So I've seen this hooked up in a tiny home the unit is actually outside under its own little dugout so it's out of the elements but open. They upgraded the duct going into the house to have a filter on the inside. I wonder how the air quality is with that type of set up ....🤔
I run 3 of these exact heaters, 2 in my workshop and one in my utility room and yes, they do stink initially, mine stopped stinking after the 2nd full tank of juice had been through them. The ideal setup for these is either to have the main unit outside with the hot air ducted into the building or have the unit inside with the exhaust ducted to the outside properly, not just poked out the window. Running these at full output will result in un-burnt fuel in the burn chamber leading to it stinking. I've found that running them at about 50 to 60% (2.5hz to 3 hz) keeps my workshop at a comfortable 20 degrees. As for running them on oil or oil/fuel mix, yes it does work but it will clog the burn gauze and soot up the chamber very quickly thus leading to failed start-ups or no start at all. Ideally, these should be run on kerosene which is basically diesel without the additives so produces a very clean burn. I run my workshop heaters from around the start of November to the end of February, 8 to 10 hours per day. Each heater uses about 1 gallon of fuel every 12 hours, I start them off at full power for the first hour then dial it back to around 2.6hz to maintain the temp. I have just stripped one of my heaters down to give it a clean and found the burn chamber and gauze to be spotless, with no sign of any carbon build-up.
These units are so different from each other, even using a oil hydrometer to try to mix whatever it is that you're burning to the same consistency a diesel they all burn differently. It is best to run the unit separately and away from your home until you truly understand it and what it is that you were trying to burn through the unit . I have two separate tanks that I use, one for starting the unit on and the other for running the unit on and then I switched them back and forth to clean and D Coke the unit especially if I'm using that stupid flex pipe BS that seems to collect carbon and cause your unit to burn less efficient causing even more carbon. Obviously I don't use the flex pipe anymore. Right now I am building a unit with thermoelectric generators for my parents for when the power goes out .
Yea at full tilt they waste more fuel an stink , takes a good tank or 2 in order to burn clean an we would "pre" burn them before installing. We found out running full tilt they also clog up after a while where the one we never run full has never needed cleaning and disassembled like the one we used on full out. Anything over 4.2 or so they start to dumb to much fuel an ever point over it get worse an you can tell by monitoring the exhaust
another possibility is with the air intake inside the garage and exhaust out of a partially open window it creating lower pressure and some of your exhaust air is flowing back into the open window.
If you use a length of 3 inch duct run the length of the shop mounted on the ceiling capped at the end and cut 1-1/2 inch holes every 2 feet pointing down, it will distribute the heat more efficiently, and his exhaust is running out the window and can be blowing exhaust fumes back in the garage, the heater uses a heat exchanger so no combustion fumes cone through the hot air output
I bought one of these.... And bought a second one right away.. perfect heat... Quick.... quiet..like super quiet...no smell 2 of those heats a large garage in 20 mins to..50..55f... When its 15 outside
Burning diesel at high temperatures releases nitrogen oxide, which is a parameter on the AQI which your air meter is measuring. Guessing at the higher hz you’re overheating the diesel fuel and releasing more of that pollutant (NO2). Running it at the lower hz must not reach that critical point in which the NO2 is produced and/or using oil mixed in the fuel lessens that possibly? Food for thought
If 5.4 equals 100%, then to find out what 4.4 equals, we can use a proportion. We can set up the equation: 5.4/100 = 4.4/x To solve for x, we can cross-multiply and then divide: 5.4x = 100 * 4.4 x = (100 * 4.4) / 5.4 So, 4.4 is approximately 81.48%
Would be nice to measure the AQI of the bulk room not just adjacent to the source. Also what’s the room temp when you measure the motor oil output? The differential (how much the heater adds) is what matters. If the room is cooler, then given the same heat input the discharge air will be cooler.
Great Video, The air intake is in the rear next to where you placed the exhaust, just outside the window,, have you tried keeping the exhaust and the air intake further away ? just a thought .
You ever think that running it as hot as you are (in smaller spaces you will NOT run it that hot) causing your own problems? those are used in many spaces without issue and no people do not run it wide open because its too much. the pump flow dictates the anount of heat output
Those CO meters have a threshold of about 30 ppm. They read zero until they reach that threshold, so it could have still be producing some CO, but probably not much.
