Moral of the story, don't mess about with the settings. I messed up my first heater using too small of diameter and too long of an exhaust pipe, plus fiddling with the settings. Second heater has been a champ nearly two winters now, ain't about to fiddle fart with it, :)
@@AdamMW It was probably a little longer than 2m and same size as the stock pipe, but it ended up being too restrictive, so have since been using 80mm, totally overkill, but it breaths so much better now, plus it was what I had on hand, thus the overkill, lol
What pump size and burner size ? At 3.2 hz how can it run so rich? Was fan lower then the 4500rpm at that point. Why did the second test show lower ppm 🤔?
Like I mentioned in one of your other videos, the combustion analyzer is the best method for tuning any burner (combustion process). All you have to remember is that you can produce higher CO with either too much fuel as well as too much air. The way to see what is happening is with you O2 value. All you can do is adjust the heater where you get the sweet spot with the lowest O2 reading possible for the lowest CO reading for both your high and low setting. This will give you the closest to stoichiometric as you can with that burner. I congratulate you on a job well done with this video and going the combustion analyzer route which is the best and most accurate way. Oh yeah that internet tuning procédure with the bars has to be some of the worst horse shit combustion process tuning I've ever heard of. Keep up the good work and thorough and intelligent ways of improving your testing abilities.
Good video David - sensible advice for anyone wanting to tune / fiddle with / build a controller! I have a cheapo CO meter and comparing it with a grown-up Exhaust Gas Analyser (as you have), it wasn't bad! If you're just tuning for a minimum value - it's all you need. Trying to tune using guesswork - that's just dumb!
I have mine sitting outside with a coming through a have a 4 inch gap and keep the pipe as short as possible close to the house the exhaust pointing far away from the house and I love it is fantastic
Hi David, I have tried the 'no tools' tuning method, and it didn't work for me. I used a temperature probe to tune the heater, been running the 8kw heater in the unit for around 3 months. Absolutely no problems, pump is set at around 5.6hz and the fan speed is at 4900. The heater runs on white diesel and only at full load. If the exhaust gas shows a complete burn of fuel, then who can argue that it's not tuned. Keep up the good work, there's not many youtubers doing credible tests on these fantastic little heaters.
@@jacobsimpson347 it's a heater to get as much heat out as possible as efficiently as possible, our unit's heater is still running beautifully and has been serviced, no carbon build up, video of service on youtube.
I've been running my 5kw heater for 5 years on 1.3hz without any issues. Im fulltime vanlife so its my daily heater. Ive also had it opened to change gaskets and it was clean inside. Only had 2 new glow plugs.
Interesting video David, I've heard about this 'no tools' way of tuning your heater and I thought then that I can't really see how this could work but I'm no expert so I stick to your method of tuning using the cheap CO meter you have. I'm sure I've posted this before here so if I have I'm sorry for repeating myself but I use the Afterburner controller and mine is set to, low 1.4@1500 high 4.4@4300 and it holds a steady 180-200C at the heat exchanger with the CO at the exhaust around 30-50 and it's been like this for 3 winters, when I first bought it I just unboxed it and ran it with it's stock settings but it only lasted about a week before it started pumping out white smoke, after taking it apart I found it was clogged up with soot, this was a brand new unused heater. I recommend that new heaters are tuned when you first buy them using David's procedure, I don't understand them enough to tune them a different way but it seems to work fine for me.
I'm going to show another tuning method using the Afterburner, as it requires you to know the body temperature. Second option is sticking the thermometer to the side of the casing.
I have had one red bar drop off quite a few times, but that was at certain elevation. And I turned my lower Hz for the start up at that elevation, and that was it. Nothing fancy! At first I thought something was wrong, then realized it had to because of the start up Hz. Still not for sure but that my story!
My personal comfort level is low, for venting exhaust into a small enclosed occupied living space. Thank you for demonstrating how someone can make things go very wrong tinkering with the setup without the proper diagnostics.
There is no way in the world where these heaters should be installed with the exhaust venting inside! TBH, these ‘suitcase models should only be used outside any habited area, never inside a habitable building.
Used a variation of the no tools tune while waiting for my CO meter to arrive just to get a bargain basement 2kw unit to stay running. The only difference was that instead of going to max fuel rate and backing down, i crept up gradually until i got the bars to stay lit. So basically i set for the least fuel rate that would keep a housing temp between 125 and 200C and later found reasonable CO levels resulted. I also stuck a temperature probe into the housing to get numeric readings. 2 identical heaters i was sent, main difference being the weld quality on the burn chambers - one will only hold 2 red bars and 200C housing temp set at 6.2hz, 4500 rpm top and 2.5, 1500 rpm lower. That one will maintain burn at intermediate settings. The other with the snotty burner will not run at anything but 4.6hz, 4500 rpm. Any reduced setting will flame out regardless of the lower settings. I swapped out pretty much every part between the two until the burn chamber was the only variable.This makes me suspect that even subtle differences in the burn chamber construction may be causing very different burns. Thinking 6hz to be rather a lot of diesel for 2kw of heat, i am now messing with a maxpeedingrods 2 kw, but it has the blue number controller without parameter setting capability. On the other hand it burns clean at half the fuel rate. I am reminded in this of the old Gardener marine diesels which seemed to defy all logic in low specific fuel consumption and led to wonder if there is something of an art in the invisible innards of these heaters as well.
5.6Hz? So only circa 450ml/h? That equates to approximately 3.8kW😊. So much for it being a supposedly 8kW.😊😊 My supposed 2kW heater uses a little less than 0.2l/h on its H6 setting, so around 1.6kW output, I suppose.
Oh, that's pretty strange if they're telling people to tune *MAX* settings according to the last red bar! I'm also very surprised it didn't already flame out with the pump that low at 5000 rpm! Based on the guide from thedoble website, tuning the LOW settings according to the last red bar makes complete sense, since that indicates the chamber is over 120 C. But the max tuning actually calls for ~ 180 C burn chamber temp - which, of course, makes sense given the cooling power of all that extra airflow. I'd be interested to see the difference in readings using that method, if you feel inclined. I also just opened up my heater for the first time after 2 years of using thedoble method, and there was barely even any soot in there. One *small* area of carbon buildup way down inside the burner, but otherwise extremely happy with how clean it was. Even if a given controller won't show the burn chamber temp, it'd be very easy to just permanently attach a k type probe on the outside of the burn chamber, so that you could plug it into a multimeter or something when a measurement/tune is needed. At the end of the day, I agree with the sentiment that if somebody's happy with the way theirs runs on a given tune, then why not just stick with it. 👍
You appeared to be doing it correctly as per the CZcams video I watched, I followed it and with one of my heaters and using my cheap CO meter I got 0 CO at high and low, running a case temp of around 136℃. The second heater I used this method on, I was only able to get to 0 CO on high and 45-50 CO on low and a case temp of around 133℃. I ended up installing a afterburner on the second one later on, and found that the fan speed even though set on low at 1650, will only go down to 1800 for the pump speed I have set. Appears to be somewhat proportional and restricted within the ECU ( controller would let me put input a lower fan speed, down to 1500, but ECU will not let it run that low) . Would have never noticed using the stock controller.
