Portable Diesel Heaters- your thoughts

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by John 321

I’m planning on the L-300 Toyotomi Laser Vented Heater for my Thomas er 35’ conversion with raised roof.
Not promoting the idea, just what I’m planning.

I was curious to see how a heater would use a laser to vent itself. I am more than a little disappointed to learn that "Laser" is just the name of the thing and that it doesn't come with a built-in laser for cutting its own vent opening.

[jackdebear]

I'm not a fan of Chinese products. And I'm leery of putting my faith in any tech I don't understand and can't wrench myself. But I've been looking into the diesel heater thing. This is a site you might want to visit:

https://www.youtube.com/@johnmck1147

[cadillackid]

my chinese diesel heater experiences have been a tumultuous journey... I use coolant water heaters as my busses are largely still busses and have their factory (or aftermarket upgraded) heating systems..



I have had a couple different brands and definitely not been a seamless experience.. my first 12kw heater worked great until it got cold.. then it wouldnt start... made a great smoke screen but that was it.. that one died.. company sent me parts to fix it and it never really worked right.. still wouldnt light...


so then I switched to another china brand D&E, 16kw heater.. which I got one season out of then the fan motor locked up and burnt up the board..(luckily in the fall) they sent me parts and a new heater which i put in and got all of last winter out of.. including a trip to minnesota for new years where it was -24F and it fired every time (good thing because my bus has no glow plugs)...



the exhaust pipe apparently rusted through and fell off at some point this fall.. so i put another one on...



during our recent wicked cold snap over christmas .. the heater quit with wierd codes and voltage errors..



turns out the chinese "weatherproof" wiring harness wasnt so weatherproof.. so there i was under the bus in the snow while it was -8 outside with the wind howling at 25 MPH.. fixing that... so i would work 3-5 minutes till my fingers quit working... then go inside the house (yes lucky i was at home).. where the GAS HEAT was keeping it at a nice 75f... a few times of that and the heater has been in service again fine for the last few weeks..



with all the time, effort, and buying spare heaters.. im pretty sure i couldve bought a couple really nice Used REAL WEBASTO DBW2010s. or even a new webasto, espar, eberspacher branded unit...



oh and the REAL webasto TSL-17 i put in my redbyrd bus back in 2018 has given me ZERO issues.. I turn it on and it goes.. i change the fuel filter in it once a year..


the one time i thought that one was broken.. the bus was low on fuel.. (I purposely put the heater dip tube at about 1/4 tank in the bus).. once i fielled the bus that heater took off and worked fine..

[John 321]

I ended up not using the Toyotomi heater after all. Can’t remember all the reasons but they are more suitable for a house or a cabin than they would be for a bus. Good product and great company but not designed for my application - in my opinion.

I opted for a “Cheap Chinese Diesel Heater”. I love it. Had to replace the fuel pump after one year but everything else is working fine. I’ve used it every day for the past 2 months and it has worked flawlessly. I’m leaving on a 2-3 week trip to Arizona in a couple of days and I expect to stay warm and dry.

I believe that for the cost, there is no better value in the market. Take the time and make the effort to learn as much as you can about how they work before you install one in your rig.

Just my opinion, based on experience.

[jackdebear]

After watching all of the videos on the youtube site I posted my conclusion is that most of the problems people have with the Chinese knock offs is due to user error. I had more trepidation about them before watching this guy go trough 19 videos. I'm reading about issues with the German brands as well. Also knock offs branded Wabasto. No decisions as yet.

[cadillackid]

the true Webasto units are easy to spot... the DBW2xxx series , scholastic series use an ignition and burn system that is almost identical to a home / commercial oil burning furnace / boiler.. its not an oil drip onto a screen with a dosing pump like the china units..


it has a mechanical gear pump driven by the fan motor.. typically 80-100 PSI and flows fuel via a solenoid valve that opens.. it uses standard nozzles.. 0.34 (GPH) at 60(degrees spread) is a common nozzle to see.. and uses spark electrode ignitors.. there is NO glowplug..


so when I look at heaters to buy if i see a glow-pin on the long cyloinder shaped units like the webasto then i know its a knock.. i havent seen any chinese that use this type burn system..

[Booyah45828]

I don't think chris's issues were user error.

