Best Chinese Diesel Heaters with Links - 2023

[markxengineerin]

On my van I welded one of the mufflers at all the leaky seams, since I wanted to keep it in the system. I find them too noisy without but maybe it's different on a boat.

Another thing I found out is that the coking up/reliability problems when running diesel are a non-issue if you can figure out how to get them to run on the lean limit. I did it by accident by having restrictive fuel lines, to the point where it (German one) would only start after the 3rd try. After 2 years, I did a teardown expecting to clean out a bunch of soot, but there was Zero soot to be found. For the boat, I'm thinking of getting either the Vevor or the Lavaner, and doing an arduino control, so I can make it as lean as I want.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Have decided to go with the cheap models but now stuck on whether I should buy the base unit and permanently install it somewhere or self contained unit on deck and feed the hot air in through one of the dorades.

Permanently install it, whats not ready to use won't be used. And due to murphy its deepest down in a locker when you need it.

[Chotu]

Thanks for the input everyone. Sounds kind of exciting actually and fun to get this running.

If I knew how much I was going to use I could get it in advance. I could fill up one of my fuel tanks with it. I see you can get home heating oil delivered which is diesel also. 50 gallons is the minimum order. Each of my fuel tanks is 50 gallons.

[Chotu]

I might even buy three of them and try to convert one to gasoline. Just for something interesting to do over the winter.

Basically, the problem is the gasoline flashes off too quickly and will burn in an instant, rather than slowly and evenly. Getting around that would be the way to have it run properly on gasoline.

Smaller and more frequent injections would be the answer to this.

[s/v Jedi]

If my heat pump isn’t enough anymore then I would install a wood stove, not a diesel stove.

To distribute heat, I simply use a fan but on a cat you could use ducted fans?

For plumbing you can use those specialized things to keep water pipes from freezing.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

If my heat pump isn’t enough anymore then I would install a wood stove, not a diesel stove.

To distribute heat, I simply use a fan but on a cat you could use ducted fans?

For plumbing you can use those specialized things to keep water pipes from freezing.

I’m not retired. I don’t have all those free hours. Buying a Chinese diesel heater and putting it in takes a short time.

Plus, I don’t want to screw up my sleeping pattern with a woodstove. Nor do I want to contribute to the particulate pollution problems at a higher level than necessary.

And unfortunately, I don’t have a heat pump. I really wanted one but they were out of stock when I was installing my air conditioning. The part was missing from Covid for about 18 months. Straight air conditioners were the only option. Plus I don’t wanna listen to that. I need a quieter thing.

I used to really enjoy my woodstoves however. On board. Nothing can replace the heat that those things put out. Through snow storms and blizzards and howling winds in the water, sit next to that for five minutes and you’re sweating. Heats your bones. I remember having to sit around in my underwear in the cabin because there was just way too much heat. Ha ha.

Also they warm you 3 times. Once cutting and splitting the wood, once stacking the wood and once burning the wood.

I kept mine carbon neutral because I used fallen deadwood only. I would just drive around and look for fallen trees that were still propped up to some extent. Naturally dry wood already.

But they just don’t fit the current requirements. Especially with the pollution. That pollution affects me greatly. So I am very aware of my contribution to it and trying to keep it lower.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I’m not retired. I don’t have all those free hours. Buying a Chinese diesel heater and putting it in takes a short time.

Plus, I don’t want to screw up my sleeping pattern with a woodstove. Nor do I want to contribute to the particulate pollution problems at a higher level than necessary.

And unfortunately, I don’t have a heat pump. I really wanted one but they were out of stock when I was installing my air conditioning. The part was missing from Covid for about 18 months. Straight air conditioners were the only option. Plus I don’t wanna listen to that. I need a quieter thing.

I used to really enjoy my woodstoves however. On board. Nothing can replace the heat that those things put out. Through snow storms and blizzards and howling winds in the water, sit next to that for five minutes and you’re sweating. Heats your bones. I remember having to sit around in my underwear in the cabin because there was just way too much heat. Ha ha.