Yes, for some reason the newest ECUs only allow a 3:1 ratio on tuning. Whatever high is set to, low will only ever go 75% less than that. But the low settings are still used for startup, which is even weirder.
Love your videos David and saw that you recently flashed the firmware on your Afterburner successfully. Can you please do a video on the GPIO functions. It's been a while since you did say vids on it. I've currently got my Afterburner set up with three GPIO functions, so interested to see your take on it.
most efficient heating tuning method (somewhat tested): 1. set max hz at the highest you'll ever run the heater (i only need 2 hz) 2. set min hz at lowest you'll ever run the heater (i run as low as 0.8 hz) 3. set both fan speeds to the maximum (or limit the top end if it's too loud). this maximizes the overall heat transfer coefficient and extracts the most heat per liter of diesel burned. 4. run heater as normal and allow it to come up to temp. block off the combustion air inlet a bit at a time until the exhaust CO drops under 20ppm (easiest to achieve if you have one of those inlet filters with small holes you can cover with tape). this is the leanest you should run. 5. keep restricting the combustion air inlet until you detect CO again or see black smoke in the exhaust. this is the richest you should run. this will be the most efficient point because the least amount of heat is lost to the exhaust. 6. run somwhere between the points determined in 4 and 5. these points are only valid for a given pump rate (hz) and elevation, but i've run from sea level to 10,000 ft and between 0.8 to 2hz and the amount of air restriction required doesn't change wildly. check the heater exhaust every time you run it until you get the hang of it. 7. you will need a way to "unrestrict" the combustion air inlet during startup otherwise you might get white smoke out the exhaust (no ignition) and error out.
My heater couldn't even start up half the time on default settings, was all coked up after the first month... used the no-tool tuner method to get it working 100% of the time. My 2kw model is now 0.8 hz on low and ~2.8 hz on high. I've never had a chance to measure CO but I much prefer a 100% working heater to more complete stoichiometry or w/e. I think I arrived at these numbers focusing on the low setting only... my ECU won't allow too narrow a range between low and high, as the no-tool-tune method suggested it should have, so I used the lower value from the no-tool-tuning method, and the min value for high setting that would not alter my low setting. Also pretty sure I arrived at it the opposite way, add Hz til the heater went full bars, rather than decrease Hz til it drops a bar... not sure if this matters Anyway will give it another look if I'm able to get one of these CO detectors this winter.. I imagine I'm not optimized but I like being able to have it to such low consumption, saves fuel and I still get the heat I need
David have you tried using the new controller you get with the Hcalory hc a22 The 6- 8.5 kw I don’t think the controller lets you do what you show here I have just been trying
Get a couple 12v car air ozone purifiers that plug into the cigarette lighter. Pass some supply fan air across the cigarette lighter powered ozone generators. Then route the ozone into the exhaust to combine with the CO.
All your diesel heater videos are very useful so a big thank you for that. I got a 2/3kW chinese unit (the smallest physical size) and will be using it at various altitudes. I'd say up to 10,000 ft (3200m) and was wondering if you had some quick tunes/setup hints for this. I am guessing that due to the thinner air I would have to increase the fan sspeed for the same amount of fuel. It's going to be used in a camper and not in extreme low temps so I'd say I will be using it at its lowest or very low fuel flow setting (1.2 - 2 Hz or so, I guess). Any hints?
I'd decrease the fueling rather than the increase the air. Here is a picture of how much the fueling is reduced on a Lavaner 5KW heater for given elevations - ibb.co/Y83DSVT
@@DavidMcLuckie Thank you. I also found a sheet with altitude vs. fuel rate & fan speed on another site. It appears that these adjustments are a key benefit of these cheap heaters. The Webasto heaters do not allow this adjustment and doesn't work good at altitude at all.
I have an identical cheap CO monitor which shows 13ppm (placed about 6" from exhaust output) - this seems very good or am I missing something (I have the silent pump you tested from a UK manufacturer which is adjustable (on 'standard setting').
I need a piece of advice. I bought one of these in the spring but didn't get round to using it until now but it isn't working. It ran for a couple of minutes driving the air out then stopped and is now showing E4 pump failure, I have tried two pumps and it shows the same thing even though I have put the pump on a different heater and it operates. It isn't the pump but the relay on the module clicks but the pump won't operate, do I need another module or is there something you can think of that I may be missing?
I'd put a multimeter on the pins of the fuel pump plug, turn it on and see if you get a pulsed voltage. If not there is either a broken wire/connection or the ECU is faulty.
Cheers. I suspect if you took a sensible starting point, you could tune up or down from there using that method. However 5,000 RPM was clearly too much as was 8Hz.
Very true. But in this test I wanted to test the exact method described. I have another test to try as well which requires the Afterburner so I can see the body temperature.
@@DavidMcLuckie Thank you for all your excellent work and thoughts David. Like some others, I'm particularly interested in tuning for the lowest settings. I run many hours at the lowest setting as background heat. I'm concerned about carbon build up and it's a bit smelly. I occasionally run at 8hz to try and burn anything out as that seems to run clean. I'm ordering a co meter and thermocouple to give me better eyes. Can you recommend a thermocouple?
Dave, Extending the life of you CO meter’s nozzle/end cap by running an EGR on the exhaust, to cool it quite a lot, would be a good idea? Of course, checking the EGR is not affecting the heater would be a sensible plan, to avoid the trolly and ‘no idea’ comments.😊 I very much doubt the EGR would be a problem - especially with that short length of exhaust pipe in use. That 20 quid, spent on a CO meter, seems to be the best method of tuning these heaters (if one has a suitable controller/ecu combination).
Yes. But probably not suitable for a typical person due to the extra plumbing involved for the EGR cooler. But in a test scenario it would save the melting. :)
Well we've proved the first part, that you can disconnect the electrical side, feed it hot air from a diesel heater and it'll dry clothes. I suppose the next step is seeing what the motor is and maybe a 12V swap. But I'm quite finished playing with it yet.
Ok, I own an 8kw. I have yet to find that “sweet spot” I’m below 5000 ft elevation. Stock settings produced massive black soot. Actually almost clogged the exhaust pipe. I’m currently at 1.4 / 1500 low 4.1 / 4300 and scared to death to even run it at this point. I’m running the best diesel in my area. I have also yet to bring the bar down one. Any suggestions before I spend more buying the reader than I did the heater? Otherwise, it’s going in the trash.
