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The ubiquitous diesel heater thread.

matty

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The ubiquitous diesel heater thread.
Talk diesel Heaters, any Mods/ installs/ fuels / set up advice .
Given the growing popularity of these frugal little gems, which have in recent times become available at very reasonable prices. I thought debate surrounding their utilization installation and modification could benefit many of us in these increasingly expensive times.

I have over the years had several truck sleeper diesel heaters from eiberspacher and Mikuni, and had a Mikuni MY16 in my VWLt35 van for a decade or more. but I am currently considering buying a Cheap diesel heater and using it as a background heater in the main house, I have seen a 8Kw cheap diesel heater heating a small town house and with a peugeot 307 HDI EGR cooler in the exhaust providing enough hot water for washing dishes etc. This friends heater is running happily on a variety of free waste fuels with clean combustion and surprising efficiency.
Lets talk diesel heaters.
 
Rob the friend who i refereed to, has had his over 6 months now, its a typical red box £80 all in one 8KW one off fleabay uk.
Same style to this 8kw one in this video.

an idea of a typical 5KW fuel consumption,

They will run on many waste oils my mates running waste engine oil and kero mix too keep it reliable, this guy found this out for himself. , currently but has run veg oil when he can get it too.

Lots of good info out there on these things, check out this chaps videos.


They are surprisingly reliable long term, and with the adjustments run on lots of waste and quite reliable it would seem. Look at the settings.
 
I am thinking of making one i can use to heat my car when i sleep in it in the winters when i am away waterfowl hunting. this is a outdoor portable diy option i might just base my build on.
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I have seen quite a few build them in Pelican cases, that is pretty slick.
 
pagng Fallacy to the Heater aisle please
One as supplemental heat in the diesel Jeep, fueled from the main tank, silent in use and keeps it comfortable well below zero.

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One in my tiny camper, overly adequate.

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One heating my well insulated shops, two rooms of 10’ X12’.
It’s been running 24/7 for the last three winters with 0 issues and will run for 4+ days on 2.5 gallons.

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Ordered a 5KW all in one diesel heater last week, and it came this morning.
it started fine clicking away, and seems to throw out a decent amount of heat.

was £70 and about the biggest critisusum i can level is the package contents so far are the provided hose clips are super cheap and nasty.
It came with a controler remote, this was simple to pair with the heater and works fine.
 
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I have one 8k self contained and it is pretty handy. I used it camping last fall with my son. We were at the track all weekend and camping close by in the Natnl forest.. I ran a splitter and some lengths of insulated flex duct into our tents (2@ 2man 3 season) and left the heater in the back of the truck on a Deepcycle 100AH. Temps dropped into the high 20s and rainy. ( Ahhh Fall in New England) both tents were at livable temps and dry ,as opposed to the dampness and condensation that you get on those days. The tents were Warm enough to be able to get out of the sleeping bag comfortably.
Used about 1/2 tank of fuel and barely any battery, Battery level was still in the 85%+ range.
Best part for me was the remote worked through the tent.
I truly didn't expect to be using the heater so our set up was a little rustic. With some thought and a more draft free tent set up It could be great.
I usually go up into the hills early April for a few days with the enduro to chase the last of the sleds off the mountain. I'm working on a practical set up with a 4 season tent.
 
Been playing with the heater today, trying different oils/ fuel. (Ill attach a video or two on the menu access for the settings etc below)
I had to up the pump on the heavier stuff, like waste veg and in essence i currently believe a veg oil / old engine oil and kerosene mix seems to be clean burning. and gives good outlet temps according to my laser gauge. and its got good exhaust temps too, something i personally plan to utilize for hot water harvesting via the EGR cooler eventually. Its not an exact science from what i can tell, but it seems quite averse to pure cold waste veg oil, thinning it down some with kero and motor oil its a lot better and cleaner/ hotter. 1/3rd of each is fine, but i fund slightly less motor oil seemed to fire off cleaner and it was a little hotter.
I ned to get more accurate with the waste oil / kero/ diesel ratios, and record my findings in a book. and perhaps write down my settings for that specific mix, so that i can blend the crap i am running this thing on to not only get economy but heat with the fuels i have to hand at any time.
I will admit to quite enjoying my time with this little toy, its interesting, and its throwing some decent heat out for free in these evermore expensive times.

Anyway a couple of videos off the tube outlining the menu basics you might find helpful.







 
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Considering this, but not 100% yet ( Gymicy/ Unnecessary perhaps) . any coments most welcome.
 
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My first heater lasted me about 2 years. It was a self contained unit from amazon and worked great but the setup was not durable enough for the use that I gave it. After an extremely wet winter the electronics began to falter . So I went about making a better more portable set up.
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This works a charm.I just spent 5 days riding the greens, and tenting at night. I used a 4 season -3 man tent. I left the unit outside with my deep cycle in a waterproof box and piped in with 4" flex. The controls stayed in the box and I just used the remote from in the tent(though my set up allows for the control to reach the tent. 34 degree nights and the tent was hot and dry.

