My eberspacher is officially dead!

[blackrose]

After reading a recent thread on the forum I sent my ailing eberspacher to PF Jones in Manchester. The guy rang me this morning to say it needed a new burner, new seals for a decoke, etc, and it would come to about £350 + VAT.

 

He seemed like a decent bloke but I told him to keep it for spares - it's nice to have a diesel heater as a supplementary heat source but I'm not paying that kind of money to keep it going. According to eberspacher the service life of these heaters is only about 5000 hours, so when you consider how much it's costing just to have one on your boat it's a bit of a luxury.

[Grace and Favour]

After reading a recent thread on the forum I sent my ailing eberspacher to PF Jones in Manchester. The guy rang me this morning to say it needed a new burner, new seals for a decoke, etc, and it would come to about £350 + VAT.

 

He seemed like a decent bloke but I told him to keep it for spares - it's nice to have a diesel heater as a supplementary heat source but I'm not paying that kind of money to keep it going. According to eberspacher the service life of these heaters is only about 5000 hours, so when you consider how much it's costing just to have one on your boat it's a bit of a luxury.

Hmm - - have you any idea how many hours your piece of kit had completed?

[Gibbo]

I estimate the MTBF of this type of heater at about 15 minutes.

 

They're crap.

 

Only heater manufacturers seem to be able to get away with it. Any other manufacturer would be out of business by now.

[WotEver]

According to eberspacher the service life of these heaters is only about 5000 hours...

Hmmmm... at 8 hours a day (okay, that's excessive I know) that's less than 2 years. Ouch!

[Gibbo]

Hmmmm... at 8 hours a day (okay, that's excessive I know) that's less than 2 years. Ouch!

 

That wouldn't actually be too bad. But they they only seem to start up about 50 times before something else breaks.

[magnetman]

That wouldn't actually be too bad. But they they only seem to start up about 50 times before something else breaks.

 

I had one on a boat and it was so rubbish and unreliable that I came very close to reprogramming it with a 4lb lump hammer. I sold the boat before I got round to it

 

terrible, terrible thing and they are really very expensive

[Naughty Cal]

It must depend on the system that you have.

 

Our Webasto (blown air diesel heater) has been nothing but reliable and has not missed a beat all winter.

[Tim]

Sent mine to Thames Valley Diesel a few weeks back for a service - £90. Been on the boat for 5 years and had just started to produce the dreaded white smoke. Chap at TVD said it just needed a good clean and to stop using rubbish diesel with it!!

[charles123]

I had one with all the usual problems and conclude they are rubbish.

 

As they are essentially a lorry cab heater you can sometimes pick one up cheap off ebay

 

Charles

[Naughty Cal]

I had one with all the usual problems and conclude they are rubbish.

 

As they are essentially a lorry cab heater you can sometimes pick one up cheap off ebay

 

Charles

 

And then start racking the expense up trying to make it suitable for marine use.

 

There are all sorts of fittings and pipework, never mind the wiring and timer that are fitted to the vehicle version that you need to rebuy in marine version to make it suitable for use. One example is the timer. In vehicle applications it is set to turn off after 1 hourso as not to flatten the battery, no good for marina applications (unless you want to get up and turn it on every hour of course) exhaust fittings, skin fittings etc. are all different.

[Secret Garden]

After reading a recent thread on the forum I sent my ailing eberspacher to PF Jones in Manchester. The guy rang me this morning to say it needed a new burner, new seals for a decoke, etc, and it would come to about £350 + VAT.

 

He seemed like a decent bloke but I told him to keep it for spares - it's nice to have a diesel heater as a supplementary heat source but I'm not paying that kind of money to keep it going. According to eberspacher the service life of these heaters is only about 5000 hours, so when you consider how much it's costing just to have one on your boat it's a bit of a luxury.

Oops, P F Jones were my recomendation, thought they were thorough...

My partner wouldn't describe it as a luxury however, more an essential fixture required for her living on board

Hope you get sorted,

Steve

[granddad]

It must depend on the system that you have.

 

Our Webasto (blown air diesel heater) has been nothing but reliable and has not missed a beat all winter.

