Eberspacher

[curlass24]

Hi Everyone,.

Our eberpacher will fire up but then cuts out randomly sometimes after like 3 minutes and sometimes lasts for about 8 minutes. We can here the fan going up and down.

Any thoughts on what this could be?

The fuel level is fine, but there is a slight leak somewhere in the system as the coolant level keeps going down (very slowly though)

Thanks

Malc

[matty40s]

Are you using it just for hot water or fir radiators too.??

If just the first then you may need to have one rad open as the calorifier on its own will be too small a circuit.

 

How is your battery voltage?? Ebersbastards are low voltage haters.

 

Or it might need decoking

[chubby]

I think this is the third thread relating to your eber and so i reckon its time to really get to the bottom of the problems . I had massive probs with mine 2.5 years ago and it took a great deal of patience & advice from here , followed by a great deal of effort on my part to fix it DIY . But it got fixed and has been 95% fine ever since . I keep my fingers crossed that this will continue .

 

As Matty says , you need to ensure that you are not just heating the calorifier - i keep all 4 radiators open at all times - even summer . This is because my system is working and so im not tampering with it in any way at all .

1) So make sure your rads are open . The eber MUST WORK HARD , flat out even . It needs this to happen and so heating just a calorifier is very much the wrong approach . Strangely this is counter intuitive and you may believe that by shutting radiators and making it work less you are helping . But it doesnt - so make sure the eber has to really work hard , open the rads .

 

You need to make sure that the voltage is sufficient at start up .

 

2) Does the eber fire up and remain functioning with the engine running ? If so then u need to pay attention to raising and maintaining the battery voltages & check the electrical connections and fuses so that the eber will fire and remain on even when the engine is off . It is during start up that the heater makes its greatest demands on your batteries . They must be in good condition and there must be sufficient voltage . How do you monitor your batteries ? Are you certain that thier condition is good enought to cope with the demands of the heater (& anything / everything else onboard thats making demands on your batts )

 

3) Has the heater been serviced - by this i mean physically removed , stripped apart and had internal parts assessed and replaced as necessary & a removal of carbon build up within the combustion chamber .

 

I found during my marathon fight against my eber that the policy that worked for me was to do ALL 3 of the above so i stripped it apart , decoked / cleaned the unit , and then replaced the eberspacher standard fusebox and fuses for blade type fuses as many advised me that the old skool torpedo type were possibly unreliable . It was very much a step by step process of elimination to determine the fault / faults . I did not enjoy it and was very much out of my depth and was very nervous about doing so as these heaters cost a fortune .

 

 

This meant i d sorted the electrics , cleaned the heaters internals and made sure that the heater was " working hard " by opening all the radiators .

 

If you have a leak on the radiator coolant then u need to find and fix it asap .

 

If you aren t confident taking the heater apart and servicing it you can take it off the brackets and send it away to be serviced and decoked . A firm called PF Jones do this as do other companies i expect & there used to be a chap on ebay who did servicing by post to - not sure if he still does so though .It is not a cheap option , but they use genuine eber parts and i expect they ll do a thorough job . It will be bench tested and returned in working order . Contact them , see what the score is & use what have to say to make your decisions .

Theres a vid on youtube showing how to take apart and service an eber if you do feel confident . I follwed this video and im a total numpty but had no choice as paying for a technician was not really an option . That video saved me £££ .

 

So , check your battery voltages , try firing up the eber with the engine running , make sure the rads are open so it works hard ( they like this and its good for them ) & consider having it stripped and serviced by yourself or someone else .

 

Fixing it could take alot of time , effort and / or money so be prepared for that . Some folk hate these units and many have had reliabilty issues . I can speak only for my experience and ive found mine to be very good but it did take alot of effort to fix it .

 

cheers

 

ETA : Canni humbly also suggest that if you get asked specific questions by the very well informed people on the forum ( not me !) who seek to help , that you answer as thoroughly as poss . These heaters can be problematic and the problem may not be obvious at first and you may be asked questions relating to your electrical set up , charging routine etc etc . People attempting to help will only be able to do so if you provide the info they need .

Edited December 7, 2016 by chubby

[Mike Todd]

Sounds rather similar to our experience earlier this year. There are not too many boatyards around who can do work on them - whereabouts are you?

 

Initially we had one part replaced (the controller) and still problems continued and then almost all of the rest, the combustion unit (I think that there are only two significant replaceable stages!) at the end of which we did not have much more than the original casing . . .

 

Even so, we had a final glitch and had to call an engineer back for what turned out to be air in it that had to be bled from the top.