Use heating oil. Kerosene 28 second heating oil. Turn the fuel pump to 1.2 hrtz, fan speed to 2600 rpm. More fuel does not mean more heat in the room just the exhaust is very 🔥 wasted energy. Balance is the key, between fuel and air. Those settings is from a video on CZcams from another user. His unit us running very well. Cheap to run with plenty if heat output. Remember the carbon monoxide alarm. The ratio fuel to air. Should read on a combustion analizer ratio. O001 to .0003 though not higher. O2 around 6% Good luck.
I'll never understand the excess air Causing high ppm,I've been running mine lean for 3 years and Inside was clean as a whistle with 40-50ppm after I stripped it down.
I don't like it throttling back. I prefer it to run with the fan at max and the computer to be smart enough to slow the pump a bit and keep the temp at 205°C. I've been running mine on max fan, with Alpine mode on. It runs about 189°C. The actual fuel metering is stock, whatever the factory set it at.
The electronic flue gas analyser electrochemical cells are cross sensitive to air rich aldyhide products of combustion that read on the analyser as carbon monoxide,to get a true reading to prove this you need to use a drager chemical test, if you reduce your air it will increase the co2 & in turn lower the carbon monoxide readings
Hi David watched a few of your videos now and there very good keep up the good work. I've had a 2kw heater installed in my van for about 3 or 4 months now. Havnt altered anything from the settings it came with. It recently stopped working so a pulled it out and striped it down. The heater plug was clear but when I split it the burn chamber was full of carbon. About enough to fill a egg cup. Copious amounts of break cleaner and abit of elbow grease and it's all up and running again. I'm thinking after watching this video it could well need tuning. How to I access the settings to change the fan speed and hertz? The controller is the same as in your video but the instructions I got are very badly translated so they make no sense. Thanks Nick 👍
@David McLuckie ok thanks for your reply I guess I will just clean it out again in another 3 months. I've orded o e of those carbon monoxide meters to try and tune it. I can't figure out how to get in to the settings. On yours for example what sequence of buttons to you press to get to fan speed and hertz. I will try that and if that doesn't work I guess I need to stock up on break cleaner 😆
@David McLuckie so my carbon monoxide meter arrived about a hour ago so I've had a play. My controller appears not to have tuning function 😪. I've tried each setting frome H1 through to 6. H1 is about 80 to 100ppm casing temp 170° H2 and H3 are 2500 to 280 ppm casing temp 176° H4 around 12 to 20ppm. Casing temp 185 H5 is pretty good at 15 to 25 casing temp 190° H6 surprised me at 0 to 8ppm but the casing temp is still 190° even after 10 min. I was expecting full chat to be dirty but it would appear not. Although I don't appear to be able to tune mine I wouldn't have bought the meter and discovered the lower settings are probably the cause of my carbon build up and now to to avoid using them asmuch. Thanks for your help and your great videos. Keep them coming
I would love to see someone take the exhaust in a shop setting and run it through a small radiator increase the diameter and use the radiator and put a fan behind the radiator and increase the exhaust size and send it outside and put a fan behind a radiator to blow more heat created by the exhaust in the room increasing the Btu's I bet it would almost double the heat output
Does anybody know how to access the Pump and frequency settings and fan speed settings on the new vevor bluetooth controller with the 4 buttons to the right of the screen that connects to your phone I've tried using password 1688 and 9009 with no luck? Any help would be appreciated TY in advance.
Hi David, with carbon buildup being an issue for those who want more heat output from it there might be an alternative. Wouldn't mixing some DPF cleaner into the fuel and running it lean for a bit clean out the burn chamber? If it works with a car it will probably work in a heater.
@@Veikra I’m aware that a diesel heater works differently than a diesel engine but I fail to see how that has anything to do with DPF cleaner not being able to clean the carbon buildup from your heater. DPF cleaner fuel additive usually contains cerium oxide which works as a catalyst and thus lowering the temperature at which soot will burn. It doesn’t care if it’s being injected at high pressure or being compressed inside a cilinder. It simply oxidizes the soot it comes in contact with.
I tried this method, I did get the red bar to drop out, and then added 0.2 but the next time I fired up the heater it never got to full heater, 1 red bar was down. So opted to restore it to original settings.
Thanks for the video. Maybe you or someone else would care to help me. I am unable to access the settings you and others speak of. I never see a padlock when I enter a passcode. Passcodes 1688 and 9009 do nothing. The passcode 1234 opens up settings displayed as follows P1H2. P represents Pump control (can be changed to t for temp.), 1 represents 12vdc (can be changed to 2 for 24vdc), H can be changed to L (I don't see what it changes possibly something from High to Low?) and 2 represents the type of pump (22ml pump).
In the menu theres a P1 and P2 (inthink it’s called that) anyway, what is that? is every menu step explained on the net anywhere? I run mine at 1.2hz and 2500rpm. and P2
I have just discovered these meters are seriously effected by heat and i can actually get mine to alarm at 100ppm just with a hair drier , i couldn't understand why when i got my meter closer the CO reading would suddenly spike while still in the stream a little further away it read practically nothing.. something to be aware of chaps
So basically, "toolless tuning" could lead to excess CO production which means that person could be responsible for many deaths if people follow what they're doing, safer to let people who know what they're doing do the tuning really... :\ And as for CO alarms, yep, use 'em, got one in the kitchen (cos that's where the only gas appliance lives, the boiler) and recently had to use one of my Aladdin blue-flame heaters in there, no triggering of said alarm, cos blue flame is good flame... :)
Heloooooooo, I have the controller with the not started minus sign on lower left next to the OK the high altitude one (the basic one) I am getting. _ _ _ v showing. No voltage and NONE of the buttons are working. It all lights up BUT no response.. Any thoughts. Love your vids I have watch soooooooo many!
@@DavidMcLuckie well I guess I will watch your Webasto ECU vid and look for clues...thx for getting back to me.. if you think of something....I am here.. bad board?
My red remote has came temp I hold temp at 5000 rpms at216c lo side can go to 219c and go down them will bring back up was also told to run outside 1st a day to clean burner billow in burner head burn on hi off an on
I'm confused on why slowing the pump speed (lower Hz) would produce higher CO with the same fan speed. It would mean that by putting less fuel in the burn chamber you were somehow eating up MORE O2. Higher CO levels would seem to be an O2 starved environment, either from insufficient air, or excess fuel. I bow to your expertise, experimentation & instrumentation, but something doesn't seem right there.
