A25 Auxiliary heater

[Bob Noodat]

fooled around with the Eberspanker today. Worked good once I got fuel to it, then it crapped out. A bunch of unlit fuel somewhere. Can't wait to light it the next time! Fahr in the hole!

I am close. Not quite. I remember the old VW heaters. Gas fuel and a glow/spark plug. A bomb waiting to happen. I was too scared to install it.

Tut!
The scariest thing in the VW gasoline heaters is that they are difficult to access and so are usually neglected. I would imagine your heater is in fairly plain view. Also, it is diesel, not gasoline; combustible but not explosive. VWs with the Eberspacher B6 were sold in fairly large numbers in Canada, but never even offered in the USA. Apparently VW thought Canadians were more likely to do regular maintenance..... Ahem.

[WillieC]

".... heater is in fairly plain view."

If only you can get to it. I prolly should get the seat out of the way, maybe remove the steering wheel. Yesterday I found another inline filter stuck behind the unit against the hull. Then, with my fiddling, the hose connection started leaking. I'll dig out the wiring diagram and see how it is supposed to work. I suspect it has a timing feature or two on reignition. I sort of forced it by adjusting the thermostat. The relight didn't go well. The Starfleet Commander noticed the black smoke from her perch in the house. BUT, when it was lit, there was no perceptible smoke from the exhaust.

The spark plug/ignitor seems to be working fine, but I suspect whatever serves as a fuel nozzle may be obstructed. Or fuel delivery is insufficient. Apparently, the unit controls supply a pulse to the electromagnet fuel pump, about one/second. That fuel pump may also be losing its prime from weak internal seals. I had it apart yesterday, and got it to squirt nicely, but it didn't want to lift much. (I had a short hose stuck in a jar with diesel. If I kept it pretty flat it worked. The fuel pick up is dedicated at the tank. It is intact, and runs well down in the tank. Then it is up and over the bilge compartment then back down to the hull where the pump is located just aft of the battery box. Seems to me that the supply should not lose its prime, even if I have to fill the hose by hand initially.)

More fooling today. Once I find the wiring diagram. If it is easily removed, it would sure be a whole lot easier to work on in the shop. To be continued!

[DesertAlbin736]

Cheesy "2001 A Space Odyssey" puns aside, even though we're in a warm climate nights can get chilly this time of year. We anchored out aboard our boat for three nights on our local Lake Pleasant last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights where even though the daytime highs reached 70 degrees the inside cabin thermometer dipped to 50 by early morning. Outside the low was in mid 40s. With clear skies & low humidity the temps can swing by 20 to 30 degrees from day to night. Actually right now is the absolutely best time of year for boating on the lake. Besides bundling up with blankets and sleeping bags, we have three options for heat. Option 1 is a propane "Mr. Heater" portable heater, option 2 is an Origo alcohol fueled "Heat Pal", and option 3 when docked in a marina and plugged into shore power is a small electric heater. The Heat Pal uses the same absorbent fuel canisters as the Origo cook stove.

Mr Heater.jpeg

Origo Heat Pal.JPG

Assuming we do go through with our Triangle Loop cruise this summer, except for higher humidity levels, the temperature profiles we expect to encounter in June, July, and August in the St. Lawrence region are similar to the lows and highs we see here this time of year and going forward into March and April compared to current conditions in Watertown, NY with a high of 20 and low of 9 today. I ran across a news video of a 200 car pileup near Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence that occurred yesterday. I think I'll stick with winters in Arizona.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58ug27rvV7Y

Obviously the downsides to Mr. Heater and Heat Pal are they involve open flame heat, consume oxygen, and give off water vapor, and in the Mr. Heater case involve propane & go though fuel canisters rapidly.

Rick, have you checked this out? This dealer is right there in Seattle. Big $$ I'm sure, but could be a solution?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

https://www.scanmarineusa.com/products/heaters/

[derekja]

I'm in the midst of putting in a diesel parking heater for my crapped out Eberspaecher. Almost a drop-in replacement aside from a bit of tweaking of the exhaust line since the new one is 1" rather than 1 5/8". Nice units for not much money.

https://www.amazon.com/NO-32-Parking-He ... B0829T72XP

[WillieC]

derekja, I have seen these, read the reviews, just not up close. Do they have separate outside supplied combustion air?

[Bob Noodat]

Are those flames coming out of it?

Screenshot_20200220-113114.jpg

[derekja]

Haha, the flames don't really come out like that, it's just bad marketing! The combustion chamber is actually fully enclosed and the air just goes around the metal fins.

There are two connections, one for exhaust and one for outside air. On my boat, the original Eberspaecher had a 1 5/8" exhaust through-hull on top and a 1" through-hull underneath that for air intake. On the new Chinese heater they are both 1", so finding a way to join the 1" exhaust to the larger through-hull is a bit of a pickle. I'm having a local shop weld me up a 90 degree stainless reducer elbow. There are also some high-temp silicon reducers that could work, but shipping to Canada was prohibitive for some reason.

I'll post some pictures when it's all put together and write a more comprehensive review!

[WillieC]

Taking a break from the heater. Wiring diagram that came with the boat does not match the installed heater, though the mid 70s vintage is close. There is one extra relay I need to trace out and see what the heck it does. Some clues online, but I waste enough time as it is. How did I ever hold down a job?

The installed Eberspacher really needs to come out, just too tight to do much installed and I found an asbestos sleeve at the exhaust connection. I think the flame control portion is stuck. It is supposed to shut off the glow plug once the fuel ignites. All the wiring connections are about ready to snap off, too. I am reaching the point of either marrying this thing or eliminating it from my life forever. It's just that we have spent so much time together already...She's old, smokes and drinks a little but she still goes out with me... oh wait, that describes the whole boat.

