Tell me about EBERSPACHER heaters (1 Viewer)

Jaws

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Ok... I would like as much info as possible about these heaters

Installation info

Where they mount

what is needed

have YOU fitted one

How much diesel do they use

Been offered one as a silly price cos the numpty has cut through the controller loom but I suspect that will not be a problem
 

Snowbird

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Hi John, I have one of the early D1s in the van. It was fitted when I bought the van so cant tell you how to fit them. There is loads of info on Utube on fitting and servicing them. Mine uses very little fuel and once its completed the startup procedure uses little or no battery power. Have had them for years as night heaters in trucks and they give little or no problems. The heat output cannot be matched by any other form of heating. All parts are available both new and second hand from ebay.
 

darklord

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They are easy to fit. They have an air intake and an exhaust, mounting bolts, and a feed for the fuel. The inlet and exhaust are about 15mm, the fuel about 6mm. The fuel goes to a very small pulse pump, and then to anything you want to hold the fuel.
The inlet and exhaust are close to each other on the belly of the unit, most HGV factors sell the flexi exhaust pipe by the meter, I wont bother telling you how to route it, its common sense...its hot, and initially it burps out a cloud of unburnt and semi burnt fuel...after that, very little diesel used, and very little battery.
As for the loom, they are on ebay in various guises, some on a timer, some manual, some even operate by text i have heard, search around, it,ll all come easy to you......a doddle to fit.

Oh, one of the most common reasons for failure, the filter at one end gets bunged up with rubbish shoved down the back of the seats by drvers, give it a clean out while fitting.

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FULL TIMER

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Ok... I would like as much info as possible about these heaters

Installation info pretty easy, getting fuel supply is about the worst job

Where they mount normally on vehicle floor or can be mounted under using a metal box

what is needed heater,control / thermostat,fuel pump,

have YOU fitted one many

How much diesel do they use depends on model but even the biggest only use around 500ml per hour whilst in maximum boost
Been offered one as a silly price cos the numpty has cut through the controller loom but I suspect that will not be a problem
The main thing is to make sure you have everything, such as the pump, control box (later models have these mounted inside the heater. if you wish to take fuel from your fuel tank you will probably need a standpipe which fits in the top of the tank, you can sometimes cut into the fuel sustem but not reccomended, you could also use a seperate tank thereby allowing the use of heating oil or red . I have fitted hundreds of D4 and D2's in ambulance vehicles and have the equipment here to find and clear fault codes. also check that the motor moves easily and smoothly as if these don't run at correct speed they are no good. parts are readily available and I keep some in stock but motors and control boxes are around a couple of hundred quid, if it's a D2 or D4 you could always bring it up and stick it on a test rig,
 
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Jaws

Jaws

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Ok.. had a watch on YouTube ( could only find one vid of a chap installing one which was ok(ish) but found several others of installed units and units on test

looks pretty straightforward but hell, they seem DAMNED noisy !!
 

FULL TIMER

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They are quite noisy on start up as they are running flat out, once they get nearer the set temperature the motor slows down and obviously they then quieten down quite a bit, you can also get a silencer for the exhaust and a muffler for the combustion air intake this really helps to cut the noise level. If you want to see one running before you buy one or test the one you have in mind you're more than welcome to visit I'll soon rig something up on the bench, I've got a D1, couple of D3's and a D4 here plus a couple of Mikuni MY30's and a D5 in my motorhome

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Theonlysue

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heaters

I've parked up next to one, and you're right, it was noisy and not very cold like it is at the mo.
Have you considered a hot water bottle ? :ROFLMAO:
 
Sep 23, 2007
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Hi Jaws

After reading Haggers post re Eberspachers I looked into the KW rating of Deisel and LPG. A friend in the renewable energy game tells me

Diesel is just over 10.5 KW per litre
LPG 6.6 KW per litre
Heating Oil is a little higher than diesel per litre

So cost wise an additional fuel tank for red diesel or heating oil is the way to go.
 

Snowbird

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They are noisy, but only to your neighbours. Am told you can get some form of silencer for them. I would have thought after seeing one of the silencers you would be able to knock one together.

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Jaws

Jaws

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They are quite noisy on start up as they are running flat out, once they get nearer the set temperature the motor slows down and obviously they then quieten down quite a bit, you can also get a silencer for the exhaust and a muffler for the combustion air intake this really helps to cut the noise level. If you want to see one running before you buy one or test the one you have in mind you're more than welcome to visit I'll soon rig something up on the bench, I've got a D1, couple of D3's and a D4 here plus a couple of Mikuni MY30's and a D5 in my motorhome

That sounds like an excellent idea !!

Could you pm me your fone number so we can arrange something ?
 

