Diesel Heater Installation Assistance

[cadillackid]

the other thing is use your diesel heater every couple of months.. one of the things they hate is old fuel... even if you drive your bus around and keep fresh fuel in it.. the lines and fuel filter for the diesel heater dont get fresh fuel unless you run the unit.. the dosing amount is small esp on a 5kw heater so you need to kick it on and run it a good bit..


if you arent driving your bus enough to run out the fuel tank every few months and you arent using the diesel heater except a couple times a year then that makes thre issue even worse

 

[Iceni John]

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.

As I mentioned in my previous scribble here (no.12), there are some very good mid-price Chinese diesel heaters that are essentially the same quality as the European and Russian ones, but significantly less spendy. VVKB makes three ranges of heaters, and their best one is excellent (but not cheap). I bought a HLN Aerolyn 4000 made by the only Chinese manufacturer that's an OEM supplier to truck and bus manufacturers around the world, and it's impressively well made. LF Bros is another maker of better CDHs: I heard that they use Lavaner internals. Maybe there are some other CDH makers out there who have decent-quality products? Maxspeedingrods heaters are also getting good reviews recently. Even though diesel heaters are relatively new to the US market, they've been around for decades elsewhere, so they're a mature technology by now. However, there will always be the inevitable bottom-feeders that make the cheapest possible junk that has no pretenses to quality: they make it simply because some people buy it!

John

 

[cadillackid]

As I mentioned in my previous scribble here (no.12), there are some very good mid-price Chinese diesel heaters that are essentially the same quality as the European and Russian ones, but significantly less spendy. VVKB makes three ranges of heaters, and their best one is excellent (but not cheap). I bought a HLN Aerolyn 4000 made by the only Chinese manufacturer that's an OEM supplier to truck and bus manufacturers around the world, and it's impressively well made. LF Bros is another maker of better CDHs: I heard that they use Lavaner internals. Maybe there are some other CDH makers out there who have decent-quality products? Maxspeedingrods heaters are also getting good reviews recently. Even though diesel heaters are relatively new to the US market, they've been around for decades elsewhere, so they're a mature technology by now. However, there will always be the inevitable bottom-feeders that make the cheapest possible junk that has no pretenses to quality: they make it simply because some people buy it!

John

I ran a VVKB 12kw coolant heater for a couple years. and it struggled greatly to start in temps below 10F.. id have plumes of smoke and error codes.. it had a remote control which was nice but it just didnt want to get going.. it way overfueld in the cold temps to get a good run.. maybe the air heaters are different.. there were lots of emails back N forth between me and VVKB.. their customer service was great but we just couldnt make the unit work reliably in extra cold weather..


the D&E units seemed to be much better but at an efifciency cost.. my stack temperature on the 16kw unit was upwards of 700F at times... it struggled less getting going... the pumps they provided were terrible so I had switched to Davies craig pump which solved that issue... it had a long long startup time so any load on the coolant and the heater would be blowing fairly cool air by the time the fire got going.. it did much better in below 0F temps.. It would smoke sometimes but it ran its glowplug much longer on startup and shutdown.. connections were its main issue.. despite being "water proof" I had issues with water getting into the connectors on it and ruining the board.. D&E was super helpful in helping to resolve the issues. the biggest issue was that to service it you have to remove it completely from the bus.. just to clean the glowplug and screen.. there was no external access.. on a coolant heater thats a royal PITA.. as it means you now introduce air back into the cooling system and have to deal with more valves to isolate it...

 

[s2mikon]

Just to add to post #21, if you use the plastic tanks that come with the heaters, the crappy plastic they use breathes and oxidizes the fuel and then you WILL have problems. Using a metal tank to keep light and air from your fuel is an important factor to keep in mind. Also the fuel changes seasonally too. Winter fuel is lighter than summer fuel, you can measure it with a hydrometer. I haven't had any problems with red dyed diesel that I use in my tractor.

 

[Beeb2]

I had zero experience ever tapping a tank or anything like it. I watched Chuck's video posted below, took notes, and set out to do it myself. It was really easy. The only adjustment I made was I added some JB Weld around the hole where the tap goes in the tank because it kept spinning itself loose. Otherwise, no problems in over a year.

Chuck's Video

 

[LargeMarge-TC]

...I am not 100% confident in my...skills...!

.
Are you fifty percent confident?
Thirty-three and a third percent confident?

 

[Brian S-SKO]

My 2006 ford E450 has an auxiliary tap/port on the fuel sending unit on the top of the fuel tank. There is a little black cap on an unused line. just plugged right into that. You have to keep the tank at a minimum of 1/3 full or the fuel level drops below the tap inside the tank. But the diesel heater seems to have no problem with occasionally losing prime and restarting.