How to tune a Chinese diesel heater with no tools 2kW & 5kW 

if I recall, these are NA, but feel free to correct me anyone that has one of these

Choke the combustion air input when at max fuelling like a regular oil boiler, to get the lowest volume of combustion product. That increases volumetric efficiency, increases heat exchanger temps while still keeping a lean burn👍🏻 Think of it the other way too... throwing in too much air simply blows all the hot gas straight out of the exhaust. You want to reduce exhaust gas temps to near condensing levels, while still maintaing a lean burn.

@Mobius X You are 100% correct! I'm pinning your comment, it explains the video in words 😉

I was going to use a server power supply wot you think tony ???

@@idaveuk any power supply that can provide 12-13 amps at 12v will work. It only pulls 10+ amps while the glow plug is on, after that the consumption drops to around 2 amps.

Thanks Cliff, I'm glad I could be of help. Properly tuned, these will run for a couple of years before the motor needs replacing when the brushes wear out. When I say a couple of years, I run mine probably 16 hours a day from the end of November to the end of March which is over 3,800 hours. I'll cover the installation in the next video and the servicing in the one after that.

WOW, I didn't think it made any sense (as per usual). I'm glad you understood it 😁😁

You're very welcome, Sir 👍👍

From what I've read, I'd be careful running the fan at 5k. 4500 is as high as I have mine set

@@CharredSteak good advice thank you. I have reduced the speed and it’s working better. Too much air meant that the device was putting out cooler air and now it is hotter but still safe for the casing. I have the heater on for about 16 hours each day at 1.3 and I am content with it. Thanks again friend.

@@gordonmitchell729 Absolutely man, hopefully it'll have the motor lasting longer too

Thank you for your explanation. One problem I have is in what I assume are fast forwards and can't work out what you are pressing. I haven't a clue what code 1688 meant and how you got there. There is nothing on the screen with that number. As a teacher of electronics I have learnt to go slow and assume nothing

@@allangoldsmith284 I will go through my notes and hopefully I will have the details. It was a year ago when I placed the text here. I will get back to you if I can recreate the readings

built a box around my pump with 6mm plywood with a hole top and bottom for the fuel lines and wiring to go through, then I used 4 cup hooks to hang the box on 6mm bungee chord attached to 4 more cup hooks on the roof of the wall mounting box, cannot hear the pump clicking inside the wall box mounted to my outside wall of my house or indoors. my hearing is so sharp I can hear a pin drop outside at night. I have to sleep with earplugs in and I still wake up if I hear a noise outside through the earplugs. The pump is silent.

Do you have your pump on an angle 15⁰-35⁰? I just purchased a second hand campervan and suspected that was my issue and found my pump installed perfectly horizontal.

Thats odd because the ecu inside the heater has a pre-programmed start up sequence, it is the same start up sequence for all of them and it is not adjustable so whatever setting you set for running in the special settings menu it will not affect the fan speed on start up whatever you do, just the running speed after start up, so your tinkering must have paid off initially maybe you cleared some air from the fuel lines? or cleaned out the atomiser hole next to the glow plug ?, something you did right, or maybe you just have a tempermental heater, I had one that didnt like starting, so I cut the length of the air intake hose in half straightened it and put an old piece of stocking on the end as a filter medium with an elastic band, it starts first time every time now. when you run one straight out of the box they will start up and run fine without any hoses or exhaust pipes attached and I thinkn thats how they test them in the factory. Then we go and stick a carboard hose on the air intake and restrict the airflow with a plastic silencer, probably slightly crushing the cardboard tube in the process or bending it more than once so that it struggles to get air to the combustion chamber.

