Two questions about heating while on the water

[Lepke]

When heating a boat you need to consider changing the air. Every breath, shower, boiling pot stays in the boat unless vented. Using some type of combustion heater will keep your boat dry because it's always drawing air.
Otherwise you have damp clothes and bedding, moisture on your windows, and water in the bilge.

I have a big boat with several ways to heat. Diesel stove, hydronic, wood stove, etc. But I also have 2 Chinese heaters I use in mild weather. They're cheap, easy to install. Most have a remote. You wake in the night and it's cold, push the remote and it's toasty.
Check out ebay: https://www.youtube.com/user/johnmck1147
He did several videos on how the Chinese heaters work and how to install.
Draw your combustion air from inside the boat and it will always be dry. My relative humidity runs 40-50% in coastal Oregon when outside it's about 90%.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Lepke

When heating a boat you need to consider changing the air. Every breath, shower, boiling pot stays in the boat unless vented. Using some type of combustion heater will keep your boat dry because it's always drawing air.
Otherwise you have damp clothes and bedding, moisture on your windows, and water in the bilge.

I have a big boat with several ways to heat. Diesel stove, hydronic, wood stove, etc. But I also have 2 Chinese heaters I use in mild weather. They're cheap, easy to install. Most have a remote. You wake in the night and it's cold, push the remote and it's toasty.
Check out ebay: https://www.youtube.com/user/johnmck1147
He did several videos on how the Chinese heaters work and how to install.
Draw your combustion air from inside the boat and it will always be dry. My relative humidity runs 40-50% in coastal Oregon when outside it's about 90%.

Yes I draw combustion air from inside the cabin space as well as heating air. Only the exhaust is fed outside. However with the Chinese heaters I will draw combustion air from outside I think.

[gonesail]

takes a bit of propane but the vented force10 cozy cabin heater puts out a lot of heat .. although I can see why a forced air diesel heater would be really great.

[robertmfranklin]

I have a Taylors Parafin heater I purchased in London (Thomas Fowlkes Chandlery) in 1976. I brought it back to the US at that time and it has been on my P36-1 since 1980. I am a strictly summer sailor in New England.

I've used it twice, most recently on an unusually cold night in Provincetown July 2021, meaning mid 50s. Actually, it was a blessing that night for me and my wife.

It has to be primed (by alchohol in its dish or a propane lighter) to vaporize the Mineral Spirit (Parafin) fuel. It is tricky to get right, but once burning it seems to do a credible job and has a small exhaust pipe about 1-1/4 inches to the outside. I do not recall any moisture problems, but this is real amateur stuff compared to what others are talkin about on this thread.

For colder temperatures, I would need to move ashore. It took about two hours to be noticeably comfortable. I purchased it for a P30, but never installed it. The smaller the boat, the better, of course.

[Shaneesprit]

Originally Posted by Rohan

1. When it comes to a dedicated heater, I have considered options and would prefer to install a solid fuel heater. But when I google it, the Dickinson Marine Newport heater (here, or featured in this article here) is the only result I get. So is that really the only choice? It looks like a fine product, but it's dimensions are a little large. It's not very tall or wide, but it sticks out 10" from the wall, which is too much on my boat. I'm not sure there's any good place to put it. I would love a smaller one, if anyone knows about one, please share.

2. Heating with the oven. I know that's not recommended, but how bad is that really? I have a fairly standard Force 10 propane gimbaled oven. Surprisingly just by cooking it heats up the cabin pretty well. Any specific danger of using it as a heater? I'm not worried about carbon monoxide because I have 3 CO detectors which have all been recently replaced.

I remember in the North East UK a few years ago 3 fishermen died after turning on the gas cooker to keep warm.
I use propane myself but not a propane cooker in place of heating.
Would sleep with the propane fridge on.not the oven / hob.

Will be reading the thread as also interested in heating, have a diesel air heater it worked when tested but not when I wanted to use it 6 months later

[bcboomer]

Best choice: Diesel hydronic. Gives warmth wherever you want it and hot water as well.
2nd best: Diesel air heat.
My experience with hydronic is that the Planar heaters are better than the Espar and Webasto for less money.
For diesel air there are lots of cheap Chinese but I read that some are junk and some are good.

