# Heaters



## Herbenny (Mar 25, 2015)

I need advice please on adding another heater in the van and even if we should do it at all ?
We only have the gas fire which works fine apart from tossing a coin on who lights it in the mornings. 

The van is 14 years old and as much as I get distracted with other vans,  I really do like this van and I think we will be keeping it a couple of more years yet. So my question is would you spend all that money on getting another heater in an older van  ? 
Or would you just stick with what you got ?

Some time back we had the chance to buy a second hand diesel heater,  but from what I know there may be some parts missing (not sure which) will know more later.  I would be worried that it would be faulty or something but  
if I could find a* reliable* website where they sell reconditioned ones I may be tempted.


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## flyinghigh (Mar 25, 2015)

I fitted a eberbacher d2 last year to my A class so that I wasnt 100% reliant on the truma gas heater,
We rarely have the heating on at night and as I always draw the short straw for making the tea and toast in the morning it lovely to turn it on and warm my tootsies while I waiting for the kettle to boil,
Then back into bed for our refreshment and when we get up there isn't any chill in the air:banana:
I am amazed how little fuel it uses, in fact there isn't any decernable difference in the fuel level ,
So it's gets a top vote from me


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## Penny13 (Mar 25, 2015)

Just fit shag pile carpet and it will be warmer :shag::shag::shag:


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## Herbenny (Mar 25, 2015)

Penny13 said:


> Just fit shag pile carpet and it will be warmer :shag::shag::shag:



Now ya talkin


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## Steve121 (Mar 25, 2015)

Herbenny said:


> I need advice please on adding another heater in the van and even if we should do it at all ?
> We only have the gas fire which works fine apart from tossing a coin on who lights it in the mornings.
> 
> The van is 14 years old and as much as I get distracted with other vans,  I really do like this van and I think we will be keeping it a couple of more years yet. So my question is would you spend all that money on getting another heater in an older van  ?
> ...



There's at least one reliable seller of used heaters; I'll post a link when I can find it again. In the meantime, I think you'll find some useful info here and here.
I've got a D5LC, which is a standard fitment to my 1998 ex-MoD ambulance, and although some people complain that they're noisy I would hate to be without it.


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## Beemer (Mar 25, 2015)

flyinghigh said:


> I fitted a eberbacher d2 last year to my A class so that I wasnt 100% reliant on the truma gas heater,



I too am considering another means of heating our A class.
We had an Erberspacher in our previous motorhome and although it was a good heater, it was noisy and required 12v power to run the blower, but if the battery was low, it would not start.
Considering a gas heater without the blown air system, if I had a wall to put it on.
I have also noticed that a lot of new motorhomes and caravans are moving back to wall mounted gas heaters, although I don't think they are convection only.


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## Steve121 (Mar 25, 2015)

*Reliable seller of used Eberspacher heaters*

This is the link to the seller I mentioned in my earlier post: Eberspacher Diesel Heater Introduction
I haven't used their services myself, but have heard only positive things about them.


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## Herbenny (Mar 25, 2015)

Steve121 said:


> This is the link to the seller I mentioned in my earlier post: Eberspacher Diesel Heater Introduction
> I haven't used their services myself, but have heard only positive things about them.



Thank you very much for the link :bow:
its really helpful


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## Steve121 (Mar 25, 2015)

Herbenny said:


> Thank you very much for the link :bow:
> its really helpful



Glad to have been of assistance.


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## QFour (Mar 25, 2015)

Diesel heaters don't have to be noisy. The Makuni one we had wasn't. Fit a silencer. I had one on our boat. Noisiest bit was the pump that made a ticking sound. If you can mount it out of the way it will be quiet. Don't forget a silencer or two though. We had a boat near us without one what a racket especially at 6am in the morning when their kids woke up. I complained and all I got was the kids will get cold. Tough .. Put some clothes on or get back in bed ......

Makuni do a kit with all the hoses etc.

..


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## FULL TIMER (Mar 25, 2015)

I myself have a Mikuni MY30 nice heaters and easy to work on plus I have loads of new parts for it as it was  new old stock in our stores, as said all the diesel fuelled heaters can be quietened down with the use of a silencer on the exhaust but more importantly a muffler in the combustion air intake,  I have worked  on and fitted hundreds of Eberspachers over the years D2's / D4's great heaters but expensive to buy new and spares can be very expensive if buying secondhand make sure you get everything to enable you to fit and use including  controller ,all pipes (fuel and exhaust) ducting etc and the fittings to fit in the fuel tank. 
Another one worth looking out for is the  MV Airo 2KW Diesel Heater, comes as a complete kit and probably not much more expensive than a good recon Eberspacher with all the fitting  kit. 

