Chinese Diesel Heater the best option?

[HarrisonMelecchi]

Hello!
I asked some tips for installing my small potbelly clark stove and many people here advised me not to do it for lots of reasons and so thank you for the help, because I decided to follow your advices.  Someone suggested me to install a chinese diesel heater instead, as my budget is small at the moment, so I wonder if this is a good option?  I have a fiberglass 26fh boat and I have two radiators connected to the engine, but I don't like the idea of having the engine running all the time and a GOOD stove is way above what I can afford right now.  Does anyone have any wonderful ideas, I am open to better ideas as well?  hehe thanks again
 

p.s: does anyone teach me how to delete previous posts ? I don't want to poluite it with similar questions about heating

[WotEver]

23 minutes ago, HarrisonMelecchi said:

does anyone teach me how to delete previous posts ? I don't want to poluite it with similar questions about heating

Best to leave it. That way, anybody reading it can learn why they shouldn’t fit a pot-bellied stove on their boat

[WotEver]

With regard to the Chinese heaters, they’re air heaters I believe, not water heaters, but that’s exactly what you’d want on a small cruiser. Note that they have a constant draw of around 1A, and something like 11A on startup. Do you have the charging capacity to keep your batteries topped up?  I don’t believe any of these heaters come with a marine silencer so that’s something you’d need to source, in addition to whatever piping you require.  Others may well chip in with more useful info

[Sea Dog]

I don't yet have 100% confidence in Chinese products, and cheap Chinese products tend to inspire me somewhat less, particularly in terms of safety and longevity. 

[MtB]

12 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I don't yet have 100% confidence in Chinese products, and cheap Chinese products tend to inspire me somewhat less, particularly in terms of safety and longevity. 

 

I bought and fitted one last year. One of the really cheap £150 ones. I completely dismantled the heater to inspect the quality when it arrived and it is really nicely and well made. The problem lies with the exhaust. No silencer or skin fitting, which add a pile of money to buy separately. The cheap silencers for cars have a condensate drain hole in them which leaks exhaust gas so not suitable for fitting in a boat. They are intended for fitting underneath the van floorpan, i.e. in the outside air.

 

The best type of heater for a small GRP is in my opinion, one of those Propex gas heaters. Prolly still too expensive for the OP though. I think they are £500-ish. 

[Jess--]

2 problems seem to crop up with the chinese heaters

 

1. sooting up and eventually failing to fire. caused by not enough air (restricted combustion intake), over fuelling (pump rate too high for fan speed) or slow running fan

 

2. overheating and shutting down. caused by restricted air intake for the heater (not burner) or by the fan fouling the outer case of the heater (mine needed some fine tuning of the mounts to stop it catching the case)

 

there does seem to be some variance between identical heaters which I suspect boils down to poor tolerances on the fuel dosing pumps with some pumps delivering more fuel per pulse than others.

Generally everything can be worked out as most of the (lcd screen) controllers give access to pump rate and fan speed settings allowing the settings to be tuned for the individual heater, the one I have here starts up with a wisp of white smoke for 5 seconds and then burns totally clean.

Like the webasto and eber heaters they do like to be run hard rather than ticking over

[HarrisonMelecchi]

Thanks for your help, guys!
Because you helped to decide and I bought one 2 days a go to give it a try. Let's see how it goes... I just need air heating, actually, because I already have a water gas boiler, so all good

! and luckly it is not expensive to test it.

[NewCanalBoy]

Out of interest - hows it going ? Or is it still going ?

[NewCanalBoy]

Just found this video of a guy who seems to know what hes talking about doing a review/test on one -