Chinese diesel heater woes.

[rusty69]

Just now, Mad Harold said:

Have you installed this heater the same as the last one you had trouble with?

Try running with the combustion air pipe removed, (the corrugated one next to the exhaust pipe)

If it has the plastic silencer on the end this may be restricting the amount of combustion air, and could account for it running at a low setting, but not a high one.

Also check the heat exchanger air inlet and outlet for any restriction.

If none of the suggestions you have received work, then you may have a "rogue" one, so you have my sympathy.

Its one of these all in one heaters, as was the last one, so the only installation is the exhaust. It currently has the air intake pipe removed.

[Mad Harold]

3 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Well, i'm not certain, but think its the pump frequency (pulse) setting, as opposed to the temperature setting. Whether they equate to the same thing is anyones guess.

Your'e jogging my memory a bit and if I remember correctly, the heat output is controlled by the pump frequency.

Pushing the bottom button on the panel increases the pump speed and the fan speeds up accordingly to match the pump speed.

I don't remember ever finding the temperature setting on mine.

I used to run mine at a fairly low frequency with the pump thudding (it was mounted on a wood bulkhead) at roughly a British Army slow march speed. (Think march Scipio or March To The Scaffold by Berlioz)

The handbook I found confusing and contradictory, but as the heater is  Chinese copy of a Russian copy of a Eberspacher or Webasto, the handbook was probably translated from German to Russian to Chinese to English.

Mine worked perfectly well as I set it up by trial and error, and I must have accidently got it right.

Best of luck with yours,hope you get it sorted.

[MtB]

6 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Well, i'm not certain, but think its the pump frequency (pulse) setting, as opposed to the temperature setting. Whether they equate to the same thing is anyones guess.

 

Oh you mean 'Hz" not "hz". 

 

Totals different things, thems.

[Quattrodave]

11 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Here is the information from the pump body.

 

The 5kw heater uses the 0.0022ml pump so I'd guess you have the correct pump.

 

Are you taking fuel from your main diesel tank? How long is the pipe from the tank to the pump? Do you have an adequately sized fuel filter?

[Tracy D'arth]

The heaters in a case with the fuel tank have horrible plastic pipes inside that kink............................

[Jen-in-Wellies]

11 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

the handbook was probably translated from German to Russian to Chinese to English.

And translated by a person unfamiliar with any of those languages! 😀

[rusty69]

9 hours ago, Quattrodave said:

 

The 5kw heater uses the 0.0022ml pump so I'd guess you have the correct pump.

 

Are you taking fuel from your main diesel tank? How long is the pipe from the tank to the pump? Do you have an adequately sized fuel filter?

Thanks. 

 

No, the fuel comes from a separate tank. The pipe is currently about 30cm long, and the filter has been removed.

Edited December 13, 2022 by rusty69

[MtB]

20 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Thanks. 

 

No, the fuel comes from a separate tank. The pipe is currently about 30cm long, and the filter has been removed.

 

A separate day tank? Is this the polythene tank they supply with the heater or an existing steel tank shared with the enjun? 

 

 

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

A separate day tank? Is this the polythene tank they supply with the heater or an existing steel tank shared with the enjun? 

 

 

It's the tank supplied with the heater. It's an all in one unit that includes the heater, tank and controller. 

[MtB]

4 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

It's the tank supplied with the heater. It's an all in one unit that includes the heater, tank and controller. 

 

Ah the 8kW one. I didn't realise that! 

 

 

[rusty69]

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Ah the 8kW one. I didn't realise that! 

 

 

Nope. I think it's 5KW.That's what I purchased anyway. 

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by rusty69

[MtB]

Even more curious. All those in cases when I was looking a few weeks ago were rated at 8kW. 

 

I might possibly have even bought one out of sheer curiosity, ever so slightly....

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by MtB
spelling

[Tacet]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

Even more curious. All those in cases when I was looking a few weeks ago were rated at 8kW

They are whatever power you want them to be.  I have a 9kW version in my workshop.  Remarkably good value but it is about as effective as a 2kW electric fan heater.

[rusty69]

6 minutes ago, Tacet said:

They are whatever power you want them to be.  I have a 9kW version in my workshop.  Remarkably good value but it is about as effective as a 2kW electric fan heater.

Right now, I'd settle for the 1KW.

 

[Sea Dog]

9 minutes ago, Tacet said:

They are whatever power you want them to be.  I have a 9kW version in my workshop.  Remarkably good value but it is about as effective as a 2kW electric fan heater.

So it's really only 2/9ths of remarkably good value? 

[rusty69]

14 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

So it's really only 2/9ths of remarkably good value? 

