Eberspacher problems

[Old Son]

I had similar issues with my Hydronic 10. It turned out to be one of the printed circuit boards. Everything else checked out OK. Nearly £200 for the bits though!!

[snigsnig]

I'm trying to hold off from spending much money on it, as once I do I know I'll feel committed to keeping the blasted thing. At the moment I'm swaying towards ripping it out and getting a smaller diesel heater as these 10's seem like nothing but trouble.

[saxplayer]

I used to have a similar problem, and put it down to poor fuel. I got over this by running it on parrafin for an hour each month.

shaun

[snigsnig]

Thanks Shaun. I think i'll give this a try.

 

Neil

[Lewis 53]

This may or may not help you out. Try the following web site www.letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk it has lots of usful info about the "eber". Dont be put off by the home page as it advertises boat varnish and the like. Just use the menu at the top left of the page. Ive found it very useful.

[snigsnig]

Thanks Lewis 53!

[Old Son]

PM sent

[jelunga]

I used to have a similar problem, and put it down to poor fuel. I got over this by running it on parrafin for an hour each month.

shaun

How easy is that to set up? Was this pre ULSD or post?

[snigsnig]

I've actually just had a breakthrough with a fuel issue affecting the engine by using ULSD so fingers crossed the Eber now kicks into life too once I've bled it again. Not counting my chickens just yet though!

 

Neil

Edited October 20, 2012 by snigsnig

[nb Innisfree]

My guess is poor fuel quality. We had endless probs with our Eber, Mikuni literally tried everything untill ULSD appeared at the pumps, since then it starts and runs perfectly in fact there seems to be nowhere near the amount of probs boaters used to experience. You could try running it on a gallon or so of low sulphur diesel and see if things improve

[George94]

My Hydronic 10 needs a service. I de-coked it myself, but it still doesn't want to play ball. Any recommendations for who to send it to?

[snigsnig]

My guess is poor fuel quality. We had endless probs with our Eber, Mikuni literally tried everything untill ULSD appeared at the pumps, since then it starts and runs perfectly in fact there seems to be nowhere near the amount of probs boaters used to experience. You could try running it on a gallon or so of low sulphur diesel and see if things improve

 

I am now a total ULSD convert - hadn't realised quite the difference it would make to the engine - so chomping at the bit to get it bled through into the Eber and give it another try.

 

Neil

Edited October 20, 2012 by snigsnig

[jmacg]

Several folk on our marina run their diesel heaters on paraffin and have far fewer problems than they did when using red diesel. Our solution has been to add a whole bottle of diesel "cetane booster" from Halfords every time we fill up the tank. It's probably an expensive habit, but the lowering of blood pressure when the thing actually fires uip each time is worth it!

[nb Innisfree]

I am now a total ULSD convert - hadn't realised quite the difference it would make to the engine - so chomping at the bit to get it bled through into the Eber and give it another try.

 

Neil

 

High sulphur shouldn't make any noticeable difference to the running of a diesel engine.

[snigsnig]

High sulphur shouldn't make any noticeable difference to the running of a diesel engine.

 

Smokey Beta became virtually smoke-free with ultra low suplhur. The red diesel that was in the tank must have degraded or something, but the overall performance has hugely improved, right down to much less vibration. I did use FuelSet as well.

 

Sadly, the Eber still isn't working, not sure I've bled all the old diesel from the fuel line though - its something like 300 pulses from the pump to do the whole thing - so will bleed it again this week.

 

Neil

[snigsnig]

Well, its now exactly 2 months since my last post about this, and the Eberspacher is now in a carrier bag in the boot of my car! We aren't moving on board til spring now so we've survived with the Squirrel when on board.

 

My biggest issue recently has been finding anyone with any decent know-how in our area to actually take a proper look at the heater. The mechanic at my marina came out with a load of waffle about bench testing it when I spoke to him a while ago, but when I did what he said and took it out and took it to his workshop, he seemed to have had a memory lapse - "we don't do those, and you should have left it in the boat". ffs! The nearest places cost serious £££££'s to even take a look, and there seems to be very dubious knowledge of the Hydronic 10 anyway, so I'm resigned to reading pages and pages of technical information, and forever tinkering with the ****ing thing myself until maybe one day something will click and it will start working again! I'm actually crossing my fingers that I may have had a breakthrough with a knackered pump cable but I'll touch wood when saying that!

