Dude; the heat issue I can relate to. My first one was a 3kw and even on the lowest possible setting the heat build-up was just way too aggressive. Also had issues with it blowing un burned fuel fumes into the living space on startup and shutdown. Have just installed a 2kw instead, suggest you do the same. Much smaller and quieter. Had issues with the pump on the 2kw (E - 10) so have used the 3kw pump for now - maybe over fueling. Used the same hole in the floor and the exhaust is making the floor hot so will be cutting a larger opening and fitting a turret. Maybe too hot 'cause of the pump. Excellent bit of kit though ~ BEST bang for your buck!
I have used these diesel heaters for 5years now and I can tell you that the Chinese knockoffs are identical in all respects to the espar units. The parts are interchangeable. All of these units can be adjusted for altitude. The espar has a spot in the settings you can click on and it is only for 1500m or 4500ft. The Chinese units can be adjusted by going into the advanced settings. There is a utube video on how to change the settings and what they should be. Google how to change my Chinese diesel heater for altitude. This adjustment really helps. Also you can download the espar installation manual and make note of the part for the fuel. It states that the fuel should have a cetane number of 45 or more for best performance. Cetane is what makes diesel fuel ignite and burn. Most of the fuel in North America has a number of 40 except for California which is 50+. I called the best people at the diesel shops and they said stanadyne all season is widely used in the diesel engines. If you are using the 10l jugs then all you need is a tablespoon for a full tank. If you put it in your truck fuel tank you will get better fuel economy, smoother running and better starting. Stanadyne also has lubricants which help your pump to run quieter and cleaners to keep your atomizer screen and burner clean.
When I purchased my chinese heater I needed to purchase extra ducting , longer exhaust and numerous pipe fittings , pricing all these parts and thinking about keeping spares like fuel pump , glow plug and controller it worked out cheaper to purchase a second complete heater set. Yesterday ( coldest day of year so far ) heater malfunctioned with numerous faults ( suspect controller ). So all I needed to do was install the spare heater module and back up and running. This gives me time to strip down original and order parts and new controller which can take 4 to 6 weeks from China. I am glad I decided to purchase a second unit.
I have four of these, one in my van, one in my work shop and two linked to the lower floor of my house. Never had a problem, and I use diesel cleaner in the tanks to keep the motors clean. Great video though, keep it going.
Hi, I'm in Ontario Canada and have been a truck driver for over 30 years.. I've used Diesel Bunk heaters for the majority of my long distance driving... to help clean it out and prevent build up I was recommend to run some " Kerosene " through it and it'll help keep it clean inside... Hope this helps... Look into this yourself... Have a great day..
Let me know how it works out for you... I have a Chinese 5kw diesel Heater in my slide in truck camper as a backup/alternative to my Propane furnace.. It seems to keep my camper at 19c even when I set it to 10c.. not sure why it keeps getting that hot... was wondering if you're experiencing the same thing..
Because of the price difference, I would never consider buying an Espar or Webasto. At 1/10th of the price, how could I?? Follow up videos are even more valuable than original reviews. Glad to hear your thoughts after a lengthly time using your heater.
I have fitted many Propex gas heaters, including one to my own van fifteen years ago, which has never failed. I paid about £200 back then, but they are around £550 now. Running on Propex or butane they burn clean. Propex are based in the south of England, and their service is excellent.
I've used mine for three years to heat my bedroom. I haven't had any problems at all. These work best when you use off-road, heating oil, or jet-A fuel. These are high in sulfur and won't suit up. Also, they aren't designed for 24/7 use all winter. I mean, hell, what do you want for $130. I bought 6 of them because I love them. Three years later, five are still in the boxes. If mine goes out, I can swap it out in 10 minutes and just chuck the old one.
There's a video about a user using Kerosene so they burn cleaner, I am afraid it would blow up if I try it on mine. Do you think Kerosene is a viable option!?
@@Athrunwong Careful though. Kerosene doesn't lubricate the stock pump and if you don't use a mix with diesel, it will kill the pump. There is an aftermarket quiet pump made by James Browning-Smith that does not have this weakness. So, kero burns cleaner but won't adequately lube the pump. Now, the caveat is that there are 2 kinds of kero. K1 and K2. K2 will lube the pump enough, as I understand, but I cannot find it anywhere near me so the typical stuff you find at sporting goods stores is the only option Straight up diesel may gel in very cold temps. Mine will use a 50/50 mix, but I did purchase James' pump b/c it's essentially silent.
just a quick note I have to work on Webasto heaters at my job day job mechanic at a big trucking company and every truck has one, and I own 2 Chinese heaters, one 12k and one 8k and they have never failed in 3 years, the webasto have many problems and do not burn as clean as the cheap ones my thought is it is caused by running them on the lowest setting 90% of the time we have to do yearly cleaning and glow plugs replaced as for yours only having 2 fan settings change the controller to the blue ones there you will have 6 different fan settings and your controller has a sub low by holding 2 buttons at the same time i believe its setup and ok this gives you a very low setting
Unless I planned to live in my van for more than a few years, I'd still buy Chinese a second or third time over Webasto or Espar. Who knows, if I decided to convert a new, or almost new van that'll last for many years, maybe then I'd spring for the pricier heater. For now, I'm saving my money.
