CHINESE DIESEL HEATER - LOW SETTING

[Nabsim]

I'm not completely understanding this. If you look at the link and scroll down the page there is a picture of a chap in the back of his motorhome with the heater next to his bed. It appears that there is no exhaust to the outside.

Presumably a bit of poetic license here?

Hcalory 12V 5KW Diesel Air Heater Toolbox bluetooth Control for Car Truck RV Van | eBay

Rated power 5KW. ALL IN ONE 8KW 12V Air Diesel Heater LCD Monitor Remote Thermostat Car Boats. ALL IN ONE 5KW/8KW 12V 24V Air Diesel Heater LCD Monitor Remote Thermostat Car. ALL IN ONE 8KW 12V 24V Air Diesel Heater LCD Monitor Remote Thermostat Car Boats.

www.ebay.co.uk

Yes Rob, they all need exhaust and combustion air piped through to outside

 

[wildebus]

Yes Rob, they all need exhaust and combustion air piped through to outside

The link in question also shows an adapter for indoor heating is supplied. If that is to drive the heater, then no fuel is being burned so can be run like the photo suggests. (although the photo also shows no external connection to any power - AC or DC - and the photo shows an AC-DC transformer so most unlikely to actually to run on Mains power rather than diesel)

 

[mistericeman]

The link in question also shows an adapter for indoor heating is supplied. If that is to drive the heater, then no fuel is being burned so can be run like the photo suggests. (although the photo also shows no external connection to any power - AC or DC - and the photo shows an AC-DC transformer so most unlikely to actually to run on Mains power rather than diesel)

Suspect the adaptor just supplies the heater with 12v for powering fans/pcb etc
Rather than any heater elements

 

[1 Cup]

Somerset based I've used this since 2021 but now controllers both Heaton van and water with upgrade heating tank element. / solar dump

 

[mistericeman]

Well ...my Hcalory heater turned up today ...

HC-A01 12V 5KW Diesel Parking Air Heater Portable Toolbox Bluetooth Remote Contr | eBay

Suitable for all 12V Universal diesel vehicles; it can be used for cab heating of various vehicles such as trucks, yachts, battery cars, etc., to eliminate window frost;. bluetooth app remote switch (optional);.

www.ebay.co.uk

Ordered on 21st
Delivered on 23rd

£134.99
(as its the Bluetooth version )

Unboxed and hurriedly fired up (yes I know ....I was exactly the same at Christmas lol )

First impressions ....well put together piece of kit .

Nice unit mounted controller
Seperate fuel tank that fits to the external side of the unit

Rugged plastic housing that most of the external bits (comes with inlet/exhaust silencers/pipes/brackets etc etc )barring the fuel tank if its not mounted on the side .

Set it up with a temp fuel supply/ducts

And installed the App on my phone .


Worked out of the box and fired up soon as it primed ,

On top of that ...

It has a stat that functions when in auto mode ...
Sensor is reading temp at 17degrees
Set temp to 24 degrees ...heater fires up (little chinese voice tells you to (turn off in menus)
And heater runs self test fires up and heats

Turn temp down to 12 degrees and heater ramps down AND SHUTS OFF FULLY .

Then starts up when turned up .

I'm impressed so far and a Bargain for what it is IMHO .

 

[Nabsim]

Well ...my Hcalory heater turned up today ...

HC-A01 12V 5KW Diesel Parking Air Heater Portable Toolbox Bluetooth Remote Contr | eBay

Suitable for all 12V Universal diesel vehicles; it can be used for cab heating of various vehicles such as trucks, yachts, battery cars, etc., to eliminate window frost;. bluetooth app remote switch (optional);.

www.ebay.co.uk

Ordered on 21st
Delivered on 23rd

£134.99
(as its the Bluetooth version )

Unboxed and hurriedly fired up (yes I know ....I was exactly the same at Christmas lol )

First impressions ....well put together piece of kit .

Nice unit mounted controller
Seperate fuel tank that fits to the external side of the unit

Rugged plastic housing that most of the external bits (comes with inlet/exhaust silencers/pipes/brackets etc etc )barring the fuel tank if its not mounted on the side .

Set it up with a temp fuel supply/ducts

And installed the App on my phone .


Worked out of the box and fired up soon as it primed ,

On top of that ...

It has a stat that functions when in auto mode ...
Sensor is reading temp at 17degrees
Set temp to 24 degrees ...heater fires up (little chinese voice tells you to (turn off in menus)
And heater runs self test fires up and heats

Turn temp down to 12 degrees and heater ramps down AND SHUTS OFF FULLY .

Then starts up when turned up .