Don't forget there is also the Propex Heatsource  range of gas fuelled  blown air heaters, cheaper to buy than the diesel heaters and easier to diy fit


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## flyinghigh (Mar 26, 2015)

]I too am considering another means of heating our A class.
We had an Erberspacher in our previous motorhome and although it was a good heater, it was noisy and required 12v power to run the blower, but if the battery was low, it would not start.
Considering a gas heater without the blown air system, if I had a wall to put it on.
I have also noticed that a lot of new motorhomes and caravans are moving back to wall mounted gas heaters, although I don't think they are convection only.[/QUOTE]

I fitted mine between the double floor, I also fitted a intake and exhaust silencer plus the fuel pump are now mounted on a flexible rubber mount, let me say it is no noisier than my wife's snoring:scared:

Seriously it's only audible outside with a slight roaring sound on full heat that drops to no noise when at midrange or lower, the latest D2 has reduce the 12volt consumption on start up and will just tick over on idle when up to temperature, so batteries shouldn't be a problem,


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## Steve121 (Mar 26, 2015)

Beemer said:


> I too am considering another means of heating our A class.
> We had an Erberspacher in our previous motorhome and although it was a good heater, it was noisy and required 12v power to run the blower, but if the battery was low, it would not start.
> Considering a gas heater without the blown air system, if I had a wall to put it on.
> I have also noticed that a lot of new motorhomes and caravans are moving back to wall mounted gas heaters, although I don't think they are convection only.



I've heard other people apparently complaining about heaters not starting when the battery voltage is low; it's to protect the battery from over discharge. 
Eberspachers do consume quite a few amps initially but it soon settles down to a lower consumption. If the VB is used to power the heater, and there was no low voltage protection, you could be in the situation of not being able to start your engine. At the very least this would be inconvenient, but in some situations it could be life threatening.
I consider the greatest advantage of an Eberspacher is that it uses the same fuel as your engine, and very little of it, so you will, or at least should, always be able to run your heater. I often find it hard to believe how much gas some motorhomers use.


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## Steve121 (Mar 26, 2015)

FULL TIMER said:


> I myself have a Mikuni MY30 nice heaters and easy to work on plus I have loads of new parts for it as it was  new old stock in our stores, as said all the diesel fuelled heaters can be quietened down with the use of a silencer on the exhaust but more importantly a muffler in the combustion air intake,  I have worked  on and fitted hundreds of Eberspachers over the years D2's / D4's great heaters but expensive to buy new and spares can be very expensive if buying secondhand make sure you get everything to enable you to fit and use including  controller ,all pipes (fuel and exhaust) ducting etc and the fittings to fit in the fuel tank.
> Another one worth looking out for is the  MV Airo 2KW Diesel Heater, comes as a complete kit and probably not much more expensive than a good recon Eberspacher with all the fitting  kit.
> 
> Don't forget there is also the Propex Heatsource  range of gas fuelled  blown air heaters, cheaper to buy than the diesel heaters and easier to diy fit



The MV Airo 2 costs £777.60. 

The Eberspacher Airtronic D2 is available from HEATSO for £529.99 + delivery, from ebay for £745 with free delivery or from Just Kampers for £729


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## GRWXJR (Mar 26, 2015)

Ive got a Webasto Diesel Heater in my campervan.

I mounted in the rear storage and services area, and built a chamber around it so that it recirculates the air from the hab area, but isn't actually IN the hab area.  This has helped keep noise down considerably and its not intrusive or even noticeable once the initial high blower speed to heat up has slowed the  down.

I run mine on a separate small tank in the service area, and fuel it on Kerosene (CH Oil) which i pump out of my bulk CH tank at home.  I read that they burn cleaner and a bit hotter on kero, and coke up less - so after I serviced it I stopped using diesel in it.  the fuel is cheaper as well, but as I don't use it that much and its not using lots of fuel that's secondary.

The position meant that could also mount the dosing pump right under the rear valence and as far away from the hab area as possible - added and extra rubber anti-vibration mounting (to isolate the metallic clunk in operation from being transmitted through the chassis) and you cant hear it.

Its a 2kW rated unit, and on kero and after me stripping it and cleaning it it works very well indeed.  Think of it as a built-in fan heater with less noise but the same rapid heating speed, heat performance and convenience, but with a far better thermostatic system (it slows down rather than cuts in and out to regulate temp) and you get the general idea.