Forestboy

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They are bloody noisy, we parked about 25ft from a Hymer 594 at a music festival earlier this year and their Ebrerspacher woke me every morning at 6am sounded like a jumbo jet taking off and went on for ages.
 

haganap

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I posted another thread only a few days ago asking almost the same questions.

outcome was that I would load in more gas, payload not a problem,

Fit a Truma activent to move the air to the front of the van quicker and put a new outlet in to the cab area.

Working, they are noisy and can be smelly.

fitting was pretty straight forward although you need a pick up in to the tank to get the fuel or and additional fuel tank.

If I had a van with one fitted I wouldn't say no, but to fit one as an addition, not worth the cost and hassall in my opinion.

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Jaws

Jaws

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Well I am hoping to get over to Mark sometime this coming week for a demo and will make up my mind from there :thumb:
 
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They have them in mobile crane's, great bit of kit ran better on white diesel, in real cold weather 50/50 mix with kero, have run them on just kero they run even hotter, the last company I worked for insisted we ran them on kero less problems than red diesel,
hope this is of some help.

regards
tony
 

chrisgreen

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i fitted one in my first motorhome,and the biggest regret i have about it ,was i left it in it when i sold the motorhome,should have removed it and fitted in my current motorhome:Doh:
but on the plus side i now have three sat under the bench in the garage all picked up cheap on my travels,but sadly only one of them is 12v the other 2 being 24v.:thumb:
great bit's of kit and well worth fitting:thumb:

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FULL TIMER

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i fitted one in my first motorhome,and the biggest regret i have about it ,was i left it in it when i sold the motorhome,should have removed it and fitted in my current motorhome:Doh:
but on the plus side i now have three sat under the bench in the garage all picked up cheap on my travels,but sadly only one of them is 12v the other 2 being 24v.:thumb:
great bit's of kit and well worth fitting:thumb:

All is not lost , I beleive you can get a 12v - 24v converter saw one advertised on the bay a while back but never looked into it to see if it would be viable
 

darklord

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They are fitted to all HGV,s, a lot of Telecom vans (thats where most of the 12v ones on ebay come from) they are also fitted to landrovers, utility vehicles, and welfare units, they are IMHO, by far the best heating system available. If one is noisy, its normally due to it being faulty, sometimes sucking for air that aint there, a faulty glowplug etc, or lack of good silencing, believe me, if a trucker is kept awake by someone elses night heater......it,ll soon get fixed:Eeek:, and can you imagin a service area with say..50 of them, all being noisy??....it don't happen.

One thing I have found over the years, is that MOST repairs/servicing etc, is best left to those that specialise in it, works out cheaper in the end. One of our fitters has just snapped a plug off by going a little too heavy with the spanners, now its double the repair cost:Blush:.

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Terry

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Well I for one would fit one tomorrow if I got one at the right price.There was supposed to be one on this van but the barstools took it out and flogged it :Doh: promised to send me one but never did.I have left the pick up still in the tank :thumb: never got around to sealing it up properly it acts as a overflow when filling with diesel
::bigsmile:
Terry
 
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Jaws

Jaws

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Massive thanks to Mark for taking time out to give me a demo... Now all I have to do is convince woman it is what we need !!
 
Nov 30, 2009
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We have a Webasto Jaws. Have you totally ruled those out ?
Its not noisy or smelly and its cheap to run.
We had the heating on 24 /7 fri to sunday , and on the journey there and back ,last weekend. It was lovely and warm inside no cold spots or draughts. It was - temps outside. Ralph says we used less than a fiver in deisel . So much warmer than any gas heaters we have had in the various caravans before.
Put it this way , when Ralph does our van conversion , in a few years , he is fitting a Webasto in it. They are brilliant.:thumb:

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Snowbird

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Take care with the Webasto heaters. There has been a lot of negative feedback on the boat forums recently. Admittedly its more to do with they don't like red diesel, but they also don't like bio diesel and roadfuel is now at least 5% bio diesel, so it seems the Webasto is not going to be much use in the future when they increase the percentage of bio in roadfuel. At least two owners are taking legal action as they are not fit for purpose.
 
Nov 30, 2009
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Take care with the Webasto heaters. There has been a lot of negative feedback on the boat forums recently. Admittedly its more to do with they don't like red diesel, but they also don't like bio diesel and roadfuel is now at least 5% bio diesel, so it seems the Webasto is not going to be much use in the future when they increase the percentage of bio in roadfuel. At least two owners are taking legal action as they are not fit for purpose.

We just use regular deisel from the petrol station. Couldnt tell you if its bio as i never fill it up :Blush::ROFLMAO:
Its not a separate unit that you could use red in , even if you wanted to .
We have had no problems with it since we have had the motorhome at all.
After swapping the rubbish leisure batteries that were provided by the dealer ito trojan batteries that is . The fan just drained them when we weren't on hook up.

I hope im not tempting fate now. :Sad:
Hopefully by the time Ralphs ready to do the conversion , Webasto will have sorted out the problem you say they may have with red deisel / bio fuel . Its going to be at least 5 years time.
 

jonandshell

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The issue with Webasto heaters is premature clogging of the burner insert.