How did you get your settings? I always run on the low end 1.4 to 2.0 htz. I'm at 4200 ft, If I'm not sooting up after 3 to 4 months all last winter running 24/7 am I good? I just had to change the screens. I used an elevation table to start, now what, only adjust the htz or htz and rpm? What is the sequence to follow. Any adjustment I make to htz (up or down) is just increasing my yellow meter drastically. I guess I would like to decrease heat output = less fuel, and increase fan speed but as you said it would just blow out. One thing I'm going to try this winter is an external in line adjustable HVAC fan to help my heater fan push through the new setup of five 4-inchy vents and also pull air more efficiently. Before on too low 1.3 vs 1.4 it would overheat recycling the inside air with the lower fan speed. It may speed up the inside black fan and thus the inside brown fan and/or just help flow due to the increased resistance. I would need a cfm meter in the piping before all the vents to get a reading of with and without more vents then adjust the inline fan accordingly to get to baseline.
Can you tell me what is the best high to low pump HZ you have it set at and high low fan speed please for best results, I know altitude affects it but just wondering the settings you use.
If you're talking about the video uploaded by "Vortecks", you've definitely mis-understood something... 1. ) "Vortecks" never said "set your pump speed (frequency) to it's highest/maximum possible setting", in fact he said most of these units come with default pump speed set way too high. What he was saying is that you should first (using your existing settings) increase the unit to to it's maximum output. In this case, he's talking about getting the unit up to temperature (before doing any independent adjustments to either the fan speed, or the pump speed). 2. ) After the unit is up to full temperature (as indicated by what I'll refer to as the "temperature/progress bar" on the display), then you can go into the "advanced settings" to begin the adjustment procedure. 3. ) The rest of what you said you did seems to be OK, however, you might do yourself some good to take some other things into consideration... I did this adjustment outside - I think the temperature on that day was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The inlet temperature of the "air to be heated" is what cools the unit, so starting in a space that's already very warm could impact the unit's ability to bleed off the heat as quickly (when decreasing the pump speed). I started by first setting the minimum fan speed to it's lowest possible setting (1350 RPM), and the maximum fan speed to it's highest possible setting (5000 RPM). Obviously this too (fan speed, as well as inlet air temperature), impacts the rate of cooling of the unit, so I suggest starting by adjusting your fan speeds to the limits of their range (minimum and maximum RPM). Assuming the exhaust gas analyzer, and air/fuel ratio monitoring devices you've shown are designed to operate within a much different exhaust volume and flow rate range (like multi-cylinder internal combustion reciprocating engines), I'm skeptical it will work the same in this situation. The fact that you're using a wider exhaust pipe also means the exhaust flow rate will be even slower (and potentially further outside the operating range of the monitoring devices). Using the existing temperature sensor means taking a measurement from a fixed location on the unit. This could be very important because we don't just want combustion that's as complete as possible, but also combustion that occurs in the desired location (presumably, inside the combustion chamber). If some of the combustion is occurring outside the desired location, it's possible to have "complete combustion", while also doing damage to parts never intended to experience temperatures quite as high. So, review "Vortecks" video, again, and consider doing this adjustment with cold inlet air (maybe outside on a cold day). Using this method, I determined that a minimum pump speed of 2.1, and a max of 4.1 works very well for my unit and fuel (pump diesel with PowerService Winter Anti-Gel additive). Assuming those same settings will work well on your unit would be a TERRIBLE IDEA, because lots of things are different. The diesel fuel can be vastly different (depending on the blend provided by the supplier). Diesel engines often have a number of methods to compensate for these differences in fuel quality, but these heaters - not so much.
Haven't heard of them sadly. I was passed the information in text form from a few viewers who had come across them in various forums and online groups. If you don't have access to a CO gauge, then the next best thing is getting the burner as hot as you can without smoke.
The best settings are the factory preset settings they usually have the heater optimised and any messing about ends up in blow out or overfueling and soots up, good to watch though.
Also if your exhaust has extra bends or extra length above that recommended, it will not run clean. I completely choked my brand new heater up in 2.5 hours just by having a straight 3m exhaust pipe.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. 6th bar = 120C for max burn - FAR TOO COLD. No wonder CO is going off like a skyrocket. Yes, 220C is when a modern ECU will drop back the pump, then restore once under 210C. 180C is a good upper power target, buy a thermocouple and use that, ignore the useless low resolution bar chart! Only one person doing it wrong and it ain't you David McLuckie!
I love the tuning videos and this channel in general. Thanks for your work. Everyone else remember to show your support.
Nice one on the testing, Love watching your videos,
You do the mad things so that we don't need to, (Or sometimes, qualified to do)
Thanks once again.
Moral of the story, don't mess about with the settings. I messed up my first heater using too small of diameter and too long of an exhaust pipe, plus fiddling with the settings. Second heater has been a champ nearly two winters now, ain't about to fiddle fart with it, :)
Yes u have to if u dont wanna clog it up over time.
Alsow ur get fuel consume waaay down whit same heat
@The Hiking Nomad-Full Time Motorhome Lifestyle best of luck for you expert when you finaly have to open it up.
Have used this many many years
May i ask what size the exhaust pipe you had? About to buy a 2m one, same diameter as the exhaust outlet pretty much but worried it may be too long
@@AdamMW It was probably a little longer than 2m and same size as the stock pipe, but it ended up being too restrictive, so have since been using 80mm, totally overkill, but it breaths so much better now, plus it was what I had on hand, thus the overkill, lol
What pump size and burner size ? At 3.2 hz how can it run so rich? Was fan lower then the 4500rpm at that point. Why did the second test show lower ppm 🤔?
Like I mentioned in one of your other videos, the combustion analyzer is the best method for tuning any burner (combustion process).
All you have to remember is that you can produce higher CO with either too much fuel as well as too much air. The way to see what is happening is with you O2 value. All you can do is adjust the heater where you get the sweet spot with the lowest O2 reading possible for the lowest CO reading for both your high and low setting. This will give you the closest to stoichiometric as you can with that burner.
I congratulate you on a job well done with this video and going the combustion analyzer route which is the best and most accurate way.
Oh yeah that internet tuning procédure with the bars has to be some of the worst horse shit combustion process tuning I've ever heard of.
Keep up the good work and thorough and intelligent ways of improving your testing abilities.
Good video David - sensible advice for anyone wanting to tune / fiddle with / build a controller!
I have a cheapo CO meter and comparing it with a grown-up Exhaust Gas Analyser (as you have), it wasn't bad! If you're just tuning for a minimum value - it's all you need. Trying to tune using guesswork - that's just dumb!
