Chinese Diesel Heaters (10 Viewers)

[Speedytriple]

Hi all,

My van has one of these Chinese diesel heaters in it. I didint fit it it was installed already when i bought the van.

From what i was told it tee's into somewhere near the fuel rail on the van.

I've read they operate at a more constant temp if run in Hz mode, but can someone tell me good initial Hz settings for somewhere around 20 degrees Celsius. I guess this is dependant upon your climate etc, but we live in the UK where we rarely have extremes.

Also roughly how much diesel do they use? Again i guess there are a lot of factors effecting this but we are total newbs to all this so i dont know if its a litre per night or a gallon or an egg up.

Thanks in advance

 

[Two on Tour]

Hi all,

My van has one of these Chinese diesel heaters in it. I didint fit it it was installed already when i bought the van.

From what i was told it tee's into somewhere near the fuel rail on the van.

I've read they operate at a more constant temp if run in Hz mode, but can someone tell me good initial Hz settings for somewhere around 20 degrees Celsius. I guess this is dependant upon your climate etc, but we live in the UK where we rarely have extremes.

Also roughly how much diesel do they use? Again i guess there are a lot of factors effecting this but we are total newbs to all this so i dont know if its a litre per night or a gallon or an egg up.

Thanks in advance

It really is a suck it and see as to the Hz rate you will need to maintain around 20c in your van plus it's very likely that you will need to adjust the Hz up and down for the 20c to remain a constant, but as a rough guide, it's about 1.6 Hz on our van and we have a 5kw diesel heater.

Hz is the rate at which the fuel dosing pump pumps at.
Hertz is the internationally recognised system of measuring frequency (rate/speed) and one Hz is one event (cycle) per second, two Hz two events per second and so on.
These are the same Hz that radio frequencies are measured in.

The heater fuel pumps are a solenoid and each time 12v is applied to the pump, the pump pushes a fixed amount of fuel which is normally 22ml.
The 12v to the pump is switched on and off which makes the pump pulse to pump fuel and the frequency (rate/speed) at which the pump pulses is measured in Hz.
The rate at which the fuel is delivered to the heater governs the heat it will produce, and some diesel heaters use the pump Hz rate to indicate this while others just use a number scale as with yours.

At one Hz the heater will use 0.0792 Ltrs per hour and at two Hz it will use 0.1584 Ltrs per hour and at five Hz it will use 0.396 Ltrs per hour and so on.

 

[fishplug]

Temperature mode will fire the heater up on full until it hits the target and then it drops down to minimum until the temperature drops sufficiently to fire it up on full power again - and so the loop continues.

Hz mode keeps the output at a steady rate but the best way of knowing what that is for you and your van is going to be trial and error.

I'd personally start lower and give it half an hour and see what the temperature difference is, then increase it a bit.

Oh, just seen Two on Tour's excellent answer which pretty much covers what I was going to say next so....

The only thing I'll add is that in Hz mode your fuel consumption should be something around:

dose rate x 60 (seconds) x 60 (mins) = mililitres per hour

It's worth sticking these on full power for a while (half an hour or so) from time to time in order to burn off any deposits. They gunk up on tickover and they're a pain to disassemble and clean. Ask me how I know....

 

[Two on Tour]

Hi fishplug

I use a controller on my Chinese diesel heaters designed and made by an Australian guy called an Afterburner.
The Afterburner controller offers a great many ways of controlling and monitoring my Chinese diesel heater, either directly by the controller or via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or internet.
The thermostat modes include running at fixed Hz, headband, stop start and linear Hz which I normally run ours on with hysteresis figure window of 1.25 degrees plus or minus of my desired temperature in conjunction with an upper and lower pump Hz setting of your choosing so the heater does not need to keep stopping and starting to save battery drainage with the glow plugs high amperage.
You can individually set both the upper and lower pump and fan speeds to tune your heater to burn more efficiently, as well as have another four alternative fuel settings you can configure to implement if, for instance, you travel to altitude for skiing maybe.
You have a Frost Mode option, 14 day/timer setting available.
Furthermore, you also can add an additional three DS18B20 temperature sensors to the system.
The controller will also measure the fuel used and the rate of fuel usage in real-time as well as user-set low fuel warning.
Ray the designer is constantly improving and updating the controller's firmware at no additional cost.

The mobile interface on my phone.

