# Diesel warm air heater



## tony50 (Oct 16, 2007)

Just had a Eberspacher warm air diesel heater fitted that I won in a competition in MMM magizine earlier this year, it was fitted at their headquarters depot at Ringwood in Hampshire,( although if you consider having one fitted they have dealers all over the country) heater is similar to truck night heaters,tried it out when it was cold the other night 10 minutes was enough to get MH hot,to compare ,the next night was cool took half a hour to warm up on Gas heating.
I think the diesel heater will be an asset in the winter,save on the gas ! and hopefully we don't run out of diesel !! p.s. it's very frugal on fuel and is odourless inside vehicle and also from it's small exhaust pipe.


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## 110171 (Feb 25, 2008)

The eberspacher is a great heater, but word of advice from some one that has had to work on them, you will never wear it out but if you do not use it enough and for long enough each time it will oil up the glow plug and prevent corect combustion resulting in carbon build up and failure.
regards Ramses


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## Cherekee (May 1, 2005)

Hi tony50,

Did they remove the gas heater from the Rapido or fit in parallel? 

I have used an Eberspecher in my Autocruise down to -20c in Austria with no problem with heat. There was a wiring problem from new which I have resolved but I am selling the van to buy a Rapido 9048DF collecting next month which is winterised but this of course has Gas heating which is a pity as the diesel is easy to run as long as you have fuel in the tank.

Cheers

Alan


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## aultymer (Jun 20, 2006)

Having taken an Eberspacher warm air diesel heater apart whilst working on the design of a proposed British made heater, I know that they are well engineered bits of kit. We were looking at that type of heater for boat heating. The polite term was 'reverse engineering'!!

From memory (30 years ago ) they were a bit sore on the batteries (no marinas with hook ups then ). Very heavy draw on start up then constant lighter draw if left on (it's too long ago to remember the figures ). 
Diesel consumption was negligible compared to running an engine. 
Heat came fast but was hard to run on 'low' heat

The basic design is probably the same but technological changes should mean better control.

How have you guys found them for battery drain?

As an aside, we also looked at designing a small, low tech jet engine which would produce heat and its own power to blow the heat around. Might be worth considering now that model aircraft have real jets and the turbines can be sourced cheaply from car turbos and electronics are available for control.


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## Cherekee (May 1, 2005)

Hi aultymer,

As per your question they are quite heavy on the battery if not on hookup and of course you have the ticking of the pump but you soon get used to that. My Autocruise was fitted with only a 3mm cable at manufacture so we suffered a bit with voltage drop and it sometimes failed to start. On recommendation from Eberspacher I fitted a new 6mm cable and it seems ok now.

We were always as "snug as a bug in a rug"

Alan


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## Mike48 (May 1, 2005)

Mine has never worked properly. At its peak it blew luke warm air but now blows cold only. Any remedies as I would like to use it for our upcoming winter trip.


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## aultymer (Jun 20, 2006)

Thanks for that, Alan. I had forgotten about the pump ticking. Funnily it was our inability to source or manufacture that pump which finally sank the project. The pressings and other bits were easy enough but that pump drove us mad. We even tried a fuel pump out of a Mini at one stage. 
I cannot understand why installers fit inadequate wires. They must all be guys ie, we don't read the manuals. 

Regards, 
Alan W.


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## aultymer (Jun 20, 2006)

gelathae, see Ramses post above - better still PM him if he doesn't join in soon. Poor fuel flow initially would be my guess and now you need a new glowplug but Ramses should be able to give a definitive reply.


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