I have had all 3 of these heaters. The espar 5kw is identical to the equivalent Chinese unit and all of the parts are interchangeable. I will not buy the German unit because the Chinese unit is so easy to repair and maintain. I get my parts thru aliexpress because they are always available and so cheap. The only thing is that you have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for the parts to arrive.
I had one break down after a winter of 24/7 use in Wisconsin. There are not many parts and they are all really cheap to buy but do take forever to ship from china. All the parts are easy to replace as well. Not a bad idea to buy extra parts to have on hand. It's only like a censor, glow plug, fuel pump and fuel filter and parts are under $10.
they are all 4kw real world, it is due to the thermal-dynamics of the casing size of the aluminium, so even when they claim it is 8kw, it isn't, so you can ignore the kw rating! except for the 2kw as they are physically smaller! I have gotten 5 of them, they all work nicely still, had to rebuild the fan on one, replaced the bearings sadly I put it off to long and had to buy a whole new motor. I use it to heat the house in winter so it runs 24/7 for 6m apx so I got the very high quality bearings.
Time stamp 18:45 - when you say “kick on during the night” does the heater completely shut down then re fire when the temperature drops below the setting, or does the heater go into a low power (idle) mode then ramp back up to the set power level.
Yep. Parts kits for these are cheap. easy to keep spare parts on hand if something fails. The electronics board is $25. New glow plug kit with wrench.. $15-20. Fuel pump $20. Gasket kit to put back together is cheap. Coat the gaskets with vaselne or chapstick when you put it back together and gaskets less likely to stick and tear. Can reuse them. Cool beans.
Super well made and informative video! One of your complaints was that the heater doesn’t hold a constant temperature right? I thought They hade an input for what temperature to turn on or off? If not, can I not buy a seperate temperatur sensor that has this function? It is really important for me to keep a somewhat regular temperature of 16-24 degrees in my van for my reptile friend :) Thanks alot!
great presentation , regarding the fall on your exhaust , if there has to be a low point some where close to the middle of the run would it be possible to locate the muffler unit with the drain in it so the condensation would fall from either direction or would it vacate fumes as well under the van at that point ?
Hi guys had you removed the second battery tray under the passenger seat of your T1N before installing the heater? Looks that way in the video. Or did you not have a second battery originally,
nice video! i´d like to install a heater in the same way under the seat in my 906 sprinter however there is a upwards slope towards the front of the car is that an issue or can i still install the heater there?
Did you use the base plate or drill one hole each for intake/exhaust? I was wondering if the warm exhaust has had any effect on the factory undercoating
My fuel filter ended up with a Crack somehow and I needed one quicker so I went to webasto and bought a filter at the bargain price of $34 Canadian ...should have just bought a whole second unit from china for the convenience
Thank You for the video! One thing i'm worried about is the fuel gelling up when it's really cold, have you heard of any problems with that? Also, does head pressure affect how the pump works? I.E. i plan to get my fuel out of an aux tank mounted in the bed of my pickup truck. This tank is much higher than the pump will be so is there a potential problem with "flooding" the pump with too much head pressure? Any ideas would be much appreciated!!!🚐
I’ve used mine down to -35C with no issues. The additives they add will prevent gelling. I haven’t heard of this being a problem. If anything, I would imagine you’d get a longer life out of your pump since it’s easier to push than to suck fuel.
You don't need to run it in the summer. Diesel doesn't go bad like gas. There's no "engine" it's just a burn chamber. By running it extra, you're actually just wearing it out. Won't matter either way.
An afterburner heater controller makes these better than the German ones. I’ve had one untouched and trouble free for 3 years thousands of hours of run time. And NO it’s not an engine. No closer to being one than the gas furnace in the 5th wheel they are both mounted in.
@@madetoexplore it makes them use a ton less fuel, they start and stop themselves based on the temperature window you set. Lots of options with an afterburner, make sure you get it from the chap in Australia, there was a knockoff somebody was doing out of the UK that was junk.
