Eberspacher HS3 D4E with EasyStart Pro

[Nightwatch]

At the beginning of March I had a new Eberspacher water heater installed. Worked fine until the day before yesterday.

I have reset the EasyStart control, I have pulled the fuses for a period of time. I have checked the filters, as it was saying a fuel fault, diesel free running.It no longer say fuel issue, but it no longer tries to flash up when switched to do so.

It was mentioned above that a service unit (bloke) may have to reset it. The display also shows H1 (heater one) and a spanner and the word Service. Only had the blooming thing six weeks.

If anyone can guide me please do. I’m really annoyed and frustrated. The fitter of the unit was ‘just down the road’ when we were near Banbury but he’s not now, now that we are near Wolverhampton

[Alan de Enfield]

Duplicate thread.

[Nightwatch]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Duplicate thread.

Not really. The other thread is one from 2006?

[Nightwatch]

Rebooting this thread.

As the weather has turned chilly with more to come, we have looked at flashing up the heater again. And again it doesn’t want to play.

 

All the usual been checked, voltage in batteries. (New in April). On shore power. Fuel supply okay . Air vents clear. Easy Start Pro control panel cleared of defects. Tried with engine running.

 

Once turned on, it tries to start. You hear a slight whizzing from the pump. Usually water in the header tank gurgles but not at present. Then you get white smoke out of the exhaust. Not under any pressure. I guess unspent diesel. It has been suggested that the glow rod might be bunged up. Unit was new in March this year. Is this likely. After a minute, maybe longer the unit sends out a thud, for want of a better description, and shuts down.

 

Any ideas. Planning on chatting to someone in Preston on Thursday, But I’m impatient.

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Nightwatch

[Tonka]

15 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Rebooting this thread.

As the weather has turned chilly with more to come, we have looked at flashing up the heater again. And again it doesn’t want to play.

 

All the usual been checked, voltage in batteries. (New in April). On shore power. Fuel supply okay . Air vents clear. Easy Start Pro control panel cleared of defects. Tried with engine running.

 

Once turned on, it tries to start. You hear a slight whizzing from the pump. Usually water in the header tank gurgles but not at present. Then you get white smoke out of the exhaust. Not under any pressure. I guess unspent diesel. It has been suggested that the glow rod might be bunged up. Unit was new in March this year. Is this likely. After a minute, maybe longer the unit sends out a thud, for want of a better description, and shuts down.

 

Any ideas. Planning on chatting to someone in Preston on Thursday, But I’m impatient.

 

Thanks in advance.

I thought that Eberspacher fuel pumps ticked. Are you not hearing do a slow tick,tick

[Mike Tee]

He's not that far away - he should damn well come out and sort it - if the warranty has expired after 9 months I'm rethinking my next upgrade on our boat!

[Nightwatch]

The unit was fitted in Banbury.

[Mike Tee]

Yes, but it must be under some form of warranty as you said it was new - unless you purchased it and got a third party to fit it for cash. I understand to supply and fit these heaters is well north of £2000 so not an insignificant amount. And Banbury to Wolverhampton is only 70 miles or so. But if you've decided to get it fixed yourself, as your initial post suggests, I apologize for raising the warranty point - its just that I'm in the midst of getting a quote to fit an Eber and the amounts involved are a bit scary.

[Nightwatch]

This is all above board. The unit is new. Third party install.

 

Still in warranty. The unit is on the Rufford Arm of the L&L. My initial post was in May when I was near Wolverhampton.

 

With regards to choice of which diesel heater you decide to have. That is up to you of course.

[Tonka]

28 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

This is all above board. The unit is new. Third party install.

 

Still in warranty. The unit is on the Rufford Arm of the L&L. My initial post was in May when I was near Wolverhampton.

 

With regards to choice of which diesel heater you decide to have. That is up to you of course.

Can we clarify as to what noise the fuel pump makes on trying to start

[matty40s]

43 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

This is all above board. The unit is new. Third party install.

 

Still in warranty. The unit is on the Rufford Arm of the L&L. My initial post was in May when I was near Wolverhampton.

 

With regards to choice of which diesel heater you decide to have. That is up to you of course.

You dont have to think it will take 3 weeks for the engineer to travel before he gets to you, most engineers have vans that could do it in 2 hours.

I cant believe you waited until now to get the problem sorted.

[Nightwatch]

47 minutes ago, matty40s said:

You dont have to think it will take 3 weeks for the engineer to travel before he gets to you, most engineers have vans that could do it in 2 hours.

I cant believe you waited until now to get the problem sorted.

