Hurricane heater

[Gary Peacock]

Well it seems the change from DC to AC converted to DC seems to have done the trick!

 

The unit is now runing happily of a 20A switchmode power supply.

 

It is a bit of a workaround but on a boat that is largely AC based in the firstplace it isn't really a problem maybe on a more conventional boat that might not be the case.

 

It seems that the manufacturers (ITR) in Canada suspect the problem might be down to voltage drops induced by the inverters or other loads taking the voltage below the 11v point even for a matter of milliseconds but this is still long enough for the unit to detect an under voltage.

[Gary Peacock]

To quote Gibbo "There is one phrase to describe this..... "sh*t engineering".

 

The AC PSU does seem to keep the thing running but it is my honest opinion that the Hurricane Heater is not suitable for use in boats and that Calcutt Boats the UK distributor are not capable of providing the level of technical or warranty support this unit requires.

 

 

I would give the Hurricane Heater a miss if I was now considering fitting one, we definitely will not be fitting anymore after being left to sort out the ones that are defective under warranty due to the lack of support.

 

You have been warned!

[Robbo]

To quote Gibbo "There is one phrase to describe this..... "sh*t engineering".

 

The AC PSU does seem to keep the thing running but it is my honest opinion that the Hurricane Heater is not suitable for use in boats and that Calcutt Boats the UK distributor are not capable of providing the level of technical or warranty support this unit requires.

 

 

I would give the Hurricane Heater a miss if I was now considering fitting one, we definitely will not be fitting anymore after being left to sort out the ones that are defective under warranty due to the lack of support.

 

You have been warned!

 

I was looking at one of these to replace a Mikuni MX60, it seems apart from the voltage issue they are quite reliable? Looking for a heater that doesn't use a flue and would like to use the same exhaust skin fitting as the Mikuni.

[Iron-Dutchess]

I have a 660Ah battery bank 6 x 120Ah and a 2.5KW Inverter, I have to do some really drastic loading to get my batteries down below 11V. Even switching on a 2KW kettle only gets it down to 11.5 towards the end of the boil.

 

You could, of course fit a smaller dedicated battery that can be charged by the regular charging system/s, but can only be drawn on by the heating useing a blocking diode, as used in wind turbine generator feeds to prevent back feed, as these are high current but fairly inexpensive. That way the heating battery would be voltage independant to the main bank.

Edited January 24, 2009 by Iron-Dutchess