I have mine sitting outside with a coming through a have a 4 inch gap and keep the pipe as short as possible close to the house the exhaust pointing far away from the house and I love it is fantastic
Hi David, I have tried the 'no tools' tuning method, and it didn't work for me. I used a temperature probe to tune the heater, been running the 8kw heater in the unit for around 3 months. Absolutely no problems, pump is set at around 5.6hz and the fan speed is at 4900. The heater runs on white diesel and only at full load. If the exhaust gas shows a complete burn of fuel, then who can argue that it's not tuned. Keep up the good work, there's not many youtubers doing credible tests on these fantastic little heaters.
Silly video. Heater should be tuned to run as lean as possible. It's not a race car, it's a heater made to run efficiently
@@jacobsimpson347 it's a heater to get as much heat out as possible as efficiently as possible, our unit's heater is still running beautifully and has been serviced, no carbon build up, video of service on youtube.
I've been running my 5kw heater for 5 years on 1.3hz without any issues. Im fulltime vanlife so its my daily heater. Ive also had it opened to change gaskets and it was clean inside. Only had 2 new glow plugs.
Do you run on waste oil
You need analyzer . These videos are all true and this man is 100 percent honest
Love you video Davie my heater is not that hot so I think I'll have to turn. 🙏👌
yay.... cool video one of the best
Interesting video David, I've heard about this 'no tools' way of tuning your heater and I thought then that I can't really see how this could work but I'm no expert so I stick to your method of tuning using the cheap CO meter you have.
I'm sure I've posted this before here so if I have I'm sorry for repeating myself but I use the Afterburner controller and mine is set to, low 1.4@1500 high 4.4@4300 and it holds a steady 180-200C at the heat exchanger with the CO at the exhaust around 30-50 and it's been like this for 3 winters, when I first bought it I just unboxed it and ran it with it's stock settings but it only lasted about a week before it started pumping out white smoke, after taking it apart I found it was clogged up with soot, this was a brand new unused heater.
I recommend that new heaters are tuned when you first buy them using David's procedure, I don't understand them enough to tune them a different way but it seems to work fine for me.
I'm going to show another tuning method using the Afterburner, as it requires you to know the body temperature. Second option is sticking the thermometer to the side of the casing.
I have had one red bar drop off quite a few times, but that was at certain elevation. And I turned my lower Hz for the start up at that elevation, and that was it. Nothing fancy! At first I thought something was wrong, then realized it had to because of the start up Hz. Still not for sure but that my story!
Have bean useing this for 3 years 24/7. Neve ever cloged up
My personal comfort level is low, for venting exhaust into a small enclosed occupied living space. Thank you for demonstrating how someone can make things go very wrong tinkering with the setup without the proper diagnostics.
There is no way in the world where these heaters should be installed with the exhaust venting inside! TBH, these ‘suitcase models should only be used outside any habited area, never inside a habitable building.
Used a variation of the no tools tune while waiting for my CO meter to arrive just to get a bargain basement 2kw unit to stay running. The only difference was that instead of going to max fuel rate and backing down, i crept up gradually until i got the bars to stay lit. So basically i set for the least fuel rate that would keep a housing temp between 125 and 200C and later found reasonable CO levels resulted. I also stuck a temperature probe into the housing to get numeric readings. 2 identical heaters i was sent, main difference being the weld quality on the burn chambers - one will only hold 2 red bars and 200C housing temp set at 6.2hz, 4500 rpm top and 2.5, 1500 rpm lower. That one will maintain burn at intermediate settings. The other with the snotty burner will not run at anything but 4.6hz, 4500 rpm. Any reduced setting will flame out regardless of the lower settings. I swapped out pretty much every part between the two until the burn chamber was the only variable.This makes me suspect that even subtle differences in the burn chamber construction may be causing very different burns.
Thinking 6hz to be rather a lot of diesel for 2kw of heat, i am now messing with a maxpeedingrods 2 kw, but it has the blue number controller without parameter setting capability. On the other hand it burns clean at half the fuel rate.
I am reminded in this of the old Gardener marine diesels which seemed to defy all logic in low specific fuel consumption and led to wonder if there is something of an art in the invisible innards of these heaters as well.
5.6Hz? So only circa 450ml/h? That equates to approximately 3.8kW😊. So much for it being a supposedly 8kW.😊😊
My supposed 2kW heater uses a little less than 0.2l/h on its H6 setting, so around 1.6kW output, I suppose.
Thank you. Interesting and useful thoughts.
Oh, that's pretty strange if they're telling people to tune *MAX* settings according to the last red bar! I'm also very surprised it didn't already flame out with the pump that low at 5000 rpm!
Based on the guide from thedoble website, tuning the LOW settings according to the last red bar makes complete sense, since that indicates the chamber is over 120 C. But the max tuning actually calls for ~ 180 C burn chamber temp - which, of course, makes sense given the cooling power of all that extra airflow. I'd be interested to see the difference in readings using that method, if you feel inclined.
I also just opened up my heater for the first time after 2 years of using thedoble method, and there was barely even any soot in there. One *small* area of carbon buildup way down inside the burner, but otherwise extremely happy with how clean it was. Even if a given controller won't show the burn chamber temp, it'd be very easy to just permanently attach a k type probe on the outside of the burn chamber, so that you could plug it into a multimeter or something when a measurement/tune is needed.
At the end of the day, I agree with the sentiment that if somebody's happy with the way theirs runs on a given tune, then why not just stick with it. 👍
You appeared to be doing it correctly as per the CZcams video I watched, I followed it and with one of my heaters and using my cheap CO meter I got 0 CO at high and low, running a case temp of around 136℃. The second heater I used this method on, I was only able to get to 0 CO on high and 45-50 CO on low and a case temp of around 133℃. I ended up installing a afterburner on the second one later on, and found that the fan speed even though set on low at 1650, will only go down to 1800 for the pump speed I have set. Appears to be somewhat proportional and restricted within the ECU ( controller would let me put input a lower fan speed, down to 1500, but ECU will not let it run that low) . Would have never noticed using the stock controller.
Yes, for some reason the newest ECUs only allow a 3:1 ratio on tuning. Whatever high is set to, low will only ever go 75% less than that. But the low settings are still used for startup, which is even weirder.
Love your videos David and saw that you recently flashed the firmware on your Afterburner successfully. Can you please do a video on the GPIO functions. It's been a while since you did say vids on it. I've currently got my Afterburner set up with three GPIO functions, so interested to see your take on it.
Hi David. Any chance you could do the same video but using kerosene instead of diesel, just for comparison please?
David have you tried at a vanilla - ball park set of settings then using a ball valve on the combustion air intake to tune the air-fuel mix ?
most efficient heating tuning method (somewhat tested):
1. set max hz at the highest you'll ever run the heater (i only need 2 hz)
2. set min hz at lowest you'll ever run the heater (i run as low as 0.8 hz)
3. set both fan speeds to the maximum (or limit the top end if it's too loud). this maximizes the overall heat transfer coefficient and extracts the most heat per liter of diesel burned.