I'm impressed so far and a Bargain for what it is IMHO .

Good to know

Forgot to post yesterday, on Mel’s last YouTube he Tested a remote you can buy that has a thermostat built in. From what he was saying it will work with any CDH that has a remote. Downside is he said they are about £80 but when I looked they were out of stock.

Mel is the big world, small van. Chanel

 

[mistericeman]

Well ...my Hcalory heater turned up today ...

HC-A01 12V 5KW Diesel Parking Air Heater Portable Toolbox Bluetooth Remote Contr | eBay

Suitable for all 12V Universal diesel vehicles; it can be used for cab heating of various vehicles such as trucks, yachts, battery cars, etc., to eliminate window frost;. bluetooth app remote switch (optional);.

www.ebay.co.uk

Ordered on 21st
Delivered on 23rd

£134.99
(as its the Bluetooth version )

Unboxed and hurriedly fired up (yes I know ....I was exactly the same at Christmas lol )

First impressions ....well put together piece of kit .

Nice unit mounted controller
Seperate fuel tank that fits to the external side of the unit

Rugged plastic housing that most of the external bits (comes with inlet/exhaust silencers/pipes/brackets etc etc )barring the fuel tank if its not mounted on the side .

Set it up with a temp fuel supply/ducts

And installed the App on my phone .


Worked out of the box and fired up soon as it primed ,

On top of that ...

It has a stat that functions when in auto mode ...
Sensor is reading temp at 17degrees
Set temp to 24 degrees ...heater fires up (little chinese voice tells you to (turn off in menus)
And heater runs self test fires up and heats

Turn temp down to 12 degrees and heater ramps down AND SHUTS OFF FULLY .

Then starts up when turned up .

I'm impressed so far and a Bargain for what it is IMHO .

As an update ....heater is supplied with a short length of 75mm heater hose ....

Works fine with that BUT adding extra length to that 75mm leads to overheating faults ...

Upgrade to 100mm and at least 2m is fine ....

(obviously I'm recirculating cabin/kitchen air too )

Interestingly Hcalory also supply the same heater in component form for
C £100

And it's available with 75mm outlet OR 100MM outlet .

I'd personally go for 100mm outlet IF your running any extra ducting .

 

[Nabsim]

As an update ....heater is supplied with a short length of 75mm heater hose ....

Works fine with that BUT adding extra length to that 75mm leads to overheating faults ...

Upgrade to 100mm and at least 2m is fine ....

(obviously I'm recirculating cabin/kitchen air too )

Interestingly Hcalory also supply the same heater in component form for
C £100

And it's available with 75mm outlet OR 100MM outlet .

I'd personally go for 100mm outlet IF your running any extra ducting .

I initially had a problem with my Maxpeedingrods 5Kw overheating but my problem was caused by having a 90 degree bend too close to the heater. I rerouted to allow a looser curve and no more overheating. It would then run through the Eberspacher heater ducting okay with outlets in shower room, bedroom and kitchen areas.
You aren’t suffering from a similar problem are you?

 

[mistericeman]

I initially had a problem with my Maxpeedingrods 5Kw overheating but my problem was caused by having a 90 degree bend too close to the heater. I rerouted to allow a looser curve and no more overheating. It would then run through the Eberspacher heater ducting okay with outlets in shower room, bedroom and kitchen areas.
You aren’t suffering from a similar problem are you?

No ...there's no bends fitted ...just restriction from the 75mm duct .

It's fine with just the short length of hose BUT any more than that and on the highest level it will go into over heat fairly quickly .
IMHO the 5kw needs 100mm outlet on it not 75 .

Easy enough to change the end outlet if a eberspacher one will fit though .

 

[Nabsim]

No ...there's no bends fitted ...just restriction from the 75mm duct .

It's fine with just the short length of hose BUT any more than that and on the highest level it will go into over heat fairly quickly .
IMHO the 5kw needs 100mm outlet on it not 75 .

Easy enough to change the end outlet if a eberspacher one will fit though .

I use the same diameter ducting as my eberspacher, just looked at an old Amazon order and it says 80mm/3” so I presume it is really 75mm. Seems strange you can’t extend the duct as I can’t see why that would affect it if it’s straight. I know it’s probably a stupid suggestion but have you removed the outer casing to check for anything restricting airflow?

How will changing the diameters affect heating performance, going up in size will decrease air speed won’t it? I know this is related to what you do so suspect you can give me a good answer

 

[mistericeman]

I use the same diameter ducting as my eberspacher, just looked at an old Amazon order and it says 80mm/3” so I presume it is really 75mm. Seems strange you can’t extend the duct as I can’t see why that would affect it if it’s straight. I know it’s probably a stupid suggestion but have you removed the outer casing to check for anything restricting airflow?