I've never used a knock off heater. The webasto schoolastics have all been great. Trouble free? No. But as a mechanic, I don't ever see stuff that is trouble free. The few espar units I've worked on are just as reliable as the webasto units. The one runs multiple times per week in the winter time, and aside from a new glow plug a few years back, and new fuel hoses a few years before that, it's been a pretty robust unit. That would be the diesel drip on a screen that chris is talking about. In my experience those units are super sensitive to fuel drain back in the hose, as the pumps just don't move enough to "self prime" several feet in normal operation. The fuel furnaces that the schoolastic is aren't nearly as sensitive. But they have their own issues to watch for.

With that said, seeing the near constant issues chris has had with his knock-offs, I'm lead to believe the chinese units are subpar compared to genuine units. So I'll stick with name brand.

My 2 cents......

[cadillackid]

the more i understand about the dosed-pump type units.. how you angle the pump and how the fuel lines are run.. fuel drainback or fuel continuing to enter tha chamber after the pump shuts off can definitely lead to big issues.. if that screen gets carboned up the fuel is going to burn even more dirty and make the issue worse.. low voltage means the glowplug doesnt get as hot as it should esp in cold weather...


the issues ive run into have all seemed to be related to extreme weather.. (the coolant heaters have a tall order.. unlike an air heater that will quickly warm the chambder and its surroundings.. the coolant heater must run with well -20f coolant surrounding it which is designed to pull away heat.. this means the chamber temp must take longer to warm to become favorable for clean combustion...



the first brand of heater for sure ramped the pump up too quick in cold weather and put the fire out... there was no way to cycle the glowplug and fan only without fuel.. if you unplugged the pump, its computer errored out..



my heaters are also 12kw and 16kw(current one).. yet the physical size of the units isnt a whole bunch larger.. they have bigger water pumps and the dosing fuel pump is a larger dose.. so it may be the very design was a bigger pump and a slightly different computer program yet essentially just fueling the heck out of it...


the wiring failure on my current unit was easy to see.. they used a metripack style connector but the O-ring seals looked like they had been "stuffed" down into the connector ..uneven and withy little gaps around moisture found its way in.. well with ohio salt.. a little water and salt and electricity and you have a reaction right there...



luckily the pins on the circuit board werent damaged.. I pulled the board and took it indoors to clean it up... and then of course put a new connector on with the O-ring seals properly seated into the connector..



one of the things i always do with those heaters is not to short cycle them.. turning one on and then right back off will carbon them up... so when it gets turned on it has a nice long runtime... I drive my busses often enough my fuel is fresh.. that is why im a proponent of piping the heater into the main fuel tank of the bus (albeit dip it high enough you cant accidentilly run the bus drive if you forget to turn off the heater).. this way im not deasling with fuel that sat all spring / summer when i didnt use the heater... I also typically run it a couple times even in summer just to make sure I havent gottewn debris or critters in the air intake.. and change the fuel filter late in summer / before fall.. so thats fresh... they never look dirty but its a cheap and easy thing to do.. and ensures the lines have pretty fresh fuel..



we will see how my unit does now that ive "fixed" a lot of the issues that ive seen with it... we still have a lot of winter left in ohio.. (though I may spend most of it in texas)

[rossvtaylor]

Having installed lots of the Chinese diesel heaters, I thought they were all pretty much the same. But after I learned about and bought one of the Lavaner branded CDHs, and took it apart, I am getting only those now. The wiring harness and connectors are obviously better than all the others I'd seen before. They also advertise a better glow plug...but I cannot confirm that it's actually better.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by rossvtaylor

Having installed lots of the Chinese diesel heaters, I thought they were all pretty much the same. But after I learned about and bought one of the Lavaner branded CDHs, and took it apart, I am getting only those now. The wiring harness and connectors are obviously better than all the others I'd seen before. They also advertise a better glow plug...but I cannot confirm that it's actually better.

there appear to be different ampewrage rated glowplugs.. im guessing related to how hot they get.. the heaters drive them differently too... my current heater has different PWM signals it sends the glowplug ... they run it at a low power setting apparently to slowly evaporate off leftover fuel without carboning it up (at least according to the manufacturer)..



the pins on the first (12kw) heasters i had were much lower wattage than the ones on my current heater... so there seems to be some truth to different glowplugs.. the real test seems to be really cold weather.. so I guess if you can stick a heater in a deep freez and get it to light then its pretty decent...



the first one I had wouldnt light in anything resembling cold (maybe arizona cold but not ohio or further north)... my current heater has no issues lighting in minus 20f... when the wires dont corrode away lolol