Webasto Diesel Heater: Is it worth the effort

[Idle Days]

Our Webasto heater is chucking out a lot of smoke, somewhat reminiscent of a WII destroyer laying down a smoke screen.The unit has been in use for less than a year and was serviced last December when it required a new fan unit and combustion chamber.

 

I beginning to wonder if it is worth bothering with and it's time to find something more reliable. At present it seems to be a money pit, and a bottomless on at that.

[cuthound]

Is it your only source of heating and how long do you run it for at a time?

 

Mine is 14 years old and still working reliably.

 

When I bought the boat the surveyor advised me never to let it run for longer than an hour, then leave it off for at least another hour before switching back on, to avoid the Webasto "short cycling" and running on half power. This prevents it from from coking up.

[Idle Days]

It seems that there is an internal water leak with the cooling water some how leaking into the exhaust system.

 

We run the heater of 3 hours first thing each morning to heat the boat and domestic water, then as required through the day, that's generally for a hour or so at a time.

 

A central heating system that can only be run for an hour is obviously deficient and of little use to me so it is time to investigate alternatives. 

[Bee]

A new fan and combustion chamber after such a short time and now another combustion problem means that the thing is really not happy. My experience of them is that once they are 'on' they are best left on. I would guess that 3 hours in the morning is fine. The trouble starts when you turn it off and then restart it several times a day. Running them on a high setting does not do damage, running them on a low setting (if you have one) buggers them up. Yours will need a sort out and if its affordable then it will be a useful stand by, if the cost is really daft then I would get rid of it. Personally I don't think they are suitable as a main source of heating, others will have different opinions but I would opt for a coal stove, not because I am some sort of hair shirt traditionalist but because it is reliable and effective. I have a sort of Taylors paraffin stove as we don't use the boat in Winter but if we did I would have a coal stove.

[RichM]

Webasto's are often well regarded compared to some well known alternatives. 

 

Aside from the fact they have a fair amount of moving parts, part of the issue is that they coke up which is exacerbated by improper use. I used to run mine for at least an hour on the max setting, similar to Bee.
 

My ~15 year old Eberspacher wasn't particularly reliable either and would stop working completely at least 2-3 times a year despite being regularly maintained. I eventually had it replaced with a new Eberspacher and it didn't let me down once. It was straight-forward to replace with a similar heater.

 

In any case it wouldn't keep the boat toasty during the depths of winter but for me it was more convenient than the alternatives (multi-fuel stove) so I used it more often than not. Personally the convenience aspect compensated for the lack of reliability but this wasn't a major issue. The multi-fuel stove was always good as a backup and for those very cold nights!

 

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

Over the years I have had various makes of diesel heaters, with Eberspachers being the most reliable, and webasto the least reliable.

 

On my current boat the Eber was fitted during build in 2003 and certainly has performed faultlessly since my purchase in 2015.

It has never been serviced, and my usage is - switch it on when we go on the boat, and switch it off when we leave the boat, be it 2 days or 4 months later. It runs on a thermostat, and some days may never 'kick-in' other days it can be on & off all day / night.

 

My experience of this 'alleged' carbonisation when using it on-off is its a fallacy.

[TheBiscuits]

42 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

My experience of this 'alleged' carbonisation when using it on-off is its a fallacy.

 

And it's still an airblower, so completely different internally to the wet systems being discussed here.

[Alan de Enfield]

9 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

And it's still an airblower, so completely different internally to the wet systems being discussed here.

 

I have always done the same - we have 'water heater versions' on all the NBs. The 'air blowers' have been on cruisers.

 

Despite having SF stoves, the primary heat source has been the 'water ebers'. Have had 3 (I think) water webbys and they have been a disaster.

[Idle Days]

16 hours ago, Bee said:

A new fan and combustion chamber after such a short time and now another combustion problem means that the thing is really not happy. My experience of them is that once they are 'on' they are best left on. I would guess that 3 hours in the morning is fine. The trouble starts when you turn it off and then restart it several times a day. Running them on a high setting does not do damage, running them on a low setting (if you have one) buggers them up. Yours will need a sort out and if its affordable then it will be a useful stand by, if the cost is really daft then I would get rid of it. Personally I don't think they are suitable as a main source of heating, others will have different opinions but I would opt for a coal stove, not because I am some sort of hair shirt traditionalist but because it is reliable and effective. I have a sort of Taylors paraffin stove as we don't use the boat in Winter but if we did I would have a coal stove.