I'm thinking what's happening is that the fuel gets injected too quickly so it fails to burn cleanly, pumping the rest of the crap into the room, so you're essentially breathing unburnt fuel.
You can use the settings to either run it off of the pulse setting or a certain temperature that you wanted to shut off at, if you want to use used oil you need to bleach it with sulfuric acid
Many Americans use Watts for heat output now, since "1500 Watt" electric heaters are now so ubiquitous that many people know approximately what 1.5 kW of heat output feels like.
What you could do is try to have the machine outside and heat hose going inside. That way you can see if it's a diesel leak from the machine, something like that or if it's the heating itself that is worsening the air quality. Love the videos by the way
Why do people that just first learn about diesel heaters try to teach others try to teach others about how to use them. Please get some experience about what you were doing as in I have been using them for years now and have set the parameters of the heater to burn different fuel sources I have some knowledge as to what they can and cannot use. I wish that you would have some experience with the heater before trying to teach others and have some real experience before posting your experience experience with the product as in at least two or three months of using the unit before trying to show others how to operate the system. I understand the enthusiasm but I don't really know what it is that you're trying to get across the others before you really have any experience with the product.
These units are designed to be sealed to a truck, van or RV floor and have the air intake and exhaust fully on the outside of the vehicle. You really need to run the air intake out the window as well and seal up the crack in the window in order to properly test for a change in air quality. David McLuckie has done extensive testing on many different clones and originals of this style of heater and many of these do tend to burn less cleanly at full blast and will clean up a bit by making adjustments to the fuel and fanspeed where possible since the frequency setting also tends to control the fanspeed with some delay. I think part of the situation when you were running full blast is that the air intake was pulling a higher vacuum in the building and exhaust air was being pulled back through the opening in the window and across the intake in the back for the air to be heated and being forced through the outside of the heater exchanger and blown into the room so little by little it was filling the room with exhaust gasses that may not be just CO but other byproducts of combustion as well. I have 2 of these heaters without the metal case that are meant to be installed in a vehicle but I have one installed in my back garage workshop and one installed in the basement of my house as a backup incase the boiler goes down due to a power or natural gas outage which can sometimes happen here.
@@codman-ic5pt Well if you don't want it pulling a vacuum on the interior of whatever structure you are heating and potentially sucking exhaust gasses back into the space you are trying to heat, you really want both the intake and exhaust connected to the outside so that the air quality in the heated space is not affected. If the space is small and is really well sealed like a vehicle can be you can also run into issues where the heaters sometimes starve for enough air which will cause them to run rich which may lead to flame our or raw unburnt fuel making it's way to the exhaust which may or may not be an issue depending on how the heater is installed and operated.
When I drove tractor trailer all the trucks in the fleet had "bunk heaters" like this. Diesel powered heater that was mounted under the bed with a line drawing right out of one of the tanks. Eliminated idle time in the winter and kept the sleeper very comfortable. Awesome thing to have!
@@653j521 When first turning it on, can smell a little weird, but definitely manageable. Moreso the first firing of the season, but to be fair, your central heat smells funny the first firing of the season as well. They can really heat the small space these trucks typically have. Some companies have 8-10 hour timers on, and in my experience, I generally wake up about 4-5 hours in and turn it off because I'm sweating.
I was thinking this reminded me of the bunk heater in my Mack. It worked flawlessly for a few years and then stopped. My shop could never figure out the problem. It would just pour out white smoke and never get warm.
How do you know if that air quality meter is real? 99% of those things are fake even with thousands of 5+ star reviews. It says it detects carbon dioxide but CO2 detectors are expensive, more than that whole device costs. Maybe they mean carbon monoxide CO? If so then it's still fake because your actual CO detector didn't show anything.
Actually that monitor does look like the fake ones I have seen, and you are right - CO2 sensors are expensive, and a legitimate CO2 sensor will not show 400 ppm inside. Normal CO2 readings are from 600-800 ppm inside, and his monitor never went above 400 throughout this video, so yes, I believe this is a fake monitor. I took one apart in a video of mine, and this one looks very similar in construction as the one I demonstrated that was fake. I just hope that Tyler can get a legitimate monitor, so he knows if something is wrong. I really liked the video though, nice demonstration. I have one of these heaters, but only have it to use in an emergency, so haven't hooked it up yet.