I'm so happy with it that I gave it Five Ichiban Moto stickers!!
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Ours is still going strong here, its never been fitted properly in a case or plumbed in properly/ permanently in fact its a bodge and I have played about much of the time seeing what i could get it running on for free.
Its actually quite amassing it will run on waste veg oil kero mix old engine oil hydraulic oil it just gets by on it and throws out some decent heat. I need to do more with the EGR cooler to hot water boiler , it needs a proper set up not just hot water into a bucket like i have been doing.
Constant hot air from a 5/8 KW heater like this if its doing nothing more than feeding heat into a downstairs room its suprising how it takes the chill off even in sub zero temps , and our house is a big old 4 bed farm house admited double glased and well insulated but its not cavity wall just solid brick. Wood is a lot more messing about and time consuming, i dont think the oil burner could be a only heat sourse for us here, but as a supliment and to cut down on wood burning its a must have, and i think with work the egr cooler hot water system if perfected could be a game changer and big money saver to boot.
 
One as supplemental heat in the diesel Jeep, fueled from the main tank, silent in use and keeps it comfortable well below zero.

D15EBF44-16AE-457D-80B1-32FDAABA9043.jpeg


17996257-6BC4-49C9-800B-54F4DADC74FE.jpeg




One in my tiny camper, overly adequate.

2D0498F7-2A8E-4FCE-98D3-42AB8C9E62C8.jpeg


59A7C4C8-BBDC-4B18-8576-A5E29A878023.png


One heating my well insulated shops, two rooms of 10’ X12’.
It’s been running 24/7 for the last three winters with 0 issues and will run for 4+ days on 2.5 gallons.

89592B00-1CEF-43A3-9CC2-29F77FDAFC89.jpeg
How do I find this heater? What's it's called exactly? I've got over a thousand gallons of free heating oil here and fixing to install this thing, but it takes up a lot of floor space in my 24x24 shop. Am I blind, or do I not see an exhaust?

IMG_20230927_174412580.jpg
 
All over amazon ebay alexpres etc, 5/8kw they are prety much the same just sold as 8kw etc, yes exhausts out the botom near the mounting foot, look on all the vids above or youtube lots of info on there, the heating oil mix it with WEO or Strained WVO/ cooking out should be good for 4k gallons at least. Mix it a uniform mix they you wont be fiddling with adjustments , they will run on anything even water contaminated hydroulic oil of diesel .
 
These vids touch on the idea of what i am doing on mine with the EGR cooler hot water off the exhaust, it works i just need to instal it properly to acctualy use the available hot water.
EGR cooler mods on these heaters.





 
Ok. 5kw is gonna equal a little over 15,000 btu's. So I'd need two to do what I want.

I've seen fuel consumption claims all over the place. 4 days on 2.5 gallons to a guy on YouTube with the same tank only going 36hrs. 36hrs burning nonstop on 2.5 gallons is still great compared a typical oil burner nozzle consuming around 1/2 - 3/4 gallon per hour.

There's only so many btus available in a gallon of oil, so the efficiency claims on these things is a big stretch for my HVAC brain to make. Very interested
 
Ok. 5kw is gonna equal a little over 15,000 btu's. So I'd need two to do what I want.

I've seen fuel consumption claims all over the place. 4 days on 2.5 gallons to a guy on YouTube with the same tank only going 36hrs. 36hrs burning nonstop on 2.5 gallons is still great compared a typical oil burner nozzle consuming around 1/2 - 3/4 gallon per hour.

There's only so many btus available in a gallon of oil, so the efficiency claims on these things is a big stretch for my HVAC brain to make. Very interested
Hell knows what the difference 5kw to the 8kws , and who realy knows what they actually are throwing out anyways.
They are not fusy on oil type and as long as you mix it a consistant mix and duplicate it time after time it wont need faffing with between batches, mate got an IBC mixed it in that and ran it straight from the IBC tank it ran all one winter flat out on less than 1 IBC . WEO burns hot and they dont cake up or fail biggest hastle is keeping reliable 12volt, i run a car batrey and trickle charger it seems to keep up ok but i do turn it off sometimes if the wood stove is in full swing.
I want to develop my hot water EGR cooler and that way i wont have to pay to heat hot water again but it is slow but even with five living here i think we will get by with it. Its a lot less work thsan wood and if you got basic RV 12v water pumps they will move the Kero/ waste oil about ok, Pure veg oil is claggy mind but with kero mix and WEO its easy to pump about. Lots of old five gallon Plastic drums works for me and either the stock heaters tank of 9i have plumbed in a old 80s kawasaki GT550 tank before will run a few days on that.
 
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