Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Morning. We are planning to have a multi fuel stove on our sailaway. We are also going to fit central heating and was wondering what is best between eberspacher or webasto. The Eberspacher is a bit more expensive than the Webasto but is it any better. Regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 I have no experience of the Webasto, but have had an Eberspacher in our boat for eleven years. It's great when it works, heating water and radiators quickly and effectively. It's not so great if the batteries are not well charged, as it then won't start at all. As central heating and hot water are often required in the morning, when batteries tend to be at their lowest ebb, this can be an irritation. Starting the engine cures it, though, but that entails getting out of bed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naughty Cal Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 (edited) Can only speak from our experience of both in blown air format and the Webasto is in our opinion far more reliable. ETA: Even when our batteries have been on their way out and the voltage not great in the morning it has never failed to start up! Edited August 24, 2017 by Naughty Cal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Good comments guys. Ours will be the radiator type. It's 1 - 1 so far then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan de Enfield Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Had both types (running hot water and radiators, and also eberspacher on just 'blow -air) Conclusion 'nothing between them', but I get the 'feeling' that ebers have a geographically wider customer service base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Pastida@1 said: Morning. We are planning to have a multi fuel stove on our sailaway. We are also going to fit central heating and was wondering what is best between eberspacher or webasto. The Eberspacher is a bit more expensive than the Webasto but is it any better. Regards John Both those type of heaters are not designed for liveaboards with 24hour use and will fail when you need it. You need a Pressure Jet type heater like from Hurricane, Kabola, Bubble PJ and others. Edited August 24, 2017 by Robbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Good info there. Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 27 minutes ago, Pastida@1 said: Good info there. Cheers John I have had the hurricane its by far the best BUT it costs upwards of 18 million pounds to install and is noisey. I have had mikuni and webasto a few times and prefer webasto. Having sid that the hire fleet here are ebers and very little problems. As already said you can use the Hurricane 24/7 but he others are better served for up to a couple of hours useage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Good info mate. We won't be running it for more than 4 hrs a day in the winter. It's just to warm up and air the boat in a morning and evening. As I'm doing the fit out myself I can spend a few more quid on a good system. I'm enjoying planning the boat and finding answers to my questions on here Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 8 minutes ago, Pastida@1 said: Good info mate. We won't be running it for more than 4 hrs a day in the winter. It's just to warm up and air the boat in a morning and evening. As I'm doing the fit out myself I can spend a few more quid on a good system. I'm enjoying planning the boat and finding answers to my questions on here Cheers John Me personally I'm looking at the Bubble PJ, it is however a 240v unit. I think it comes in at around £1400-1600. Pressure Jet systems can be cycled where the pre-heater types like the Ebersplutters really don't like to be cycled. If you go for one of the non-PJ heaters, don't use on a thermostat and don't get one larger than you need as it's best for them to be worked hard and not cycled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuthound Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 When I bought my boat, fitted with a Webasto, I was advised never to run it longer than 1 hour if the calorifier was warm or 2 hours if the calorifier was cold, to prevent it sooting up. (They like to be run hard, as do Eberspachers). I have followed this advice religiously, and have never had any issues with it in over 3 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 More great info guys. Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Note the noisey bit, having the unit away from living and sleeping areas and pref in a sound insulated box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Just had a look at the hurricane. Looks a good unit and would fit in the engine bay. It's a bit more expensive but looks a good unit. Might be worth considering when I get to that part of the fit out. Be asking about inverters next lol Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paringa Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Another vote for Bubble pressure jet boiler. Reliable and efficient but you will need to run it with an inverter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 8 minutes ago, Paringa said: Another vote for Bubble pressure jet boiler. Reliable and efficient but you will need to run it with an inverter... And made locally! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB Lola Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Webasto works fine with our 4 radiators. Abused it to hell, never had it serviced in 4 years and it works. I will have it repaired/serviced if it breaks but do have multi fuel stove as heat back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 1 hour ago, Pastida@1 said: Just had a look at the hurricane. Looks a good unit and would fit in the engine bay. It's a bit more expensive but looks a good unit. Might be worth considering when I get to that part of the fit out. Be asking about inverters next lol Cheers John Mastervolt first, or Victron as a second best. DO NOT try to save a few quid in this department Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty69 Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Just now, mrsmelly said: Mastervolt first, or Victron as a second best. DO NOT try to save a few quid in this department Do Mastervolt and Victron make heaters these days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naughty Cal Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 1 hour ago, NB Lola said: Webasto works fine without our 4 radiators. Abused it to hell, never had it serviced in 4 years and it works. I will have it repaired/serviced if it breaks but do have multi fuel stove as heat back up. Our Webasto was fitted when the boat was new so 14 years ago now. The winter just gone was the fist time we have had to pay it any attention. We had to dismantle it, decoke it, replace the glow plug, replace the burner cartridge and the fan unit. Whilst we were at it we replaced the ducting and lagged it. Cost to do the work was £200 in parts. No labour as Liam repaired it. It now works a treat, in fact far better then it ever has in our ownership! The trick with all of these units is not to over size them and to run them hard when using them in the winter. Some of them seem a bit fussy with fuel quality, ours doesn't seem to mind what it gets. In fact our engine is more fussy then the heating unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dccruiser Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 (edited) I have used both webasto and eberspacher, had a blown air webasto in my cruiser that was years old ... abused it to death and it never once failed to fire up, i fitted a brand new ebby hydronic 2 years ago with 4 large rads and a coil to the calorifier , it was serviced last year as i made the mistake of putting a room thermostat in causing it to cycle and coke up ... since i removed that and so long as its never run less than 2 hours its been totally reliable, i am going to give it a full 2 year service before winter as a matter of course as the service kit is only 35 quid off ebay .... over last winter i figure it used between 1/3 and 1/2 a litre of diesel an hour to run. On the inverter front i have all sterling equipment 3kw pure sine inverter 60amp ultra battery charger PDAR W Alternator controller with remote also have a 1600/60 sterling inverter charger in my motorhome and never had a problem with any of it although a lot of people knock it also found the after sales service to be excellent. Rick Edited August 24, 2017 by dccruiser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Great reply Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 I installed a Webasto ‘Airtop 2000’ in our small (35ft) cruising narrow boat about 15 years ago; I’m please to say we’ve never had any problems with it; except it did fail to fire up one morning due to low battery (my own fault). It’s a little noisy on first start up, but soon settles down to a low background hum. We typically cruise about 90 ish nights a year, including early and late season, but not winter as we only have single glazed windows and condensation can be an issue. If you are going to use warm air heating ensure the air intake is from outside the boat and you have good ventilation to reduce condensation. When needed (which is more often than I would like with our weather) it’s typically run for a couple of hours in the morning and 4-5 hours in the evening; on occasions it has run continually for 24 hours with no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastida@1 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 That's great. Sounds a good system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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