things, so for a total of $300, with all the correct muffler, exhaust, through hull skin fitting and the unit, I've been heating for a couple of years now.
Getting all the parts for exactly your installation (very seldom so) and having someone to call for a relatively simple part was not worth the extra $1,000 to me. The safety of any heater is dependent on the installer.
.

[Shaneesprit]

Originally Posted by Pegu Club

From reading replies in this thread, and doing some of my own research, it appears that the Planar Diesel heater offers a better level of quality to include the installation parts, customer service and parts availability than the Chinese made units, (which apparently were never intended to be installed in a boat). Planar does this at a much lower price than either Espar or Webasto, to me, they as well present themselves far more forth right than what appears to be fly by night Chinese manufacturers, that have no web presence or customer service to speak of. Planar appears to be a real company that attends trade shows and has a dealer network, I am currently leaning in their direction for my own upcoming purchase for the heating option on our Bristol. Any insight from Planar users would be much appreciated. Thanks to all that have responded in this thread.

Fair winds

Going to be Horst and say that I have never used Chinese customer service on a heater but I have had to on other products, and although difficult to find and terrible manuals that don’t have the information needed, but was once on the phone using WhatsApp to China and couldn’t fault the service received, although I did warn the client that 40 man hours lost but hey the item was cheaper to start with - 😂

[hpeer]

Thanks

[hpeer]

Reading elsewhere I got the principal issue is a difference in exhaust hose diameters, but there are adaptors.

Can anyone verify that?

[mako]

Originally Posted by Shaneesprit

Going to be Horst and say that I have never used Chinese customer service on a heater but I have had to on other products, and although difficult to find and terrible manuals that don’t have the information needed, but was once on the phone using WhatsApp to China and couldn’t fault the service received, although I did warn the client that 40 man hours lost but

I recently purchased from ONWA in Hong Kong and their communications were really good, although the 12 hour time zone difference slowed things down. Yes, the manual is okay but not great, but it was a very good experience overall and I saved hundreds of dollars versus buying from the Canadian distributor.

[Atcowboy]

I've noticed at least one response in here suggesting to size a heater small (ex use the 2kw unit) so you will have to run it hot. I am wondering if many of these responses which I saw frequently in my own research are regurgitations based on readings vs. personal experience. Also to preface, I have read a LOT of woes of people with coked up finicky space heaters, also.

I have a 5kw space heater with a short exhaust run, with combined bend degrees conforming to installation recommendations. I also have it heavily insulated to keep that exhaust heat from damaging things, but that should also keep the exhaust gases hot and high-energy/high-speed. I designed a fuel system as recommended with hard plastic and rubber joinings, filtered, and separate from my engines' system. Inlet combustion air is from within the boat but through a gross particle screen and is a short run. Heated air is ducted through quality full-bore smooth-bore silicon tubing for heat resistance and long life.

During shoulder seasons the normal life of the heater is best described as being shut off when I go to sleep at a moderate setting (1.4 -3hz). This is then turned on from my bed when I wake up in the morning, or if the cold eventually wakes me. So it may run on this setting for a good portion of the night if it's a cold night.

After the cabin is warm and I've performed my morning rituals, I shut it down for the day's sail, usually. I designed the system to function under sail, so if it's nasty I may keep the cabin warm and maybe even the companionway open to help stay warm.

Assuming I've performed my sail without any heat, when I've anchored I turn the heater back on. In this case since the boat is cold from the day I'll probably turn the system up up 4hz or more and slowly back it off as the furniture heat soaks. Eventually allowing me to turn it off.

My system has been running fine under this regimen, so I offer this anecdotal evidence only to show that in one instance it's been possible to use a "big" heater on a little boat and not run it full blast.

I thought it worth taking the time to tell the community, because the difference between 4 and 5.4hz is pretty substantial. If you need to worry about things near your exhaust runs possibly contacting the exhaust, heat shielding is very difficult. At a full bore run the binder chemicals on my insulation are still off gassing and smell. The heated air is VERY hot. Touching the ducting near the heater can cause a burn in a couple seconds and some materials may be damaged by this heat alone. The sound of the air exiting from the duct is an unpleasant roar, and you can't have skin in front of it for more than a few seconds before it becomes very very uncomfortable.

When I first started using the heater I tried to run it at full blast for short periods to conserve fuel/electricity (remember start up and shut down both require glow plug use so it's questionable if short uses help electrical conservation) and I found that the air in the boat would warm quickly, but the furniture would stay cold and the damp would remain. Ramping up the heat to make the air comfortable and then choosing a maintenance frequency and leaving the heat running for an hour or more does a much better job at drying out the interior and allowing the furniture to absorb some of the heat.

So, I don't worry about letting it slow burn at all. Last night was cold and windy so the furnace was on 1.8hz for 14 hours. I shut it off for an hour or so and the boat got too cool for my liking, and it's back on this low setting and I'll let it run like that all day if that's what I need.

- AT

[Oeanda]

I got the heater yesterday. Won’t be able to install it till next week, but wanted to post a couple thoughts.

The no-name black unit from eBay is actually labelled as a Vevor, FWIW

I won’t be using all of the parts it comes with, but overall they don’t look quite as cheap and disposable as I’d feared. The nuts and bolts and clamps are not stainless so obviously won’t be used. The exhaust pipe is a short little thing meant for use in a car/truck and I’d definitely have to buy a different one, if I didn’t already have the one from the Webasto in place.

The manual isn’t completely incomprehensible, though if the Internet hadn’t been invented yet I’m sure I’d be cursing. The main highlight is on the very first line of the first page where it says ‘Add gasoline’!! (* hint- Don’t add gasoline ) The words gasoline, diesel, and oil are used interchangeably in the manual.
Geez I hope no one actually follows those instructions... ouch.
The back page of the manual lists the company website, customer support email and phone numbers. So it appears there is some form of customer service.

I watched a bunch of install videos before discovering this gentleman, who has a series of videos educating you on anything you could ever want to know about these heaters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvwmU_CcmGI

Very good. All the points raised in this thread and many more are covered in great detail, minus probably the politics, though I haven’t watched all the videos yet