2000 HOURS LATER! Chinese Diesel Heater
Vložit
- čas přidán 7. 12. 2022
- My faithful Chinese Diesel Heater has kept me warm and hot on some extreme overland winter vanlife adventures in my self built campers. But it’s failing on me, the bearings are broken and loud, the exhaust has rusted. Time for a service, I strip down the heater and find it clean with no real soot in the burn chamber. I show how to replace the motor bearings with high quality Japanese ones and install a need style of heater exhaust muffler / silencer to make it more quiet. I replaced my original heater controller with a Afterburner.
AMAZON STORE ----- www.amazon.co.uk/shop/mispron...
Heater 5kw - amzn.to/3jg5fOy
Heater 5kw ( Bluetooth ) - amzn.to/3WoI03a
Heater 2kw - amzn.to/3BNNI6y
Exhaust silencer / muffler
amzn.to/3FbGJ8o
amzn.to/3FF7wv8
Exhaust clamps 26-28mm amzn.to/3W2V0ew
Bearing used were EZO brands 625zz
 #Chinesedieselheater #Campervanheating #Mispronouncedadventures
_____________________________________
-----------
Gear up for adventure with these exclusive deals:
🔋 ROAMER BATTERIES! Elevate your journey - [Affiliate Link] roamer.com/?aff=16
🔥 AUTOTERM Discount Code: mispronounced5% - [Exclusive 5% off] planarheaters.co.uk/home
🚿 BOBILVANS Hot water ! - [Affiliate Link] www.bobilvans.co.uk/?ref=MPA5
☕️ Support the channel! Grab a coffee, beer, or diesel at: www.buymeacoffee.com/misprono...
🛒 Check out my curated Amazon Store for van build essentials: www.amazon.co.uk/shop/mispron...
Your purchases fuel the adventure. Thanks for being part of the journey! 🌟
Connect with the adventure on social media:
📧 Email: Alex@alexfrood.com
🌐 Expedition Photography Website: www.AlexFrood.com
📸 Instagram: / alexfrood
📘 Facebook: / alexfroodoutdoorinstru...
Stay in the loop and join the exploration! 🌍✨
Disclaimer: Some of these links are affiliate links where I'll earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Also as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.⚠️
____________________________________
What is the main failure point of Chinese diesel heater you have experienced?
@@geminiman6938 that's really a consumable really though, you have to expect to need to replace these. Same in my wood pellet stove
The fuel pump and the fan motor wear out the quickest on all of my heaters. Make sure to have extra fuel atomizers on hand. I found fastest way to clean out blast tube from soot is to use propane torch to cook it out then compressed air to blow out .
@@gloknor interesting I very rarely hear people talk about pump failure, water ingress into the plug area?
@@MispronouncedAdventures Yeh they go bad just like everything else. I have taken these apart and fixed them over the years many many times . Make sure to get replacement screens they get funked up .
Cheap nasty m/b and controller giving nasty unusable settings
The Z designation on the bearing means it has a metal shield holding the grease in. A ZZ bearing means it has those metal shields on both sides which is what you need on the heater. You also come across RS or 2RS bearings which means they have rubber shields instead of metal ones. They probably wouldn't stand the heat in this application.
Thank you. I had been wondering the z & zz. I knew Z was metal. I just didn’t know both.
Thats why you but the CERAMIC bearings for upgrade
@@stevecarlisle3323 I had considered ceramic, but I couldn’t find any examples where people had to use them in a diesel heater for these particular circumstances. So I choose a more known and tested option.
Good to know, esp as I have a Kirby vacuum cleaner!
The motors & therefore bearings on these I don't think experience much heat - if anything - experience a lot of very cold.
@@Lucentlens yeah I don't think rubber seals would be a problem. If the motor got hot enough to melt the seals you have bigger problems
I love seeing someone actually fixing something instead of just throwing it away and replacing it.
Thank you like to learn how to fix things
Totally agree. This should be the way forward, fix not replace.
@@MispronouncedAdventures Hey there, 'm thinking about getting one of these Amazon has the 8Kw unit for 97$$ right now... A utuber claims you can use waste oil or pretty much anything but gasoline🤣 So I throw away a lot of fryer oil, do you think that would work in it??
@autojohn-pu1vf the 8kW Chinese units are just a 5kW unit with a high max allowed pump and fan speed ( the 5kW unit are a copy of the 4kw western versions). You won’t get 8kW out of it and running it at max will not be good for it.
As for alternative fuels, yes. Pure Kero works, as for waste type oil its normally mixed with diesel to help the burn. But it will be a dirty burn and like need setting changed to burn well.
I do have one which runs on gasoline or diesel but it uses a proprietary internal burner
@@MispronouncedAdventures TY for the quick response, I won't be able to use the furnace🥶until I fix mold in the house making me sick, and got my bed in front of the fireplace...
So are these settings a screw adjustment, like a carburator? and your saying the fry oil will mix with the diesel OK????
This may be a permanent solution to all the money I waste heating a huge house (even with all the extra vents shut) when I only go in a few rooms normally.
I searched endlessly for a video with full info on bearings. Legend for making this video
Glad it’s been helpful!
Thank you for making this video! I really love when people take the time to make and edit these.
No problem, thank you for watching
The permiation of AVE quotes/phrases in any channel that does anything even remotely mechanical always makes me smile. Thanks for sharing!
😊 glad it was enjoyed!
I always think when someone says they're going to tear something down sounds brutal, where's dismantling something sounds miles better. None the less you've done a great job.
That’s a good point on the use of the wording
I was always thinking I’d be looking at one of the more expensive diesel heaters in my next van but after seeing your set up with that better controller I might have to re consider. Helpful video!