Did yours come supplied with the hard plastic type fuel line or soft line?....and does the line from the tank to the pump matter as much as the line from the pump to the heater? Much thanks, well done and informative video.
Yes it did. The line from the tank to the pump is under suction and the the line from the pump to the heater is under pressure. I would make sure to use the rigid line between the tank and pump because if you used a flexible fuel line here, it could collapse and wreck the pump.
Why would fuel line diameter change fuel delivery? Maybe if you have a flexible line and it expands each pulse. But if its stiff the pump would control flow not diameter of fuel line (assuming you don't make it too small). Also why would verticle mounting pump change effeciency?
Larger pipe means a higher flow and the possibility of more fuel entering the heater. Mounting the pump vertically means an increase in lift. The less elevation change, the better.
@@madetoexplore I recommend watching this (not mine but a much more accurate explanation) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jCZhjGyR3bo.html
If the hose internal diameter is used to control flow, then of course the hose length would be critical. Sounds like a poor substitute for a flow regulator.
Im pretty mechanical and making it work wasnt a big problem but without any instructions I dont know how to link the remote, Maybe something Im doing wrong but nothing to let me know
Hi, do you know if there is a way to identify weather i have a 5kw or 2kw heater? I didnt know there were different sizes when i purchased it years ago and have since thrown away the packaging! Thankyou
The 2kw heaters are physically smaller than the 8 and 5. I would look up the measurements online. Apparently there is really only 5 and 2 since the 8 are actually just 5.
That is true. Many mechanics don’t have any experience installing these. I’d probably recommend calling a heavy duty mechanic since this are very commonly installed inside the cabs of large transport trucks.
@@madetoexplore we run Espar on our rail equiment. Trail by fire learning to work on them. Rebuild my share of the engines ones so far. Haven't played around as much with the airtronics. Parts are very expensive for these things. 5 error codes in a row and it locks you down and I have to plug my trouble shooting control unit into it to reset it.
Hourly pay and benefits cost in Germany, around 40 to 50 plus dollars a hour..Hourly pay and benefits in China, around 3 to 5 dollars an hour... It's mostly about cost of building and Less about quality .. not to mention, do German heater manufactures actually manufacture them in Germany ???? Does anyone know for sure ?
Texting in the dark but the fuel tank supplied also needs to be drilled and a fitting installed, I have contacted the seller regarding the remoe keyfob not working and fuel line issue but not hopefull, any advice would be appreciated
Have you tried reprogramming the remote to the controller? I’ve seen videos of this on RU-vid and also of the fuel line tapping. I tapped my fuel line into the existing fuel line on my sprinter.
What part of the world do you live in? Most places it gets cold they begin to produce winter fuel. Here in Canada I think it's October they begin to make the fuel with a lower cloud point.
@@juliogonzo2718 I live in Calgary, Alberta and yes I do know about the winter additives 👍 I always notice my fuel mileage drop a bit when they start treating the fuel haha
Wabasto definitely are not more reliable, you need to treat yhe wabastos exactly teh same ae you do with the cheaper ones. The best value for money so the Lavaner Pro, Lavaner used to make the Wabasto heaters, so they are basically the same but Lavaner arw a fifth of the price.
I've heard the china ones can leak exhaust do to poor craftsmanship. Planer is a good brand. The exhaust gasket fails or the metal warped causing a leak. But that is the only things I've heard bad about the china ones.
These heaters are great when your girlfriend/wife snores you can put em on high to drown out the sound its a bit like white noise generator and heater in one lmfao. Btw for the price of one webasto you can buy 13 chinese diesel heaters i rather have a ton of spare parts the one webasto and zero parts . its not really rocket science
These are not identical to webasto. A webasto is built better, but they are far more expensive. I used to get 2or 3 yrs on a webasto till they were Carbon packed. Parts price make repairs not practical. If I get 800 hrs on a Chinese heater I'm ahead $
Not identical, but extremely similar. Did you try to clean them out and keep using them? That makes sense about the parts. I’d say I’m very close to 800hrs on mine
The burner assembly and the mesh get clogged. A new burner/glow plug is over $400 on Amazon. When I saw that I made up my mind to try a Chinese one. FWIW, the espar and webastos are both 2kw heaters. I'm not sure if you knew that
I just bought a Colinktool heater, i installed it today and overall it works great but the fuel line supplied is far too small to and doesnt matcha ny of the other supplied components like the pump, filter, the fuel tank also doesn,t come with any installation or operating instructions Rated 5 star
There are no 8 kw chinese diesel heaters checkout David Mcluckie on you tube he does a test to see if there is any difference between the 5kw version and the 8kw version and there is no difference in heat output at all. it is just a marketing ploy. our 2 kw heater at 2.1 Hz drinks only 2 litres of fuel in 24 hours.