 

mY WEBASTO thermo 90 has just been serviced for the second time in 6 months. Last time was the burner (gbp 140) and a decoke. Now its the flame guard and the thermo sensor (six flashes) each time its £200 then £400. I fitted it with a dual derv and parraffin feed and paul from auto electrics tamworth says it may work. I'm going to reroute the air feed from the engine room space under the plates into the space above the plates. I will also try to close it down on paraffin at the end of the voyage. But otherwise I'm out of ideas. This machine is over 3.5 k fitted so I cannot have two off. The lady wife wont countenance a morso squirrell and back boiler back up as its too dirty. I've tried on this medium to find alternatives but they aren't there. Even the webasto/ebyspacher are saying that these things work well on lorries coaches and tanks but all their complaints are on narrowboats. It cant be the red diesel - as I buy it from ground not air tanked supplies and the red diesel is used in £100k tractors that have more sophisticated engines than my (diesel) 136hp car.

any ideas of any one whos been through this mill?

ken

[Naughty Cal]

mY WEBASTO thermo 90 has just been serviced for the second time in 6 months. Last time was the burner (gbp 140) and a decoke. Now its the flame guard and the thermo sensor (six flashes) each time its £200 then £400. I fitted it with a dual derv and parraffin feed and paul from auto electrics tamworth says it may work. I'm going to reroute the air feed from the engine room space under the plates into the space above the plates. I will also try to close it down on paraffin at the end of the voyage. But otherwise I'm out of ideas. This machine is over 3.5 k fitted so I cannot have two off. The lady wife wont countenance a morso squirrell and back boiler back up as its too dirty. I've tried on this medium to find alternatives but they aren't there. Even the webasto/ebyspacher are saying that these things work well on lorries coaches and tanks but all their complaints are on narrowboats. It cant be the red diesel - as I buy it from ground not air tanked supplies and the red diesel is used in £100k tractors that have more sophisticated engines than my (diesel) 136hp car.

any ideas of any one whos been through this mill?

ken

 

Maybe diesel heaters dont like narrowboats

 

It is likely to be the fuel though. A narrowboat fills its tanks once maybe twice a year so the fuel will be sat in the tank collecting dirt and sludge.

 

Cruisers like ours, which dont tend to have the same problem, use a hell of a lot more fuel. This means that the fuel in the tank stays relatively clean.

[smileypete]

After reading a recent thread on the forum I sent my ailing eberspacher to PF Jones in Manchester. The guy rang me this morning to say it needed a new burner, new seals for a decoke, etc, and it would come to about £350 + VAT.

 

He seemed like a decent bloke but I told him to keep it for spares - it's nice to have a diesel heater as a supplementary heat source but I'm not paying that kind of money to keep it going. According to eberspacher the service life of these heaters is only about 5000 hours, so when you consider how much it's costing just to have one on your boat it's a bit of a luxury.

What exactly is wrong with the burner?

 

Installation apart, an Eberspacher should run OK on clean dyed road diesel to BSEN590, but not gas oil/heating oil.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[Chubby Chaser]

Now use my Eberspacher as a mud weight - best use for it. I even tried using road diesel but that made no difference whatsoever.

 

Have had a Hurricane Heater fitted and it is excellent. Still can't get over the novelty of not having white smoke. Only downside is that it isn't as neat as the Eberspacher.

[nb Innisfree]

Our Mikuni MX60 has given us all sorts of problems but now seems to be running fine, I put it down to fuel quality. Sometimes it needs several goes to fire up but never fails when on shorepower and the voltage is high, so despite what the specs say i.e. operating voltage 19v to 28v they don't seem to like anything below about 26-27v. Must try running it on paraffin someday.

[steelaway]

I cant understand any of this

 

I have had my Eberspacher for 5 years ..............and it was 2nd hand when I bought it!

Little trouble as long as you simply clean it out about once a year.

I suspect many problems are due to blockages in the intake filter or exhaust - it must have a full free flow of air to achieve proper combustion

I have never had to replace a single part, only cleaned them

It runs on standard canal side diesel perfectly

If it is a problem? I do have to start the engine before switching it on - then it works 100%

I have the old type which is easy to get to, but my son has the new brick type and once again we have had to clean it once in 2/3 years.