The afterburner in my eyes makes the Chinese heater have better functionality than the western brands
@@MispronouncedAdventuresThis means Chineese are going slower but surely advancing in tech in compare to Western one. They are already slowly taking over car industry as any other.Well...when the profits are above all this is what you get at the end.
@@The_Touring_Jedi Chinese heaters normally are just okay. The afterburner controller was a project by Australian to make the Chinese heaters better
As a side note for the gasket you could use a liquid high temp gasket which just comes in a tube. They work great in situations you might not beable to get a gasket.
Quite a few people have mentioned this option if you ever in a bind
you dont need high temp anything 99 percent of that is marketing BS most goos in a tube are exactly the same
In order to reuse gaskets on our racecars, we used to apply antisieze to both sides of the gasket. Silicone spray would probably also work in this application.
Once I bought one big sheet of gasket, about size 1000*1500 mm. I just cut from there the needed size. The whole sheet was cheap.
i have roughly 14,000 hours on my chinese diesel heater. I've cleaned it out once. Bearings make a little noise when it's cold but once it warms up it's quiet. It's running great even right now. I have 3 spare fans i bought when i first got it and haven't used any of them yet. I have new 2 spare pumps I haven't used either of those yet. I got a couple glow plugs i haven't used. 1 Bag of 10 fuel atomizers I only used 1 when i cleaned it the first time. Best $150USD I ever spent and it runs almost 24/7 in the cold weather from about October till the end of April. I can get 10 of these for the price of one of name brands.
I run mine at my Custom Low Setting of 2.5Hz, 2500 RPM, 1280 Feet Elevation, heat exchanger stays around 180-190C (356 - 374F) with outdoor temps at -4C ( 24F )
There are great units when you get good ones, installed well and tuned for your needs. I will being heading back to the Arctic this winter is looking for -40c with it. ( and spares )
Thanks for those settings (just-in-case).
They must have got all the electronics welded in correctly very rare. It will let you down when you realy need heat.
Really useful video and gives some confidence in the heater - not bad at all for 2 years.
Love the tray on the worktop - what a great idea!
All the best,
David 👍
Glad you found the video helpful! As for the tray I thought the soot would take forever to get out the pours of the wood work too if I didn’t. Plus to stops bolts, tools and parts going everywhere
Yep, I use an old metal cookie sheet with some scattered magnets to help catch errant screws
Great video! I think you proved that by using the heater all the time keeps it in best shape! Also - a man after my own heart - someone that carries a spare heater. I run eberspachers (thats all you could buy 12 years ago when i had to replace my heater) but when they give up the ghost i will be moving over to a chinese model. New sub here!
Thank you for subscribing. I definitely with the heater are well installed and you buy a good one from maybe of the different companies then they can run just,
But definitely carry a spare one just in case
@@MispronouncedAdventures I need to dissect some Webasto heaters on some Ford Transits from between 95-99 that have probably been sitting too long...
An inverter from 12V DC to 230V AC works as a spare heating fan plus the regular compartment heater. For longer distances, a separate generator may be needed and or extra batteries...
That motor commutator looks brand new still.
Really impressed how good everything is.
Bet if you just run it at full for an hour every now and then you burn it clean instead of disassembling it
Thank you. I did know that part was called the motor commutator, I had no idea at all what to call it.
Some people will do a hot burn. Mine is on a thermostat so I run at max for 30 minutes to get up to temp normally. I’d consider it pretty clean
Other's have mentioned RTV, but it's something to have in an emergency kit for your van. it's gasket in a tube. RTV stands for Room Temp Vulcanization, so once it's set, it's propper rubber. you can use it to fix a lot of problems in an emergency. I've even seen it used to fix tents if the fabric will bond with it
Thank you. I have definitely been educated on many different solutions for gasket repair because of this video.
Very informative.
Thanks for spending the time to show the tear down and reassembly.
Good old fashion smarts here!
Thanks!
Thank you. I’ve always been one for wanting to know one something is broken and then to fix it over just replacing it
A good advert for Chinese heaters. They are that good I have one in the van and two in my sheds. Crackin.
I think it’s shows some are better then others and how important install is
Outstanding repair video! I had to download it for my off-line files.
Thank you, lovely comment:)
I am incredibly happy to see you running the Afterburner. I've installed 7 of these heaters now and won't install one without the Afterburner. Ray Jones is a god. Thanks for the link to the exhaust - I hadn't seen this style option before.
100%. I pretty much wouldn’t use a run one of these heaters without the afterburner. I don’t even find the other big brands control systems comparable in functionality.
What is the afterburner part you speak of
@@justmyopinion5234 the Controll Pannel is called Afterburner I guess
The third party aftermarket controller for Chinese diesel heaters is called a “Afterburner” which does occasionally add to confusion with the name, afterburner used on a type of jet engine
Give mate, we just bought a traffic and there is a diesel heater underneath pull out bed the guy built but jo exhaust so I dont want to use it ,, where do you cut a hole for the exhaust fumes ? Thanks George
Just like yourself I love to experiment with these Chinese heaters, currently running two of them to heat my home with the electrical power provided by solar power stored in batteries. Love the videos.
Yeah definitely a few things I’d like to play with with those heater if I had more time
@@MispronouncedAdventures I have been using a medical dose feed pump with limited success but I think I can improve on it with different gearing, these pumps produce none of the deadly bubbles in the fuel line but their stock RPM is just too low
The gasket seal on the intake fan side can be replaced with a home made gasket made from thin card like cereal packets. Smear both faces of the gasket with copper grease and they will release easily.
I’ve learnt a lot from the comments about how homemade gaskets can be made
@@MispronouncedAdventures I used to be able to buy sheets of "gasket paper" in England. whether any car parts place has any now......