Nor should you believe that. The unit started to work when we on our way northwards. It just started to work after I drained the system and the rads a couple of times. Of course topping them up again. Attempted to start the unit a few times without success. Then one morning it flashed up. During the summer we only used it a few times. Then it stopped working again. Drain it all down again, fiddled about a bit, topped up again and it doesn’t work.

The fuel pump makes very little noise. Yes, it does tick.  When operational it sounds a bit like a mini jet engine.

Its obviously getting fuel. White smoke. It is not igniting. White smoke. The white smoke is plentiful. But not exactly under pressure.i

[Nightwatch]

Matty40’s, did you mean to type 3 weeks?

[Jon57]

9 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

Matty40’s, did you mean to type 3 weeks?

Probably  by boat.😬

[Sea Dog]

This may be no help at all to you NW, but a mate of mine had similar sounding issues. Had the unit refurbished, worked for a bit, then it kept  letting him down again in a cloud of white smoke. He eventually found it was failing only when port side to and reckoned it was the exhaust being too close to the wall or  Armco. He now puts a bigger fender aft to increase the clearance and says he has had no trouble since. Only relaying someone else's odd sounding solution in case there's any read across to you...

[Nightwatch]

5 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

This may be no help at all to you NW, but a mate of mine had similar sounding issues. Had the unit refurbished, worked for a bit, then it kept  letting him down again in a cloud of white smoke. He eventually found it was failing only when port side to and reckoned it was the exhaust being too close to the wall or  Armco. He now puts a bigger fender aft to increase the clearance and says he has had no trouble since. Only relaying someone else's odd sounding solution in case there's any read across to you...

Interesting. I will certainly give that a try tomorrow.

I’m talking to a local Eberspacher dealer tomorrow.

[MtB]

23 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

Nor should you believe that. The unit started to work when we on our way northwards. It just started to work after I drained the system and the rads a couple of times. Of course topping them up again. Attempted to start the unit a few times without success. Then one morning it flashed up. During the summer we only used it a few times. Then it stopped working again. Drain it all down again, fiddled about a bit, topped up again and it doesn’t work.

The fuel pump makes very little noise. Yes, it does tick.  When operational it sounds a bit like a mini jet engine.

Its obviously getting fuel. White smoke. It is not igniting. White smoke. The white smoke is plentiful. But not exactly under pressure.i

 

This sounds awfully like water in the fuel, as per the near identical failure of my own Chinese diesel heater I documented in the other thread.

 

Being only £100 I just bought a whole new heater and bugger me, clouds of white 'smoke' from the brand new one too, just the same as the old one was doing. And yours too. 

 

Have a sniff of the white 'smoke'. Does it stink of diesel or does it smell of steam? 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by MtB
Add a bit.

[Nightwatch]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

This sounds awfully like water in the fuel, as per the near identical failure of my own Chinese diesel heater I documented in the other thread.

 

Being only £100 I just bought a whole new heater and bugger me, clouds of white 'smoke' from the brand new one too, just the same as the old one was doing. And yours too. 

 

Have a sniff of the white 'smoke'. Does it stink of diesel or does it smell of steam? 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhaust sniffs of diesel. It’s Definitely not firing up. You can hear it trying. Hopefully when I speak to a local agent tomorrow I may get answers, and more importantly get it fired up.  Thanks for your comment and suggestion. 

[MtB]

21 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Exhaust sniffs of diesel. It’s Definitely not firing up. You can hear it trying. Hopefully when I speak to a local agent tomorrow I may get answers, and more importantly get it fired up.  Thanks for your comment and suggestion. 

 

^^^ This bit particularly points at water in the fuel. ^^^

 

If anyone ever gets one running on water, they'll get very rich very quick! 

 

[Mike Tee]

8 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

If anyone ever gets one running on water, they'll get very rich very quick! 

 

That might make it a bit dangerous living on a boat

[Mad Harold]

16 hours ago, MtB said:

 

This sounds awfully like water in the fuel, as per the near identical failure of my own Chinese diesel heater I documented in the other thread.

 

Being only £100 I just bought a whole new heater and bugger me, clouds of white 'smoke' from the brand new one too, just the same as the old one was doing. And yours too. 

 

Have a sniff of the white 'smoke'. Does it stink of diesel or does it smell of steam? 

 

 

 

 

 

It may also be water in the exhaust as happened to me.

[Nightwatch]

Just a little update. I took the unit out and it’s now being assessed at a dealers in Preston.

 

Cold innit?

[Sea Dog]

2 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Cold innit?

What you need is an Eberspacher... 

[Nightwatch]

5 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

What you need is an Eberspacher... 

That works. I agree.

[Sea Dog]

Just now, Nightwatch said:

That works. I agree.

Fingers crossed you'll soon have one.

My oppo's too good to be true idea with the fender didn't work then?