@@oojimmyflip when I had it on default settings, it would start up the first time after install, then just smoke and pop like crazy on every subsequent attempt, over and over and over. Took everything apart, cleaned out the build-up (it wasn't burning the diesel fully), reassembled.. same thing. Double-checked literally everything, pump angle etc. was all fine. It was only once I re-did the settings as outlined here, found the sweet spot, haven't had an issue again. Didn't even have to disassemble and clean, just got going once the settings were fixed after many failed ignitions and a few flame outs on the default. Last night was the first time I had it on since May, still using the modded settings from last feb, and it fired up right away. I infer the startup sequence uses the 'low' and 'high' settings as its starting and ending point, gradually moving through the curve between these, if you think of it like a graph. Pretty sure its not just one default startup with static fan/fuel settings. If you think of the stoichiometry of the reaction here, diesel combustion needs diesel, oxygen, and heat. When the reaction isn't working right, its one of these three things that are off, can't be anything else -- in my case it was lacking sufficient oxygen for complete combustion of the given fuel amount. I think the issue is pump capacity. These kits all come with different pumps, ranging between 16-22ml per 1000 pumps. The default setting is maybe correct for one of these pump sizes, not the others. I can't remember which size I have, I think 22ml ie one of the larger ones hence me needing to get more oxygen in there per pump frequency.

​@@oojimmyflipThats wrong mate. I install these on boats im a boat builder. Lots of the smaller boats we do fefurbs on the customer wants the cheap chinese ones. The start up sequence will change with the max and min rpm settings because the algorythim reduces the speed in which the fan ramps up just as it turns the plug off. For example the ones sold as 5-8kw are known for if you set the fan speed at 2500 & 5000 they have a habit of blowing out right as the plug turns off and the fan ramps up to max during start. The ramp up is too fast and the chamber usually gets blown out around the 56deg mark then you get a shutdown followed by an automatic second attempt, which sometimes gets it going. By lowering the max fan speed to 4400-4600 regardless of the fueling frequency you will automatically reduce the ramping up speed and the heater will no longer blow out at 55ish deg when the plug goes out. You can clearly hear the difference it makes and if you have anything monitoring your battery then you can see it the figure on the fan rpm ramp up spike is lower on startup. This goes for the black, blue red and newer black controller the one that has the voice speaker and connectivity. This is also the case with both aftermarket controllers ive used and the algorithms in the expensive aftermarket one (you know the one?) its automatic start up sequence is basically 4800 normal temp start up, below 0 deg intake it goes to 4600 max and on second attempt onwards the controller sets the startup speed to 5000 for the 5-8kw copy heaters. I hope you accept this as the truth because ive had to sort a load of them for the same issue especially after plug changes some dont like set to 5000 on startup because of the ramp up being so steep. cheers.

​​@@micgyou are right sort of. These heaters especially the 5-8kw sold models the start up sequence algorythim will vary based on the max-min fan speed rpm, mostly the high speed setting. During the start up sequence the distinct ramp up in fan speed that coincides with the heater plug going out (around 55deg) is because the heater thinks the chamber is lit enough to run on its own. If you set the top RPM speed to 5000 and your heater runs fine then cool but if you are suffering blow outs on start up then reducing the max fan speed to 4600-4800rpm the rate in which the fan ramps up at slows so the chamber doesnt get blown out. Some of them you cannot get them going on 5000rpm setting after a plug renewal and a clean, they need backed off to 4600 to 4800 for a good 50hr before they can be sped up again. Despite what people think about these they run best with a small amount of carbon built up especially around the inner chamber where the gauze is around the turbulance plate at the bottom of the atomiser. When you clean them fully or use them from new for the first time this is why they dont burn right for about 50hr. They dont like too much carbon build up but nor do they like none. Webasto and Eberspacher know this btw thats why they have a cleaning setting now on the boats and lorries. The cleaning setting purposely gives it a rich wet burn cycle for 8 mins then roasts the thing for 3 mins then roasts it again for one minute then shuts off and restarts then sits exacly half way for 5 mins on the next start up. Hope this helps Edit: I forgot to point out on this reply that when you put the heater in a "cleaning" cycle on the newer models in lorries and boats it automatically runs the high speed fan at a heavily reduced rpm as it takes into account that you might be doing the clean cycle because it has a choppy start up. Interestingly what it does is turn the plug out at the usual temp in the start up cycle but there is a delay from them about 20 seconds before it soft ramps the fan RPM up to max.