Excellent video containing great information as usual 👍👍👍👍👍
Glad it was helpful
Thank you for putting my mind at rest regarding using these heaters
Don’t know if you mean that in a good or bad way. But these heaters have a wide range of quality because there’s probably 50+ factories, which produce them some crap some better. This particular heater in the video is now at 4500 run hours. £6 in bearings and one pump.
Zz may be zig zag?😊
Thanks for your thorough video!!
No worries, hope it was helpful
Thanks for your time.
Thank you for yours
I actually enjoyed your video. Factual and no ridiculous claims made. Many others, out there, just don’t know how these things work - like claiming the 8kW output, which cannot exist in this range of heaters.
Your extra bends and length of the exhaust may make a difference to the operation - a carbon monoxide tester would help but we do not know how it was coping before.
A couple thousand hours from chinesium bearings is likely good. You noted the armature had been balanced - but then they may have added poorly balanced fans on the shaft. Some better(?) fans may have extra weights attached to improve fan balance.
With regard to the bearing fitment, one bearing should be press fit in its housing and the other needs to be a sliding fit to accommodate expansion between the bearings (fixed bearings would wear prematurely as they would have no end-float and thus load the bearings, axially as the temperature varied.
Running on heating oil (28 seconds Redwood kerosene) seems to be an acceptable alternative to diesel (the fuel the machine is designed for). The calorific value of the kero is a little lower than that of diesel, thus producing a slightly leaner burn. This may help where excessive bends and/or extra length of ducting is introduced. That grade of kerosene seems to have adequate lubrication to protect the pump from early failure.
The Eberspacher installation details, for their heaters, provide details of cross-section increases required - to maintain the gas flows within specification tolerances. Well worth checking out, if non-standard ducting/pipework is used.
Good luck with continued reliability of your heater. Do note that the afterburner is only compatible with some motherboards - not the latest cheaper issue, which does not have any facility for altering the fuel:air ratio. Keep up the good work!
I run the planar 44d diesel heater as my main heat in my 32ft motorhome .
I now have 5 years run time on it. I start it in the fall and it runs non stop till spring.
So it's running 24/7 for 6 months non stop. And zero problems.
I had webasto and eberspacher but always had a problem getting parts.
Someone told me about the planar brand which were originally made for Russian military vehicles in antarctic. Sure you can buy 5 or 6 heaters made of Chineseium
Scrap metal for the price of a planar. But I like doing a job once and being done.
I am still running the original exhaust. Controller. Fuel pump and fuel line. I do remove my filter every year and blow it out as its a serviceable filter.
I have found this heater to operate 75deg f running %15% used oil from my diesel
Mercedes after it has sat for 6 months and filtered. I found the extra heat keeps the burn chamber from sooting. I also add a few oz of LIQUI MOLLY DIESEL ADDITIVE which seems to help with soot and keeping the glow screen clean.
I also heated my 28ft cabin cruiser for 7 years with one of these heaters and heated my 42ft double cabin 2 bath hatteras classic yacht with the larger heater.
Personally I love diesel heaters but with today's fuel prices at $5.85 a gallon
This year I have used propane heat. What parts do you live and what are fuel cost there. Here in america creepy & crooked joe biden has made a real mess of our country. Under trump we were totally energy dependent and exporting reserves
But biden destroyed that his first day in office. Hopefully the world will get back to normal after he is gone and russia/Ukraine is over. It looks like you have a lifestyle close to mine being free and exploring. I wish you well and safe happy travels.
I will sub to you and check out further content from you. Take care and be safe.
Robert
I am a fan of the Planar ( now Autoterm ) units, I’ve fitted a few. I think they are some of the best options available for price and quality
Very interesting. My Diesel Heater in my old Motorhome has been running on a mixture of fuels but not Diesel. Parrafin, Kerosene and Domestic Heating Oil. Basically it was cheaper than Diesel. But not now. 3 years on and inside Silencer is clean as a whistle inside. Cheers from old George in the UK
Yeah the heaters are great for running a few things. I know a few who run just kero in them. Very clean burn
Your van setup is amazing...
Thank you very much, it’s a bit of a different design than the usual fixed bed with garage underneath layout. Works for me probably wouldn’t work for some other people.
Extremely well done video! Thanks from Texas USA!
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
@@MispronouncedAdventures Cheers
Ive had one of these heaters in my Garage Office for about 9 years and it gets heavily used most days. Mine is a 24Volt version to match my Battery Bank and Im on my third glow plug which is the only problem I have experienced. The glow plugs are supposed to be a special 24 volt plug but I cant see any difference between the the 12 and 24 volt plugs so they may be pulling my leg on that one. Last time I pulled the heater apart I was expecting to see unimaginable filth as per some You tube videos but was quite surprised to see how clean it was. The last time I ordered a new glow plug I ordered 2 for another spare and it came with replacement gaskets. So should be good for another 9 years 🙂. To stop that annoying fuel pump tick I hang the pump on 2 strong cords stretched apart, rather than using the rubber mount provided. The tick then doesnt get amplified by the wall or frame that it would normally be mounted to. Significantly quieter.
Indeed, the glow plugs are known as one of the more consumable parts in long-term use. I don’t know if there’s a difference between the 12 v and 24 V glow plugs. If there is I don’t imagine it would be visible, I would’ve thought it would be the winding of the coil inside of the glow plug itself which you can’t see would be different for each voltage. However, it might just be the same.
Heaters set up well and used often are usually pretty clean inside. As for my pump it’s loosely mounted so I don’t hear the tick that much inside the van.
the heaters are so cheap having a few spare glow plugs and a little extra fuel line (all fuel lines harden over time) to keep it running is a worthwhile investment..... I'm loving mine so far, it's kept me toasty up here in the cold north so far, loving the thing
Really a cool video. I have been thinking of a unit ... for a stationary radio station . .. and this is encouraging me. I know this is running by the time the video comes out but those types of gaskets I make with a small ball ping hammer.. I sure you know how to do that. Sometimes you can take old gaskets and soak the first boiled water (not kept boiling) and let them soak up for a day or two and then let dry .. . they will recompress to the fit.