 

 

Alex

[Naughty Cal]

Our Mikuni MX60 has given us all sorts of problems but now seems to be running fine, I put it down to fuel quality. Sometimes it needs several goes to fire up but never fails when on shorepower and the voltage is high, so despite what the specs say i.e. operating voltage 19v to 28v they don't seem to like anything below about 26-27v. Must try running it on paraffin someday.

 

Our Webasto helped us out on that score. Woke up on a cold monday morning, turned on the heater and nothing, wouldnt fire up. The flashing code told us that we had low voltage, very low in fact. Had we not tried the Webby that morning we wouldnt have known that we had inadvertantly knocked the lead from the back of the battery charger and the batteries would have been very flat all week, most probably resulting in them being scrap. As it stood we plugged the charger back in and the batteries have recovered. Didnt get much heat that morning though, by the time we had figured out what was wrong it was not worth putting the heating on

[WJM]

Get a dustbin with a hole in the bottom for the diesel to flow in through (aka Lockgate) - fantastically simple, fantastically reliable!

[MoominPapa]

Would a change of fuel help? This clicky looks like a direct replacement but gas rather than diesel fired.

 

MP.

[Bobbybass]

I don't seem to get the problems others have.

I have a D5W whcih has given good service for 13 years.

This year I had a failure of the turbo fan...so I have a guy I found on Ebay..who sells secondhand bits..and got one for £70

I had previosuly bought a complete sandblasted body and insert on Ebay for £30...so when the fan went..I just removed the parts from mine and built it up on the new body..really easy...took about 2 hours...

It doesn't have 'seals'...so I don't know what seals you are talking about ?

THe insert fits into the body ..metal to metal...and is held with a clamp...no seals ?

THere is a small silicone washer seal on the temerature sensors..maybe you mean that....a 10p part.

 

I run it on the usual grotty red diesel and I only use the boat for the summer...so the diesel is pretty old...very old in fact.

I use it every morning in the summer for bathroom radiator and hot water..

White smoke sometimes turns up if the unit is not used that much as unburnt diesel can get into the exhaust..and you need to burn it off...seems scarey but its not really...

Also.....I found that the glow plug fuse holder isn't that good...and can leave the glowplug vibrating on and off and this leads to sudden ignition of excess fuel and can give white smoke. I ran heavy cables outside of the control bos and have an external fuse holder whcih now doesn't vibrate and makes the glowplug much more reliable...This is..in fact....an excellent modification if I do say so myself.

 

You can tackle a strip down quite easily....I did it with no knowledge and no book...

 

Go on....give it a bash (but not with a hammer !!!)

 

Bob

[blackrose]

Hmm - - have you any idea how many hours your piece of kit had completed?

 

I reckon it had done about 1-2 hours a day in winter and an hour a week in summer over 4 years.

 

Let's say about 1500 hours from new.

 

Oops, P F Jones were my recomendation, thought they were thorough...

My partner wouldn't describe it as a luxury however, more an essential fixture required for her living on board

Hope you get sorted,

Steve

 

No, I think he's a decent bloke, but I wasn't going to pay 350 quid plus VAT for it to be repaired. It cost me 12 quid postage to find out but it saved me stripping it down myself, buying parts and wasting more money on it. I have a solid fuel stove so losing the eberspacher is no biggy. I survived last winter without it.

 

mY WEBASTO thermo 90 has just been serviced for the second time in 6 months. Last time was the burner (gbp 140) and a decoke. Now its the flame guard and the thermo sensor (six flashes) each time its £200 then £400. I fitted it with a dual derv and parraffin feed and paul from auto electrics tamworth says it may work. I'm going to reroute the air feed from the engine room space under the plates into the space above the plates. I will also try to close it down on paraffin at the end of the voyage. But otherwise I'm out of ideas. This machine is over 3.5 k fitted so I cannot have two off. The lady wife wont countenance a morso squirrell and back boiler back up as its too dirty. I've tried on this medium to find alternatives but they aren't there. Even the webasto/ebyspacher are saying that these things work well on lorries coaches and tanks but all their complaints are on narrowboats. It cant be the red diesel - as I buy it from ground not air tanked supplies and the red diesel is used in £100k tractors that have more sophisticated engines than my (diesel) 136hp car.

any ideas of any one whos been through this mill?

ken

 

PF Jones reckons it's because what we call red diesel is in fact gas oil. I don't know enough about the subject to comment myself although I know there are lots of people on the forum who do. I think Roger Gunkel has been through lots of eberspacher DW10 problems and eventually got it replaced under warranty with a DW5. The 10s are too big for most boat installations and tend to coke up because they're not working hard enough.