We have a solid fuel stove to supplement the radiator heating as neither system is sufficient in winter. When I restart the Webasto during the day it is always run for about an hour or more.

[Idle Days]

14 hours ago, RichM said:

Webasto's are often well regarded compared to some well known alternatives. 

 

Aside from the fact they have a fair amount of moving parts, part of the issue is that they coke up which is exacerbated by improper use. I used to run mine for at least an hour on the max setting, similar to Bee.
 

My ~15 year old Eberspacher wasn't particularly reliable either and would stop working completely at least 2-3 times a year despite being regularly maintained. I eventually had it replaced with a new Eberspacher and it didn't let me down once. It was straight-forward to replace with a similar heater.

 

In any case it wouldn't keep the boat toasty during the depths of winter but for me it was more convenient than the alternatives (multi-fuel stove) so I used it more often than not. Personally the convenience aspect compensated for the lack of reliability but this wasn't a major issue. The multi-fuel stove was always good as a backup and for those very cold nights!

 

14 hours ago, RichM said:

I'm surprised at the reference to "improper use" form you and others. There is nothing in the meagre instructions supplied with the heater nor as far as I can find anything on the Webasto website to indicate that the heater should only be run for limited periods.

 

Has anyone seen such instructions?
 

 

[Idle Days]

12 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have always done the same - we have 'water heater versions' on all the NBs. The 'air blowers' have been on cruisers.

 

Despite having SF stoves, the primary heat source has been the 'water ebers'. Have had 3 (I think) water webbys and they have been a disaster.

 

Thank you to all who have replied.

 

I shall have our Webasto repaired once more in the possibly vain hope that it will last through the summer on light duties heating the domestic water.

[Mad Harold]

20 hours ago, Idle Days said:

Our Webasto heater is chucking out a lot of smoke, somewhat reminiscent of a WII destroyer laying down a smoke screen.The unit has been in use for less than a year and was serviced last December when it required a new fan unit and combustion chamber.

 

I beginning to wonder if it is worth bothering with and it's time to find something more reliable. At present it seems to be a money pit, and a bottomless on at that.

I had a cheapie (Chinese) diesel warm air heater in my little boat,cost about £100, plus another hundred or so for hull fittings, copper fuel tube,more suitable exhaust pipe and proper hose clips.Also moving the tank so that it could vent and drain outside.

It worked perfectly well for the two years I owned that boat,and I carried a couple of spares, (a heater plug, and a dosing pump) which were not needed.

I decided that if it needed anything more than a heater plug or fuel pump,then I would bin it and buy another,and as the plumbing and wiring were already in place,for £100 it would be an easy fix.

 

[Idle Days]

Sounds interesting although I need a water boiler. I wonder if anyone can provide a link to a Chinese version of the Webasto.

[Tom and Bex]

7 hours ago, Idle Days said:

Sounds interesting although I need a water boiler. I wonder if anyone can provide a link to a Chinese version of the Webasto.

If our eberspacher breaks again I'll probably get something like this Chinese diesel water heater 

 

This is not a specific recommendation, but expect to pay around £200-250 for something like this (and around £80 -100 for the air heater). We've had an £80 Chinese air heater for 3 years now and it's been faultless during that time. 

 

Obviously you have to disregard most of the supplied installation bits (exhaust silencer, fuel line, clips etc). 

 

I know some people are very wary buying from Aliexpress, but as long as you follow due diligence you should be OK. Check seller feedback, and if it looks too good to be true it probably is! I also use a credit card to pay for anything over £100.  Also be careful of postage locations - some items are cheaper when despatched from Russia😱

[Idle Days]

Just to complete this story.

The heater is now repaired and once again doing its job. The problem was leaky heat exchange allowing the circulated water to escape into the combustion chamber then into the exhaust. 

 

I remain unimpressed with this make of heater.

 

[cuthound]

57 minutes ago, Idle Days said:

Just to complete this story.

The heater is now repaired and once again doing its job. The problem was leaky heat exchange allowing the circulated water to escape into the combustion chamber then into the exhaust. 

 

I remain unimpressed with this make of heater.

 

 

Do you have newish antifreeze in your heating circuit?

