Diesel air Heater

[Deleted member 12839]

Ref the price, it is probable that you will have to add on VAT, Import Duty and Handling Charges on top as it is above the £100 threshold that is usually used. Just something to bear in mind ....

Having said that, if it works as well as the original, it is a very good deal

I have one of these 2k. Put it in my shepherds hut in my yard.
I paid £121. Received within the week
I have nothing but praise, a great heater, instead of hooking up to 12v. I bought a transformer £12 for 20a
Sure the transformer uses around 2/3 amps
My hut is 12ft x 9ft. There is no way I can keep this heater on for over one hour it is fantastic

 

[Nabsim]

I have one of these 2k. Put it in my shepherds hut in my yard.
I paid £121. Received within the week
I have nothing but praise, a great heater, instead of hooking up to 12v. I bought a transformer £12 for 20a
Sure the transformer uses around 2/3 amps
My hut is 12ft x 9ft. There is no way I can keep this heater on for over one hour it is fantastic

Put a thermostat control in circuit and you will be able to leave it running, ours is just on and off as needed to keep the set temperature when we use it

 

[Dowel]

I have one of these 2k. Put it in my shepherds hut in my yard.
I paid £121. Received within the week
I have nothing but praise, a great heater,

Hello Gabbie,
That sounds very good. Who did you buy from?

I see there are now some ebay offers delivered from UK stock. Still Chinese or Thai sellers but potentially much quicker delivery.
I say potentially because one electronics item from a stockholder in Manchester failed to arrive but they are refunding my payment.

I have bought a few bits from these Chinese UK outlets recently and so far I have had only one non arrival and three items not acceptable with prompt refunds for all four.
Items I bought previously direct from China via ebay were all satisfactory but delivery took about three weeks.

 

[wildebus]

Hello Gabbie,
That sounds very good. Who did you buy from?

I see there are now some ebay offers delivered from UK stock. Still Chinese or Thai sellers but potentially much quicker delivery.
I say potentially because one electronics item from a stockholder in Manchester failed to arrive but they are refunding my payment.

I have bought a few bits from these Chinese UK outlets recently and so far I have had only one non arrival and three items not acceptable with prompt refunds for all four.
Items I bought previously direct from China via ebay were all satisfactory but delivery took about three weeks.

Be aware that these heaters come with ZERO warranty and the sellers will do and say anything to try and stop you asking for money back if faulty.
The first heater I fitted has been great (not one I bought myself, just one I fitted).
The second heater I fitted was faulty out the box. Fixed that fault, but started playing up shortly after with another fault. Currently on the shelf to be looked at. Got a £40 refund on a £150 heater. Not good value!
The third heater has been testing very well and has always started well and run ok. Looks like a goodie.
The fourth heater comes up with an error usually when I start it. Sometimes it will start ok and then is fine,but usually won't start. Seller has offered £15 refund on the £115 price. This time I made sure I checked it out when I first received it (the first one I bought was boxed up for a couple of months before I looked at it - hence stuck with £40 refund offer). Because requested return due to fault within a few weeks, I WILL get a full refund and am ignoring their £15 offer.


So .... My take on this is it is pot luck if you get a good one. The product QA/QC is clearly very poor. I would imagine if you get a good one, you have a bargain; if you get a bad one, you have a bunch of spare parts.
Be prepared to be disappointed and you will hopefully be pleasantly surprised; immediately check when it arrives and don't accept offers of parts to repair - these are sold as brand new fully working and should not need repairing out the box.
If you are a Concierge member on eBay, remember to contact them if a problem - they will ensure you don't lose out (but still have to report a fault within a month - that is how long the guarantee is essentially).


Buying from China generally ... I buy a lot direct from China and usually things are fine. Very little hassle apart from the odd short shipment ("send us a photo ......" How do you photograph something that didn't turn up?). I try and use the same sellers where possible for repeat orders and they make sure they send the right stuff and give me discount as a regular customer.
But expensive (over say £50 unit price?) Items I am wary of as the QC generally is worse as you go up in cost weirdly.