4. run heater as normal and allow it to come up to temp. block off the combustion air inlet a bit at a time until the exhaust CO drops under 20ppm (easiest to achieve if you have one of those inlet filters with small holes you can cover with tape). this is the leanest you should run.
5. keep restricting the combustion air inlet until you detect CO again or see black smoke in the exhaust. this is the richest you should run. this will be the most efficient point because the least amount of heat is lost to the exhaust.
6. run somwhere between the points determined in 4 and 5. these points are only valid for a given pump rate (hz) and elevation, but i've run from sea level to 10,000 ft and between 0.8 to 2hz and the amount of air restriction required doesn't change wildly. check the heater exhaust every time you run it until you get the hang of it.
7. you will need a way to "unrestrict" the combustion air inlet during startup otherwise you might get white smoke out the exhaust (no ignition) and error out.
Ball valve on the combustion inlet maybe ?
My heater couldn't even start up half the time on default settings, was all coked up after the first month... used the no-tool tuner method to get it working 100% of the time. My 2kw model is now 0.8 hz on low and ~2.8 hz on high. I've never had a chance to measure CO but I much prefer a 100% working heater to more complete stoichiometry or w/e.
I think I arrived at these numbers focusing on the low setting only... my ECU won't allow too narrow a range between low and high, as the no-tool-tune method suggested it should have, so I used the lower value from the no-tool-tuning method, and the min value for high setting that would not alter my low setting. Also pretty sure I arrived at it the opposite way, add Hz til the heater went full bars, rather than decrease Hz til it drops a bar... not sure if this matters
Anyway will give it another look if I'm able to get one of these CO detectors this winter.. I imagine I'm not optimized but I like being able to have it to such low consumption, saves fuel and I still get the heat I need
Fingers crossed the gasket doesn’t leak and that you didn’t use the cheap accessories that came with your heater.
Your exhaust must be outside your shed 😊😊
Also doing this tune helps in fuel effiency
Hi in your opinion what is the best 5kw heater you have tested Cheers Stephen Float
Ahoy, just found your channel. Great job. Do you have a video on how to get to those settings ?💚👍👍
David have you tried using the new controller you get with the Hcalory hc a22
The 6- 8.5 kw I don’t think the controller lets you do what you show here
I have just been trying
Get a couple 12v car air ozone purifiers that plug into the cigarette lighter. Pass some supply fan air across the cigarette lighter powered ozone generators. Then route the ozone into the exhaust to combine with the CO.
All your diesel heater videos are very useful so a big thank you for that.
I got a 2/3kW chinese unit (the smallest physical size) and will be using it at various altitudes. I'd say up to 10,000 ft (3200m) and was wondering if you had some quick tunes/setup hints for this. I am guessing that due to the thinner air I would have to increase the fan sspeed for the same amount of fuel. It's going to be used in a camper and not in extreme low temps so I'd say I will be using it at its lowest or very low fuel flow setting (1.2 - 2 Hz or so, I guess).
Any hints?
I'd decrease the fueling rather than the increase the air. Here is a picture of how much the fueling is reduced on a Lavaner 5KW heater for given elevations - ibb.co/Y83DSVT
@@DavidMcLuckie Thank you. I also found a sheet with altitude vs. fuel rate & fan speed on another site.
It appears that these adjustments are a key benefit of these cheap heaters. The Webasto heaters do not allow this adjustment and doesn't work good at altitude at all.
I have an identical cheap CO monitor which shows 13ppm (placed about 6" from exhaust output) - this seems very good or am I missing something (I have the silent pump you tested from a UK manufacturer which is adjustable (on 'standard setting').
That's a great CO reading.
Umm, so if you lower the Hz are you actually adding more fuel? I would think not.
I need a piece of advice. I bought one of these in the spring but didn't get round to using it until now but it isn't working. It ran for a couple of minutes driving the air out then stopped and is now showing E4 pump failure, I have tried two pumps and it shows the same thing even though I have put the pump on a different heater and it operates. It isn't the pump but the relay on the module clicks but the pump won't operate, do I need another module or is there something you can think of that I may be missing?
I'd put a multimeter on the pins of the fuel pump plug, turn it on and see if you get a pulsed voltage. If not there is either a broken wire/connection or the ECU is faulty.
Cheers. I suspect if you took a sensible starting point, you could tune up or down from there using that method. However 5,000 RPM was clearly too much as was 8Hz.
Very true. But in this test I wanted to test the exact method described. I have another test to try as well which requires the Afterburner so I can see the body temperature.
@@DavidMcLuckie I will keep an eye out for it.
@@DavidMcLuckie Thank you for all your excellent work and thoughts David. Like some others, I'm particularly interested in tuning for the lowest settings. I run many hours at the lowest setting as background heat. I'm concerned about carbon build up and it's a bit smelly. I occasionally run at 8hz to try and burn anything out as that seems to run clean. I'm ordering a co meter and thermocouple to give me better eyes. Can you recommend a thermocouple?
I keep expecting one day we will see a video like "Well, HELLOOOO"..../clunk (CO poison) I have a twisted sense of humor!
Dave,
Extending the life of you CO meter’s nozzle/end cap by running an EGR on the exhaust, to cool it quite a lot, would be a good idea? Of course, checking the EGR is not affecting the heater would be a sensible plan, to avoid the trolly and ‘no idea’ comments.😊
I very much doubt the EGR would be a problem - especially with that short length of exhaust pipe in use.
That 20 quid, spent on a CO meter, seems to be the best method of tuning these heaters (if one has a suitable controller/ecu combination).
Yes. But probably not suitable for a typical person due to the extra plumbing involved for the EGR cooler. But in a test scenario it would save the melting. :)
😊567 8
Hi David are you going to go back to the 12v tumble dryer or is that project done ?
Well we've proved the first part, that you can disconnect the electrical side, feed it hot air from a diesel heater and it'll dry clothes. I suppose the next step is seeing what the motor is and maybe a 12V swap. But I'm quite finished playing with it yet.
Ok, I own an 8kw. I have yet to find that “sweet spot” I’m below 5000 ft elevation. Stock settings produced massive black soot. Actually almost clogged the exhaust pipe. I’m currently at 1.4 / 1500 low 4.1 / 4300 and scared to death to even run it at this point. I’m running the best diesel in my area. I have also yet to bring the bar down one. Any suggestions before I spend more buying the reader than I did the heater? Otherwise, it’s going in the trash.
