Webasto Heating

[anni]

I have a webasto heating system on my boat which is just over a year old. It keeps switching itself of & the other day when I switched it on it failed, after several attemts it fired up but a load of white smoke poured out. Can anyoned help?

[bottle]

Hi Anni

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

I dislike doing this but have a search for webasto (top right).

 

White smoke means un-burnt fuel, I suspect it needs a service.

[chris w]

It needs taking apart and cleaning out. This is simple to do IF, and only IF you are competent and confident in taking things apart in general and have a reasonable engineering understanding. Otherwise pay someone to do it. there is a list of webasto dealers on line.

 

Chris

Edited November 10, 2008 by chris w

[Roger Gunkel]

Hi Anni welcome to the forum,

 

You say your boat is only one year old, where did you buy it from and was the webasto already fitted when you bought it? The previous posters could well be right about unburnt fuel, but with a new boat, you may well be entitled to a service under warranty.

 

The white smoke could also be caused by water in the fuel, which with the current cold weather could be from condensation in the tank, particularly if the tank is low on fuel. You could try checking your engine water seperator as there is a good chance there will be water in that as well and it is quite easy to check.

 

Roger

[Simon Banks]

Anni,

 

If you made several attemps to start the heater, I would assume that you have flooded the burner chamber with diesel. One remedy is to remove the fuel feed into the heater (place the pipe into a container to avoid spillage) and start the heater two or three times to "burn off" the excess fuel. Replace the fuel line and try again.

 

Failure to start on a relatively new heater is symptomatic of either (as roger says) water in the fuel, fuel contamination or possibly more likely a low or depreciated battery voltage.

 

If there is insufficient voltage to allow the glowpin to glow hot enough to ignite the diesel, the diesel will remain unburn and the heater will white smoke prefusely. Repeated attemps to start the heater are not recommended in quick succession as this will just make the problem worse.

 

If a webasto does not fire up within the first couple of attemps, there is obviously some underlying factor that needs to be resolved prior to restarting.

 

If you are still not sure, let me know or give me a call. Or at worst case you can send the heater in for repair.

 

Where are you based? as i can let you know your nearest dealer. Or if you want to email me the serial number off the heater, I can check its supply details and hence warrantee situation. ( the serial number is the "Fabr" Number on the bottom right of the ID sticker.)

 

regards simon

[Glennbrown]

Just a quicky-mine did that last year-it was the small fuel filter which was blocked-I removed it and it ran fine!!!

[Jelle]

Hi,

 

I had exactly the same problem a few days ago. Our Thermotop C is also about a year old, so I did some research and ended up taking it apart and discovered the combustion cylinder and the chamber into which it fits were coked up beyond belief, it's amazing it hadn't stopped working earlier.

The glowplug was completely covered in brittle, hard cokey stuff (technical term). So I used brake cleaner a screwdriver and a toothbrush to get it all clean and shiny like new. Just watch out not to damage the wire gauze behind the glowplug in the combustion cylinder as it's quite fragile.

 

I would say anyone with some common sense can do this. There is a technical manual on the webasto website which has diagrams and instructions on dismantling etc. I have a fair bit of mechanical expertise but I thought it was a very simple procedure with only 8 screws or so to undo.

The only downside is you will probably have to replace at least one of the two gaskets removed during dismantling. These you should be able to buy from your local webasto dealer - try hgv/autopart places first as they're likely to be cheaper.

 

The other thing to bear in mind is the need to drain your system if it's a water heating webasto like ours and disconnect the fuel etc..

 

On the other hand you could pay someone to service it which may cost you around £100-150 but leaves no diesel stains/smells in the galley...

 

Hope this helps, Jelle

[chris w]

you will probably have to replace at least one of the two gaskets removed during dismantling. These you should be able to buy from your local webasto dealer - try hgv/autopart places first as they're likely to be cheaper.

They're readily available too on Ebay. Actaually, I now put mine together each time with high temperature "gasket goo" (ie: gasket in a tube) and it has caused no problems.