Also they warm you 3 times. Once cutting and splitting the wood, once stacking the wood and once burning the wood.

I kept mine carbon neutral because I used fallen deadwood only. I would just drive around and look for fallen trees that were still propped up to some extent. Naturally dry wood already.

But they just don’t fit the current requirements. Especially with the pollution. That pollution affects me greatly. So I am very aware of my contribution to it and trying to keep it lower.

I believe you can not count on availability of diesel in the future. They will either limit your allowance of fuel purchases or make it ridiculously expensive, or both.

No heat pumps? tsk tsk I would spend the money on heat pumps then instead of diesel fired stoves…

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I believe you can not count on availability of diesel in the future. They will either limit your allowance of fuel purchases or make it ridiculously expensive, or both.

No heat pumps? tsk tsk I would spend the money on heat pumps then instead of diesel fired stoves…

I agree. I have a thread here on the topic from a year or 2 ago. “Diesel engines and a changing world” or something like that. It’s on its way out.

Heat pumps don’t work for winter though and require a generator to power them. Back to fossil fuel.

It would be quite unfortunate if diesel heat is replaced by much more polluting wood heat however.

Then there is another option. Home heating oil. It’s about $1 less per gallon that diesel and can run in these heaters. It also can’t be phased out since people rely on it not to die.

Then finally, i could do very large propane tanks.

None of these match the convenience, lower pollution and price point of a diesel heater (not stove).

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

If my heat pump isn’t enough anymore then I would install a wood stove, not a diesel stove.

To distribute heat, I simply use a fan but on a cat you could use ducted fans?

For plumbing you can use those specialized things to keep water pipes from freezing.

Wood stoves are awfully cozy; I would love to have one on my boat.
.
However, it's an unholy bitch to store the fuel, even if you're using pellets. It's a lot of volume to store for anything other than very occasional or decorative use. And then you've got the ashes to deal with. For warm climates with only occasional chilly weather then maybe ok, but up in my latitudes it wouldn't work well.

A good compromise is a pot-type diesel stove with a glass door -- made by different companies. The pot-type stoves are vastly less complex and much more reliable than the forced burner ones (Eber, Webasto, Planar, etc.). It's possible to do heat distribution hydronically, using a back boiler arrangement.


Thread drift, but speaking of reliability -- hope I don't jynx anything, but my Eberspacher Hydronic M12 I bought new and installed before our Arctic trip in 2018 is still working perfectly 5 years later, and I haven't had any trouble at all with it. This is in stark contrast to its predecessor, an old Hydronic 10 which had some failure or another, often expensive, at least once a year, every year, without fail. So maybe these things have improved. I've heard the Planars just don't break, but no personal experience. The Eberspachers and Webastos of the previous generation at least, needed a good bit of maintenance and repair.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Thanks for the input everyone. Sounds kind of exciting actually and fun to get this running.

If I knew how much I was going to use I could get it in advance. I could fill up one of my fuel tanks with it. I see you can get home heating oil delivered which is diesel also. 50 gallons is the minimum order. Each of my fuel tanks is 50 gallons.

Wow i would be very careful doing that as home diesel has a different color and taxation. If they control you and you have a full 2nd engine tank with wrong color home diesel thats tax fraud as they expect you using it for propulsion and you will have a very hard time proofing the opposite. At least in whole europe...

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

Wow i would be very careful doing that as home diesel has a different color and taxation. If they control you and you have a full 2nd engine tank with wrong color home diesel thats tax fraud as they expect you using it for propulsion and you will have a very hard time proofing the opposite. At least in whole europe...

It’s different here. We only have two types. On road diesel and off-road diesel.

On road diesel is clear without dye. Off road diesel is a red color.

Off road diesel is what we put into our boats. It is not taxed as high as the on road diesel. However, the marina adds quite a tax!!

Home heating oil is not considered part of this, but using it to heat my home would probably be ok even in Europe i would think?

In any case, my boat cannot be propelled by diesel in the first place. So I have a pretty good defense. If I were in Europe.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by Chotu

It’s different here. We only have two types. On road diesel and off-road diesel.