I was pretty surprised with how brittle the green gasket had become, but I have seen that happen before. They grey ones seems a different material
@@MispronouncedAdventures Is it possible that I can find the same or updated same unit you used? Maybe a model number etc. ... ? pat
You can use high temp RTV seal maker. Comes in a tube and it’s red. We use it all the time at 500 F in America.
Thank you, this wasn’t stuff I was aware of quite a few commenters have mentioned it
I've been running them for a few years. They are great
I agree
Another great and informative video 👍
Thank you help it’s helpful
@@MispronouncedAdventures definitely, will probably have to clean mine out soon, it's been running similier time to yours
Wow 😮 how clean was that!!!
Yeah I was expecting a mess which is why I had the gloves on!
@@MispronouncedAdventures air fuel ratio seems very well tuned 👍
I’ve never tuned it but its worked out well.
Great video. Glad I watched it so when I need to service my vevor heater I'll be able to go back in my watch history to access it. I'll definitely be careful when separating the body to not damage the gaskets.
Glad you found it helpful. If you do need to do a full service of the heater after a year or so, it might just be worth ordering a new set of gaskets before hand as well.
I've had mine for 4 years now. No issues ever.
Mine is about three years now with almost 4000 hours. Only £6 in bearings isn’t bad
Just checked back on Artic adventure. I use evans waterless coolant and it never freezes until below -40 .Might be worth considering. Glad your heater was a easy fix
Cheers I will look into that. I was going to looking into a waterless ones I’ve heard of or a 60/40 mix glyco/water mix . As I’m finding for -40c this winter
@@MispronouncedAdventures Don't know what you're currently running, but mixing the the coolant heavier, favoring the the coolant, may get the freeze point down far enough. Possibly 75/25 or somewhere in that ballpark.
Also, at least here stateside, that muffler would considered a glasspack muffler. Cherry Bomb is the most recognizable brand name. Made me chuckle seeing one for a heater.
I’ll probably running a 60/40 mix which is around -53c I’ve got s few Finnish friends who can advise me on what they use
Great videos. I'm just getting into these heaters and your vids are helpful. Tip: I'm a Biker so you can make your own gaskets from cheap gasket paper if you need to and gas seal with High temp RTV.
Glad it was helpful. one or two people have also mentioned the cardboard gasket. Definitely something I would like to have a go at just to learn a new skill and option in a predicament
@@MispronouncedAdventures I've just had a thought. I've used Redex fuel cleaner in my Motorcycles for over 40 years as it keeps the carbs/fuel injectors and fuel line clean. It also prevents carbon build up in cylinders. I'm wondering if it would extend the service point of these heaters e.g a little shot now and then :)
I have no idea to be honest, but I do use premium diesel which does have cleaning additives in so could be related two why I have a clean burn chamber
there would be the copper/very thin can(diy) gasket option . Very durable !!
Thanks for the info. Great effort.
No problem
Thanks for this video!
No problem
Always make a copy of every gasket on paper so that in the future you can just have a supply of gasket material and make any gasket you need
Makes sense to me. Wasn’t something I knew at the time
Does this work for car head gaskets? Not familiar with that stuff so I'm curious
Head gaskets are typically metal, so unfortunately no.
Although, If you were to have a laser cutter, you could get the correct grade and thickness of sheet steel and cut them out.@@illidari12211
@@illidari12211Head gaskets are are generally very specialized multilayer parts. On some more decadent 2-stroke and other smaller engines they can still be prettt simple. Still usually something with steel.
After seeing several videos about this kind of heater including this one I've been thinking about getting one of these heaters . The lack of build up is pretty impressive.
I just wish they came in bigger sizes or had a higher BTU output. I have a large shop and heating it with propane has gotten really spendy as of late .
I definitely like the flexibility of being able to use other fuels besides diesel .I've seen videos where people are using waste oil and other kinds of oil and this thing just keeps chugging along . Seems pretty impressive for the money plus it's possible to rebuild it ? That's a big selling point to me especially considering how many items being sold these days have to be tossed in the trash once they break down .
Yeah I was very impressed with the lack of build up.
There are lots of 5kw units sold as 8kw, however I have seen some rare photos of a real 8kw unit before. But it would be probably easier to buy and run 5kw for a large spare. That being said I had heated a large work shop using 5kw
I’ve also a good point on. You can just buy a whole need unit if need be
They are cheap enough you could buy two for your shop. I don't think I would try used oil though
I can't imagine heating with diesel would be cheaper than propane. Propane is about $2.80 a gallon where I live and diesel is $5 a gallon. While diesel has about 45% more btus per gallon than diesel its almost double the price.
@@randybobandy9828 in the UK diesel is the cheaper option. Kerosene even cheaper again. But the downside of kerosene is that you have to have a tank whereas the diesel can come from the vehicle tank.
@stephenlipton525 wow that's crazy. Why is propane so much?
This video sold me on these Chinese diesel heaters 1000%. Soot contamination from burning a poor mixture had always been my biggest concern, but it looks like I massively overestimated the risk.
No all Chinese Heater are equal. But searching out a good brand in the first place will help
@@MispronouncedAdventures Aren't they though? Every one I've seen (in their respective 2 / 5 / 8 kW categories) has been mechanically identical.
Body wise they will be same. But the ECU which runs the Heater is where the main difference.
@@MispronouncedAdventures Good to know. The stock control behavior on these Chinese heaters is terrible so my plan has always been to build a custom ECU and "thermostat" when I rewire my van and install one of these heaters.
