Diesel Heater Installation Assistance

[BusFaceTom]

Hi! Looking into purchasing a lavaner (or similar) diesel heater.

I am not 100% confident in my own skills to tap our diesel tank, have never done anything like it.

Have called around various places in town, but have had zero luck with anyone who could help install.

Is anyone located in Tulsa / Oklahoma area? Or have recs from the area?

Needing diesel heater added for a potential cold winter -> spring in Montana. Currently using Mr buddy heater, but it’s temporary before we make journey north. Know the moisture can be an issue with MH.

2002 ford e450 shuttle bus conversion

Thank you!!

 

[Cheezewhiz]

The kit I got came with its own tank.

I popped a hole in the top and weighted the end of the input hose, then sealed the hole with rtv. As opposed to puncturing the bottom, and somehow contorting my arm all the way down there and screwing on the fitting it came with. Yes, it needed a socket on both sides.

Also, check out these threads:

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f51/tapping-side-of-diesel-tank-44623.html

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/chinese-diesel-heater-questions.54856/

 

[heimlich]

I looked at prices for those lavender heaters. It seems the only thing better on is an altitude correction. You can buy 4 of the other heaters for the same price. It seems like the diesel heaters keep getting cheaper and cheaper. I checked a few weeks ago and they are $79.

 

[BusFaceTom]

Have seen those, but the main pros that I have read about / watched for the lavaner is the quality of the pieces + the accessibility of the customer service. The 2kw is which option I was looking at.

 

[heimlich]

You can pay $418 for the lavaner. Or, you can buy 5 of the other ones for the same price.

 

[Tejon7]

Lavaner is a good call. I've now had two of the cheap ones and while they both worked fine for long periods, they both needed bearings and other parts replaced to keep working. I now have the base model 5k Lavaner (the $250 ish one, not the 'alpine' one). The quality difference is noticable and well worth it to me. All the components are obviously made to a higher standard. When it gets cold out, I want to know that the heater is going to work.

OP, if you make it to Montana and still need help, I'll give you a hand (Missoula area).

 

[heimlich]

How long have you had the Lavaner? If it works 5 times better sure it is worth it.

 

[Tejon7]

I've had the Lavaner installed for a year, but have only run it consistently for a few months all told. The apples-to-apples comparison is your $79 example vs the ~$250 base model Lavaner, so about 3x the price. I'm confident that the Lavaner will last longer before needing replacement parts, but 3x as long? Probably not. Even if it runs 2x as long before needing repairs it'll be with it to me because it's significantly quieter (better fan bearings) and I have more trust in it to work when I need it. My other two needed to be torn apart in sub freezing temps over a thousand miles from home. If you have a little extra money to spare, a decent hear source is a good place to spend it in my opinion.

 

[heimlich]

I figured I would just carry a spare for everything.

 

[BusFaceTom]

Was looking at the 2kw option, bus is only 23ft long & weary of burning us out with the larger 5kw unit.

Have you ran into any issues not having the alpine / altitude adjustment? From what I have read it has something to do with the cleanliness of the burn?

Have also considered attaching a small 10-15 gal tank to the underside & filling that separately to avoid needing to tap into the original tank. Would then be a much more straightforward addition I feel.

Appreciate your feedback & offer of assistance, thank you! Awaiting the final approval on a potential new job & then will have official word on being Montana bound.

 

[Albatross]

Quieter bearings also usually means that they'll last a lot longer, since they do their job with less wiggle-room, which also means that there's less wear, since there's less wobbling back and forth.

 

[Iceni John]

I bought a Warmtoo XMZ-D2 heater about three years ago for the bus's bedroom, and I was so impressed with it that I bought another as a spare, just in case... I think I'll get a pretty good life out of them, but because they're still cheap heaters I decided to instead get a good one for the front of the bus: that heater will be running a lot more than the bedroom's when it's cold, so I want something reliable. After considering the VVKB I instead chose the HLN Aerolyn 4000 that's essentially the same quality as Espar/Eberspächer/Webasto/Planar/Autoterm, but much cheaper.
Every time you buy a cheapo CDH it's a gamble - will it be tuneable, does it use standard easily-available motherboards and controllers, how good are its fan bearings, will the glow pin crack, will the thermocouple keep working, etc etc?? Sometimes you're lucky, like I was with the Warmtoos, but now there are a lot of suspiciously-cheap CDHs on the market that may be more trouble than they're worth.

Caveat Emptor.

John

 

[Cheezewhiz]

Was looking at the 2kw option, bus is only 23ft long & weary of burning us out with the larger 5kw unit.

We have one of the cheaper ~$100 ones, 2kw, in a 37' bus with zero additional insulation beyond curtains.

When it's freshly cleaned, it'll keep the whole place a little too warm, down to around freezing temps outside.

The teardown isn't too bad, except for where I mounted it, and replacement parts/gaskets are cheap. Well, for now

 

[Tejon7]

Have you ran into any issues not having the alpine / altitude adjustment? From what I have read it has something to do with the cleanliness of the burn?

I have not, though I've heard the same and was concerned about it for a while. My only full teardown was done on a $100 Amazon model after about 8 months of near full time use. I'm guessing 80% of that time was 3500-5500 feet, 10% 5500-7500 ft, and 10% over 7500 ft. The burn chamber was surprisingly clean, so I don't worry about it any longer. I think it helps that we rarely run it at anytime less than full blast.