 

[wildebus]

Put a thermostat control in circuit and you will be able to leave it running, ours is just on and off as needed to keep the set temperature when we use it

That would work (and does work) with a Eberspacher but these clone heaters have no thermostat control mechanism. If power is removed (say from a thermo-controller cutting in) then when power back on it doesn't restart by itself.
There is a guy in New Zealand who added a remote feature that could do it .... He made an remote-control actuator with a stick that would press the on/off button!

The temp control is sort of achieved by changing the fuel pump frequency - less pump cycles per second, less fuel, less heat out.

 

[Dowel]

Be aware that these heaters come with ZERO warranty and the sellers will do and say anything to try and stop you asking for money back if faulty. ...... So .... My take on this is it is pot luck if you get a good one. The product QA/QC is clearly very poor. I would imagine if you get a good one, you have a bargain; if you get a bad one, you have a bunch of spare parts.

Thanks for those comments, a fair assessment which I think you have covered before.
Was it on this forum that someone posted
“If you want a heater buy an Eberspacher, If you want a hobby buy Chinese”?

The bottom line for some will be that 4 Chinese heaters could be bought for the price of one Eber.

And then despite the EU fine on Eberspacher for price fixing I have seen no drop in their prices.

The Russian Planar distributed in UK looked affordable but if one needs a comprehensive installation the additional parts beyond the Planar basic kit (£420 IIRC) bring the total up to near the Eber’s and Webasto

I must look in again on the Facebook page for these Chinese heaters but I find sorting the useful from the rest time consuming!

 

[Nabsim]

Not sure if it was earlier in this thread or a different one where someone posted you can get them supplied and fitted in UK somewhere for something over £200. I would have thought if you want one that is a better option then it’s not you has to sort out the problems.

If you can’t control by thermostat though are these type actually suitable in a van in winter? There are times some folks like heating on all night, I know that wouldn’t be able to stay in our van much over half an hour if our Eberspacher was on full belt. It is a DT4 though so 4kw is a fair bit of heat output in a 7.8meter van

 

[wildebus]

It was on the facebook group that some one said about buying a heater or a hobby - and that statement I think is true.
Yup - get 5 of these for the price of one eber - it doesn't automatically make them better value though.
It is a matter of the appropriate standard of quality. if you need a car to go to church once a week, an old banger would do the job and ITS quality is fine - no need to go better. If you did 100,000 miles a year, having to keep finding an new old banger all the time as the old ones break down is not such a clever plan.
If you are someone that relies on a heater working and it is not just an inconvenience, then personally I would say DO NOT buy one of these UNLESS you are also someone who can swap one out quickly and easily.

I can fit these heaters. I can swap out one heater for another in about 30 minutes. But the thing is I really don't want to! I just want to switch it on and have it work (i.e. I bought a Heater, NOT a hobby).
If you are someone that would need to pay a third party to fit or remove/replace a diesel heater then buying one of these could be a real false economy UNLESS the price you paid includes that service for the first 12 months.
There is a company in Fife that is offering supply & fit with 12 month warranty for £299. That is a bargain (I would charge more than that just for the fitting as I don't like crawling under vans for hours).
PS. to get the 'proper' install you need to add silencers - they are an extra on the £299. plus fuel drop pipe, etc likely wanted which is extra as well. I suspect the £299 will really be more like £450 at the end of the day, but even then still a good price for a full supply and fit.


For the amount of actual use I got from my Eberspacher D2, it cost me around £50 a night. that is too much! If I were full-timing and so using the Eber maybe 8 months a year if travelling in the UK (I like to be warm) than the extra money for a pretty-sure-to-be-working heater is worth it IMO.
If it is just an annoyance, then I will just cuss, and drag out another heating option I carry with me for that night and sort out the heater when I get home.

