Anyone got an Eberspacher diesel heater?

[Greengrass]

It's a CPAP Resmed. Doesn't appear to have a model number but it runs on 24v and 2.71A. So that's 65W. A significant draw on the leisure batteries, probably the same as all the habitation lighting on at once.

I think that is one that I had a while ago had a 12v adaptor using the adaptor did't draw a lot off the battery

 

[Geek]

If so will it work all night in the winter? I have recently fitted a used one, and I propose to go away this weekend. How much fuel will it use overnight? Something in the instructions alludes to it turning off after one hour. What? Surely that can't be right, you can't expect to be turning it back on every hour?
I am going to sleep in the camper tonight with the temp set to something like ten degrees and see what happens. IF I freeze and have to break down the house front door to get in, I will rip out the Eberspacher and find a used Carver convector to replace the one that some idiot removed before I bought it.

I only have a cheap Chinese clone, but they are just cheap versions of the same thing. They are about 65% to 70% efficient. Diesel is 10WHh per litre. So if yours is giving 4KW (what a Chinese heater would call 8KW) it will consume about 0.6 litres per hour.

The one hour time limit will probably be to reduce the drain on a battery (when fitted to vehicles without separate habitation power).

I'd bypass that if it exists, because these things use quite a lot of 12v power to start up or shut down, rather less in between. Best to turn it down as far as possible to regulate the heat, rather than turn it on and off.

 

[gasgas]

I'll ask about the 12v adaptor but I would have thoght it would still draw 65W, i.e. 5 amps. And I think it may modulate in operation, i.e. vary its output air volume, so that would also vary the current draw. I think it is likely that the 65W figure is probably the maximum, and it varies downwards from that.

 

[Geek]

Do you mean the carver that Truma took over, if so, yes, they are the best apart from having to cut the hole in the floor.


View attachment 77204

These are great, but not always easy to fit in motorhome. You need to find the right place above the floor to site the heater where it can warm the space but not get in the way, and that same place has to have a suitable space under the floor for the flue.

The one I had sometimes used to blow out at motorway speeds and/or in gales.

Relight it too quickly and you could get a spectacular bang.

 

[Geek]

I'll ask about the 12v adaptor but I would have thoght it would still draw 65W, i.e. 5 amps. And I think it may modulate in operation, i.e. vary its output air volume, so that would also vary the current draw. I think it is likely that the 65W figure is probably the maximum, and it varies downwards from that.

Mine modulates, so the running current draw is well under 5A at 12v, but it is around 10A or more when the glowplug is running on startup and shutdown. And it gets upset if the voltage dips.

 

[gasgas]

These are great, but not always easy to fit in motorhome. You need to find the right place above the floor to site the heater where it can warm the space but not get in the way, and that same place has to have a suitable space under the floor for the flue.

My camper was originally fitted with one. Some idiot had removed it and fitted a Chinese diesel heater in its place. So it would be very easy to fit another Carver / Truma gas heater in its place, where one was originally fitted.

 

[Geek]

My camper was originally fitted with one. Some idiot had removed it and fitted a Chinese diesel heater in its place. So it would be very easy to fit another Carver / Truma gas heater in its place, where one was originally fitted.

We are all idiots sometimes. The problem is that some of us deny that fact.

The great thing about those heaters is that they're almost silent and require no 12v power at all. I had intended to fit ducts and a fan to mine, but never got round to it. It was adequate in most weather without ducted heat, despite that van's crappy insulation.

 

[Geek]

Only down side to an ebber is the start up current, when the battery is low they can refuse to start should be OK with a lithium

Start the engine, start the heater, stop the engine.

 

[RegnVal]

Andrew have you tried visiting a caravan breakers for a carver heater?

 

[gasgas]

Andrew have you tried visiting a caravan breakers for a carver heater?

No, but that is certainly where I would expect to get one from. The only bits on them that go wrong are the igniter and gas injector (jet) so they are eminently repairable. And as has been said, even the fan assisted ones don't take much electric power. And indeed use of the electric fan is not mandatory, they will convect without using the fan. My experience of them is that they don't use too much gas, and I have one refillable bottle and one Calor so I don't need to pay through the wallet for CampingGaz.

As for the person who had the Truma gas heater removed and a diesel heater fitted, there are two possibilities. Either he was a) someone who didn't know how to fix a gas heater or b) he (assuming he was a he, he might have been a she, of course) was duped by an unscrupulous dealer into thinking that his faulty gas heater was too expensive to repair. I have read on various fora (plural of forum!) of people who have been persuaded to have new fridges and cookers and heaters where their situation is screaming loud and clear that the repair including parts and labour could never exceed £100, and they were 'happily' paying out £600 to have a new unit fitted. Makes me livid.