Steve, I have looked at those new fangled systems. Interesting they don't recommend them for live-aboards. Likely something to do with duty cycle. Not liveaboard, but overnight? How many nights?

The newer drop in replacement parking heaters almost look to good to be true. And cheap enough even for me. They are some version of plastic, but only the housing, I think. Mine has pooled condensed moisture at the bottom and may be ready blow out. I have resisted poking too forcefully. She's not telling me everything about her past...

Oh, the extra fuel filter I removed yesterday is actually some kind of fuel pulse diffuser thang. Good thing I never throw anything away. Or not.

[WillieC]

Derek. Hurry up with that project! I am thinking that might be my preferred solution.

Tapping into the HX circuit, engine cooling, introduces another set of issues, not the least of which is the mess of it. I did install a decent drain in the system.

Now that I am getting close to yanking the Ebersprachzarathustra, (thank you for that chuckle, Steve, I missed it earlier) I now have an ideal place for installing a coil type heater AND connecting it to existing ducting. The nice thing about a diesel parking heater is it's available until you drain the batteries.

I'll wait for Derek. (Are you done yet?)

[Bob Noodat]

Willie, what you really need is the bran new Ebersprechen Z-Deutsch. It warms you while lying in German about its level of diesel emissions.

[WillieC]

I've been watching Ebersprechensiedeutsch videos in German no less for the past hour or so. Very informational and some of that German comes through.

I did get the unit out of the boat. False alarm on the asbestos, it looks much more modern wrap. I'll disturb it lightly, just the same. Now I can really clean it up and do a thorough bench test. I guess I am going to have to marry this thing after all. The rust is surface only and nothing that a can or two of Volvo Green (after Ospho and primer) can't handle. Maybe I'll paint flames on it. I'll have to make my own wiring diagram, though I got very close to finding a match. They don't call this the DeLuxe Albin for nothing. We have a wall mounted thermostat in the vee berth. I found a New In Box X2 (my exact model) for 999 Euro. Heck yeah, I'll figger it out!

Bob, I think the VW emission test protocol sniffed only the heater output at idle. Surely I can get a brand new one as part of the settlement?

[nebulatech]

It warms you while lying in German about its level of diesel emissions.

had me laughing!

WIllieC, one of your stated goals was defrosting the windshield. This little 12V job might do the trick for $20:
https://www.amazon.com/Defogger-Windshi ... 082WVB3N6/
The reviews are mixed, with many people complaining that the heat output isn't enough to warm you up, but it seems OK for defrosting.

I've seen bigger 12V heaters at camping stores and truck stops. Those might be enough, if your alternator can handle the amp draw. While I was reading reviews of 12V heaters for cars, one person who had a window stuck partly down mentioned that the cold air coming in replaced heated air too fast for the heater to be effective. Regardless of your solution, I would think this would be a consideration for cockpit heating.

[Bob Noodat]

Willie... from your descriptions yo-de-man to get that thing going, for sure. The German-built units are said to have a much greater duty cycle than the Chinese-built makes. Mind you I am much more skeptical about duty cycles these days since I fell off mine a couple of times recently.

That X2 price sounds good. Are they still German built? Buy a Grundig radio, Krupp coffee maker, Leica camera, Leitz binoculars or a Diana air rifle these days and you'll be disappointed to find that they all likely ship from Shanghai. The price remains staunchly German though.

The defrost you surely only need when on the move. A core-based heater from a junkyard would still be a good idea. No independent junkyards near you? We still have a couple of big Pick N Pulls here.

[WillieC]

Bob

Fort St. James isn't Fort St. John, is it? When I could still stay on my duty cycle we made the Alaska road trip on our Wee Stroms, all the way to AK...well Hyder, but CLOSE ENOUGH! I hope you haven't been seriously injured, though you are able to joke about it...that's good. I finally quit what with my old man pain in every joint.

(Well now you made me look at a map. It IS the same Fort we rode through! Fort St. John is an aberration in my gray cells. Big plywood mill and lots of beetle infested trees around. So sad.)

You've got a bit of a drive to the Salish Sea. But heck, it's BC. It's a long way to anywhere up there, HA! Be sure to stop in Smithers for a good time.

Taking a day off from all the heater stuff. Relatives from the Other Washington are here so we are going to drive around in the fog and hope it lifts soon. We do have a plug in fan we use for defrost, in conjunction with a squeegee. Usually, if it is that misty inside, it is similarly foggy outside and we, radar-less, have to hole up. Can't be in a hurry on boats that top out at 6 knots.

Oh, I will make the X2 work. We haven't even had our first fight yet, though she did not want to get out of the boat, but I sweet talked her. Pictures to follow at some point, shy though she is.

[Bob Noodat]

I'll enjoy seeing the rebuild pictures.

Fort St. James is still here. The beetle-infested trees largely gone though. They provided a 10 year salvage boom but now there is a second mill recession as the salvage logs peter out. But it will turn around again. Still plenty of living trees. BC just approved large timber frame bldgs up to 12 stories, IIRC, and there are pipelines and giant LNG facilities in the .... pipeline.... I guess. A most beautiful area, not sad any more. There is a living history museum at the original Hudson's Bay fort, the best preserved of all the forts, and Stuart Lake is 50 miles long, with 180 miles of navigable lakes and river stretches running through almost uninhabited country up towards the Skeena range of mountains. Truly stunning. Property is still cheap though, and we bought a lakeside lot with a direct view of Mount Pope, across the lake, for a fraction of what land was fetching 10 years ago. And it's just a few miles off the Yellowhead Highway, running all the way from Winnipeg to the Pacific.


The view from our neighbour's lot. Ours is still uncleared.

20200221_104851.jpg