Screen grabs from my PC. These are the same as will be displayed on the mobile interface.

 

[Speedytriple]

Thats excellent.

Thank you so much for the replies guys.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[fishplug]

Interesting Two on Tour - I first saw the Afterburner on David McLuckie's YouTube channel but it seems like it's come on leaps and bounds since then.

I've actually got one of James Browning-Smith's truly silent pumps so I'm not sure if it would be compatible with the Afterburner. Might be worthy of some additional research.

That comes with a knob so you can manually adjust the fuel flow rate and I simply measure the exhaust gas with a CO meter and tweak as required when at altitude.

 

[Two on Tour]

Interesting Two on Tour - I first saw the Afterburner on David McLuckie's YouTube channel but it seems like it's come on leaps and bounds since then.

I've actually got one of James Browning-Smith's truly silent pumps so I'm not sure if it would be compatible with the Afterburner. Might be worthy of some additional research.

That comes with a knob so you can manually adjust the fuel flow rate and I simply measure the exhaust gas with a CO meter and tweak as required when at altitude.

I've been using Afterburners for 5 or 6 years now, and once you have used one, you will realise that there is no way you would want to use a standard Chinese controller ever again.

I tried one of James's silent stepper motor pumps in its early form and through some of its upgrades, but with the position of my Lavaner Pro install, I could not stop James's pump from flooding my heater with fuel when it was not running including after solenoid shut off valve upgrade, so I sold it on to another Funster and went back to a standard solenoid dosing pump in a home brew neoprene foam cover.
The silent pump is compatible with the Afterburner as the Afterburner controls the pump by 12v pulse as does the standard Chinese controllers.

 

[Bertilak]

Though generally correct, I think Two on Tour may have a decimal point in the wrong place, I believe each tick squirts 22 cubic millimetres, not cc.
On our mwb Ducato we find minimum power on our 2kw cdh is more than enough overnight, I recently did a back of the envelope calc and reckoned that cost circa 15p/hour.[ edit, at £1.50/ litre and 1Hz, is now 12p/ hr]
Makes some sites charging £5 a day look expensive as we don't really have any other power uses, unless there's not enough sun to run the fridge!

 

[Two on Tour]

I think Two on Tour may have a decimal point in the wrong place, I believe each tick squirts 22 cubic millimetres, not cc.
On our mwb Ducato we find half power on our 2kw cdh is more than enough overnight, I recently did a back of the envelope calc and reckoned that cost circa 15p/hour.
Makes some sites charging £5 a day look expensive as we don't really have any other power uses, unless there's not enough sun to run the fridge.

I think that you need to read my post again, as I said 22ml, not cc.

 

[Bertilak]

I think that you need to read my post again, as I said 22ml, not cc.

mm is millilitres, which is the same as cubic centimetres...
I think perhaps you meant microlitres, i.e. um - where u is greek letter mu ( I'm on a tablet without a greek symbol library ).
However I'm not out to score points, your post will have helped the op

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Two on Tour]

mm is millilitres, which is the same as cubic centimetres...
I think perhaps you meant microlitres, i.e. um - where u is greek letter mu ( I'm on a tablet without a greek symbol library ).
However I'm not out to score points, your post will have helped the op

I'm not out to score points either, but you're incorrect as mm are millimeters which is a unit of length (1000mm = 1 metre) - ml are millilitres which is a unit of volume (1000ml = 1 litre)
One microliter (µL) is equal to a millionth of a litre.

 

[Bertilak]

I've given up.... Please check in the morning,... I'm off to have a whisky; normal shot is 25 ml.

 

[CAB96]

I've given up.... Please check in the morning,... I'm off to have a whisky; normal

shot is 25 ml.

Which is the same as 25 cc

No idea on Hz but they are very frugal once up to temp.

 

[fishplug]

The silent pump is compatible with the Afterburner

I can see that talking with you is going to get expensive...

I think James' current pumps have some anti siphon mechanism in them now which is what I presume was causing the flooding for you.

Back to Speedytriple original post, despite what you've seen of us all over-thinking it in our replies the fundamental answer to your questions are

1. Trial and error on your Hz setting is going to be your best bet. I normally stick mine on full power until the van's warmed up to 80% of my desired temp and then crank it all the way down to minimum as it then just gently pumps out warm air until you turn it off. Paradoxically I also have my MaxxAir fan open to let some of the heat escape if I'm leaving it on overnight - otherwise it turns into a sauna.