Thanks for the info! Natural gas in Australia has skyrocketed to AUD $20 per kw/hr of heat. Whereas as diesel is AUD $2.00 per liter and makes 12kw/hr of heat. So I will be heating my home with a chinese diesel heater this year.
Glad it was helpful, diesel heaters have become more popular in the UK for heating, conventional homes with recent energy price increases
If you use the new gasket as a template and cut one from a cardboard box (cereal is brilliant) and seal it with gasket sealant it would have been a better job mate and you still have the new gasket for your other heater
Very true, a few people have said the cereal box cardboard does make good gaskets
Thank. Good to learn that.
Vaseline on each side of the gasket makes for an easy release. I do this on thermostat housing gaskets. Works great
Good to hear, a few have mentioned similar
Maintenance is good.
Indeed it is
People saying to keep a spare bottle of RTV are right, it CAN be handy. But RTV often fails more times than it actually works. The true trick, which I myself have listened to, is to buy various gasket sheets in various sizes and materials. I got maybe 10 cork/rubber gasket sheets for 5 dollars, good enough for a life time.
They last forever if kept somewhere damp and not in direct sun light, and you will NEVER have to buy a new gasket ever again. Buy them in various thicknesses and compounds, store em and use em when needed. I then use the RTV ontop of these gaskets just to make it seal even more.
It may be worth directing the exhaust slightly further away from the chassis, to avoid acid products of combustion causing corrosion.
Hard to see the finished mounting of the exhaust mounting in this video, but the exhaust plume comes out from underneath the skirt of the van
Factory settings caused mine to soot up within a couple of weeks. I probably removed about a kg of soot which was insane. I did watch alot of videos as far as tips for setup and made sure It I had it all covered. Ultimately I had to lean out my air/fuel mixture to have it burn cleanly, but still get maximum heat. It was annoying to have to do that so early, but I had alot of fun seeing the inner workings of the heater.
I think part of the issue as there are so many different ECU / controllers use which control all of the components, fan motor, pump speed, temperature sensors, and so on that they are not all equal. Some heaters with standard settings seem to work absolutely fine whilst a different heater with a different board/controller on a standard settings might not
@@MispronouncedAdventures Exactly, with these heater systems looking seemingly identical I would assume variations in electronic components and lower level qc is what causes the huge variations in performance even withing the same batch. I was prepared to have to mess with it, just didn't think it would be that quick lol.
I think it’s more the ECU’s variation than quality control issues. I mean obviously there are quality control issues overall and they do make issues , but I don’t think in most cases affect performance. Or at least the quality control issues in the cast body parts shouldn’t effect performance to much
I had almost the exact same experience. Not only were the factory settings way higher than what is typically recommended for these heaters, the fuel pump itself was pumping way more than it should. I think this was the seller's way of turning the 5kw heater into an '8kw' one. I had to dial the settings way down and buy a normal fuel pump to sort that out.
@@iguanamoat How do you define a 'normal fuel pump'? I'm learning as much as I can, so as to not mess my new heater up. Thanks in advance.
Ive watched many videos while considering buying one of these. Running the heater on high for 10 or fifteen minutes before shutdown is mentioned as a way to help keep the unit cleaner from soot.
Personally I don’t bother and it haven’t bothered in 4500 run hours. Sooting up isn’t an issue in my heater. maybe that’s as I have a working thermostat
You forget put that rubber cover to that bearing, thats why it went in so easy ;)
The bearing cover was on the bearing on the body. The bearing which went in easy the cap end of the motors near the brushes
Oooooh that bearing went in far too easily! The old one has been spinning in the housing. A bit of red loctite (bearing retainer) should have been put in or this one will spin it out even more. - Even a dribble of super glue will work. also- when you fit new gaskets- wipe them with a little oil so that they will release next time. -Tips from an old fart engineer.
Thank you for the tips. I agree I did notice it went in very easy ( it’s not so loose, would drop out if you inverted it ) I do wonder if the old one was a similar fit. It just had so much motor brush dust deposits that it filled in all the gaps.
Going with the double Z bearings is good, the extra Z is high speed high temp.
Good to hear! Glad it was a good pick going for the ZZ
@@MispronouncedAdventures I use the same in the 24v 100A military alternator in my 6x6 ambulance
I have Chinese diesel heater I am using it for 6 years I Ben -35 Fahrenheit in north states and still working perfect I only change the Exos heater pipe and that all I only started one time every month in the summer for 10 minut.
They are great unit when you get a good one. 3 years with this one and two Arctic winters
Damn, that chamber looks good/clean for 2000hrs.
I agree, I was surprised and impressed! I was wearing the gloves as I expected far worse
The fan error you had in the arctic could have been something to do with your solar charge controller adjusting to colder temps if you have it running from that and not directly to battery
I’m not sure that will be the case. The solar charger controller wouldn’t have anything to do with the PWM of the fan
I bet the Aurora is guilty for the error. The fan speed sensor is a hall sensor (aka magnetic field sensor) and most likely hates auroras.
Hmm that’s an interesting thought. It’s worked every other Arctic winter night with aurora
@@MispronouncedAdventuresthe aurora explanation has a nice ring to it. The fact that it has only happened once could almost be a confirmation.
The stream of charged particles looks dense in the sky, but each particle is miniscule. The odds of one hitting the right part of the controller are tiny, but not inconsequential.
It also sounds better than "a glitch"...
Trucks in the EU run the same diesel heaters and my pops had stories of them not firing up in -30 temperatures what they'd do is mix in a bit of gasoline. But it was only -15 for him so dunno.
What I've seen from other is that the main issue is the screen for the glow plug clogging.
You can pick it out and just burn it clean
Yes. The atomiser / mesh can be an issue but overall mine was clean so I left it
I have cleaned them a couple of times by heating them to cherry red with the blow lamp and they are restored back to full function.