It explicitly states in the user manual that only road fuel should be used. As mentioned on Hagger's thread, road diesel is NOT the same as red so therefore that is why boat owners are having problems. That is why Webasto will not warrant their products run on red.

A diesel heater burner will always clog with deposits in time, carrying out a service should include a burner clean or replacement. We had our burner changed at 2 years during a warranty job for a failed ECU. Cleaning is possible and I will be doing that in a couple of years from now when I carry out the 2 yearly service tasks.

I think the criticism levelled at Webasto is quite unfair given that their product is frequently used incorrectly.

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Snowbird

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Fair comment jonandshell, but given the choice of a diesel fuel heater that will burn almost anything and one that will only burn white diesel, which would you choose. Given the choice.
Also given the choice, which would you choose if one had parts, both second hand and new readily and cheaply available and one that didn't.
 
Nov 30, 2009
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Hi jonandshell,

A diesel heater burner will always clog with deposits in time, carrying out a service should include a burner clean or replacement. We had our burner changed at 2 years during a warranty job for a failed ECU. Cleaning is possible and I will be doing that in a couple of years from now when I carry out the 2 yearly service tasks.

I looked into a service on our Webasto and was informed that there is no service kit available as they don't need servicing....What do you think ?.
Not to sure on the model i think its a 3500 but it is heating only.

I remember speaking to a webasto engineer when we first got the MH regarding another issue which turned out to be a leisure battery fault and nothing to do with the heater by the way.

The engineer explained to me that when you turn off your webasto you will hear the unit rev up for a short while...this is the webasto self cleaning the burner.

Clever bit of kit :thumb:

Ralph.
 

jonandshell

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Fair comment jonandshell, but given the choice of a diesel fuel heater that will burn almost anything and one that will only burn white diesel, which would you choose. Given the choice.
Also given the choice, which would you choose if one had parts, both second hand and new readily and cheaply available and one that didn't.

Yes, a very good point about secondhand and parts availability! Since we would only ever run our unit on fuel from the tank, the fussiness over fuel wouldn't be an issue for us, but for a boat owner it would mean the only choice would be an Eberspacher.

The best thing going for Webasto over Eberspacher is that they do the Dualtop, which provides both blown air and hot water.

That is what we have fitted on our van.

Given a need for blown air only, I agree an Eberspacher would probably be the wisest choice, especially on a self-build using secondhand components.:thumb:

By the way, did you know Webasto also do a diesel cooker hob?:Eeek:

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jonandshell

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Hi jonandshell,

A diesel heater burner will always clog with deposits in time, carrying out a service should include a burner clean or replacement. We had our burner changed at 2 years during a warranty job for a failed ECU. Cleaning is possible and I will be doing that in a couple of years from now when I carry out the 2 yearly service tasks.

I looked into a service on our Webasto and was informed that there is no service kit available as they don't need servicing....What do you think ?.
Not to sure on the model i think its a 3500 but it is heating only.

I remember speaking to a webasto engineer when we first got the MH regarding another issue which turned out to be a leisure battery fault and nothing to do with the heater by the way.

The engineer explained to me that when you turn off your webasto you will hear the unit rev up for a short while...this is the webasto self cleaning the burner.

Clever bit of kit :thumb:

Ralph.

Yes! The combustion fan runs up and purges any unburnt diesel from the burner on shutdown.
This ensures clean combustion during the next startup and reduces white smoke!:thumb:
 

dave newell

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I haven't read through this entire thread but I can give some direct input John as today I removed a Webasto 2KW diesel fired heater from a 9 metre Dethleffs Tag axle motorhome and replaced it with a 4KW Eberspacher unit. The customer asked me to fit the Webasto unit about 3-4 years ago and it has been in fairly regular use ever since. The customer wanted the diesel fired unit fitting as a supplement to the factroy fitted Alde system as it took too long to warm the van up. He now tells me that the Webasto unit was much cheaper to run on red diesel than the Alde system was to run on gas although I only have his word on that with no actual figures.

What I can tell you is that the exhaust of the Webasto fell apart about six inches from the unit as soon as I started removing it which suggests that some chemicals are present in the exhaust gases which can eat stainless steel over time. Both the Webasto and the new Eberspacher units are quite noisy in operation despite the Eberspacher having aover a metre of exhaust with a silencer in it. Heat wise the Ebby raised the internal temp of this van from 6 deg C to 20 deg C in about 30 mins so its pretty good for fast heating. Obviously how the Ebby will perform on red diesel is yet to be confirmed.

Hope this helps.

D.
 

FULL TIMER

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Massive thanks to Mark for taking time out to give me a demo... Now all I have to do is convince woman it is what we need !!

You're more than welcome was good to meet you, just hope we can get to the Thetford bash later on

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