Mine is only 2/5 of remakeable. That's probably why it don't wok.

[Tracy D'arth]

14 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

So it's really only 2/9ths of remarkably good value? 

But you misunderstand, these are Chinese kilowatts. not the same as everyone else's. Ah-so. Hot Chinese air goes sideways not up, its the MSG.

[Sea Dog]

4 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

That's probably why it don't wok.

I see what you did there...! 

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I see what you did there...! 

I was gonna use my "gone wong" pun, but I've already used it twice this week, and no one laughed. 

[MtB]

33 minutes ago, Tacet said:

They are whatever power you want them to be.  I have a 9kW version in my workshop.  Remarkably good value but it is about as effective as a 2kW electric fan heater.

 

I reckon the 5kW ones I have chuck out the full 5kW badge rating when running at full chat. They certainly chuck out more heat than a 3kW main fan heater.

 

I don't know enough about them yet to persuade them to deliver more than the rating marked on the data label.

 

 

[Jess--]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

I reckon the 5kW ones I have chuck out the full 5kW badge rating when running at full chat. They certainly chuck out more heat than a 3kW main fan heater.

 

I don't know enough about them yet to persuade them to deliver more than the rating marked on the data label.

 

 

A few years ago when the chinese heaters first appeared people got hold of the 3, 5, and 8 Kw versions and compared them

the 3kw versions appeared to be a copy of the 2Kw heaters from planar (which themselves were a copy of the 2kw eberspacher from memory)

the 5Kw versions were a copy of the 4Kw heaters from planar / eber

the 8Kw versions were identical to the 5Kw heaters but used a bigger fuel pump and ran the fans faster (with the obvious faster failure of the fan motor bearings / brushes).

 

we ran a 5Kw on heating oil during winters for a couple of years (and by that I mean we struck it up in October / November and shut it down in March with it running 24/7 in between) the only failure we had was during the 2nd winter when the fuel pump gave up (click but no fuel) when we dropped a replacement in we found that it was running very rich & smokey so we went into the admin menus and leaned out the fuel to the limit (on low you could hear it almost flameout between fuel pulses, it was literally only enough fuel to keep it burning)

[Phoenix_V]

Lifted from  facebook, I take some comfort from this as presumably they went looking for dangers and the worst thing they found was Chinese standard documentation and no China Export lable

 

Suffolk Trading Standards

  ·

Suffolk Trading Standards Imports Surveillance Team have detained 973 diesel heaters at the Port of Felixstowe over the last two months. All products were found to be unsafe, with listings for all sellers removed on eBay.

Consignments arrived at the Port in October and November and were stopped by the team, with samples sent to a test house for assessment.

Each of the products did not meet the requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 because they could present the hazards of fire and death due to poor supporting installation information.

Manuals supplied with the products failed to give measurements for installing and did not give the minimum distance the exhaust pipe can be installed from flammable material, or material that could give off poisonous fumes when heated, such as insulation material.

No warning was provided about heat and dangers to the user if installed incorrectly.

Large parts of the manuals were written in poor English and had incorrect words used. The intended meaning was, in some cases, difficult to understand.

Additionally, the products and instructions did not have the name and address of the importer or manufacturer, and did not included the required Declaration of Conformity (DoC). A DoC is a formal declaration by a manufacturer, or the manufacturer's representative, that the product to which it applies meets all relevant requirements of all product safety directives applicable to that product.

If you have purchased a product that you think may be unsafe, stop using it immediately and report it to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133.

[rusty69]

Update :

 

I thought I would go and check my settings. They are:

 

P1. 6

P2.4

1500rpm

4300rpm

12v

Sn1

Pf6

 

I'm not certain what these settings are and have never changed them. Comparing them to a youtube video, they look like they should be:

 

P1. 6

P5.5

.

.

 

I assume this may effect the fuel/air mixture. 

 

Question. If the fuel/air mixture is either too rich or too lean, what effect will that have on combustion and possible carbon build up inside the unit. 

 

Are my settings :

1.correct 

2.too rich 

3.too lean.? 

[Quattrodave]

Wow 'P2.4' is mega low. That's your upper fuel pump frequency.  I'd have guessed you should be between 4.5 & 5.

 

Edit

Try 1.6 low power & 5.0 high power.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Quattrodave

[rusty69]

10 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

Wow 'P2.4' is mega low. That's your upper fuel pump frequency.  I'd have guessed you should be between 4.5 & 5.

 

Edit

Try 1.6 low power & 5.0 high power.

Thanks. I tried it on 5.5. It still shuts down. But, if 2.4 is low, could that have caused problems inside? 

 

Doe it affect the air/fuel ratio? 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by rusty69