 

What exactly is wrong with the burner?

 

Installation apart, an Eberspacher should run OK on clean dyed road diesel to BSEN590, but not gas oil/heating oil.

 

cheers,

Pete.

 

He said he wasn't sure where the coke finished and the burner began!

 

Now use my Eberspacher as a mud weight - best use for it. I even tried using road diesel but that made no difference whatsoever.

 

Have had a Hurricane Heater fitted and it is excellent. Still can't get over the novelty of not having white smoke. Only downside is that it isn't as neat as the Eberspacher.

 

How long have you had it? I know someone who's Hurricane packed up after 18 months.

 

 

I cant understand any of this

 

I have had my Eberspacher for 5 years ..............and it was 2nd hand when I bought it!

Little trouble as long as you simply clean it out about once a year.

I suspect many problems are due to blockages in the intake filter or exhaust - it must have a full free flow of air to achieve proper combustion

I have never had to replace a single part, only cleaned them

It runs on standard canal side diesel perfectly

If it is a problem? I do have to start the engine before switching it on - then it works 100%

I have the old type which is easy to get to, but my son has the new brick type and once again we have had to clean it once in 2/3 years.

 

 

Alex

 

Which model of Eberspacher?

 

 

I don't seem to get the problems others have.

I have a D5W whcih has given good service for 13 years.

This year I had a failure of the turbo fan...so I have a guy I found on Ebay..who sells secondhand bits..and got one for £70

I had previosuly bought a complete sandblasted body and insert on Ebay for £30...so when the fan went..I just removed the parts from mine and built it up on the new body..really easy...took about 2 hours...

It doesn't have 'seals'...so I don't know what seals you are talking about ?

THe insert fits into the body ..metal to metal...and is held with a clamp...no seals ?

THere is a small silicone washer seal on the temerature sensors..maybe you mean that....a 10p part.

 

I run it on the usual grotty red diesel and I only use the boat for the summer...so the diesel is pretty old...very old in fact.

I use it every morning in the summer for bathroom radiator and hot water..

White smoke sometimes turns up if the unit is not used that much as unburnt diesel can get into the exhaust..and you need to burn it off...seems scarey but its not really...

Also.....I found that the glow plug fuse holder isn't that good...and can leave the glowplug vibrating on and off and this leads to sudden ignition of excess fuel and can give white smoke. I ran heavy cables outside of the control bos and have an external fuse holder whcih now doesn't vibrate and makes the glowplug much more reliable...This is..in fact....an excellent modification if I do say so myself.

 

You can tackle a strip down quite easily....I did it with no knowledge and no book...

 

Go on....give it a bash (but not with a hammer !!!)

 

Bob

 

The DW10 is obviously different from the DW5. There are some gaskets.

Edited May 6, 2010 by blackrose

[Tim]

Mine is a D5, TVD made the same comment about the quality of the diesel!

[steelaway]

Hi

 

Mine is a D5W

 

Alex

[nb Innisfree]

mY WEBASTO thermo 90 has just been serviced for the second time in 6 months. Last time was the burner (gbp 140) and a decoke. Now its the flame guard and the thermo sensor (six flashes) each time its £200 then £400. I fitted it with a dual derv and parraffin feed and paul from auto electrics tamworth says it may work. I'm going to reroute the air feed from the engine room space under the plates into the space above the plates. I will also try to close it down on paraffin at the end of the voyage. But otherwise I'm out of ideas. This machine is over 3.5 k fitted so I cannot have two off. The lady wife wont countenance a morso squirrell and back boiler back up as its too dirty. I've tried on this medium to find alternatives but they aren't there. Even the webasto/ebyspacher are saying that these things work well on lorries coaches and tanks but all their complaints are on narrowboats. It cant be the red diesel - as I buy it from ground not air tanked supplies and the red diesel is used in £100k tractors that have more sophisticated engines than my (diesel) 136hp car.

any ideas of any one whos been through this mill?

ken

 

Engines have no problem with gasoil, it's heaters that suffer.