Also the fuel pump is slowing down because the controller is reading the heat exchanger temperature which you can view by cycling through the menus. It slows the fuel pump to cool the chamber below it's threshold then speeds back up. You can also tune the air fuel mixture by adjusting fan speed vs pump speed in the controller. Google searches reveal all.
Try putting the unit completely outside and ducting it in the window. Turn on 5.4 and see if it still has the same air quality issues. Isolate the plastic variable.
This is what I am assuming about your air quality monitor. I do feel that this is one of those fake monitors. The reason your numbers were going high once the heater was running, is because I believe that if this monitor is fake, it has a TVOC sensor inside not PM sensor (and also your PM levels should have been higher than what the monitor was showing), and the odor from the heater would cause those numbers to go high, because TVOC sensors go nuts when there are odors around, and that heater new will produce a noticeable amount of odor in the beginning, and then the odor will change based on the type of fuel used (stronger or weaker). I also believe this is a fake monitor because the CO2 should be around 550-800 ppm inside a house. and maybe around 500 and higher in your garage, but with all you do in there, I would think the CO2 would be like a house, around 550-800 (from months of personal testing). Only on the outside a CO2 will read around 405- 410 not 400, as 400 ppm CO2 is what is in the ozone, and about 405-410 on ground level outside. I created a video about fake monitors, and this one that you have unfortunately looks like a fake one. If you paid 20.00-30.00 for that monitor (especially since it "registers" CO2 (CO2 sensors are expensive)), it more than likely is fake, so please get a legitimate monitor before you start getting paranoid. There are allot of people that use these heaters in their homes and vehicles with no problems with bad air (assuming they are vented correctly), it is just that your (more than likely fake monitor) is giving you incorrect information, causing concern for bad air quality. I noticed that the CO2 level never changed in this video, which is certainly a big red flag indicating it is fake. Your CO2 in that garage should be between 500--800 ppm if it is a legitimate and real CO2 monitor. I did like the video however, great testing of different fuels. It would be interesting to see if you could burn biofuel. as a person may have biofuel around for emergency heating. - just a thought ;).
Same brand I actually got a PID heater controller that is a copy of a SESTOS; the software seemed to be identical. So Inkbird may just be into making knockoffs.
@@HughWoo I have and use this heater to help heat our home and I learned a lot. The air quality was very informative. What temps to run it on to reduce that. Also, just to see the results someone else has with fuel usage at different settings and also with different types of fuel. We've considered experimenting with that. Now, I don't have to experiment myself, because I've come to some conclusions and saved some time.
If it's colder outside than it is inside the window being open is letting the hot air draw in the cold air and is pulling the exhaust into the garage as it warms up the space in the garage. This explains the gradual decrease in air quality. Diesels don't really put out massive amounts of Carbon monoxide so it makes sense for the carbon monoxide detector not to see it.
I've been using this for 4 years to heat up my workshop. Actually I bought two of them. The first one came broken from China and I had to mod it. The second one came perfect. My opinion is this machine is quite wonderful if you know what you are doing. And yearly maintenance is recommended during summer time. Fortunately parts are readily available from China and they are quite cheap.
I think the aqi would of been better if you had the air intake outside even better the whole unit. Your exhausting the air that was taking on frim the room out of the room so causing essentially vacuum, which because rhe window is open to allow the exhaust is then causing draft to come in. A small difference but definitely a difference this is why portable acs arent very good as they cause a vacuum sucking in warm air from elsewhere.
The heater is designed to be installed on the floor of a truck or van and the goes down through the floor. So, if you are bending the exhaust line, you may be causing back pressure that could cause leakage. Also, if you burn used oil, it will need more frequent service to clean the combustion chamber.
It should also be using a balanced flue and drawing combustion air from the outside. Otherwise it will draw cold outside air into the living space and create drafts, and use more fuel because it has to heat that cold air. To test it properly Tyler should have piped both connections on the bottom of the thing to the outside, with the exhaust slightly above the input (so convection takes the hot exhaust away from the intake)
Yes, and you should also check the overhead combustible flux chamber to prevent any inherent residue coming in from the zercobic phlogenic drives. They can get clogged up, so just a pre-warning. But yes, I agree.
Burning used engine oil will carbon up your burn chamber, yes short term use it will work, but I bet you can’t get more then 3-4 gallons before it quit working.
Quite the contrary actually, i have seen a few videos of people running these on straight used oil for 6+ months in the colder parts of the world. Just got to mess with the Pump speed for best burn. Heck if you are still wanting to air on the side of caution, then just do a 50/50 mix with diesel and you are set.