Really interesting video, great stuff. I must say however, that putting a heater next to a fridge seems like an oversight, usually you'd want your fridge away from any heat sources.
It’s not really near. It’s a completely different air mass from the fridge. So heat radiating off the heater and it’s venting in that cupboard doesn’t affect or come in contact with the compressor or the fridge itself. But I do see why people think that when they see the layout in the video
Once you replace everything, you will have a good starting point.
£6 in bearing and a exhaust at now 4000 run hours isn’t bad.
A jacketed exhaust pipe could give you a hot water tank. Plumb it in a wall and out the roof so it doesn't take up any more space and is insulated. Would also radiate heat making the system more efficient.
I already have hot water from the diesel heater from the hot side. Heat recovery from the exhaust side is not really practical in vans.
@MispronouncedAdventures can you explain what you mean?
Heating water via exhaust heat / on the exhaust pipes isn’t practical in a van. You need to make holes to get water pipes out of the van into the heat exchanger on the exhaust pipe, and then back in again. In winter, if the heater was ever turned off, it would be susceptible to freezing the water which is still in the pipes and damaging it.
I use a bobil vans hot water system, which is a heat exchanger based inside the van on the hot air ducting
That sounds like a recipe for fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Exhaust pipes should always be installed outside. Also, the exhaust pipe will eventually clog up if it isn't allowed to heat up properly.
The copper thingy the brushes run on is called the commutator. Japanese bearings are far better cause their not made from Chinesium, a now common metalish compound
Ah thank you. I knew there purpose but not the correct name. Thank you
Great video well done..
Thank you
Awesome video! You’ve got yourself a subscriber:D
Thank you very much. More techie in-depth videos on the channel too
So someone (me) decided to play with my heater settings and found a pretty low setting where the heater was barely audible. "This will be good while I'm working on the van." The amount of carbon when I dismantled it after it stopped working was insane! Don't mess with the default settings guys 😏
I needed to buy a new burn chamber to fix it. Which was about £25.
I do understand lot of people play with settings. not done it myself as it’s always worked so far for me as stocks. But definitely not all heaters are the same
great video very helpful my bearings also making a noise time to replace .Been running now for 2yrs and apart from fan bearings being noise havent missed a beat.I live lower sth island NZ where it does get very cold but i love my heater
Glad it was helpful
Wow, that’s a fantastic video. Thank you so much for posting very impressed with your skills not needing a shop manual! Very impressed with you, are ability to do preventative, maintenance and repairs, congratulations. I only just found out about these heaters recently and it’s like they’re life-changing. I haven’t purchased one yet but… I have been sending links to a friend of mine and I wouldn’t want to have steered her wrong! Apparently there wasn’t any dust accumulation on the impeller fan while you were working I was wondering if it would be helpful to modify a automobile engine intake filter to reduce any dust entering the heater wondering if any percentage of that tiny bit of salt buildup included any contaminants from the air intake. Two years $189 seems like a very worthwhile investment. Thank you so much for posting the video, the video tutorial, safe and wonderful travels to you.! ❤️❤️👍💯
I have been afraid these heaters were just junk, but I swear by your video anybody could have a reasonable degree of confidence in their reliability, which is pretty surprising at their phenomenally low price.
Glad the video was helpful. They are great units when you get a good one and set them up well.
You don’t see it in the video but the air intake on the combustion side has a air filter on it.
If the outer gasket is not metal like the inner you could probably make one out of boxboard (thin non corrugated cardboard) tracing it out and cutting it with a razor blade. I have made paper engine gaskets that way before. Old truck of mine I used an ice cream sandwich box. I made sure it said ice cream sandwich on the gasket for the next poor bastard who took it apart one day
I had been told this by a few people that I could make my own if I really need too with thin cardboard
@@MispronouncedAdventures it looks like the outer gasket is not really necessary as long as both metal surfaces are straight. There is just fresh air on the other side of the gasket, a tiny leakage doesn't matter...
You could also pack the new bearing with DISC BRAKE GREASE it's synthetic, works from -50 to +400 F and has graphite, poly, and teflon in it. As for the seal, copper coat gasket sealer RTV has a tempt rating of 420 deg F.
Would that be to increase the lifespan of the bearing?
@@MispronouncedAdventures I believe it would, I've been regreasing any bearings that used regular grease with disk brake grease (except the wheel bearings in cars and trucks due to the weight) with the stuff and the general response is that the vehicle steers better and sounds better (u-joints, steering knuckles, pivots, etc.)
I wonder if you can grease these tiny ones as the metal shielding I think makes it a sealed unit
@@MispronouncedAdventures On small bearing like that, I've had success using a syringe with a needle that I cut off flush with an abrasive disc on a dremel. but is the metal shields are too tight it may not work.
Not DISC BRAKE GREASE but DISC BRAKE WHEEL BEARING GREASE.
smart that you keep a spare heater!
Especially for my Arctic trips, but regardless of brand, be at high quality western or Chinese on the Arctic trips, I would recommend the spare heater. One of my friends webasto pumppumps broke is Winter.
The western brands might have a great warranty system, but that’s not particularly helpful to keep you warm. If it’s broken in the Arctic you have to wait a week
The letters after the bearing number indicate the seal type, ZZ metal both sides, also the motor brushes being replaced would be a good idea. For the new price of these heaters my impression was above expectation, and daily use in my arctic climate.