It is in that it is a machine that does work, in this case generating heat, yes it is an engine. I’ll grant you that. BUT…. At one point you compared it to a Diesel engine that compresses the diesel to combust, and that part is %100 wrong. There is no compression in this machine whatsoever.
Hey, thanks for this. A nylon pipe provides a smooth fuel delivery. But, you mentioned that changing the fuel pipe diameter, changes how much fuel gets to the heater per second. Which do you think is more important as I have both? Thanks, in this video they are recommending the nylon pipe ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Yn-GAIzelCU.html&ab_channel=NomadBrad
A larger diameter pipe has the potential to deliver more fuel. Doesn’t mean it will though. As long as you have the right pump you should be fine. I would use the hard hose, not the soft one.
@@madetoexplore Doesn't matter if it's sold and shipped by Amazon the return policy reads: This item is non-returnable, but if the item arrives damaged or defective, you may request a refund or replacement. The comments go like this: 'AMAZON DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO RETURN THE ITEM... So before you buy it, know that you are risking the money on a item that does not work and you will end up throwing it away' or 'Tried returning one while I got this one-found out I just pay all shipping on returns and then no refund. Still trying to get a refund for the second broken one'. That was the first heater I looked at and it took me less than 2 minutes.
@@madetoexplore For anyone who doubts the non return policy for Amazon watch the video of this van lifer's experience trying to return a heater that didn't work when he received it: RU-vid.com/watch?v=IzHpSyqUVCw and go to the 8:00 minute mark. It's Vancity Vanlife channel. Buyer beware.
Vevor heaters have been declared "unsafe" and "harmful". "The product has been found unsafe under The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008." Vevor will refuse to honor their warranty.
That doesn’t surprise me very much. Most knock off products manufactured over seas don’t meet our standards. Thanks for the info though! What makes it unsafe? Is it carbon dioxide?
Fuel line diameter is irrelevant. The system is not a pressure delivery system and the pump is a positive displacement type. Carbonising is mostly down to inlet/exhaust restriction - too long, too many bends. Better manufacturers provide proper instructions for choosing the correct pipe sizing. Your exhaust exceeds the spec so your machine might well carbon-up at some point. Some controllers are able to be programmed to accommodate fan speeds/fuel delivery to burn more cleanly (less smoke and CO in the exhaust gases). Diesel fuel contains approx 10.5 kWh/litre. These heaters are most certainly not 100% efficient. I suggest there is no such thing as a 8 or 5 kW (output) example. Check yours for a reality check! Likely not so much better than 80% efficient, 5kW (chinese) is likely a little over 4kW.
A small rigid fuel line from fuel pump to heater is best. The pumps create air bubbles. Small tiny lines help keep the small bubbles from building up. They just go down line and don't build up. a larger flexible rubber line should be avoided imo.
@@MrRatkilr I’ve yet to notice any seriously joined-up bubbles. The heater will likely easily cope with a centimetre(?) of air bubble in a 6mm ID pipe (but I’ve not bothered to experiment). My supply line, after the pump, is approx 4m of 4.76mm diameter brake pipe connected with the flexible tubing supplied with my machine. Been no trouble, so far, and I am not expecting any.
@@oliver90owner If it works that is good. Just wanting consistant feed with little to no bubbles in fuel line. i get a few bubbles in my small lines but they pass right through. My two heaters been running flawlessly.
@@oliver90owner as long as it works its good. Been watching vids on these and info on vids. Have vested interest on these as I use them now to heat garage. Been using them since november. they been running flawless until last week. Had one quit. Not sure why. We just got hit with 3 day blizzard a few days ago. Didn't shovel path to garage door until today. lol Was too tired from shoveling snow to work on heater to see why it shut off. Thats why I have two off them. Redundent backup. One fails you still got another to put out heat. Interested why the one shut off.
@@MrRatkilr I have a couple of dehumidifiers in my workshop. These keep my small(ish)workshop condensation-free (above dew point) by maintaining a sufficiently low humidity and the temperature just a few degrees above freezing. I added the diesel heater because electrical heating has become prohibitively expensive. We rarely have to put up with more than a few days continuously below freezing (on average), during the winter months. The heater soon raises the temperature to a reasonable level for working. It has been used quite often recently, but usually on the minimum fuel setting - and the dehumidifiers are likely off until autumn. They are good because they supply warm air without added water vapour, fuel can be stored, and they are (relatively) a simple piece of kit. Good luck with finding your fault. It will be reasonably inexpensive to change the faulty component, if needed.
