Thread: Cheap Ebay diesel heaters

Originally Posted by Ranga

So, even at it's lowest setting, it's drawing a continuous 2.5 amps?

Yes, appears to be. Not a worry for my setup though, in the Summer I'll run a 240 volt pedestal fan through the inverter all night which draws 3.5 amp and I've never got close to worrying the batteries. We never sleep with a heater on anywhere, so it will only ever do a couple of hours at a time I should think.

That reading is off the reg, I can stick my multimeter in the circuit to get a more accurate reading if you want me to?

Originally Posted by Homestar

We never sleep with a heater on anywhere, so it will only ever do a couple of hours at a time I should think.

Hi,
Ditto, our gets used in winter evenings and first thing in the morning. Having the control within arm's reach of the bed is a bonus.
Cheers

Installation completed this morning. Secured the tank, installed vent for inlet and tidied up the wiring. First cool day we’ve had so ran it for about an hour while I was tidying up in there. With all the couch cushions back on, it is virtually silent inside except for the low noise the fan makes. On low it bought the temp up from 16 to 21 in that time with the top hatch still half open and the kitchen window cracked open an inch or so. Very happy overall - bring on Winter camping! (Or Glamping?)

First really cool morning since the heater install so I went out early and gave it a blast. Also absolutely still and quiet, not a sound to be heard. Temp gauge in the van was showing 3 degrees. In half an hour at 75% it was at 15 degrees and quite comfy in there in a tee shirt. Turned it down to low and it keeps the temp stable no issues. Actual unit stays cool to the touch so that's good too. - BUT, it isn't all beer and skittles. With it being this quiet, it showed up the drone it makes when turned down low - it is quite noticable in the van and moreso outside. Being a very still morning, it is able to be heard from quite a distance outside, so still have to think about that. The fuel pump clicking is also annoying - I didn't notice this previously so I think it may be touching the chassis now from its rubber mount. I think I can isolate this better from the chassis where it is attached so hopefully I can solve that one easily.


Overall for the price I'm happy, if I'd spend $1,200+ on a name brand that did this I would be less so but for the price, very good. 👍

Hi Homestar how is the cheap heater going couple of months on?

Originally Posted by RobMichelle

Hi Homestar how is the cheap heater going couple of months on?

Still going fine - although it doesn't get used heaps, I have run it the last 2 weekends while working in the van to keep warm - probably a total of 6 hours in the last 2 weekends - I haven't burnt 5 litres of diesel all up yet. Very happy with it. Those that attend Winter Wombat in few weeks can check it out in person - I'm sure it will get a decent run there. 😊👍

Just noticed I didn't mention in this thread that we used it a fair bit down at Walkerville a month or so back - one night was very cold and we ran it for around 4 hours plus a quick blast each morning to take the chill off the van - It takes around 20 minutes to warm the van up from around 10 degrees up to around 18.

Sounds promising, I'm trying to decide which brand, I've got a few months to sort it out, was thinking of going gas but reading a review the fan mounts break off road so may go ebarcher brand, just not sure on the 16 hundred price tag difference 🤤

When you see what is NOT inside one of these, you'll scratch yor head as to why the Eberspracher units are so expensive. Note also that many of the Eberspracher D2 spare parts will fit the Chinese units as this is what they reverse engineered. The only things to reall go wrong in it are the ignitor (these are considered to be a consumable anyway), fan motor, fuel pump and control module. Looking at the control board, if push came to shove I'd be able to build one without too many issues - there isn't a single custom component - just off the shelf electronics on a single sided board. All it does is control the fuel pump and fan speeds plus the ignitor. There really isn't anything beyond that in them and no reason a cheap unit wouldn't survive off road as they are bolted down solid to the floor of the van so no mounts to break.

Having said all that, there is no doubt that the Eberspacher unit is a quality bit of kit, the contol panel is much nicer, th whole thing looks nicer - mine does have a very cheap feel to it.

I'd happily recommend the seller I got mine from, they were easy to deal with - which I needed to do and something that I haven't mentioned before - there was damage to the unit on its arrival - the box had been dropped quite hard on one corner and although well packed - each component in foam, etc, the main fan had a split in it and which caused some vibration and was rubbing on the main housing. One email later (where I was basically asking if they could supply spare parts) they promised to post a new fan for it - which turned up 2 weeks later and took 10 minutes to fit - they were under no obligation to do this either as it was clearly caused by its transit. That was when they told me the Eberspracher D2 spares would fit. 😉👍