How will changing the diameters affect heating performance, going up in size will decrease air speed won’t it? I know this is related to what you do so suspect you can give me a good answer

Smaller duct = higher velocity
Larger duct = lower velocity

Volume of air moved stays the same though ...

However in the case of the Chinese diesel heater the air flow being the same (ie your not changing the fan and it's a set fan speed ...)
The smaller duct (any ducting connected has a restrictive effect, hence why manufacturers like eberspacher etc provide data for maximum numbers of bends/splitters etc )
And the same with refrigerant in AC systems etc .

The issue (certainly with mine ) I suspect is that whilst a 2kw diesel heater is able to keep the shell temperature down (remember the air flow that you are heating is effectively cooling the combustion temps to a safe level )
With 75mm ducting even on high ...

A 5kw (even Chinese KW ) struggles to keep things within safe shell temps with the restriction of a longer length of 75mm ....

I've swapped back to the original 100mm (might even be 125mm ) Insulduct

With the short length of supplied hose just pushed into the end ...

And heater will now run on full power for extended periods without faulting on over temp .

Max shell temp was around 200 after 2 hours or so ...

I've not fiddled with pump rates/fan speeds yet to maximise economy yet ...obviously that will have an effect on shell temps as well as fuel economy .

 

[Nabsim]

Your app looks prettier than mine

I think I have some 100mm ducting on the heat exchanger going into the calorifier. May borrow a bit of that and have a play as I fitted my CDH as well prior to going up to Scotland as a backup.

Does slowing down the air change the temperature at the outlet point though?

My casing usually runs about 235 to 260 I think when I have checked but that wouldn’t be flat out. I haven’t paid too much attention to that, only when I got the overheat cut out due to restriction so will need to look. I haven’t done any tuning at all I just set a temperature and turn it on. Mine doesn’t modulate the temperature though so I adjust set temp to turn up or down to get what I want. I know it isn’t temperature control but I am used to working from temp setting with the Eberspacher so prefer that to H1, H2 etc

 

[mistericeman]

Your app looks prettier than mine

I think I have some 100mm ducting on the heat exchanger going into the calorifier. May borrow a bit of that and have a play as I fitted my CDH as well prior to going up to Scotland as a backup.

Does slowing down the air change the temperature at the outlet point though?

My casing usually runs about 235 to 260 I think when I have checked but that wouldn’t be flat out. I haven’t paid too much attention to that, only when I got the overheat cut out due to restriction so will need to look. I haven’t done any tuning at all I just set a temperature and turn it on. Mine doesn’t modulate the temperature though so I adjust set temp to turn up or down to get what I want. I know it isn’t temperature control but I am used to working from temp setting with the Eberspacher so prefer that to H1, H2 etc

To be honest I've not bothered getting the temp probes out of the work van (lazy)
Air is hotter to the hand when running on the 75mm ducting ,
to the point of not being able to hold your hand in it at the end of ducting even 2.5m away from the heater ....

And that's part of the reason for the overheat ...

Still damn hot with the larger ducting though .

Temp control is really quite tight compared to our genuine eberspacher ...

 

[JQB]

I don’t think there’s a precise answer to the question. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and have no issues, others have continual problems. I think whether it’s an expensive eberspacher/webasto or cheap Chinese special it’s the same issue. They’re more likely to foul up inside if run at low for long periods. That’s why people suggest giving any of the brands a good blast on high power from time to time. It’ll hopefully burn out and blast out any of the sooty residue in the burn chamber so it doesn’t build up. I live on a boat and have a planar 4k, it’s been permanently on for over a week during Xmas at a low tick over but every now and again I’ll give it a good blast just in case. Some people have problems irrespective of the brand. You can’t go too far wrong by giving it frequent high temp blasts. Consider a service at the start of the winter season too. I’ll still fire mine up occasionally through the summer for 30 mins to keep it ticking over.

Now that sounds like sound advice - what about the quality of the diesel? My garage told me to have a tank full of premium diesel now and then to "clean" the engine. It's a thought.

 

[mistericeman]

Now that sounds like sound advice - what about the quality of the diesel? My garage told me to have a tank full of premium diesel now and then to "clean" the engine. It's a thought.

Good advice for your car ....pointless on a diesel heater (Vehicle fuel has additives in it that a pointless for a diesel heater )

A gallon of parrafin (burns cleaner than diesel)once a year on high through the heater was all I used to do when I looked a wagon fleet of them ...and never had a issue over many years other than the odd fan motor/pcb