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.

 

[Gromett]

Just thought I would give an update.

Very, very happy with the heater that has performed flawlessly since the last update.

I just decided to do a precautionary gauze change as it was starting to take a little longer to spark up.

It is a 10 minute job and I carry lots of spares.

I cocked it up. I use small wire brushes in my drill. Got a new one out of the packet and got to work and it sheered off inside the heater. The break point was too far down for me to easily reach it.

Thought I was in for a potentially cold night as I am running low on gas and was due to get a refill this week.

Then I thought. Ah, diesel heater 1's burn chamber is still in the workshop. So spent an hour removing it from my van, full strip down, clean up, new gaskets and a rebuild using the other burn chamber.
I am now back up and running.

Jeez. These things are sooo easy to fix and maintain. I love it.

Tomorrows job is to strip the burn chamber down and try to extract the broken brush. If I can I have a new spare burn chamber. If not, then I will have splash out another £80 on a spare unit just in case.

BUT to be fair. This was my mistake by going too deep with a brush that was possibly a bit too big. Self inflicted.

 

[ROADRUNNER700]

I installed a 2KW diesel heater 2 days ago. Here is my initial review.

I was heading towards the peak winter usage of gas at 1 bottle per week and these are currently costing £42.99 per swap.
In addition my gas heater just doesn't cut it in the winter even on full blast. So a Diesel heater has been long on the cards.

Now I have my industrial unit I could strip stuff down and had places to store all the crap while I did the work and it wasn't so much of a hassle to do.

Soo. The install. I wanted to install it under the bench seat opposite the one I use as a bed. But due to the water heater being in an awkward position this was not possible with the chassis rails.
Moving it is possible but is a future project and I didn't want to do it just now. So. I installed it under my bed as that is the easiest place to get to. Right at the head of the bed.
It wasn't until I started testing it I suddenly thought about having that fan/tick right next to my head whilst trying to sleep and got a bit concerned.

This fear turned out to be unfounded as once the cushions were back on it is actually quieter than the blower in my Truma gas/electric heater.

Noise levels are therefore not an issue at all with the 2Kw heaters at low. And at low it is heating my caravan beautifully. I have had to turn it off once due to it getting too hot in here once, the sun was out and heating the van up.
Then twice I have opened a roof vent with the fan on for 2 minutes each time to knock down the heat a bit at night. Turning it off cools the van too much and then it has to ramp up to get the temp back up again. So letting a little bit of the hot air out works out better.
It is not something you have to do often with the 2KW heater.

2KW vs 5KW heater. I chose the 2KW heater because I would rather have one that could go very low and use the least diesel rather than work most efficiently in the winter. I think this was the correct decision. The 5KW in my van cab pumps out a LOT more heat on the lowest setting and would have been too much for my caravan.

Usage: The diesel tank gauge hasn't moved off full in the 2 days I have been using it. So I just timed the ticks. It is running at 1 tick a second at night and during the day it drops lower than this. But I just did the maths based on 1 tick per second.
1 tick = a 0.02ml dose. So 0.02ml x 60 x 60 is 72ml an hour and 1.728L a day. I am buying my red diesel at 99p per litre. So the cost is £1.71 a day or £11.97 per week. Even if I have to go the more expensive supplier round here it is £1.15 per litre it would be £1.99 per day or £14 per week. When I can get onto the kerosene it will be £0.79 per litre or £1.36 per day or £9.55 per week. I was considering getting a Kerosene bunded tank but the cost of it and the savings means it is probably not worth the effort. The payback time would be too long.
Anyway I think that is off the beaten track

My calculations are that if you can get red diesel then the cost of running a 2KW diesel heater is a quarter of the price to a third of the price of gas bottles and probably half the cost of LPG.


Summary. Not as noisy as expected, much cheaper to run than expected. Dead easy to install and a good level of heat even on the lowest setting. For a caravan it is better because refillable LPG are not always practical. For a motorhome if you use the main diesel tank I think it still works out cheaper than LPG in a refillable but perhaps not as clear cut depending on the price of Diesel. However, if you are fulltiming during the winter. Having the diesel heater running from your main tank gives you a much long run time before needing to seek a refill. With a dual 13KG gaslow in the peak of winter you would be seeking a refill every 14-18 days. A 90 Litre tank in a fiat ducato would last 53 Days. So there is that advantage to consider also. In 2009 and 2010 winters I got snowed in and had a hellish job getting cyclinders delivered. I couldn't get out to get my Gaslow bottles topped up. It hasn't happened since, but...

Anyway, I will post follow ups if I have any further information.

I installed a 2KW diesel heater 2 days ago. Here is my initial review.

I was heading towards the peak winter usage of gas at 1 bottle per week and these are currently costing £42.99 per swap.
In addition my gas heater just doesn't cut it in the winter even on full blast. So a Diesel heater has been long on the cards.

Now I have my industrial unit I could strip stuff down and had places to store all the crap while I did the work and it wasn't so much of a hassle to do.