2. Fuel consumption is very low. It's not something I've ever felt the need to monitor or worry about. I had the advantage of having fitted my own so I know the fill pipe was cut short enough that the heater would run out of fuel before the van did. With the gauge reading at 1/4 of a tank left I could easily run my heater for a weekend and drive away without problem.

These are simple units really and as long as you give them a good blast at full power to clean them every now and then you should be fine.

Once you start going down the rabbit hole with them you'll find yourself doing simple things like putting a second silencer on them (it's surprising how much quieter they become) and then before you know it you're spending as much as you did on the heater for a silent pump and then the same amount again on a better controller and then you'll be buying a CO meter to check your exhaust output and then...


For now just turn it on and enjoy the warmth

 

[Speedytriple]

Thanks again guys,

I think i'll give it a good blast tonight before this weekend away in Wales (It may get a wee bit chilly) For the mrs and daughter.. I'm always too hot.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[MisterB]

Hi fishplug

I use a controller on my Chinese diesel heaters designed and made by an Australian guy called an Afterburner.
The Afterburner controller offers a great many ways of controlling and monitoring my Chinese diesel heater, either directly by the controller or via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or internet.
The thermostat modes include running at fixed Hz, headband, stop start and linear Hz which I normally run ours on with hysteresis figure window of 1.25 degrees plus or minus of my desired temperature in conjunction with an upper and lower pump Hz setting of your choosing so the heater does not need to keep stopping and starting to save battery drainage with the glow plugs high amperage.
You can individually set both the upper and lower pump and fan speeds to tune your heater to burn more efficiently, as well as have another four alternative fuel settings you can configure to implement if, for instance, you travel to altitude for skiing maybe.
You have a Frost Mode option, 14 day/timer setting available.
Furthermore, you also can add an additional three DS18B20 temperature sensors to the system.
The controller will also measure the fuel used and the rate of fuel usage in real-time as well as user-set low fuel warning.
Ray the designer is constantly improving and updating the controller's firmware at no additional cost.

View attachment 958629


The mobile interface on my phone.

View attachment 958630


Screen grabs from my PC. These are the same as will be displayed on the mobile interface.

View attachment 958631

View attachment 958632

View attachment 958633

View attachment 958634

View attachment 958635

View attachment 958636

which afterburner model would you recommend please? i have been meaning to get one for a while but your posts and 'support' of the product have spurred me to look at this again.......

i have the diesel heater external to my home (this will be our third winter with it), to boost the A2A heat pump in the conservatory/kitchen - being able to set it to come on automatically for 14 days is a plus for me. did you also get the additional remote controllers? I am thinking that its prob more cost effective to get the whole package.

i also think i am going to install a bigger fuel reservoir this year, rather than have to top up every two or three days .....

 

[Two on Tour]

which afterburner model would you recommend please? i have been meaning to get one for a while but your posts and 'support' of the product have spurred me to look at this again.......

i have the diesel heater external to my home (this will be our third winter with it), to boost the A2A heat pump in the conservatory/kitchen - being able to set it to come on automatically for 14 days is a plus for me. did you also get the additional remote controllers? I am thinking that its prob more cost effective to get the whole package.

i also think i am going to install a bigger fuel reservoir this year, rather than have to top up every two or three days .....

Hi Dave, the one I'm using on our van is the GPIO version which gives you various options and uses for the I/O port to control the Afterburner or for the Afterburner to trigger external devices, i.e. I use Alexa to start and stop our CDH with voice commands via a Zigbee wireless relay.

You will need to check that your heaters ECU is compatible with the Afterburner. Here's a link to the Afterburner website.

Afterburner website

 

[MisterB]

Thanks Paul (Two on Tour), i am looking at the Environmental model - not sure i would need all the features but its not a lot more and shipping costs are the same anyway.

is the altitude option really necessary, bearing in mind the heater is fitted at home and not for travelling???

 

[Two on Tour]

Thanks Paul (Two on Tour), i am looking at the Environmental model - not sure i would need all the features but its not a lot more and shipping costs are the same anyway.

is the altitude option really necessary, bearing in mind the heater is fitted at home and not for travelling???

I would not bother with the environmental option as the is will only be of use if you were using it in a van that was going to be travelling at different altitudes, when it will automatically change the fuel/air ratio for the optimum clean burn.