 

One little tip I'd like to share that I've discovered, is that if your Eberspacher locks you out after a certain number of failed starts, DON'T pay out for an engineer to come and unlock it for you. If you disable your 12v system while the heater is switched to 'on', then switch it to 'off', turn your 12v back on and then switch the heater back to 'on' it will unlock. It sometimes takes 3 goes, but often works first time, though you need to leave it at least a minute or two after it locks you out before trying it. Also make sure nothing that could be damaged by the 12v being flicked on and off is connected before doing it.

 

Neil

Edited December 23, 2012 by snigsnig

[boathunter]

I have an eberspacher blown air heater in my camper that starts then stops straight away if the battery's a bit flat...

[smileypete]

Did you do your own bench test in the end? If so how did it check out?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[Naughty Cal]

I have an eberspacher blown air heater in my camper that starts then stops straight away if the battery's a bit flat...

 

We have a webasto blown air heater on NC and I think we must be the only people in Britain who have never had a problem with theirs.

 

It runs on whatever fuel we have in the tank and in the last four and a bit years has never missed a beat. Great little heater and we would not be without it.

 

(Reaches around to touch some wood)

[Bee]

I worked on mobile libraries for many years, blasted heater failed every winter, nearly froze my bits off until we fitted 2 of the things into the vans as policy, thats with good fresh white diesel and a huge bank of charged traction batteries, it`s a rare thing for them both to work at any one time, one in the van, one out being fixed, they are the work of the devil.

[blackrose]

We have a webasto blown air heater on NC and I think we must be the only people in Britain who have never had a problem with theirs.

 

It runs on whatever fuel we have in the tank and in the last four and a bit years has never missed a beat. Great little heater and we would not be without it.

 

(Reaches around to touch some wood)

 

Well, living with a heater is a completely different prospect, as are the blown air eberspachers. There are plenty of people who aren't liveaboards who haven't had any problems, but sooner or later they will come... As for the Hydronic eberspachers, I really do fail to understand how they can continue to sell them to boaters given the fact that they are unreliable toys.

Edited December 22, 2012 by blackrose

[matty40s]

Well, living with a heater is a completely different prospect, as are the blown air eberspachers. There are plenty of people who aren't liveaboards who haven't had any problems, but sooner or later they will come... As for the Hydronic eberspachers, I really do fail to understand how they can continue to sell them to boaters given the fact that they are unreliable toys.

It's like the ecofan, some people just love to knock something that others find good.

My Eberspacher has worked daily for 5 years to give me hot water, probably 30 minutes running. I do not need the central heating it can also run as my stove with ecofan gives me all the heat I need.

It was installed in 2002. I have never touched it except for to press the on switch on the remote panel.

(touch wood, a la N Cal)

[boathunter]

Well mine's petrol not diesel anyway, I was just saying I get exact same symptoms if the battery's a bit flat.

It would be a shame to chuck it thinking it was a fuel problem just because you had some dodgy wiring that's all.

[blackrose]

It's like the ecofan, some people just love to knock something that others find good.

My Eberspacher has worked daily for 5 years to give me hot water, probably 30 minutes running. I do not need the central heating it can also run as my stove with ecofan gives me all the heat I need.

It was installed in 2002. I have never touched it except for to press the on switch on the remote panel.

(touch wood, a la N Cal)

 

Touch wood indeed... It's not that I love to knock something that others find good - I'm speaking from personal experience. I said exactly the same thing as you (on the forum), about mine working well and then it went wrong and was virtually irreparable without spending a lot of money. I threw it in a skip.

 

No it's not like the ecofan at all. The ecofan works in some spaces, it doesn't in others and in certain cases it's more placebo effect than anything else. In the case of the eberspacher, there are probably far more users who have experienced problems than those who've had trouble-free years of liveaboard use.

 

Eberspacher themselves told me that the life-expectancy of a Hydronic is about 5000 hours. That's shockingly short for such an expensive bit of kit! I don't wish yours to go wrong, but it will, and when it does and lands you with a big bill you might change your mind about it.

Edited December 22, 2012 by blackrose

[Arthur Brown]

170956677133 on ebay is a "no known brand" heater -new and fairly cheap. Has anyone any real experience?

 

For genuine Eberspachers in the UK http://www.eberspacher.com/dealers/ may give you a list of sales and service places approved by the maker. If you rely on the heater then it is probably worth a manufacturers service each autumn.

 

http://www.eberspacher.com/dealers/heating-dealers.html

Edited December 23, 2012 by Arthur Brown