Soo. The install. I wanted to install it under the bench seat opposite the one I use as a bed. But due to the water heater being in an awkward position this was not possible with the chassis rails.
Moving it is possible but is a future project and I didn't want to do it just now. So. I installed it under my bed as that is the easiest place to get to. Right at the head of the bed.
It wasn't until I started testing it I suddenly thought about having that fan/tick right next to my head whilst trying to sleep and got a bit concerned.

This fear turned out to be unfounded as once the cushions were back on it is actually quieter than the blower in my Truma gas/electric heater.

Noise levels are therefore not an issue at all with the 2Kw heaters at low. And at low it is heating my caravan beautifully. I have had to turn it off once due to it getting too hot in here once, the sun was out and heating the van up.
Then twice I have opened a roof vent with the fan on for 2 minutes each time to knock down the heat a bit at night. Turning it off cools the van too much and then it has to ramp up to get the temp back up again. So letting a little bit of the hot air out works out better.
It is not something you have to do often with the 2KW heater.

2KW vs 5KW heater. I chose the 2KW heater because I would rather have one that could go very low and use the least diesel rather than work most efficiently in the winter. I think this was the correct decision. The 5KW in my van cab pumps out a LOT more heat on the lowest setting and would have been too much for my caravan.

Usage: The diesel tank gauge hasn't moved off full in the 2 days I have been using it. So I just timed the ticks. It is running at 1 tick a second at night and during the day it drops lower than this. But I just did the maths based on 1 tick per second.
1 tick = a 0.02ml dose. So 0.02ml x 60 x 60 is 72ml an hour and 1.728L a day. I am buying my red diesel at 99p per litre. So the cost is £1.71 a day or £11.97 per week. Even if I have to go the more expensive supplier round here it is £1.15 per litre it would be £1.99 per day or £14 per week. When I can get onto the kerosene it will be £0.79 per litre or £1.36 per day or £9.55 per week. I was considering getting a Kerosene bunded tank but the cost of it and the savings means it is probably not worth the effort. The payback time would be too long.
Anyway I think that is off the beaten track

My calculations are that if you can get red diesel then the cost of running a 2KW diesel heater is a quarter of the price to a third of the price of gas bottles and probably half the cost of LPG.


Summary. Not as noisy as expected, much cheaper to run than expected. Dead easy to install and a good level of heat even on the lowest setting. For a caravan it is better because refillable LPG are not always practical. For a motorhome if you use the main diesel tank I think it still works out cheaper than LPG in a refillable but perhaps not as clear cut depending on the price of Diesel. However, if you are fulltiming during the winter. Having the diesel heater running from your main tank gives you a much long run time before needing to seek a refill. With a dual 13KG gaslow in the peak of winter you would be seeking a refill every 14-18 days. A 90 Litre tank in a fiat ducato would last 53 Days. So there is that advantage to consider also. In 2009 and 2010 winters I got snowed in and had a hellish job getting cyclinders delivered. I couldn't get out to get my Gaslow bottles topped up. It hasn't happened since, but...

Anyway, I will post follow ups if I have any further information.

hi gromett i had 5kw diesel in my camper for all most 2 years lot to hot had to keep turning it off so this oct 2024 only just be for jack frost & lots of rain came fitted new 2kw diesel heater 2024 model blue lcd screen up grade 2024 model £97.00 as with yours lot quite ,when running fan turns right down on low setting and fuel very good on diesel fuel for 2 wk ends fri 7.00am to sun 9.0pm very little diesel used i keep new diesel pump for spare and buy new ultra quite diesel pump £12.99 can only just here it slight tick only thing not work out just yet is the temp is from 16c to 27c not work it out how to lower temp to say 16c have try doing it but not got it to lower just yet the user manual is not clear on the blue lcd screen on how to ajust very small print & fade ink but rest of diesel heater all works well lot better then 5kw was over powering in the end for my self build camper van works very well so far as for battery have bosch 100amp starter battery the new 2kw diesel heater use little battery power to run split charge relay when engine is running to charge battery up for now have solar panels but to cold to fit them to camper van roof just yet be after winter march time this true story you live and learn as you go carry on camping

 

[Gromett]

hi gromett i had 5kw diesel in my camper for all most 2 years lot to hot had to keep turning it off so this oct 2024 only just be for jack frost & lots of rain came fitted new 2kw diesel heater 2024 model blue lcd screen up grade 2024 model £97.00 as with yours lot quite ,when running fan turns right down on low setting and fuel very good on diesel fuel for 2 wk ends fri 7.00am to sun 9.0pm very little diesel used i keep new diesel pump for spare and buy new ultra quite diesel pump £12.99 can only just here it slight tick only thing not work out just yet is the temp is from 16c to 27c not work it out how to lower temp to say 16c have try doing it but not got it to lower just yet the user manual is not clear on the blue lcd screen on how to ajust very small print & fade ink but rest of diesel heater all works well lot better then 5kw was over powering in the end for my self build camper van works very well so far as for battery have bosch 100amp starter battery the new 2kw diesel heater use little battery power to run split charge relay when engine is running to charge battery up for now have solar panels but to cold to fit them to camper van roof just yet be after winter march time this true story you live and learn as you go carry on camping

Yup, I have a 5KW in my van and it overpowers it. The 2KW heater in the caravan which is very poorly insulated is just about right.
About to install my 3rd one in the workshop, that is a 5KW as well. I will be most interested to see how it handles that as it is 13M by 8M in size. Fortunately it is insulated but it does have steel beams as heat bridges and a roller shutter door.

