Diesel heaters(gravity feed style) - Questions for those with experieces

[01kiwijohn]

You can greatly reduce the temp lost to exhaust by adding the heat exchanger. We did, ducted it to the central floor and enjoy much better circulation as well. Warm feet and no floor condensation.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by chowdan

I have an opportunity to get my hands on either a Newport bulkhead mounted heater and a Antarctic heater. The newport heater is priced around 2x less than the new price while the Antarctic is about 1.5x less than the cost of new.

Either way both prices i feel are good for fully functional units that will significantly reduce the cost of heat over winters in terms of power budgets(our Espar D5 can burn up to 120amps/24hrs if it ran at full blast which it wouldn't).

Both are fully functional, but I am going NUTS here with the math because it does not pencil out. Can someone with real experiences help me out and explain how their marketing is selling the numbers

Directly from Dickinson website:

Newport:
The Newport Bulkhead Mounted Heater is ideal for boats 30-35ft. Small, compact, and bulkhead mounted. An attractive, economical diesel burning heater, providing comfortable, dry heat.

Width: 8.50″
Height: 19.75″
Depth: 10.50″
Weight: 22 lbs

Fuel Consumption / 24hr:
1.29 gal LOW
3.20 gal HIGH

Heat Output:
Low: 6500 BTU
High: 16250 BTU

Antarctic:
The Antarctic Floor Mounted Heater is ideal for boats 35ft – 40ft. Size of this heater produces greater heat output than the smaller heaters although fuel consumption is the same. This model is round in design and has a large viewing window.

Width: 13″
Height: 25″
Depth: 14″
Weight: 27 lbs

Fuel Consumption / 24hr:
1.29 gal LOW
3.20 gal HIGH

Heat Output:
Low: 6500 BTU
High: 16250 BTU



What is blowing my mind is the numbers show BTU's produced - BOTH are the exact same amount of BTU's, so how can their description say that "Size of this heater produces greater heat output than the smaller heaters although fuel consumption is the same." The numbers do not make sense.

I know some people on here use the Antarctic (nolex or dockhead if i remember), can someone help me understand this? I've emailed their CS department without any response from them so I'm wondering if of the smart people on here can explain the numbers or is this just marketing BS?

This will be going aboard a 42ft custom swan like boat.

Here's another idea https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/b...013857983.html
Helped a customer with one it cooked him out of his 27 ft Yamaha.

I will make you a great deal .

[uhu]

the coldest air is always at the floor level and since warm air rises you want the source of heat as low as possible.
Problems with not enough draft often has to do with too short of a flue, turbulences at the top or too low exhaust temps due to too much heat loss (for example; no insulated outside part of the flue stack.

[Boatyarddog]

Originally Posted by billknny

I used a Newport to heat a 40 foot boat in San Francisco Bay, not FRIGID, but cold for extended periods. The two heaters use exactly the same burner.

How much heat you get out of them depends greatly on the exact set up. Put an external cabin fan blowing across them and the the heat dumped into the cabin instead of up the stack goes up a LOT.

They are great heaters, although they do have a bit of a learning curve on hot to run them right.

Excellent point, location is everything.
ALOT of heat can be gleaned from the Exaust pipe, I installed a "heat robber" on the stack and its get very warm, I then use a computer cooling fan for blowing across the fins, it's very quiet and efficient on power.
Blowing the hot air down warms the entire boat.
SV. Cloud Duster