I bet this video took a lot of time, and effort; I appreciate it! I personally hate the smell of diesel, it gives me a headache. Lol. I still love watching this channel! ❤
These things WILL happily burn just about any flammable liquid. The only problem you'll run into is soot buildup inside the burn chamber. Any impurities in the fuel will coat the walls of the burner chamber, which will act as an insulator, so your fuel efficiency absolutely plummets. So you CAN run fry oil, used oil, bio blends, jet A, anything, but you'll need to service and clean the burn chamber far more regularly.
yea those things work well.. I have seen some russian youtubers use these and they can also burn used (strained) vegetable oil. but it was always recommended to start on pure diesel then swap to an alternative fuel.. then at the end run for 10 or so min bure diesel to clean it all out (just a splice into the fuel line and a valve and you can swap your fuels and have a very small diesel tank) I have also seen them wrap the exhaust pipe and use it to heat water or such... many ways to increase the heat output on those. but yes they are start on full or near full then throttle down to what you want. You may want to check local laws .. those can be illegal in some areas
I remember watching someone use the same heater. He used an extra long exhaust pipe to increase the heating efficiency. You can use a lot of different fuels to run that heater.
Is the lower "air quality" from oxygen being used from the heater? Try running fresh air intake hose that is away from the exhaust. Or run nothing but the duct into your shop. Btw diesel, kerosene, propane ect don't admit co2
My question is, what's the point of having it run on diesel, If you still have to plug it in a wall for it to work? I don't get why it can't just use the diesel to run the heater itself.
Get the admin code and adjust your air/fuel mixture. If you run it rich for too long it'll soot up and and you will have to take it apart and clean it all out. It's a mess, but fairly easy if you are mechanically inclined.
It’s been said already, but you’re supposed to mount the machine outside and just the heat duct comes inside. That’s also why the faceplate detaches. You can run it through the wall to control it from the inside, while the heater is mounted on the wall on the outside
@@yinglyca1 "Supposed to" may be a strong way to say it. "Ideally" is probably better. The intake air needs to come from outside either way. On a van, it's not always so easy or practical to mount it outside. But for a shed or garage, as was the example in the video, it's a MUCH better choice to mount it outside.
The air quality might be lowering for a few reasons, - Cheap plastics are off gassing - Diesel vapors are coming out of the cap and building up vocs - paint and other materials are burning off - the seal between the combustion chamber and air chambers are slightly leaking - the port connecting the exhaust to the hose are not tightened enough - exhaust is blowing back into the house - air in the room is being circulated quickly and kicking up particulates.
I was thinking along the lines of, when it's running full bore, if the intake is creating enough suction that it's drawing back through the open window. Especially when he didn't have the muffler installed at first.
Something like this would be amazing for "van life" or heating small rooms/homes. Cabins would be amazing if you could haul this out to the woods with some used engine oil.
ive heated a whole 2 bedroom house for over 12 years with one of these they originally where meant for trucks when parking in sub zero temps ... hey are infact knows as a parking diesel heater
I know someone who uses one of these as a shop heater and in his hunting deer stand shack. The main downside is that it needs continuous 12v power to run.
Just for reference. If you have a very common electric furnace in your home it will have 3 heat strips. Sometimes 1-5 heat strips but 3 is most common in my trade. A good amp draw for a single heat strip in a furnace with proper air flow is 17-20 Kw. So this would be the equivalent to a very low btu output. Also, every 5Kw is roughly 17k btu output. ROUGHLY
That is why gas heat is so efficient. Much lower power usage for more heat output. All the customer houses I have ever gone to that had an oil furnace or a gas furnace that was replaced with a heat pump complained about the heat output. The heat pump with electric heat strips puts out much colder air than gas or oil heaters. Usually about 30 to 50 degrees less with the heat strips running. That being said, I live in Florida and most units have 5 to 10 KW of heat strips in them unless they are straight cool units with only electric heat.
@@jw3843there's no such thing as efficiency when it comes to electric heaters, all the electrical energy you put into will come out as heat energy, there's no where else for it to go
@@iamgood5544 yes they are 100% efficient but use way more power than a gas furnace or oil furnace. That would be the efficiency of heat you get out for what goes in. A 15Kw heater uses 15kw of power, a gas furnace will use about 1 kw and you will get about 15 kw of heat out.