Use heating oil. Kerosene 28 second heating oil. Turn the fuel pump to 1.2 hrtz, fan speed to 2600 rpm. More fuel does not mean more heat in the room just the exhaust is very 🔥 wasted energy. Balance is the key, between fuel and air. Those settings is from a video on CZcams from another user. His unit us running very well. Cheap to run with plenty if heat output. Remember the carbon monoxide alarm. The ratio fuel to air. Should read on a combustion analizer ratio. O001 to .0003 though not higher. O2 around 6% Good luck.
I'll never understand the excess air Causing high ppm,I've been running mine lean for 3 years and Inside was clean as a whistle with 40-50ppm after I stripped it down.
I don't like it throttling back. I prefer it to run with the fan at max and the computer to be smart enough to slow the pump a bit and keep the temp at 205°C. I've been running mine on max fan, with Alpine mode on. It runs about 189°C. The actual fuel metering is stock, whatever the factory set it at.
The electronic flue gas analyser electrochemical cells are cross sensitive to air rich aldyhide products of combustion that read on the analyser as carbon monoxide,to get a true reading to prove this you need to use a drager chemical test, if you reduce your air it will increase the co2 & in turn lower the carbon monoxide readings
Job done
I’m gonna call BS on this tuning method BEFORE I watch the video……right, now to watch it lol
Hi David watched a few of your videos now and there very good keep up the good work.
I've had a 2kw heater installed in my van for about 3 or 4 months now. Havnt altered anything from the settings it came with. It recently stopped working so a pulled it out and striped it down. The heater plug was clear but when I split it the burn chamber was full of carbon. About enough to fill a egg cup. Copious amounts of break cleaner and abit of elbow grease and it's all up and running again. I'm thinking after watching this video it could well need tuning. How to I access the settings to change the fan speed and hertz? The controller is the same as in your video but the instructions I got are very badly translated so they make no sense. Thanks Nick 👍
Sadly there are a few controllers that look almost identical, but operate completely differently. Some are also non-tuneable.
@David McLuckie ok thanks for your reply I guess I will just clean it out again in another 3 months. I've orded o e of those carbon monoxide meters to try and tune it. I can't figure out how to get in to the settings. On yours for example what sequence of buttons to you press to get to fan speed and hertz. I will try that and if that doesn't work I guess I need to stock up on break cleaner 😆
czcams.com/video/_pnGccNOay4/video.html
That'll get you into the settings menu.
@@DavidMcLuckie thanks top ma🤙
@David McLuckie so my carbon monoxide meter arrived about a hour ago so I've had a play. My controller appears not to have tuning function 😪. I've tried each setting frome H1 through to 6. H1 is about 80 to 100ppm casing temp 170°
H2 and H3 are 2500 to 280 ppm casing temp 176°
H4 around 12 to 20ppm. Casing temp 185
H5 is pretty good at 15 to 25 casing temp 190°
H6 surprised me at 0 to 8ppm but the casing temp is still 190° even after 10 min. I was expecting full chat to be dirty but it would appear not. Although I don't appear to be able to tune mine I wouldn't have bought the meter and discovered the lower settings are probably the cause of my carbon build up and now to to avoid using them asmuch.
Thanks for your help and your great videos. Keep them coming
I would love to see someone take the exhaust in a shop setting and run it through a small radiator increase the diameter and use the radiator and put a fan behind the radiator and increase the exhaust size and send it outside and put a fan behind a radiator to blow more heat created by the exhaust in the room increasing the Btu's I bet it would almost double the heat output
Does anybody know how to access the Pump and frequency settings and fan speed settings on the new vevor bluetooth controller with the 4 buttons to the right of the screen that connects to your phone I've tried using password 1688 and 9009 with no luck? Any help would be appreciated TY in advance.
1.4to1.5 lo seting 15 to 17 rpm hi 5000 is with sent exost at 5.5 hz to6.0 hz temp and co2 is rite safety co2 meter always thanks
Hi David, with carbon buildup being an issue for those who want more heat output from it there might be an alternative. Wouldn't mixing some DPF cleaner into the fuel and running it lean for a bit clean out the burn chamber? If it works with a car it will probably work in a heater.
heaters down have compression or high pressure injection so they are very different
@@Veikra I’m aware that a diesel heater works differently than a diesel engine but I fail to see how that has anything to do with DPF cleaner not being able to clean the carbon buildup from your heater. DPF cleaner fuel additive usually contains cerium oxide which works as a catalyst and thus lowering the temperature at which soot will burn. It doesn’t care if it’s being injected at high pressure or being compressed inside a cilinder. It simply oxidizes the soot it comes in contact with.
@@familiekruit6068 Looks like you answered your own question.
Mine is 210°C is when it throttles back and speeds up at 205°C
But it i going to get bad as this when u drive it at full all time. U kmow it Will setle down
“So I’m presuming we need to set it at its maximum to start with…”
Perhaps using factory defaults may provide a successful test?
i have not seen the other guys video was he using the same grade o diesel
I think it's more to do with the diesel/ecu than the grade of diesel.
Why would you want to mess with settings. It works fine as it is sold.
90% of the heaters I've had have had a terrible tune out of the box.
I tried this method, I did get the red bar to drop out, and then added 0.2 but the next time I fired up the heater it never got to full heater, 1 red bar was down. So opted to restore it to original settings.
If this is 8kw burner. Try my settings. For full and low speed. Both fan speed And my Hz settings. An u Will get your anser
Thanks for the video. Maybe you or someone else would care to help me. I am unable to access the settings you and others speak of. I never see a padlock when I enter a passcode. Passcodes 1688 and 9009 do nothing. The passcode 1234 opens up settings displayed as follows P1H2. P represents Pump control (can be changed to t for temp.), 1 represents 12vdc (can be changed to 2 for 24vdc), H can be changed to L (I don't see what it changes possibly something from High to Low?) and 2 represents the type of pump (22ml pump).
In the menu theres a P1 and P2 (inthink it’s called that) anyway, what is that? is every menu step explained on the net anywhere? I run mine at 1.2hz and 2500rpm. and P2
do you mean sn-1 and sn-2? that’s for how magnets are on the fan . both my heaters have 2
@@nextellcup8 Yes, Ah so that’s how i’m changing fan speed. Only one magnet on mine so i’m fooling it with a double count on the sensor. Cheers.
I have just discovered these meters are seriously effected by heat and i can actually get mine to alarm at 100ppm just with a hair drier , i couldn't understand why when i got my meter closer the CO reading would suddenly spike while still in the stream a little further away it read practically nothing.. something to be aware of chaps
Yes. You need to take a fairly quick reading. I've slightly melted one of my CO meters and it now reads slightly differently than the new one.
So basically, "toolless tuning" could lead to excess CO production which means that person could be responsible for many deaths if people follow what they're doing, safer to let people who know what they're doing do the tuning really... :\
And as for CO alarms, yep, use 'em, got one in the kitchen (cos that's where the only gas appliance lives, the boiler) and recently had to use one of my Aladdin blue-flame heaters in there, no triggering of said alarm, cos blue flame is good flame... :)
But ur driving this at full pull.