 

If not, then the corrosion inhibitors will have been used up and electrolytic corrosion driven by the dissimilar metals in the heating circuit will occur, usually corroding the aluminium heat exchanger first.

 

 

[Idle Days]

Good point, however the system had been drained, flushed and new antifreeze installed following the failure and replacement of both the Webasto Fan unit and combustion chamber last December.

 

I don't think that there can be much of the original unit left other than the external tubes and wiring. 

[LadyG]

2 hours ago, Idle Days said:

Just to complete this story.

The heater is now repaired and once again doing its job. The problem was leaky heat exchange allowing the circulated water to escape into the combustion chamber then into the exhaust. 

 

I remain unimpressed with this make of heater.

 

I've got one, never touched it, it's on a thermostat, comes on if the stove goes out overnight, quite handy.

It used to be very wheezy noisy, but that stopped when I gave it a triple dose of a special Diesel additive, ran it for an hour or so, then topped up diesel tank to maintenance concentration. 

I run the thing at least once a month in summer for an hour. 

Edited March 16, 2022 by LadyG

[reg]

Bought a cheap and cheerful Chinese air heater, worked first time and every time.

Bought a supposedly newish 2nd hand Webasto thermo top c and havnt managed to get it started once. Swapped out cables, rerun and rerouted fuel lines  , checked all connections multiple times etc,etc. I am sure that eventually i will get it to run but a what cost, probably requires a new unit.

Overall has been a bad and expensive experience.

 

Just add I read and re-read multiple posts both here and elsewhere, just been a bad buy I guess I now have to decide whether to persist in trying to get it going. 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by reg

[Slim]

2 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Do you have newish antifreeze in your heating circuit?

 

If not, then the corrosion inhibitors will have been used up and electrolytic corrosion driven by the dissimilar metals in the heating circuit will occur, usually corroding the aluminium heat exchanger first.

 

 

Do Morris still sell an inhibitor to add to 'stale' anti freeze?

[cuthound]

2 minutes ago, Slim said:

Do Morris still sell an inhibitor to add to 'stale' anti freeze?

 

I don't think they do anymore. You could possibly try a central heating inhibitor like Fernox or Sentinal but I'm not sure if they are compatible with blue or red antifreeze.

[MtB]

2 hours ago, Slim said:

Do Morris still sell an inhibitor to add to 'stale' anti freeze?

 

They do. I bought some back end of last year and added it to one of my engines.

 

I've forgotten which one it was now! 🤔

[Rob-M]

2 hours ago, Slim said:

Do Morris still sell an inhibitor to add to 'stale' anti freeze?

There is Morris Ankorsol Corrosion Inhibitor (https://www.morrislubricantsonline.co.uk/ankorsol-anti-corrosion-fluid.html)

 

[Fender151]

I have have had my boat since 2015, it was a 2009 build, it has a Webasto Thermo Top C installed. 4 rads,  in the first year I serviced the unit which included replacing the basket, which wasn't a cheap at around £150, I m a leisure boater, but I do cruise in the winter.

The Webasto has never failed, and defo not as noisy as some alternatives.

When it's cold, and it has been over the last few days, I have the Webasto on from 4pm to around 9pm, and then 6am to 7:30am. 

Having hot water from Webasto at the start of the day makes happy days. 

I do use the multi-fuel fire  in the depths of winter, which seems to last till April,  which is my preferred heating option, the fire will stay in overnight keeps the whole boat proper toasty warm.

 

We will all have different experiences and opinions, I love mini's and British motor bikes, so maybe not the best person to offer advice!

 

 

[Jess--]

The biggest variable with these diesel heaters whether chinese, german, or russian is the dosing pump a tiny inaccuracy in the amount of fuel per pulse (even when it's still within spec) can result in over fueling (black smoke and sooting up) or under fueling (flame-out and white smoke / fuel vapour)

 

I ran a chinese heater hard for 9 months, doing everything people say not to do, lots of stops - starts lot's of running on low etc (in short everything the heater could do to hold a shed at a specific temperature) and it ran flawlessly until the dosing pump failed (estimated 5000 - 6000 hours use) a replacement pump was fitted (identical) and the heater sooted up and died within 2 hours.

after a clean out we found that with the new pump we had to dial back the fuel setting by almost 8% to get back to clean (almost too lean) burning, once done the replacement pump ran for over a year without having to touch anything.