End of the day:
Would I fit one of these heaters for myself again? Probably if the circumstances were appropriate (One will be going in a shed and easily accessible to fiddle with)
Would I fit one commercially? No
Would I fit one for a friend? Yes, but only for those who would accept that it is fitted with no guarantee, no warranty and no promises of reliability and if it stops working, don't come back to me to complain.

 

[mistericeman]

It was on the facebook group that some one said about buying a heater or a hobby - and that statement I think is true.
Yup - get 5 of these for the price of one eber - it doesn't automatically make them better value though.
It is a matter of the appropriate standard of quality. if you need a car to go to church once a week, an old banger would do the job and ITS quality is fine - no need to go better. If you did 100,000 miles a year, having to keep finding an new old banger all the time as the old ones break down is not such a clever plan.
If you are someone that relies on a heater working and it is not just an inconvenience, then personally I would say DO NOT buy one of these UNLESS you are also someone who can swap one out quickly and easily.

I can fit these heaters. I can swap out one heater for another in about 30 minutes. But the thing is I really don't want to! I just want to switch it on and have it work (i.e. I bought a Heater, NOT a hobby).
If you are someone that would need to pay a third party to fit or remove/replace a diesel heater then buying one of these could be a real false economy UNLESS the price you paid includes that service for the first 12 months.
There is a company in Fife that is offering supply & fit with 12 month warranty for £299. That is a bargain (I would charge more than that just for the fitting as I don't like crawling under vans for hours).
PS. to get the 'proper' install you need to add silencers - they are an extra on the £299. plus fuel drop pipe, etc likely wanted which is extra as well. I suspect the £299 will really be more like £450 at the end of the day, but even then still a good price for a full supply and fit.


For the amount of actual use I got from my Eberspacher D2, it cost me around £50 a night. that is too much! If I were full-timing and so using the Eber maybe 8 months a year if travelling in the UK (I like to be warm) than the extra money for a pretty-sure-to-be-working heater is worth it IMO.
If it is just an annoyance, then I will just cuss, and drag out another heating option I carry with me for that night and sort out the heater when I get home.

End of the day:
Would I fit one of these heaters for myself again? Probably if the circumstances were appropriate (One will be going in a shed and easily accessible to fiddle with)
Would I fit one commercially? No
Would I fit one for a friend? Yes, but only for those who would accept that it is fitted with no guarantee, no warranty and no promises of reliability and if it stops working, don't come back to me to complain.

Pretty much spot on mate.....

I happily paid the eberspacher price as we are away most weekends even through the winter... And usually off grid
I don't like being cold... It makes me miserable... And I built our van to be happy in.
Push button reliable heat was worth the extra over the Chinglese heater lottery in my book.

 

[Fazerloz]

Pretty much spot on mate.....

I happily paid the eberspacher price as we are away most weekends even through the winter... And usually off grid
I don't like being cold... It makes me miserable... And I built our van to be happy in.
Push button reliable heat was worth the extra over the Chinglese heater lottery in my book.

How old is your Eber now.?

 

[mistericeman]

How old is your Eber now.?

3 years....

 

[wildebus]

3 years....

I presume you are plumbed into the main fuel tank?
Just wondering as the Chinese heaters are apparently best run on Paraffin ideally, followed by Kersone as a very close second with Diesel in 3rd place as it is the dirtiest (word is to feed it kerosone every so often if run on diesel, but how someone is meant to do that when plumbed into a main tank I don't know)

I bought my Eberspacher D2 originally to install in my VW T4 but never got around to fitting it in there as I used to run the van on SVO (Veg Oil) and the Ebers absolutely don't like the Veggie fuel.
I run my chinese heater on standard heating oil aka Kerosene from a standalone tank.

 

[mistericeman]

I presume you are plumbed into the main fuel tank?
Just wondering as the Chinese heaters are apparently best run on Paraffin ideally, followed by Kersone as a very close second with Diesel in 3rd place as it is the dirtiest (word is to feed it kerosone every so often if run on diesel, but how someone is meant to do that when plumbed into a main tank I don't know)

I bought my Eberspacher D2 originally to install in my VW T4 but never got around to fitting it in there as I used to run the van on SVO (Veg Oil) and the Ebers absolutely don't like the Veggie fuel.
I run my chinese heater on standard heating oil aka Kerosene from a standalone tank.

