Diesel Heater Fitting Quotes !!!

We Luv Freedom

We Luv Freedom

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Hi All,
We do quite a lot of Off Grid mororhoming usually about 4 nights at a time & sometimes its a tad chilly in a morning. Therefore we r going to fit a diesel heater ,,,, We sourced some quotes for supply & fit from 5 x companies ranging from £1,150 to £1,350 ,,,, WOW ,,, We have a Fiat Ducato based MH & having studied the fitting we r going to do ourselves,,, i reckon a company could probably fit in about 3hrs ???,,, The heater arrived today at a cost of £157 so i reckon they r looking at £300+ per hour fitting ,,,, So off onto the drive i go to get started ,,,
First job fitting fuel supply pipe from Main Diesel Tank 👍
 
Good luck, are you doing a video or taking lots of pictures to help others?
 
Do yourself a favour and download the eberspacher installation instructions ...
It'll save you making any potentially dangerous mistakes .
 
I was quoted £1200 to have an Eberspacher fitted. From the price of the unit you have bought it will be a chinese copy. Some of them work well, some don't.
 
One thing I would NEVER do is buy a Chinese Heater if I were paying for it to be installed professionally.
The amount of work required is no less and so will cost no less, but the quality of the product being installed is significantly lower than something like an Eberspacher.


We Luv Freedom said:
Hi All,
We do quite a lot of Off Grid mororhoming usually about 4 nights at a time & sometimes its a tad chilly in a morning. Therefore we r going to fit a diesel heater ,,,, We sourced some quotes for supply & fit from 5 x companies ranging from £1,150 to £1,350 ,,,, WOW ,,, We have a Fiat Ducato based MH & having studied the fitting we r going to do ourselves,,, i reckon a company could probably fit in about 3hrs ???,,, The heater arrived today at a cost of £157 so i reckon they r looking at £300+ per hour fitting ,,,, So off onto the drive i go to get started ,,,
First job fitting fuel supply pipe from Main Diesel Tank 👍
Click to expand...
You are basing the price quoted against labour costs only and so £300/Hour (and this is assuming they were fitting a Chinese Heater, not a quality one which is around 5 times the price, which is likely what they quoted for in fact, as few companies would quote to fit a Chinese Diesel Heater).
but to work out costs to install ....
Factor in the investment in tools and equipment needed to install - they need to get bought. Not each time, but the investment is recooped over the jobs so part of the charge is in tooling.
Taxes. Is there VAT in the cost? that is immediately 20% goes away that the company doesn't keep.
Chances are the companies have to pay the employee? so he gets paid, plus the cost of 'running' the employee (NI, holiday pay, training, etc.) - the typical employee will cost the employer at least twice what his actual rate is at a minimum.
Fit in 3 hours for one person? I would love to see that :)
Times vary depending on the complexity of the install, but there may be undertrays to remove and then refit, seats maybe to remove and refit. It is remarkable how much people underestimate the time taken to install work (ask anyone who has built their own camper if the build time was close to what they expected the first time they did it ;) ).

And then the warranty aspect ...
Self-install of a Chinese Heater, Yes. As if (really when) it fails, you will be able to remove and fit a replacement easily as all the pipe-work, ducting, electricals, etc will be in place. If you paid someone to install it originally, you would probably expect them to swap it at no cost to you? (but it will cost them of course).
 
Long term view required...
Do it once do it right.
A properly fitted eberspacher should give a quality solution for many years.
So £1500 / 7 years say 215 a year.
Other yearly costs.
Insurance , road tax , service&mot.
Are all more than that.
Also saving on camp costs and ehu costs.
We paid £1000 in 2013 for gas-it and solar.
Very good ROI
 
I have to say having both,Chinese clone and genuine eberspacher (eber in the motorhome replacing the Carver gas fire and Chinese all in one clone in the greenhouse .

I wouldn't have a Chinese clone in the motorhome that we use all year round as they lack proper temp control and reliability isn't near that of the eberspacher ...
I've been involved in eberspacher heater for many years and they are very very reliable ...
Yes the clones are value and in some instances very useful ....

BUT there's a reason they are cheap .

Occasional use where reliability and temp control aren't critical ...(Chinese clones only alter pump pulse frequency, but doesn't turn the fan or pump fully off so it's always using fuel/electric)
And you don't mind fiddling with the heater to get it to run correctly (poor casing moulding,fan adjustment needed etc etc )
Then Chinese clone is probably best bet

Frequent all year use where temp control is important (bear in mind the proper stat switches fan/pump etc off in eberspacher so limits fuel AND electric use )
And you want something that will run with no issues and doesn't need an IKEA like mind to sometimes get/keep running ...

Then Genuine Eberspacher is your best bet
 
what he says as well :)
I worked out my genuine Eberspacher I fitted in my T5 cost me around £50 a night to use while I had it as I really didn't use it enough to justify the cost. If I used my camper much more and owned it for longer, that "cost per night" would have plummeted.

So when in my next camper, I wanted a heater, the Chinese Diesels had appeared and for silly money compared to the Eberspachers (at one point they could be bought at under £80!). So I bought and fitted a Chinese one as couldn't justify the Eberspacher for my probable usage.
The installation was no easier than the Eberspacher I had fitted before. In fact, it took longer due to the poor quality components that would break and need replacing such as jubilee clips made from toffee (remember to factor in costs of upgraded componentry when installing the Chinese ones)
And once fitted, it had to be removed as it was faulty (multiple faults due to rubbish build quality). Bought another one and that worked for a short time and had to be removed due to fuelling issues. Bought another one and fitted that and THAT was great. But still had to mess around and translate the controller options and meanings to get the best out of it.
Now each replacement was just swapped out and the pipework, etc was never changed, so the problem was nothing to do with the installation. Oddly enough, sods law being what it is, the very first Chinese Heater I fitted was in a VW T5 for a friend and it has never given him any issues. Probably took around 8-9 man hours in total due to the amount of undertrays to remove and refit while working without ramps or lift, and no time was spend dropping the fuel tank (used an alternative better option available on that model of T5 (and which I used on my own previous T5 of the same model :) )

My own feeling on the heater options is:
If you want a HEATER, get an Eberspacher
if you want a HOBBY, get a Chinese Diesel Heater.
 
Fitted the Fuel Pipe to the main tank via the air vent pipe & ran the 12v electric supply in jusy under 3 hrs ,,,, Will fit the heater unit tommorow ,,,,

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