 

The other thing to bear in mind is the need to drain your system if it's a water heating webasto like ours and disconnect the fuel etc.

You only need to drain the header tank, assuming the Webasto is not lower than the radiators. You can even stop most of this drain out if you put clamps on the rubber hoses in and out of the Webasto unit, which is what I do. Then you only lose the small amount of liquid that in the Webasto itself.

 

Chris

[barossa]

They're readily available too on Ebay. Actaually, I now put mine together each time with high temperature "gasket goo" (ie: gasket in a tube) and it has caused no problems.

 

 

You only need to drain the header tank, assuming the Webasto is not lower than the radiators. You can even stop most of this drain out if you put clamps on the rubber hoses in and out of the Webasto unit, which is what I do. Then you only lose the small amount of liquid that in the Webasto itself.

 

Chris

Hi

I had the smoke problem with mine which was only 7 weeks old.

I bled the fuel and water lines, then continually tried to start her up burning off the white smoke which was intense. I did this at night time during a windy night to disperse the smoke. After about 7 attempts she is now working like a dream. good luck

Edited November 24, 2008 by barossa

[chris w]

Hi

I had the smoke problem with mine which was only 7 weeks old.

I bled the fuel and water lines, then continually tried to start her up burning off the white smoke which was intense. I did this at night time during a windy night to disperse the smoke. After about 7 attempts she is now working like a dream. good luck

Was the white smoke caused by antifreeze wetting the exhaust cladding or was the smoke coming from inside the unit and being blown out through the exhaust?

 

The former (the wet exhaust cladding) happens everytime I service the Webasto, it's inevitable as one partially drains the system. However, it's nothing to worry about and burns off in about half an hour or so.

 

Chris

[barossa]

Was the white smoke caused by antifreeze wetting the exhaust cladding or was the smoke coming from inside the unit and being blown out through the exhaust?

 

The former (the wet exhaust cladding) happens everytime I service the Webasto, it's inevitable as one partially drains the system. However, it's nothing to worry about and burns off in about half an hour or so.

 

Chris

Hi ya,

the smoke was coming out thru exhaust pipe outside. Very thick too which gave us a fright but did burn off after quite a few start attempts

[Janeil]

Help, mines doing the same. Our boat is 7 months old, the heating turns itself off after an hour, then if you re-start it, there's smoke billowing out of the exhaust. Our diesel tank is full so its not condensation, but we did have a diesel leak when we bought the boat and the company fixed it on the cheap!! Its really annoying, constantly listening for it to go off so you can start it again. Not a problem in summer, but the sqirrel can only do so much on a 65ft boat!

The engineers are coming next week to look at it. I'll let you know what they say

[chris w]

Help, mines doing the same. Our boat is 7 months old, the heating turns itself off after an hour, then if you re-start it, there's smoke billowing out of the exhaust. Our diesel tank is full so its not condensation, but we did have a diesel leak when we bought the boat and the company fixed it on the cheap!! Its really annoying, constantly listening for it to go off so you can start it again. Not a problem in summer, but the sqirrel can only do so much on a 65ft boat!

The engineers are coming next week to look at it. I'll let you know what they say

Is it going off after EXACTLY one hour or just approximately an hour. The reason I ask is that it is possible to program the standard timer to do this - an exact one hour switch off - (although it's not mentioned in the manual) and I just wonder whether that's what's actually happened in this case?

 

Chris

[Pretty Funked Up]

If theyre anything liek an eberspacher the glow plug is an easy one to clean first. Quite often does the trick.

[Triss48]

I have a webasto heating system on my boat which is just over a year old. It keeps switching itself of & the other day when I switched it on it failed, after several attemts it fired up but a load of white smoke poured out. Can anyoned help?

 

Having fought for the best a part of 4 years to achieve reliable heating first with an Eberspacher and then a Webasto I have now reached nirvana and am warm!