Yes its been on main tank diesel since I fitted it.... Serviced once with new glow pin and atomiser mesh/fuel pump filter etc.
They ALL apparently run cleaner on kerosene/parrafin etc but I can't be doing with pfaff of seperate tanks and fuels so it just gets plain old diesel.

I love pushing the button and having instant pfaff free warmth... It ran almost none stop over last years xmas/new year break.... Not missed a beat.

 

[Fazerloz]

.The biggest problem with them running dirty is because they are cheap to buy people are buying units that are too big for their vans ie 5kw as against 2kw. Then have to run them on low settings all the time causing a build up of soot in the combustion chambers. They wouldn't get this if they had bought a 2kw heater and run it at a higher setting. As usual a bit of greed, thinking I can have one twice the size for only a few quid more when in reality all it is doing is making a problem.
Nobody buys a 5kw Eber if they don't need 5kw at £2000. Whereas the 5Kw Chinese heater can be had for as little as £120. But they are doing themselves no favours by buy 5kw when all they need is 2kw.
Mine got off to a shaky start but since then it hasn't been a moments problem. Through the summer I have run it a couple of times a month on full heat for about 30 mins a time.

 

[wildebus]

Yup, it is a case where less really is more

I run mine on Kerosene for a few reasons - cleaner running, much less than half the price and to drop my tank to fit a standpipe I would have had to remove a lot of extra metalwork due to the pull-out side step installation.
I am planning to add a low-fuel warning light to my little tank to avoid running dry (I worked out the 5L tank should give me around 35 hours of runtime so not too bad)

 

[skippy]

I have been running my chinese erber clone for 5 years did have problem once at about 18 months old contacted china with fault code told me to check connector pins in harness joint spot on .Run mine on red (free) if not kero red mix 16 ltr tank 2kw in mwb crafter with 3 outlets cant fault it.
Fitted diesel heater after previous van regulater froze in winter with cooker going result no heat or cooker swore next van will be split fuel.

 

[wildebus]

Been testing out my heater for the last two days, going out to start it, running for a few hours, then off and repeat a few hours later.
This one (the THIRD heater I have installed in this van) has been perfect so far. I did think it had failed a couple of times, but it was just I couldn't hear it! A major difference from the other two.

The difference between this and the other two? Nothing! other than the physical heater inself. I used exactly the same components under the van including the fuel pump and pipe routing, and the exact same wiring loom and controller for all three heaters. So it is purely the actual heater unit that has been changed - and why I made the comment about poor QA/QC

 

[tailgate]

so without looking through all the replies.... would one of these 5kw keep a 7 mtr motorhome reasonably warm.?

only considering as a back up ...12 kg of gas doesn't last long with alde heating system.

and most important safety ...although would never leave running while away from van or asleep is the general view that they are safe to use or not?

and best place found so far to purchase


cheers folks

 

[Les Haro]

so without looking through all the replies.... would one of these 5kw keep a 7 mtr motorhome reasonably warm.?

only considering as a back up ...12 kg of gas doesn't last long with alde heating system.

and most important safety ...although would never leave running while away from van or asleep is the general view that they are safe to use or not?

and best place found so far to purchase


cheers folks

Go FB Chinese diesel vehicle heaters. Read all back stuff before asking a question or you will be referred to all back stuff. Too many lazy internetters expect other people to do all the work for them, and you don't want to be told that online. note can also be installed sideways. You can also turn down the fuel to use less.

 

[Fazerloz]

so without looking through all the replies.... would one of these 5kw keep a 7 mtr motorhome reasonably warm.?

only considering as a back up ...12 kg of gas doesn't last long with alde heating system.

and most important safety ...although would never leave running while away from van or asleep is the general view that they are safe to use or not?

and best place found so far to purchase


cheers folks

I would refer you to my post number 181