Have to go on low alsow.
Then 8kw i best Hz 1.2 low and 3.6hz at topp.
Fan speed i have low 2200 and 3600 on full
Heloooooooo, I have the controller with the not started minus sign on lower left next to the OK the high altitude one (the basic one) I am getting. _ _ _ v showing. No voltage and NONE of the buttons are working. It all lights up BUT no response.. Any thoughts. Love your vids I have watch soooooooo many!
Not had that error before. Sounds like lack of communication between ECU and controller though.
@@DavidMcLuckie well I guess I will watch your Webasto ECU vid and look for clues...thx for getting back to me.. if you think of something....I am here.. bad board?
My red remote has came temp I hold temp at 5000 rpms at216c lo side can go to 219c and go down them will bring back up was also told to run outside 1st a day to clean burner billow in burner head burn on hi off an on
I'm confused on why slowing the pump speed (lower Hz) would produce higher CO with the same fan speed. It would mean that by putting less fuel in the burn chamber you were somehow eating up MORE O2.
Higher CO levels would seem to be an O2 starved environment, either from insufficient air, or excess fuel.
I bow to your expertise, experimentation & instrumentation, but something doesn't seem right there.
czcams.com/video/vey__x9fUtQ/video.html
I'd think it must mean that all that extra air is just cooling things to the point of causing incomplete combustion, but who knows.
@@camro210 Look at the excess air readings on his gas analyser? The results will be there.
@@oliver90owner it's a good question to ask. Please enlighten us as I think you have an interesting useful answer. Thank you in advance.
Leaner you can run it, the better? It's a heater, not a drag car
How did you get your settings? I always run on the low end 1.4 to 2.0 htz. I'm at 4200 ft, If I'm not sooting up after 3 to 4 months all last winter running 24/7 am I good? I just had to change the screens. I used an elevation table to start, now what, only adjust the htz or htz and rpm? What is the sequence to follow. Any adjustment I make to htz (up or down) is just increasing my yellow meter drastically. I guess I would like to decrease heat output = less fuel, and increase fan speed but as you said it would just blow out. One thing I'm going to try this winter is an external in line adjustable HVAC fan to help my heater fan push through the new setup of five 4-inchy vents and also pull air more efficiently. Before on too low 1.3 vs 1.4 it would overheat recycling the inside air with the lower fan speed. It may speed up the inside black fan and thus the inside brown fan and/or just help flow due to the increased resistance. I would need a cfm meter in the piping before all the vents to get a reading of with and without more vents then adjust the inline fan accordingly to get to baseline.
Never smokey ore any
I dont understand it you would have thought a lower pump speed would have been lower on the carbon monoxide.
If you go too low the flame doesn't stay hot enough to keep the combustion going and it goes into a cycle of nearly flaming out and then relighting.
Can you tell me what is the best high to low pump HZ you have it set at and high low fan speed please for best results, I know altitude affects it but just wondering the settings you use.
If you're talking about the video uploaded by "Vortecks", you've definitely mis-understood something...
1. ) "Vortecks" never said "set your pump speed (frequency) to it's highest/maximum possible setting", in fact he said most of these units come with default pump speed set way too high.
What he was saying is that you should first (using your existing settings) increase the unit to to it's maximum output. In this case, he's talking about getting the unit up to temperature (before doing any independent adjustments to either the fan speed, or the pump speed).
2. ) After the unit is up to full temperature (as indicated by what I'll refer to as the "temperature/progress bar" on the display), then you can go into the "advanced settings" to begin the adjustment procedure.
3. ) The rest of what you said you did seems to be OK, however, you might do yourself some good to take some other things into consideration... I did this adjustment outside - I think the temperature on that day was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The inlet temperature of the "air to be heated" is what cools the unit, so starting in a space that's already very warm could impact the unit's ability to bleed off the heat as quickly (when decreasing the pump speed). I started by first setting the minimum fan speed to it's lowest possible setting (1350 RPM), and the maximum fan speed to it's highest possible setting (5000 RPM). Obviously this too (fan speed, as well as inlet air temperature), impacts the rate of cooling of the unit, so I suggest starting by adjusting your fan speeds to the limits of their range (minimum and maximum RPM).
Assuming the exhaust gas analyzer, and air/fuel ratio monitoring devices you've shown are designed to operate within a much different exhaust volume and flow rate range (like multi-cylinder internal combustion reciprocating engines), I'm skeptical it will work the same in this situation. The fact that you're using a wider exhaust pipe also means the exhaust flow rate will be even slower (and potentially further outside the operating range of the monitoring devices).
Using the existing temperature sensor means taking a measurement from a fixed location on the unit. This could be very important because we don't just want combustion that's as complete as possible, but also combustion that occurs in the desired location (presumably, inside the combustion chamber). If some of the combustion is occurring outside the desired location, it's possible to have "complete combustion", while also doing damage to parts never intended to experience temperatures quite as high.
So, review "Vortecks" video, again, and consider doing this adjustment with cold inlet air (maybe outside on a cold day). Using this method, I determined that a minimum pump speed of 2.1, and a max of 4.1 works very well for my unit and fuel (pump diesel with PowerService Winter Anti-Gel additive). Assuming those same settings will work well on your unit would be a TERRIBLE IDEA, because lots of things are different. The diesel fuel can be vastly different (depending on the blend provided by the supplier). Diesel engines often have a number of methods to compensate for these differences in fuel quality, but these heaters - not so much.
Haven't heard of them sadly. I was passed the information in text form from a few viewers who had come across them in various forums and online groups.
If you don't have access to a CO gauge, then the next best thing is getting the burner as hot as you can without smoke.
The best settings are the factory preset settings they usually have the heater optimised and any messing about ends up in blow out or overfueling and soots up, good to watch though.
Yes and no. Most of the heaters, yes. They seem to be reasonably set. But I've had a few weren't even close.
Also if your exhaust has extra bends or extra length above that recommended, it will not run clean. I completely choked my brand new heater up in 2.5 hours just by having a straight 3m exhaust pipe.
Just cleaned out a very heavily dirty heater after one winter of use on default settings.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. 6th bar = 120C for max burn - FAR TOO COLD. No wonder CO is going off like a skyrocket.
Yes, 220C is when a modern ECU will drop back the pump, then restore once under 210C.
180C is a good upper power target, buy a thermocouple and use that, ignore the useless low resolution bar chart!
Only one person doing it wrong and it ain't you David McLuckie!
So this get so very wrong
This get so wrong, cos you only using for full heat. When we all get the right temp it satle down. So this is going wayof real life
nonsense