Webasto Thermotop C Performance

[Denis R]

I thought I'd share my recent experiences with you, in light of the continuing debate over diesel fired boilers, reliability, red diesel, white diesel ad infinitum....

Well, it packed in last week after 10 months running. Clouds of white smoke everywhere then shut down. Disconnecting the fuel feed allowed the excess fuel to burn off but as soon as it was cleared and the fuel feed reconnected, white-out again. To cut a long story short, I ended up removing it and taking it to Sam at Foxton Boat Services to have its fault codes read - 3 no starts. Nothing enlightening there but a strip down soon revealed the vaporisor gauze in the base of the burner totally clogged with about 2-6mm of hard black deposits, almost covering the glow pin and masking the flame detector. The water jacket cavity was also badly clogged, so much so that I reckon it was only about 20% clear. The cost of the new burner unit (vaporisor gauze can't be got at or replaced) and fitting and re-calibration came to £170.

So, according to the read out, that's after 836 hours running and 1052 starts and looks like being an annual service item. Advice from Sam is to junk the basic Webasto 3 event timer and get the 7 day timer fitted that's been in my cupboard for months. The reasoning being that prolonged running drops the burner to half power and then idle as the water temperature stabilises and there's not enough hard running to keep the deposits burnt off. I kind of knew that already, but didn't think that I'd been running it for long enough periods to cause this amount of clag. The 7 day timer restricts the running time and by programming more starts the burner will be running hard much more frequently, burning off the clag. Apparently.

Or run the Webasto on 28sec heating oil and be done with....

Allegedly Webasto will not be honouring any warranty claims on units used in liveaboard situations any more, but I haven't tested that assertion or even bothered trying. So my blind faith in the Webasto has taken a bit of a knock, but we'll try a different run regime and see what happens. I'd service the blimmin' thing myself if it wasn't necessary to use a PC, Webasto software and an exhaust gas analyser to set up the burner as I think that if it had been stripped at say 500 hours and de-coked the degradation could have been slowed somewhat. Maybe?

[minimoman]

Advice from Sam is to junk the basic Webasto 3 event timer and get the 7 day timer fitted that's been in my cupboard for months. l

 

I have been thinking about this timer problem myself after the cold snap where I couldn't get to the boat. I had the webasto running continiously on defrost but wanted to be able to switch it on and OFF, but with the 3 day timer you can only turn it on. Does the 7 day timer allow you to turn it off as well???

[Denis R]

The 7 day timer I've got (Hella) has a default run time of up to 120 minutes. It'll then stay off until the next programmed start time. You can vary the run time, I think in 15 minute increments up to the 120 minutes. There is an override button to switch it on permanently. May not be an issue for you if your Webasto is switching on and off via a frost stat, as it'll cycle through the 'hard burn' phase and switch off once the set temperature is reached. If I leave mine running continuously it'll spend most of the time at 'idle' once the rads are really warm....

I like the idea of the AA cell powered programmable controller mentioned on a recent thread here and might get one anyway.

[elessina]

..... that's after 836 hours running and 1052 starts

 

I understand that is the problem, they need to be run hard (eg. not reach their max water temperature cut off point) for around 2 hours. This to avoid the vaporisor gauze in the base of the burner getting totally clogged. So better would be 836 hours running, 400 starts.

 

The 7 day timer I received with the webasto kit (not a webasto timer) has around 20 muliprogrammable on-offs, so you can for instance switch it on every friday at 5:00pm and off every friday at 9:00pm. Only issue is it does not indicate fault codes.

 

My webasto is also not functioning correctly, but vapourising gauge is ok (very little build up)..... problem is it just cuts out for no apparant reason (maybe after 5 mins, maybe after 2 hours) and they can not determine what is wrong as they can not get any fault diagnostic, even on their pc.... so it is back with webasto, under warranty.

 

Ian

[John Bean]

Evidently Webasto will not entertain any new warrenty claims on Thermo Top C heaters.

Could this be because they are trying to flog a rebadged version the Thermo52 which is a Thermo Top C on a stainless mounting plate and new wiring connector.

 

Am I being too cynical???

 

John

 

I should have mentioned That the warrenty issue is to do with Automotive heaters ie Thermo Top C fitted in a marine environment.

 

John

[elessina]

Evidently Webasto will not entertain any new warrenty claims on Thermo Top C heaters.

Could this be because they are trying to flog a rebadged version the Thermo52 which is a Thermo Top C on a stainless mounting plate and new wiring connector.

 

Am I being too cynical???

 

John

 

I should have mentioned That the warrenty issue is to do with Automotive heaters ie Thermo Top C fitted in a marine environment.

 

John

My understanding is the marine version (the one with s/s mounting plate etc.) has a two year warranty, the automotive version has a one year warranty. The marine version has many s/s parts used in it's manufacture. We have the marine version.

Ian