 

The final answer lay with the fuel supply. Webastos are very sensitive to how the fuel is delivered from the tank, the quality is not usually a problem. The pipe run has to match specification on size and distance. The easy way to check is to disconnect the fuel line from the heater and then start up the unit. It will stop after it has failed to fire. Put a jam car to collect the fuel. If you get a good squirt of fuel with each click of the pump then the supply is OK. If not go through the process a few times to see if it improves - there may be air in the line. If no improvement then there is a problem.

 

Possibilities are a knackered pump - genuine Webasto pumps are not cheap or they lie with the pipework. Do you have a fileter between the tank and the pump? This causes problems as the fule line is rather tahn the 3mm the Webasto recommend suddenly increased to a few centimetres for the filter bowl. It is just too much for the pump to cope with.

 

Incidentally, I got a telling off from the dealer for taking mine part, it was only with much difficulty that I got any warranty work done.

 

Good luck

[chris w]

If you get a good squirt of fuel with each click of the pump then the supply is OK.

This test is recommended in the Webasto trouble-shooting manual.

 

If you ensure the fuel supply is good, as you suggest, and the unit is decoked once a year (non-liveaboard) then it should run happily for a very long time. I have had mine now for 18 months, run it typically for about 80 hours a month and have never had so much as a bleep of trouble with it. I have cleaned it out twice in that time. The first time was probably unnecessary, but curiosity got the better of me. I run mine on standard red diesel from canal-side marinas.

 

Chris

[paul holden]

I have a webasto heating system on my boat which is just over a year old. It keeps switching itself of & the other day when I switched it on it failed, after several attemts it fired up but a load of white smoke poured out. Can anyoned help?

Surprise, surprise I am having the same problem and from what i hear this is quite common. The cause is that the heater is becoming flooded with fuel which is not being burnt off and so the white smoke, this is not because there is too much fuel being delivered it is because what is being pumped isn't being ignited by the glow plug and burnt off so as the pump continues to supply fuel the heater gets too wet.

From experience you will never be able to re-light the system as it cuts out on flame failure and so the burner is still full of fuel the next time you try to start.

 

A quick fix is to remove the fuel pipe at the heater and start the unit 3 times until all the smoke disappears, re-connect the fuel pipe and then re-start again with the heater now having burnt off all the excess fuel, you may be lucky and that is the end of the matter. However, the more likely reason for the problem in the 1st place is that the heater gauze (burner assembly) has become partialy blocked so can not burn off all the fuel delivered, this means either unsuccesful smokey starts or the heater turns off after a few hours as the heater gradually becomes too full of unburnt fuel.

 

Webasto will fall back on the old 'You've used contaminated fuel which has blocked the burner assembly.....PAY UP!' but as you ain't got a choice what fuel you put in canal side I would question if the unit is fit for purpose (trade descriptions act) as they supply the unit knowing where it is being used and are quite happy to take your money at the time(these units are designed for trucks which are using white diesel) and also why do your engine injectors manage ok with the same fuel. The reason i bring this up is are you expected to buy a new burner assembly every 3-4 months as you can't change your fuel supply if moving around the system.

[canalchris]

I have a webasto heating system on my boat which is just over a year old. It keeps switching itself of & the other day when I switched it on it failed, after several attemts it fired up but a load of white smoke poured out. Can anyoned help?

 

hello,i have a webasto boiler which did exactly the same within months of being installed. it still does it occasionally. the remedy is to part the fuel line at the first avaible connection back from the boiler. go to your timer unit and fire up the central heating to maximum temp. the system will try to start up heating the glow plug and burning off excess fuel. after a couple of minutes it will close down, turn the controls to off give it a minute then fire it up to max again, let it go thru the cycle again, switch off reconnect fuel pipe and start up the system as normal. best bit of advice i was given, if you want it to be reliable is don:t rely on heating controls to switch system on and off. webastos are really only happy if run to max temp for at least 20_25 mins. DONT forget to catch fuel while pipes are split. good luck CANALCHRIS.