It does take some thinking about but they're just an engine that relies on air and fuel. Being an ex car mechanic helped understand where it was going wrong. I've wanted to shout at Julian when I saw the smoke coming from his, I get zero smoke on startup or shutdown.

Yes, using the exhaust as a heat exchanger is something I want to improve although I think I've got as much as I can out of it. I'm using 32mm (I think) copper tubing which I had to silver solder together. As long as you tune the heater again after you've connected it, you'll be fine. Mine inevitably does produce a small amount of back pressure but it's been running for over 12 months like that and zero build-up.

@@Vortecks Interesting, have you got that on a YT Vid? Would love to see what you've done. I've got a few ideas but annoyingly only thought about doing something after the heater was installed, so although I have options, they're not unlimited.

They will all go to 5000rpm but different manufacturers have different default values that get them all running in the test room. Different altitudes and air conditions need different air/fuel mixtures so the manufacturer of yours might have been at a different altitude or in a vacuum 😁 My suggestion is, strip it down and clean it. I will be doing a video on it, it's not hard.

@@Vortecks I have just cleaned it. As I said it's getting better as the mixture is leaned out. It did start off as an 8kw with the usual over the top settings so it's taken a while to get it to a decent setup. I wish I'd seen your video a year ago it would have saved a lot of stress 😀

@@julias-shed that's another issue with Chinese knock offs, they lie ! There is not or ever has been an 8 KW 😏 these are copies of the eber 2KW and 5KW heaters, the Chinese fall into the group who think more fuel equals more heat, 8KW is just a 5KW run at a higher pump dose rate and "sometimes" a higher fan speed, this either soots up or the fan bearings go, usually because the brush end bearing gets full of brush dust due to the motor overspending and prematurely wearing out the brushes 👍

@@Dirt-Diggler Some mainboards & LCDs allow a fan speed of 5500 RPM with an increased pump speed. I might be wrong, but I think these are the ones marketed as the 8kW version. Last year, I tested a 5kW which goes to 5500 RPM and it will just about hold combustion at 5500 RPM and 5.3hz. The only trouble is, some of the combustion happens outside the flame tube and goes directly into the exhaust and the exhaust was hitting 280C. It 'might' be the equivalent of 8kW in total but there's probably 3kW which is directly pumped into the exhaust. Very dangerous.

they dont like 5000 none of them do. The 5000 is only for a badly made machine. The startup sequence rpm ramp speed on 5000 runs them to lean full stop. From the 55deg mark when the plug extinguishes and it ramps up the fan speed to max because it thinks its lit, you are merely running lean as the air in the AFR spikes massively. This has been proven by countless people with proper measuring devices. The 5000 setting automatically sets the start up algorythim to ramp the the fan up quicker than it does on any other setting so its not just the max rpm effected. Anyone whos heater can run on 5000 no problem still wants to back it off a bit as it saves the plugs. i can get boats doing 3-5yr on these cheap copies and 5-7yr on the original plug on the genuine ones and i diall the smoke and smell out of them within minutes.

With very careful planning, it's very quiet in comparison. There are 4 sources of noise: The inlet, exhaust, heat outlet and the fan motor. I'll go through all of them when I can get my head around explaining it.

i bought one recently and the ability to tune simply isn't in the controller, apparently there was a shortage of the above type controller, mine has a spanner icon instead of the cog wheel icon... not sure if that is the difference but probably be best to avoid the spanner version... i imagine the ore expensive heaters will still have this ability...

Dont leave it until winter they will double in price by then.