On road diesel is clear without dye. Off road diesel is a red color.

Off road diesel is what we put into our boats. It is not taxed as high as the on road diesel. However, the marina adds quite a tax!!

Home heating oil is not considered part of this, but using it to heat my home would probably be ok even in Europe i would think?

In any case, my boat cannot be propelled by diesel in the first place. So I have a pretty good defense. If I were in Europe.

Chotu, you don't have a Diesel engine do you.
So, if you have only Diesel for heating onboard and can justify that, I do not see why you should not be able to use the cheaper stuff legally.

We have the same setup, no Diesel engine but a Diesel heater. So far noone has challenged our logic.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Chotu, you don't have a Diesel engine do you.
So, if you have only Diesel for heating onboard and can justify that, I do not see why you should not be able to use the cheaper stuff legally.

We have the same setup, no Diesel engine but a Diesel heater. So far noone has challenged our logic.

I think it’s different over here. We use the untaxed diesel to propel our boats here. That is what everyone uses with their diesel heater and their propulsion engines.

The diesel that is taxed is for use on the road.

There is no defense needed here.

Home heating oil is a completely different thing. So it’s not an issue to use that. It’s for off-road use also. Our taxes are on the diesel that is used with the road.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I agree. I have a thread here on the topic from a year or 2 ago. “Diesel engines and a changing world” or something like that. It’s on its way out.

Heat pumps don’t work for winter though and require a generator to power them. Back to fossil fuel.

It would be quite unfortunate if diesel heat is replaced by much more polluting wood heat however.

Then there is another option. Home heating oil. It’s about $1 less per gallon that diesel and can run in these heaters. It also can’t be phased out since people rely on it not to die.

Then finally, i could do very large propane tanks.

None of these match the convenience, lower pollution and price point of a diesel heater (not stove).

It depends where you are and what you have. Heat pumps work great during the winter in Florida, even when it’s freezing. They work better than the residential ones that every house in Florida uses, because their condenser is air cooled, while ours is water cooled and the water is warm.

Also, we simply run it on inverter, no need for genset. Solar production in the winter is less but not as much as one thinks because the low temperature increases performance considerably.

I disagree about the pollution from wood. This is only an issue in cities ashore, because of the concentration of it, not for boats anchored somewhere out there.

If you think they care about people being cold in the winter then think again. My family had to wear thick coats inside their homes last winter after they blew up the pipelines and decided selling gas to foreign nations was more important than warming houses of the population.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

It depends where you are and what you have. Heat pumps work great during the winter in Florida, even when it’s freezing. They work better than the residential ones that every house in Florida uses, because their condenser is air cooled, while ours is water cooled and the water is warm.

Also, we simply run it on inverter, no need for genset. Solar production in the winter is less but not as much as one thinks because the low temperature increases performance considerably.

I disagree about the pollution from wood. This is only an issue in cities ashore, because of the concentration of it, not for boats anchored somewhere out there.

If you think they care about people being cold in the winter then think again. My family had to wear thick coats inside their homes last winter after they blew up the pipelines and decided selling gas to foreign nations was more important than warming houses of the population.

Oh yeah!! I forgot you guys had that issue over there with the pipelines and heat insecurity.

I will have to definitely disagree with you about particulate pollution. We have bouts of it that cover the entire country and far offshore frequently. It’s everywhere. You cannot escape it. It is not uncommon for our map to look like this attachment and this does not show it extending off of the continent into the water which it does. If it is yellow it starts to give me a problem with breathing.

Woodstoves create more pollution than any other form of heat I can use. Now, they don’t necessarily create more carbon in the atmosphere or even any if you are careful about what you are burning. But it’s not acceptable to me to add that much to the particulate air pollution problems. I will not do it. There are many times when I have trouble breathing from it. I’m not going to add to it.

You have to picture taking your boat to Denmark. Or Norway. In the winter. Now picture of your heating system. It’s not sufficient.

I’m setting up for that type of environment. Not for Florida. I am tired of Florida right now. I have been forced to be there for too long. I need a break from it. Even if that means cold.