As you can gather, I reckon the diesel heater is a great bit of kit!


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## Steve121 (Mar 26, 2015)

GRWXJR said:


> Ive got a Webasto Diesel Heater in my campervan.
> 
> I mounted in the rear storage and services area, and built a chamber around it so that it recirculates the air from the hab area, but isn't actually IN the hab area.  This has helped keep noise down considerably and its not intrusive or even noticeable once the initial high blower speed to heat up has slowed the  down.
> 
> ...



Sounds like your thermostsat works in much the same way as the Eberspacher one, ie. it's proportional. I'm fairly sure the fuel flow is regulated as well as the fan speed, and on my installation there's an outside temperature sensor as well; I think this can be added to an existing installation quite easily.
You can hardly hear the fuel pump on mine - it's rubber mounted under the chassis, and well insulated acoustically due largely to the construction of the bodywork. The heater unit itself is mounted inside a box in the hab area, with plenty of additional acoustic insulation. The main source of noise is usually from the air intake, for which you can add a silencer, but once it's warmed up, the sound drops dramatically. From what others have said, exhaust silencers do not make a lot of difference, at least not inside the vehicle.


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## coolasluck (Mar 26, 2015)

I have a 5kw webasto thermotop c which  heats my coach nicely and quickly and also provides our hot water via a calorifier. 
This is far better than the gas heating that we had in our hymer which took an age to get you warmed up.
I wanted a unit that was reliable and wouldnt break down on me.
It is a bit noisy though although you dont notice from inside the van :lol-053:
I may see what i can do to hush it up a bit as we like to be out in the wilds if possible.
Very happy with it in my opinion you cant beat diesel  heating.
I run the fuel from my main tank however you can buy separate tanks for them.


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## drewdt3 (Mar 26, 2015)

We had a diesel heated van park up next to us in Keswick the other day and it woke me us when it was kicking in, it sounded like someone trying to inflate a hot air balloon!


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## coolasluck (Mar 26, 2015)

GRWXJR said:


> Ive got a Webasto Diesel Heater in my campervan.
> 
> I mounted in the rear storage and services area, and built a chamber around it so that it recirculates the air from the hab area, but isn't actually IN the hab area.  This has helped keep noise down considerably and its not intrusive or even noticeable once the initial high blower speed to heat up has slowed the  down.
> 
> ...





I agree diesel heaters  are a great bit of kit.
On my setup i just have one large blower outlet box as opposed to the standard fan outlet tubes that you get in most motorhomes.
However mine just has a timer and a switch fast and slow which i manually switch.So i have no thermostat on it not that it matters really.Whatever you do though dont use red diesel in these units.


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## GRWXJR (Mar 26, 2015)

coolasluck said:


> I agree diesel heaters  are a great bit of kit.
> On my setup i just have one large blower outlet box as opposed to the standard fan outlet tubes that you get in most motorhomes.
> However mine just has a timer and a switch fast and slow which i manually switch.So i have no thermostat on it not that it matters really.Whatever you do though dont use red diesel in these units.



I'm intrigued!  Why not please?  Red is just 35-sec 'DERV' but with a stain in it to stop folks from using lower-duty juice, pretty much yes?

Why would Red foul the heater up, when regular 'white diesel' is fine?


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## FULL TIMER (Mar 26, 2015)

Steve121 said:


> The MV Airo 2 costs £777.60.
> 
> The Eberspacher Airtronic D2 is available from HEATSO for £529.99 + delivery, from ebay for £745 with free delivery or from Just Kampers for £729



these are a bit cheaper http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9...sel.html/RK=0/RS=eVW.UJ5WdA9nD6rCRpH7DO2WJPY-
The price of the  D2 in your heatso link is not including VAT all though that is still a good price for a D2,


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## GRWXJR (Mar 26, 2015)

FULL TIMER said:


> these are a bit cheaper http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9...sel.html/RK=0/RS=eVW.UJ5WdA9nD6rCRpH7DO2WJPY-



That Mikuni looks IDENTICAL to my Webasto Airtop 2kW! 

Only a lot newer (I think mine must be about 15-years-old)!


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## FULL TIMER (Mar 26, 2015)

They are basically the same seem to be made to pattern, even though Webasto still produce their version, I can actually get the webasto's cheaper (trade) than the MV's through one of my suppliers but have not yet used them, I fitted one of the Webasto's (customer supplied)  a few weeks back seemed a good little  heater and soon warmed up his long wheelbase Vito .


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