@@timkelly5602 I changed all my ecus and controllers to the Blue controllers with the led remote controls they are easy to use and give you readings of the core temperature and voltage on the remote fobs screen. they have a range of about 30 feet and use less complicated and cheaper tripple A batteries which last about a year. The blue controller has a matching Blue motherboard/ecu for the Heater and it is identifiyable by the silver Bi-metalic strip that crosses the blue coloured circuit board from one side to the other.

they can be made very economical especially running two or muliples at a lower setting like in boats. Im a boat builder ive done hundreads of the genuine ones and maybe 30 to 40 chinese copies. I like the guy in the vid but i dont think his figures are correct and i think his heater has burned its mesh on the inside of the burner out to the point it runs at settings it shouldnt. Absolutely NO way is any fully working 5 or 8kw branded copy heater running at AFR menu 1.2hz and 2500rpm. You will instantly hit sub 110deg on any fully functioning heater even at 1.6hz if you go over about 2000rpm on the slow fan speed setting. You do need to up the stock 1500rpm speed by about 200rpm to get it running good if you extend ducting and exhausts to the limit but to gave a heater run at 2000rpm and 1.2Hz means its mesh is gone and atomiser is cheap junk. Ive no idea how hes got it to stay above 100deg burner temp at 2500 low 1.2.

Might want to look at your math. MJ in Vic is 3.52c and supply charge .83c per day. Diesel is around $2 so .0352 X 38 is $1.33. QLD at .06 is $2.28 but who needs much heating up there.

@@mathewemy I did the math........converted the joules into watts etc. The thing that bumps it up a lot, is the supply charge. For a typical residential user with relatively low volume of gas, the fixed supply charge really ups the overall cost per kw/hr of heat. There are no options to avoid that supply charge other than to have the service disconnected. Furthermore, as natural gas is gobbled up by the expanding number of gas turbines being used to supplement renewables during night time and especially wind droughts.....the price is only going to go up, and up and up. Gas turbines are horribly inefficient at replacing natural gas as a heat source in heating applications........they need to burn 3 times as much to provide the same heat energy............but since they are paying a tiny fraction of the price, they dont care about the waste of energy.

Should be a way better heater than the chinese ones, i believe the land rover ones are webasto.

Yes, there are a lot of factors which mean you have a high pump rate - barometric air pressure, air temperature, the location of your pump in relation to the heater (some people have it 3-4ft below) blocked fuel filter, water/condensation in the fuel or very high humidity. FYI I'm 500' ASL where I am. Obviously, very cold temperatures makes diesel freeze or at least 'gum up' if the tank is outside.

dont go too low AFR as they go through plugs. Regardless of fan speed if you dont run enough fuel through them they burn plugs up and the mesh doesn't last long. If its running ideal AFR wise you will be able to run the heater at a lower normal main menu Hz setting as it will be kicking out more heat for each normal heat Hz setting so you need to undertand that leaning out AFR doeant always equate to less fuel used per heat unit kicked out.

They are cheap if you don't get conned by things like "8kW" which doesn't exist. I'm not using any of the parts that came with the heater now, all I've got it the heater and loom, the rest of it is custom made.

If you want one right now, i just got a complete 5kW kit off AliEx Vevor Bestautos store for 70 dollars, including delivery in 7 days. It came in 2 days. Amazing. Still available at this price right now. Can't go wrong.

Yes mate, it's one of his pumps from when he first started doing them. He's grown the range now so I really hope his sales rocket when I release his details.

Any links to the fuel pump please.....if the guy can handle the orders 😉

Yeah, I noticed that there are a lot of people who just want to jump on the bandwagon to get a video published, it was pissing me off that there's not much info on how to use them properly so I decided to start the series. There are a lot of bad tips on how to use them and very little in the way of safety. I wish I could find the video where someone said to go into the settings, max everything out and it runs much hotter 😒 I've got every controller & mainboard there is out there now, I kept buying them from China. I was considering buying the afterburner buy it seemed like a lot of money for loads of features I wouldn't use so....... I built my own. If you go to 8:14 you can see the TX part of it on the right but I'll cover that in another video 😉

@@Vortecks I've gone the total opposite from the afterburner in that all i have is an on off switch with remote activation and a normal 2 wire stat in the van but my own build is a rather old mikuni i saved and refurbished from a narrow boat who changed it for a cheap Chinese unit cos it was £15 cheaper than servicing the heater he already owned 🙄 his loss my gain 😎 i got paid to change in the new unit and got to keep the old one, i removed a webasto from my van and use that for back up heat in winter at home 👍

I will mate. Once you set them up properly, they'll run maintenance free for a couple of years before you have to change the fan motor.

