2KW diesel heater installed. Review, performance, sound, cost.

[Gromett]

With that article in mind. I think the vast majority of Chinese Diesel heaters are being sold to those who couldn't afford or wouldn't pay Webasto prices.
The market for Webasto products is at the higher end and people likely to buy these probably wouldn't consider cheaper chinese products which they probably perceive of as cheap, inferior knock offs.
In fact awareness of the cheap chinese products may actually increase sales of webasto products by people seeing the cheap ones but not trusting them.

 

[Dazzola]

I'm on my second chinese heater, this second one has been a fit and forget affair, using all standard parts, and fitted as its supposed to be, no hard fuel line or fancy pump, wrapped pump in foam to dampen the noise under the van.
It's been faultless, gets used everyday in winter to defrost or warm the van while I have a brew before leaving for work, run on low for a few days while away or full speed to melt icy windows.
I really cannot fault it, and all for £79.

 

[Gromett]

Well this is shocking. My Propane 11KG bottle just ran out after 5 days. The last one lasted 6 days.
The diesel heater is looking like better and better value. I just wish the rubber gasket would hurry up and arrive.
Probably going to install the 1st one tomorrow with the 2nd ones gasket.

OH, and I cleaned off the original burn chamber yesterday and I think it is still serviceable. Might put it back in an see if it lasts more than 5 weeks if given a full temp burn periodically. Much better to test if nothing has changed.

 

[Gromett]

Finally had time today to do the repairs and had all the parts in (or so I thought).

Quick recap.
Unit no 1: Sooted up. So I bought a spare and multiple spare parts. Burn chamber, gaskets and glow plug etc.
Unit no 2: Installed for 1 week and it started blowing exhaust fumes into the living area.

Got a new burn chamber but when I started to strip the heater down again the rubber seal on the base ripped. So I ordered 2 from what I thought was alocal supplier and they should have arrived in 3 days. it took 2 weeks and came from China. Grrr.
Then work kicked in as this is my busy time of year. I finally got time to strip unit number 1 down again. I installed the original burn chamber as neither of the new ones were the right length and the pipes were bent wrong. More on that later.

So got number 1 unit all back together and installed in the van only to have it make a god awful squealing noise. I stripped it out and back down again and it is one of the internal bearings. This "may" explain the sooting up as if the fan was running a bit too slow then the mixture would have been rich. That to one side what to do next.

I ended up risking taking the number two fan off and installing it in number 1 unit. I didn't really want to do this because if the exhaust fume problem is in that part of the unit then I would just transfer the problem.

Anyway it has been running for 30 minutes now and I am not seeing any exhaust fumes in the van so fingers crossed I have a working unit for at least a few weeks

I am ordering a full set of Japanese bearings that are fully sealed and also a spare motor housing.

Due to all these issues I can no longer recommend the 2Kw ones if you are using it all day/night. Unless you are happy to spend money on a spare unit and spare parts and don't mind tinkering.
My 4KW units have been absolutely fine but they do go through start up and shutdown cycles regularly.

I am not giving up on the 2KW units though. They are just too good and cheap to run to give up on. I will probably end up replacing the bearings in both and doing a full service regularly until I can figure out their foibles.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

If you plug the exhaust outlet and put some pressure into the air inlet on the one that has an exhaust leak you can determine where the leak is coming from with a soapy water brush.

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[Manic]

My 5kw heater did start smelling a little on start up and watching YouTube as you do, found the fault. It was leaking fumes from the poor fitting glow plug seal, re-regular casting, high rtv sorted it.
As above that’s what I did , that reply came as I was typing.

 

[Gromett]

My 5kw heater did start smelling a little on start up and watching YouTube as you do, found the fault. It was leaking fumes from the poor fitting glow plug seal, re-regular casting, high rtv sorted it.

Yup, those seals are really difficult to fit properly unless you can access the back side of them. Even then they don't always go in.

 

[Manic]

Yup, those seals are really difficult to fit properly unless you can access the back side of them. Even then they don't always go in.

On mine there was very little for it to go in.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

My 5kw heater did start smelling a little on start up and watching YouTube as you do, found the fault. It was leaking fumes from the poor fitting glow plug seal, re-regular casting, high rtv sorted it.
As above that’s what I did , that reply came as I was typing.

Yes had to seal my glow plug seal as well .

 

[Gromett]

If you plug the exhaust outlet and put some pressure into the air inlet on the one that has an exhaust leak you can determine where the leak is coming from with a soapy water brush.

I doubt that would work. There is the glow plug hole. The breather hole. The fuel inlet hole to name a few off top of my head. And even if you block them all up the leak is not necessarily in the burn chamber.

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[Jimbohorlicks]

Any leaks into the outer casing area from the exhaust side will lead to exhaust fumes being pushed through into the hot air side.I would review your unit before you re install it. It only takes a few mins to do a leak test.

 

[Gromett]

Any leaks into the outer casing area from the exhaust side will lead to exhaust fumes being pushed through into the hot air side.I would review your unit before you re install it. It only takes a few mins to do a leak test.

I am not convinced that a pressure test is possible by just blocking the exhaust.. I will look and take some pictures tomorrow.