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[Gromett]

Wow, my 5kw heater can go down to 1.5hz the lowest; I know I can mess with the settings to go further down, but I'm thinking of to cold and soot build up.

Just a follow up to this. 0.5Hz is what caused my sooting up. 1.0Hz is as low as I go now. I just looked at the burn chamber in the one I took out last night which has been running like that for 10-11 months and it is perfectly clean. Zero soot.

So, I think 0.5Hz is a major problem.

 

[MisterB]

My original 2 year old 2kw heater has failed due to the bearings on the fan. It was cheap enough to get a new one and I will try to repair it when it gets warmer weather. I actually think I may have damaged it when adapting it and it's used outside the house, it may even have got damp in the bearings from it being outside all year and not covered over to protect it, entirely my fault !!

Are they coming down in price? The latest was much cheaper than my original one.

 

[Gromett]

My original 2 year old 2kw heater has failed due to the bearings on the fan. It was cheap enough to get a new one and I will try to repair it when it gets warmer weather. I actually think I may have damaged it when adapting it and it's used outside the house, it may even have got damp in the bearings from it being outside all year and not covered over to protect it, entirely my fault !!

Are they coming down in price? The latest was much cheaper than my original one.

I am seeing the price on my one still at around £80.
I paid £83 last year for this. Now it is £78.99

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[Gromett]

My original 2 year old 2kw heater has failed due to the bearings on the fan. It was cheap enough to get a new one and I will try to repair it when it gets warmer weather. I actually think I may have damaged it when adapting it and it's used outside the house, it may even have got damp in the bearings from it being outside all year and not covered over to protect it, entirely my fault !!

Are they coming down in price? The latest was much cheaper than my original one.

My 2nd 2Kw failed on the motor. It worked but the noise off the motor was horrendous. Never got round to ordering a new motor though. Just added one to my shopping cart.
I can then rebuild Diesel heater 1 as a spare. I already have a spare burn chamber.

I can't believe how cheap the new motor unit is. £16.49 That include the body, fan and everything.

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Jeez these things are so cheap to run and maintain.

 

[Terry]

Gromett hi Karl can you let me know how you get on with heater in your unit please? Along with running costs ? Thinking I may put one outside blasting into room in house instead of log burner or central heating

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[dunnah01]

My 2nd 2Kw failed on the motor. It worked but the noise off the motor was horrendous. Never got round to ordering a new motor though. Just added one to my shopping cart.
I can then rebuild Diesel heater 1 as a spare. I already have a spare burn chamber.

I can't believe how cheap the new motor unit is. £16.49 That include the body, fan and everything.

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Jeez these things are so cheap to run and maintain.

It say 'car blower' not 'motorhome blower' - missed opportunity to add a 0

 

[Wildbill]

We have the 5kw installed in our PVC conversion.
Even on the coldest days we are toasty warm going to Scotland now for Christmas and expecting to use no more than two gallons in two weeks but we don’t bother to much about the cost.
We also have one in our statick caravan and it heats the hole van
WB

 

[MisterB]

Terry

Ours is blasting into our house as I type .. brilliant for boosting our A2A inverter !!

 

[Gromett]

Gromett hi Karl can you let me know how you get on with heater in your unit please? Along with running costs ? Thinking I may put one outside blasting into room in house instead of log burner or central heating

Will do.

 

[Terry]

We have the 5kw installed in our PVC conversion.
Even on the coldest days we are toasty warm going to Scotland now for Christmas and expecting to use no more than two gallons in two weeks but we don’t bother to much about the cost.
WB

Bill i have had diesel heaters In vans for above 20 years but never gave using one to heat a room or workshop a second thought. I know how well they work in vans

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[Wildbill]

Bill i have had diesel heaters In vans for above 20 years but never gave using one to heat a room or workshop a second thought. I know how well they work in vans

Al I stated really is it heat our 40ft static well o and my workshops 40x10 feet use to be nice and warm with a 5kw so to heat a room won’t be a problem I would think

 

[MisterB]

Mine is ducted through the wall and comes out under the kitchen units, the air intake is also taken from the kitchen. The install could certainly be improved re insulation and shortening the external ducting, BUT it works! I used aluminium caps to seal the duct on the outside when I remove the heater for the summer. I used a female to female coupling through the wall for both ducts, which is fixed permanently.
I operate it using the remote. The control/display is outside though last year I had it internally albeit under the kitchen units.
If I could find somewhere to mount it without it looking out of place, I would AND I will eventually!!

 

[Wildbill]

Just fitted a 5kw to replace the heater that lasted 5 years and the one I have taken out only needs a new fan baring