I think PF is something to do with plateau mode where it automatically slows down or speeds up to get the temperature right. Don't touch it if everything works.

I'm waiting to hear back from him. He has various models available and also, a marine version for fitting in boats now. As soon as I get the green light, I'll make another video.

@@Vortecks Excellent; I'll be watching lol. Thank you.

I've got to cover everything in sections, people don't like to see everything at once. Next time, I'll be covering the pump. It's just a standard 5kW diesel heater, they're everywhere and they're all the same. Don't be conned by the 8kW version, there is no such thing. It's just a 5kW with an 8kW badge.

It's embarrassing but I might show it. I've used the splitter tube and hung 2 lengths of insulated 80mm tubing across the ceiling because I can't gain access above it. Come the spring, I'll simply take it down, compress the tubing back into the box..... job done. We have to make sacrifices to affordably keep warm.

I’ve made a plywood box for the heater, located it on the patio, plan to run the flexi pipe through the wall and vent from under the kitchen unit kick boards. Desperately seeking a quiet fuel pump.

that's simply practical and brilliant. Sure you're not a Kiwi? *chuckle @@Vortecks

Mine's just a standard 5kW heater mate, they're all the same. Don't be fooled by the 8kW version, there is no such thing. The 8kW and 5kW are identical - it's just a sales con. All I have left of the original heater, is the wiring loom and heater itself. The rest of it is absolute junk and actually makes it more noisy. The inlet and baffle thing howls, the exhaust pipe howls and the hot air tube they give you is way too short. Buy a standard 5kW one - colour and paint job doesn't matter but make sure it has the same controller as mine, I have something extra to show everyone when I get round to it.

I have the same problem, I guess ours doenst like to get to low in temperature, my stats are 1.1 at 1500 rpm and 3.5 at 4000 rpm works alright!

@@kareljansen3992 after much tweaking I still have to choke it to start. I think a combination of lots of running at 1.2hz and a one off stint with a couple of liters of veggie oil has sooted up the mesh thing, I'll get it apart at some point and see what the insides look like. Before the veggie oil it ran fine, albeit at a lower temperature.

It's based on resistive, I'm electric only. I measured it at 46p which is what I'm paying. I know it doesn't take into account the Energy Price Guarantee but that's a rebate and not guaranteed for ever. I pay around £1.68 / litre. Kerosine is much cleaner and cheaper if you can find it, it's around £1.27

@@Vortecks Is that 0.46 GBP per kilowatt-hour?

@@jimmybrad156 Yes, sadly.

If your buy a refurb 600ltr IBC you can get a 500ltr minimum delivery of home heating oil, kerosene etc for £0.80 at todays prices from Home Fuels Direct UK this will significantly reduce the running cost. An IBC is approx size of a pallet cubed. Hope this helps. 500Ltr should get you from Oct to Mar 12hrs a day running at setting 3 with a lean burn. If my maths is right.

If you put it directly in the exhaust, it'll be going off constantly. I measure at around 500mm from the exhaust where it has time to mix with air. These are technically a jet engine without the compressor and no jet engine on earth would pass any CO tests like that.

It doesn't turn off in thermostat mode. It drops to lowest heat setting which is supposedly 900w. I don't know how the thermostat would work if its drawing in outside air.

It's based on resistive heating (electric fire). If you have a look further down the comments, I did a breakdown where someone else asked the same question.

@@Vortecks Great, thanks!