[Mike Todd]

I should have also said that by consulting a qualified and equipped E engineer, they can access the onboard diagnostics which report what the unit thinks is the problem. Of course, it may get this wrong or there may be more than one problem . . .

[DHutch]

Moved to 'building and maintenance' section.

 

 

Daniel

[capri sun]

hello

I too are having problems with my Eber

we had it serviced at the beginning of the year and then we started with the problems

first we had to have a new Motor as ours was cutting out we ave replaced all leisure and starter batteries fixed the diesel leek to the unit by replacing the coupling with a flexible one But we still get a loud popping noise towards the end of the 60 min cycle. the engineer has put his diagnostic on to the unit but has not found any faults. We did have the furthest Radiator turn off but have opened it up so all Radiators are fully opened and bleed. This did help in that the noise did not start until much later in the cycle.

we have noticed that if we put the heating on early on a cold frosty morning it will complete a full cycle with no noise (popping)

but if we put it back on within a couple of hours the noise (popping) occurs much earlier in the cycle

I too am at a loss

Roger

[NMEA]

hello

I too are having problems with my Eber

we had it serviced at the beginning of the year and then we started with the problems

first we had to have a new Motor as ours was cutting out we ave replaced all leisure and starter batteries fixed the diesel leek to the unit by replacing the coupling with a flexible one But we still get a loud popping noise towards the end of the 60 min cycle. the engineer has put his diagnostic on to the unit but has not found any faults. We did have the furthest Radiator turn off but have opened it up so all Radiators are fully opened and bleed. This did help in that the noise did not start until much later in the cycle.

we have noticed that if we put the heating on early on a cold frosty morning it will complete a full cycle with no noise (popping)

but if we put it back on within a couple of hours the noise (popping) occurs much earlier in the cycle

I too am at a loss

Roger

I would strongly suspect from your symptoms that the usual sin of insufficient thermal dump is present, poor (or no) calculation on designing the system origonally, especially as it improves slightly when you add a bit more dump by turning on the extra rad. What is the total Kw of your radiators and do you have a 4 or a 5 Eber?

[capri sun]

Hi NMEA

theres a label with some info on the side in German

i belief the Model is D5W SC

Diesel

50W 12V

5,0kW

max 2,5 bar

[NMEA]

Hi NMEA

theres a label with some info on the side in German

i belief the Model is D5W SC

Diesel

50W 12V

5,0kW

max 2,5 bar

So that;s a 5kw heater, what KW is your total radiator load, if you don't know then what size are they and are they single or double panel.

[cuthound]

This website makes is easy to calculate the rating of various size radiators in watts:

 

http://www.simplifydiy.com/plumbing-and-heating/radiators/power

[capri sun]

So that;s a 5kw heater, what KW is your total radiator load, if you don't know then what size are they and are they single or double panel.

Hello NMEA

I have two double radiators approx 80x60cm plus a towel radiator

[NMEA]

Hello NMEA

I have two double radiators approx 80x60cm plus a towel radiator

So at best you have about 2.5kw when the calorifier gets warm, with a 5kw heater. No wonder the poor little bugger is playing up, you need to have at leeast double what you have. An system design fault is always more likely than an actual heater fault and this is a prime example.

[capri sun]

Hi NMEA

thankyou for the information

Do I try and fit larger radiators?

or any advice would be great

 

Roger

[NMEA]

Hi NMEA

thankyou for the information

Do I try and fit larger radiators?

or any advice would be great

 

Roger

Larger, more, whatever. But if you want it to work as designed you need around 6kw of them, if you can't get there then get as close as possible.

[Retardedrocker]

 

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have an issue with mine as well.

 

It fires up fine and runs for ten minutes; always ten, on the nail, and then shuts down. I also have two radiators and a heated towel rail.

I'm moored in a marina with an electric hook up, so I don't suppose voltage is an issue.

 

Any thoughts?

 

T.

[WotEver]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have an issue with mine as well.

 

It fires up fine and runs for ten minutes; always ten, on the nail, and then shuts down. I also have two radiators and a heated towel rail.

I'm moored in a marina with an electric hook up, so I don't suppose voltage is an issue.

 

Any thoughts?

 

T.

As above.

[chubby]

Ive read many times that most often its the standard of the installation thats at fault rather than the eber itself . My understanding is they need to be worked hard , flat out . When i run mine , even in the summer i leave all the rads open so the heater unit is running at full chat . I have a D4WSC feeding first a calorifier and then 4 radiators ( size unknown ) on a 58 ft trad and its been 95% reliable since a major overhaul 2.5 years ago . This makes me think that the " load " is suitable and like any mechanical product it will fail or breakdown every so often but once fixed it seems ok because its working hard once fired up .