When you get a good copy and it’s well installed they are great. I’ve just finished 2 months on the Arctic for my second winter with this heater on after this video
The gaskets contains asbestos and so do the little pads in the case
Make sense, great heat retardant material. Just don’t breath it dust form
asbestos has not been used in gaskets for 30 years, it's a simple graphite gasket
It’s amazing
great rebuild and good info
I have only had problems with my three units when 12v system was not powerful enough to supply 10+ Amps at startup and the shocking Chinese manuals
Understandable. Something I hadn’t mentioned in this video is I replaced the bulk of the original wiring loom with a thicker cable to reduce the voltage drop as usually the main supply wire is really long and quite thin.
I also use lithium system so I have a slightly higher voltage
Do you run the heater with default settings or did you customize the pump frequency and fan speed? Would be interesting to see which settings worked for you.
I left mine stock, I’ve personally never tuned the heater as I’ve always been it’s had worked well for me
Interesting. I am going to fit one to my workshop to keep it warm... Though I will probably see if I can get it to run on kerosene and switch to waste oil as that is free.
They run on Kero no problem, it’s a lot cleaner. I’ve heat of people using waste oil but I haven’t researched into that personally in case any settings need to be tweaked
@@MispronouncedAdventures Many thanks. I didn't see a link to the after burner controller, is that on your general Amazon page?
The Afterburner is a project over a product. If you find the Facebook group for it, you can learn how to get one from there
@@MispronouncedAdventures Many thanks. Have you got a search term to find the group or would "afterburner heater control" do?
That should work. I think the group name is something like “ advanced afterburner controller for Chinese diesel heaters“
when you have a run bearing its wears away the housing for it. the bearing spins on the outer edge. locktite 660 is used to "glue " the gearing into the housing. Taken me years to work that out on my ride on mower. Cool video!
Thank you for the advice, a few have mentioned Loctite
@@MispronouncedAdventures The loctite bearing fit is a must have in any maintenance tool kit. Tremendously useful stuff
Many of the 1970s Japanese 2 stroke trail bike engines suffered with bearing creep on the crank mains. Loctite bearing fit was the solution. Yamaha resolved the problem by fitting a small pegging dowel to the outside of the bearings.
Chinese Espar. Im a diesel mechanic, Espars generally get serviced every 1-3 years as the gaskets in them get hard and brittle and break, causing them not to work.
Indeed they are. Overall design is using the expired Espar Airtronic D4 patent. I’ve seen the gasket material varies between different Chinese manufactures.
Speaking of afterburner, have you ever put a radiator on that exhaust so that you capture some more heat on its way out and would there be any back pressure issues on a fan type ignition system like that? I'd like to put a thin little radiator under my water tanks.
I will give you that, that was a wonderful Segway to exhaust recovery question.
That is an area I have not played with. I don’t really want to make any restrictions on the exhaust as I’m very happy with how the heater has been running.
But interesting idea, I definitely think ways of keeping water tanks warmer for “free” is a good Idea
I've watched a lot of video's on these heaters. This gent who has several videos on these, can't remember which, suggested to avoid any back pressure, and to keep the exhaust as short as possible, within reason.
I did a curious test on one of these little guys as they do seem to not burn all that efficiently. Probably due to the low pressure in the combustion chamber. So, I got a small catalytic converter and got it welded up right against the exhaust(they need to be HOT to work). It didn't do much at high power settings.. But at lower powers the exhaust after the cat was 120-170c hotter meaning there was a lot of unburnt fuel (and still enough oxygen) in the exhaust to burn in the cat. Being ever the curious engineer I wondered how much of that heat I could scavenge. I got a guy at work to weld up a counterflow water chiller for the exhaust, added a high temperature pump and a large computer water-cooling radiator to it. Turns out we could scavenge almost one extra kilowatt from this setup. It was fun as a experiment, but not very practical. Pros!... Free extra heat!... Cons... cooling the exhaust caused water to condense and the exhaust pipe would constantly gum up with this sticky tar like goop every 50 hours or so. Other con, If you had to pay somebody for all the man hours and materials, it'd cost more than the heater itself by multiples. In conclusion it was a fun experiment, but really not all that practical. It also had a tendency to boil the cooling water and blow pipes off on hotter days :P
Oooh - way better mpg from premium diesel ? Can you / have you illustrated this - and maybe the sums on any savings?
I saw about a 7% increase on cost vs a 15-20% increase in MPG. but that’s just me and my van
Might i suggest you use 625-2RS bearings. .They are totally sealed, unlike the 625ZZ items.
Just a thought. I can't believe temperature would be a problem, given the position they are in. If there was excessive heat, the poor old commutator wouldn't survive !
I will look up these bearing. It’s a area which is near to me. But I can’t imagine they get hot
A drop of medium strength loctite on those splines would have been a good idea.
As in on the fan onto the shaft?
Hi mate nice video, where did you get the afterburner programer from?
There is a website or the Facebook group for it
I run afterburner on my diesel heater and its so much more adjustable and lots of realtime status info aand makes these heaters much easier to tune to your reuirements
It also allows better temp control with the optional remote temp sensor and you can use it from phone app or web page on your internet connecction
Having said that the standard controller work ok too just less tunable
A different point point of view would be to just replace the heater with a new one.
I can appreciate the effort that you went through to replace the bearings and the exhaust parts. I just paid $128 USD delivered for a VEVOR 8KW self contained unit. 2000 hours would be 0.064 USD per hour machine time not counting fuel. The one like yours, 5KW, and without the housing, are cheaper.
If you spent a couple of hours actually replacing the bearings and finding the gasket you have $40-60 into the actual repair, I am assuming that the bearings were about $10 each, plus whatever it cost you to get the new exhaust pipe and muffler. The time for repair you could say was free, on the other hand you could have been doing something else maybe more profitable and avoided the risk of breaking something more costly. You still haven't replaced the fuel pump and your motor armature is worn along with the brushes. The labor to remove and replace (r&r) the unit would be the same new or replacing your old unit. If you factor in the possibility that the motor will fail in less than 2000 more hours with additional r&r time and parts, replacing with a new one might be more cost effective and trouble free(er).