It's hard to explain unless you know what AFR is (Air Fuel Ratio) When you're changing the min/max pump speed, if you turn the pump speed down, the fan speed reduces in proportion and it may go below the setting of the minimum fan speed. Setting the fan speed at 2500 is just a base point, this will ensure that the fan speed won't reduce too much as to cause a flame-out when you reduce the pump speed. The minimum and maximum fan speeds (2500 - 5000 in my case) are really 0% to 100% fan speed and the pump speed (1.2 - 3.8 in my case) are really 0% to 100% pump speed. You can do it without changing the minimum fan speed but I found that it dropped the speed so low, it was useless and it caused combustion problems. I'll update the description with basic instructions on how to tune it with default fan speeds.

@@Vortecks thank you for replying. I will have a play around with this over the weekend.

I waited a couple of minutes which seems like an eternity!

Ya I'm in the same boat and I cannot find how to tune for altitude

Yes, having the pump lower down reduces fuel delivery. If you put the pump any higher, you'll probably find that it starts choking it. I think you were lucky with the placement of everything, so don't change a thing 😁

@@Vortecks I screwed it to the wall so it isn't going anywhere - but I think its the fuel head height that matters. The other thing that can affect it is any changes to the inlet and exhaust circuit. So for example, adding a different silencer or changing the pipe length may reduce the air mass and make it over rich. But also as the combustion chamber soot's up it may also cause it to over fuel and I bet that will be a positive feedback of doom. As they have no mixture control they probably should be set up to be quite lean. I saw someone using a lambda probe to get 15:1 at which point it smokes - I think it should be closer to 20:1, I think that 15:1 only really applies to fixed volume combustion like a cylinder than a flame in a tube where you will have an excess of oxygen.

@@Vortecks What I could do is get one of those pumps and pump the fuel 1ft uphill and then 6ft uphill and measure the fuel delivered in 10 mins say.

Also 5kw heater, Ive read before 3.6-3.8 hz is most efficient in other videos, i also tested it out it saves fuel and theres a very slight black smoke i see out of chimney when u got it at 5-5.5hz. I just almost got mad now from fuel pump noises. Theres also a very good method of tuning when u buy some cheap chinese co meter and if you put it at high you see like 10k ppm and at low 1000 ppm and when its arround 3.6 hz you get 400 ppm...

Absolutely not. Mine is costing me £2 per day to heat 2 rooms now 😁

As i just wrote above, if you want one right now, i just got a complete 5kW kit off AliEx Vevor Bestautos store for 70 dollars, including delivery in 7 days. It came in 2 days. Amazing. Still available at this price right now. Don't forget to get the 5 dollars off coupon, if you get it. Can't go wrong at that price.

I'm making my own custom frame out of carbon fibre soon. I need it to weigh less than 15kg and produce the same power as the FQS I built.

Error 8 is a fuel problem so it's got to be the pump. Make sure you don't have any air bubbles trapped inside it. Change the orientation, wait a bit, change it back, give it a tap and that should cure it. Failing that, hold it vertically so the outlet is at its highest point and give it a few taps with something heavy 😊 This is the alarm I bought www.amazon.co.uk/FireAngel-CO-9XT-FF-Carbon-Monoxide-Sealed/dp/B00SB8VSPO

5500 is wild mate for any of them. You will burn pluga out per 3 month

The instructions are bloody useless. Hopefully, I'll be able to fill in the massive gaps on how to use them, clean them and set them up for perfection 😉

@@Vortecks i quite enjoy a "chinglish" set of instructions 👍 usually they are funny as fook 🤣 👍

I got 2kw (with 60mm ducting) too and cannot tune with these instructions. At least when temperature is close to 0 c degrees: High is ok with two red bars (takes a hour to get there), but low is only four bars (0 red) even after 12 hours. Have been running it 100-200 nights with zero soot buildup - took it apart few days ago. Have been using so far: 1.0-3.0hz, 1500-4300 rpm. I think I have 0.18ml fuel pump where some have 0.22ml.

Yes, it's fan-forced outside. I'll cover it in another video.