The other reason I personally choose the base model Lavaner was that it works with the Afterburner diesel heater controller. It's a cool (but unnecessary) upgrade that I'd already installed and does not work with the 'Alpine Pro' model. Afterburner has altitude compensation options, but I've never played with them.

Good luck with the potential job!

 

[cadillackid]

I speak from a standpoint of diesel Coolant heaters but maybe it applies to air heaters too..



it seemd like I could hardly go a season without some kind of issue with a chinese diesel heater.. I tried several different brands that claimed "quality".. being in ohio , using my completely stock bus (no insulation and all its original windows).. all winter long i use it as a mobile office. I run the heat a LOT.. plus I use the coolant heater to preheat the engine on really cold days... these things were lucky to give me a trouble free season... yet friends who drive school busses were goin g years and yeard without touching their real webasto units... real webastos are very very pricey.. but can be had cheap in junk busses....


so I restored a real webasto that I took out of a bus we were scrappign out (the Maxxforce DT blew up).. it has a completely different ignition and firing system to it than the other diesel heaters do.. it is pretty much identical to an oil fired boiler / furnace in a house.. in fact the nozzles and the electrodes for the ignitor ARE the same.. (nozzles have a lower flow rate than a home unit but same size)... so it seemed like a worthwhile change..


looking at the Lavaner air heaters they appear to be no different than the chinese units... so im questioning how its worth the price better than the chionese units.. as for size i wouldnt put anything less than a 5kw in... the air heaters adjust their output based on the thermostat setting.. most all of them ive seen are true variable speed.. they vary the fan speed as well as the injection frequency.. so they will slow down when the heat load is low.. yet if you have a 5, you have a bit more capacity for quivker warmup or for really cold days...

 

[Cheezewhiz]

I mean, that lavaner or whatever looks identical to all the other cheap Chinese ones. Maybe they have some fancier programming in the chipset, because yeah, running it full bore, max airflow is ideal. More air if you can make it. Which better programming easily could.

It's been chilly but not cold here, and I've done three? Four? Disassemblies this year, vs zero the previous three. Been trying to run the ****er at one or two, instead of max. Course, I broke a gasket and had no replacement for the first few, it's been much better with an actual seal, lol

This morning it was being slow, so imma try some cleaning agent through it tonight. Hopefully that works.

 

[cadillackid]

I mean, that lavaner or whatever looks identical to all the other cheap Chinese ones. Maybe they have some fancier programming in the chipset, because yeah, running it full bore, max airflow is ideal. More air if you can make it. Which better programming easily could.

It's been chilly but not cold here, and I've done three? Four? Disassemblies this year, vs zero the previous three. Been trying to run the ****er at one or two, instead of max. Course, I broke a gasket and had no replacement for the first few, it's been much better with an actual seal, lol

This morning it was being slow, so imma try some cleaning agent through it tonight. Hopefully that works.

just reducing the fuel and elaving the fan up a bit shouldnt cause one to carbon up at lower output.. maybe they are turniung the fan too low.. or the incorect dosing pump was supplied.. the fuel pumps on these heaters may look and act the same but they are not.. so its importabnt to not mix N match fuel pumps.. the jet tronic style pumps produce a specific volume of fuel with each "click".. its possible some of the chinese try and exaggerate their heater output capacity by simply provding a higher dose pump whiuch would definitely cause carbon up..



one of the issues I had with my chinese coolant heaters is that on startup in suepr cold weather they ramped too quickly.. itwould light off initially but then the ramp up was too quick for the chamber temperature and it caused carboning up of the screen.. I would sometimes have to start it.. let it light off then shut it off at the control right away which would leave the fan on and glowplug on for the 2 or 3 minute timer to hopefully get some of the leftover fuel burned off.. then restart it.. I had to do that 2 or 3 times in minus 10 or colder weather sometimes..

 

[Rucker]

I think I have the 5K Chinese Diesel Heater in my shuttle bus. Works well down to freezing, then just keeps you alive below that in California.

I do like quality products but I'm not sure there's such a thing as a 'quality' diesel heater other than the horrendously expensive Webastos.

I have a spare, because a) they are cheap and b) they are wicked easy to change out. Sort of the 'buy cheap, replace often' kind of devices.

 

[AlphaHare]

I don't have one yet, but there is one in my future.

I'm leaning Lavaner for the general build and component quality. There's an interesting Chuck Cassady youtube on this. The controller is barometrically compensated for altitude and fuel/air ratio among other things. I don't want the heater to be a consumable item. IMO, there's value in less expensive VS dirt cheap. I'll let you know in a year how that works out....

Even the Chinese are knocking off Lavaner on aliexpress... lol

 

[Rucker]

Let us know how it goes. Turf in this forum is going round and round with his Lavaner after a few years of use (or abuse).

I'm all for paying for quality-I learned the old adage 'the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price' and would prefer to just get something that works and works.

My current solution is that diesel heater and a backup Buddy Heater (so if the diesel heater breaks during a trip I'm not breaking out the tools).

At some point I'll likely investigate a propane RV furnace to reduce the number of things I need to fuel before taking off.