Thinking to buy a Chinese forced air diesel heater

[Celestialsailor]

My 2 cents worth...First, Chinese manufacturing is terrible. By that, I mean the plastic injection mold may not have had radius's in the mold of the screw on cap. Very common in unknowing countries. Second, the Chinese are notorious for using "re-ground" plastic which does not stand up a very long time. Third, while the Chinese shipper "manufactures" the heater...they don't. They order parts for the heater from an array of outside vendors, who are mostly back alley manufacturers. Forth, the quality of the plastic is low and no doubt the diesel, especially with our additives, break down the plastic.
The pump and filter probably worked just fine in the beginning. When the top of the filter was screwed onto the body, the rubber gasket stored potential energy at the attachment points. The plastic basically yielded to that pressure as it degraded over the short time.
To conclude, upgraded both the filter and pump to a brand name...even though it may also come from China. Welcome to an outsourced America.

[Oeanda]

Thanks guys. Oh yes I completely agree and follow the same lines of thinking re the quality. And yes a better quality pump and filter are on the shopping list for sure. I actually suspect that the back of it blew out merely from the pressure of my girlfriend priming the fuel line with a syringe. Which is pretty ridiculous. But probably the case.

Not a big fan of junk and I do believe very much in making ethical choices that make me feel good about everything. But, there is a time for everything in its place. And this weird global state of affairs - will also pass. For better or worse.

I never did expect much more out of this heater than I’ve already gotten. I wanted to see what a forced air heater would be like on the boat- since we had the ducting etc already in place. And it got us through the winter quite nicely. So the purchase was definitely a success in that respect.


I still have the old Webasto. While I have not gotten anywhere with repairing it I haven’t had the heart to throw it out because it’s a nice looking old-school build and I appreciate the apparent quality of the thing. So maybe someday someone smarter than me will come along and we can diagnose it.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

My 2 cents worth...First, Chinese manufacturing is terrible. By that, I mean the plastic injection mold may not have had radius's in the mold of the screw on cap. Very common in unknowing countries. Second, the Chinese are notorious for using "re-ground" plastic which does not stand up a very long time. Third, while the Chinese shipper "manufactures" the heater...they don't. They order parts for the heater from an array of outside vendors, who are mostly back alley manufacturers. Forth, the quality of the plastic is low and no doubt the diesel, especially with our additives, break down the plastic.
The pump and filter probably worked just fine in the beginning. When the top of the filter was screwed onto the body, the rubber gasket stored potential energy at the attachment points. The plastic basically yielded to that pressure as it degraded over the short time.
To conclude, upgraded both the filter and pump to a brand name...even though it may also come from China. Welcome to an outsourced America.

Political statements at the end usually betray the prejudices of the poster and hence devalue their comments. In my experience the Chinese produce to a cost and the quality reflects ( in general ) what you pay for it. Mostly the quality is “ acceptable “ , but always buy spares

Here my political statement. , I worked in the US car industry in the 80s the quality control was appalling and the junk sometimes produced was shocking.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Political statements at the end usually betray the prejudices of the poster and hence devalue their comments. In my experience the Chinese produce to a cost and the quality reflects ( in general ) what you pay for it. Mostly the quality is “ acceptable “ , but always buy spares

Here my political statement. , I worked in the US car industry in the 80s the quality control was appalling and the junk sometimes produced was shocking.

Only you would take the post away as a political statement then make a political statement yourself.
Being a Toolmaker for 40+ years and working on hundreds of molds and mold repair, I have a little more experience than you regarding the techniques of mold building and the do's and the don'ts of tool design. As a Field Engineer for an engineering firm in Silicon Valley, I had many opportunities consulting other Engineers and plastic mold houses that identify reground plastics. Take a guess genius, the country where that practice is done? If a cavity in a mold is not completely filled and there are voids in the part, they simply regrind that part and add it to the non-regrind batch and continue the molding process. In other "developed countries", the unfinished part is thrown away.
Stick to what you know.

[Lake-Effect]

One thing that makes the situation with the cheap diesel heaters sort of unique, is that they have trickled down to us boaters from a much bigger market; they are cab heaters in commercial trucks and buses. So tons of them are made and sold. Which hopefully implies some evolution towards reliability.

A friend put a Chinese heater into his CS36, and I got to experience it firsthand during a May cruise in 2019. Mmmmm toasty. I need to follow up with him to see if he's still happy with it.

[Celestialsailor]

Well that's the thing isn't it...reliability. From what a lot of posters have said, there are problems with the pump, the filter housing, the insulted (or lack of) exhaust and the digital temperature control unit. To a cost point, they do very well. But I can't stop from thinking if all these failures can happen, isn't it possible that something catastrophic could happen while you're staying good and toasty while sleeping?

Webasto gets in upwards of $1200 for their unit. The knockoffs are $200. Quite the gap. So part of the problem might be is the Webasto cost point has a top heavy cost point. Based on what I saw with the solar market, China basically put the European and Western countries out of business by introducing solar panels for less than cost. It is obvious that this is not longer the case as they have raised their prices. So is it political that i am pointing that out? Suit yourself if you think that. Just reporting my observations.