[Sam Woodbridge]

Rohan, thank you for the question. On the quest for the answer. Some people have mentioned forced diesel heaters. I have a webasto forced air heater. I like it a lot. But it makes me wonder!

Has anyone ran a forced air diesel heater over night? If so what was the power draw?

People have routed their outside fresh air intake into their boat “instead of outside” seems like a great idea, but why did the factories install them pulling air from the outside? I mean we all have this damp boat you know……

Good luck Rohan - seems like a lot of options!

[Kelkara]

Originally Posted by Sam Woodbridge

Has anyone ran a forced air diesel heater over night? If so what was the power draw?

I installed a 3kW chinese diesel heater this year ... It has five power levels. On level 1 it draws about 0.6A, on level 5 it draws about 7.0A. But I've never yet run it continuoiusly overnight because it makes the boat too warm, even on level 1 ... we'll see what happens this winter.

[Sam Woodbridge]

Originally Posted by Kelkara

I installed a 3kW chinese diesel heater this year ... It has five power levels. On level 1 it draws about 0.6A, on level 5 it draws about 7.0A. But I've never yet run it continuoiusly overnight because it makes the boat too warm, even on level 1 ... we'll see what happens this winter.

Ya, I understand what your saying. I have a thermostat on mine. I should mentioned that. I can set the temp say at 65F and it will up the boat but keep it at that temp too.

I too, need to see what happens this winter.. I’ll run it over night and find out!

If the OP, is reading. I was on a fishing boat last week. The boat had this super dry cabin inside this old wooden boat. I asked him about it and he used a diesel drip cooking type stove. And I think you could burn wood in it too. He kept telling me you need a heat source that dries the air.

The other boat that was “bone dry” was this ice breaker steel hull boat that used a glycol type system that heated the glycol up and circulated throughout the boat. I think the system ran off of shore power and then the engine once shore power was disconnected.

Good luck OP.

[noelex 77]

If you have the room, diesel drip feed heaters such as the Reflex brand are hard to beat.

They are very simple, almost nothing to go wrong, they require no electricity (important in cold climates when there is diminished solar output) and can be used for cooking.

[NSboatman]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

If you have the room, diesel drip feed heaters such as the Reflex brand are hard to beat.



They are very simple, almost nothing to go wrong, they require no electricity (important in cold climates when there is diminished solar output) and can be used for cooking.

…yes, but you will struggle to get them to run reliably on a sailing vessel underway at varying angles of heel and fluctuating air pressure from sail down-draft. I love ours when we’re swinging on the hook or mooring, but have suffered burner chamber flooding and subsequent blow-backs when running under sail. Not recommended - at least both with our model, which is the the Dickinson Lofoten. Reflex may be better?

Also- putting in a water heating coil in these heaters produces a lovely source of water heating and can be distributed to radiators for a whole-boat subtle and dry warmth that is tough to beat.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by NSboatman

…yes, but you will struggle to get them to run reliably on a sailing vessel underway at varying angles of heel and fluctuating air pressure from sail down-draft. I love ours when we’re swinging on the hook or mooring, but have suffered burner chamber flooding and subsequent blow-backs when running under sail.

Yes agreed. They are not suitable for high heel angles.

They are wonderful as a heat source at anchor.

When passage making and on watch I prefer to wear clothing suitable to be able to go outside should the need arise. The inside temperature needs to be close to outside temperature. A little warmer is OK, but if there is too much discrepancy there is a reluctance to venture outside, which is not ideal.

[goboatingnow]

I’m trying to decide to use a Chinese warm air diesel heater or a Chinese hydronic diesel heater. Running the 75mm air ducts is turning into a real pain.

I’m thinking of using 120mm fan radiators ( Pc liquid Cooling) as the radiators.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Yes agreed. They are not suitable for high heel angles.

They are wonderful as a heat source at anchor.

When passage making and on watch I prefer to wear clothing suitable to be able to go outside should the need arise. The inside temperature needs to be close to outside temperature. A little warmer is OK, but if there is too much discrepancy there is a reluctance to venture outside, which is not ideal.

Clearly you don’t sail in northern waters. Coming below deck to a Luke warm saloon is awful.

[smac999]

Get an esbar. .