Tyler!!! You are to put that unit outside when it is running & then put the hot air tube into whatever you are trying to heat......come on, man, you are smarter than this!!!!!!........
Those air quality sensors are really sensitive to VOCs - And heating up plastic will produce VOCs, especially when it's new. Taking off the metal case allowed the built-up off-gassing from the plastic bottom unit and fuel tank can blow into the room all at once.
great show thanks for taking the time to figure this out,,i don't see any link to the ( The air quality meter ) i would like to get a few of those, thanks
Questions, would you trust this unit in a small 10x20 shed/cabin that's actually 165 square feet when you subtract the porch cut out, it's R13 insulated with drywall? Your test was the most thorough test especially with the air quality test. Though you used different fuel mixtures and it lowered the air quality, it makes cautious especially having 2 smalls boys that will be in the cabin on weekends.
I used mine indoors for 3 Winter seasons. Then again, I am a retired Engineer and went out of the way to make the unit safe and stupid proof. Screwing around with fuels is asking for trouble. Red diesel is strictly what I burn. Last October I opened mine up after hundreds of hours of operation and the combustion chamber was clean. My unit is clamped to the top of a fireplace insert and exhausts through a 3/4'' hole I drilled and tapped in the side of the stove insert. The fireplace is brick with standard masonry chimney liner. The exhaust comes out at 350F and heats the top of the fireplace insert and creates a good draft up the chimney. Mine runs 24/7 so the chimney stays warm, the draft pulls out any combustion products. When it's off for days, I sometimes burn some cardboard and charcoal briquets to establish a draft. Here's a recent video of the draft.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6n8WMu7Mq3k.html This ''air quality'' test stirred up too many bogus concerns. These units will off gas plastic, paint, manufacturing oils, etc, when new until they have been run hard for a day. The only time my air quality meter shows significant reading increases is when I vacuum the living room with my $800 Miele German vacuum cleaner. The dust stirred up increases the readings. To consider..... can be run indoors safely bolted to a shelf, low enough to easily refuel. Wrap the exhaust with hot rod header tape cloth. Make absolutely sure you penetrate the cabin wall with a fireproof insulated sleeve, use decent automotive hose clamps on the exhaust tube and throw away the Chinese ones. The exhaust runs at 350F and should make the 90 degree turn under the unit and head straight outside horizontally, muffler side with drain hole goes downward. You need a reliable 12+ volt DC power source like an Ecoflow or LFP lithium battery with solar or 120vac charging. Need a pair of 1.5 gallon fuel jugs with push button spout for dripless fueling. These things burn 1 to 3 gallons a day depending on the heat setting. Once broken in, there will be no small at all inside. Also, the fuel pump does the tic tic day and night. On low setting, its like a clock. The internal fans are noisy at anything above H2 heat setting. I had a propane Hunting Buddy with 20 pound BBQ tank, hose extension, and their filter adapter, a Cojee kerosene heater, and an unvented natural gas 15,000 btu heater. I tested them all for a week or more. They ALL stink from combustion gasses when operated indoors. The Chinese diesel heater gets my thumbs up. I hope this helps. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ceeSfqwcNOs.html
special ? ya only 10 to 12 years behind lol they are not 5 to 8 kw they test out at 4.7 kw max lol if you wantt to mix oils run it on filtered fryer oil and diesel otherwise it will end up blocking the mesh and carbonizing up the burn chamber ... ive run a window mounted unit for 12 years to heat a 2 bedroom non insulated house to around 26c in - temp... what you can smell on first start up is manufacturing oil burning off the castings they all do it first run ... you can change the heater to work thermostatically at a temp by changing it in the settings menu
I hope you read some of these other way out comments. My eyes are so tired from rolling so much. Mine runs strictly on red diesel. 3 seasons old, sometimes runs for a week non stop. I added a 12 volt LED light at the tank top near the pump so I can see the fuel level from 40 feet away. I also added a fuel filter before the pump. I had one pump seize up from dirt that gets stirred up when I fill the tank. The filter ended the problem and you can see particles in it already. I would guess my ''8kw'' 27,000 Chinese BTU's unit to be about 10,000 BTU maximum. I run it on a lithium LFP battery with automatic charger in use.
Air quality = particles in the air. When you start the dieselheater, it starts moving the air inside your garage, this in turns causes dust to lift. I have one of those fit in my garage. It's awesome.