Swapping the whole unit is definitely a option but I’ve found not all all Chinese Heater are equal. Some will run for year no issues, other maybe only a few hours before sooting up. I’d personally be happier with replacing and repairing than swapping in a whole new unit
@@MispronouncedAdventures Isn't that the problem nowadays. Products used to be made so that they could be dissembled, repaired with parts you could actually purchase, then reassembled without worrying if you were going to break it just taking it apart. Armatures were thicker so that they could be turned and re grooved to go again for the same period as the first time. Brushes were longer, bearings were good ball bearings that could be greased if there was room. Now repairing something is rebooting your computer to see if it works again.
Not all progress is progress.
@@MispronouncedAdventures I purchased my diesel heater based on reviews which means that it was reviewed but will not actually do the same as the review unless I get lucky.
@@MispronouncedAdventures It's also worth considering that those bearings will most likley last many many times longer than the pre-installed ones. In the factory I work it it isn't uncommon for NHK bearings to last the life of the motor. Usually if it's brushed, the commutator will wear through before you get a bad bearing. I was quite surprised to note it wasn't a brushless motor though.. But considering the low wear I'd imagine with the Japanese bearings, next service you will have to do is replace the brushes in maybe another 10,000 hours.
*yeah* Jägermeister.
Blowing headaches and fun for the win 🙃
You are the first comment to actually mention it!!
Next to the liquid sealer people mention there are also shops that can just print you a new gasket if you have an old one as example.
They take a picture of the old one over a grid and then have a laser cutter make as many as you want.
Definitely learnt about numerous ways of creating new gaskets from the comment section of this video
That new muffler, the Amazon page says "currently unavailable" and in those cases, no price is displayed - how much was that unit?
That’s a pain ill redo the links
£25 in Amazon with prime next day or £16 in eBay for a week or so
Wow. That's cheap!
You just knew the new exhaust was coming apart once we saw the 2 screws.... 😏
It definitely was?
Admirable content, and as much as its the sustainable approach, i would just fit a new heater.
I found these heaters can be fit and missed, I rather repair than risk replace. But at this price point both are options
You can quiet the tick down if you insulate fuel pump. And make lines very hard. Pump makes majority of the noise so i would start by insulating it first.
I find my tick pretty quiet but I mounted it in x way to do so
What an amazing heater, and an amazing set-up. I'd very much recommend running some copper fuel line for it though.
Why copper pipe? All of the big western brand supply 2mm bore nylon hardline
@@MispronouncedAdventures Because the nylon hardline will eventually become chalky and brittle from the fuel. Ask anyone who's been a mechanic more than 15 years, or anyone who runs fuel pressure lines on their weekend drag cars. Copper tubing is always the best, most secure and safe way to go. It's strong, durable, doesn't corrode, and will last pretty much forever.
Who cares about thermal efficiency. Lets put something that is designed to get very hot right below something trying to stay cool 🤣. Thanks for taking the time to show the process of striping down the heater. Really informative and reassuring video for users of the cheaper heaters out there👍.
I care about thermal efficiency which why it’s an isolated air mass from the fridge and the fridges compressor. additionally, the heater bodies / shells themselves don’t get hot, it’s the vents which do. So the heater doesn’t heat the fridge up
Plus the R-value of 18mm ply ( the plinth, the fridge sits on ) is 0.94, 25mm PIR insulation board is only 1.1 so it’s pretty insulated materials around it well
you did well 2000 hours on the glow plug,
Same glow plug now in the unit with about 3700 run hours for the heater. Total Run time for the glow plug is 52 hours looking at system details
I would also make sure the exhaust points points away from the vehicles frame so that it does not rust the frame
I’m hard to see in the video but it does point out away from the van
Now that the patents have run out and these heaters are $100-$180 (USD) vs. $1,500-$2,500... what's the point of even going through all that work to "fix" them when you can Amazon one to you, same/next day and pop a new one in???
Noticed you had to cannibalize another heater for its gasket, so yeah, what's the point???? :)
That being said, REALKY enjoyed the breakdown of the parts and what's actually IN the darn things!!! :)
I’m glad someone who actually realises it’s a patent expiring opposed to just a copy.
Yes, if I was in a bit of a time restraint, I had to leave the following day for four weeks needed the heater so I cannibalised a spare gasket. If I had a couple days I’ll just order a new gasket online and I will at one point to repair it. the reason I repaired opposed to replaced is not all of these heaters are equal from the manufacturers some run for years some I’ve seen for a few hours so I’d rather repair one. I know is working well in my van than put in a new heater.
Bro.. that wasn’t a bearing motor. That was aliens attempting communicate through binary!!
I recorded that onto tape and then ran it back through my C64.. it was a warning.
The green screen lit up with the repeating message that said my ‘bearings are fucked my bearings are fucked.’
I hope this will help millions. Thank you for your video.
Here is your like and sub.
Definitely was an entertaining motor sound it was making! Glad the video helped
i have had this heater running for half a year nonstop, 4 years in a row. i have changed motor few times, because after each season contacts have been worn away almost entirely. as for me it doesnt make sense to change bearings, the short tyerm solution is to fill oil in the bearings, that helps them to finish the season before i swap in new motor.
The bearing were knackered on mine as 2000 hours. But the communicators had loads of life left in them. I’d personally rather swap £6 in new high end bearings. it’s now 4000 run hours and fine.
When I replace the motor I’ll probably put decent bearings in it
@@MispronouncedAdventures i guess the difference is that mine 5kw is running in upper half of range most of the time. So i guess more wear in a given time.
hi good video and i love to ear a british man swair lol
I aim to please
Very helpful thx
Glad to hear it was