A25 Auxiliary heater

[LopezMike]

I used the original exhaust thru hull. I think I replaced the old 90 degree el with a common copper solder type pipe fitting. The boat is on Lopez Island in the San Juans and I'm in southern Baja for the winter so my all too fallible memory is under stress!

I used ordinary screw type hose clamps. No problems. Also I vaguely remember having to do all sorts of sleeving and the like. I think I cut off the end of that flimsy flex pipe they provided and used it for some such duty.

I have a touching faith in red RTV glue. So far, so good.

Lots of low cunning required, of course.

[WillieC]

Mike
Well no wonder it takes so long to hear from you. If I were in Baja you wouldn’t hear from me at all!

Down and dirty, just hook the thing up. Point taken.

I now have a new black box, which I will install tomorrow and test its operation with the three controllers I have at my disposal. Stand by for NEWS!

[DesertAlbin736]

Tree writes,

"One key thing in the video is lagging."

I had not heard that term in a while. I served in a US Navy nuclear attack submarine back around the time my A25 was being built in Sweden. A friend & fellow submariner vet (in his case an old diesel "pig boat" back before they were completely phased out) were talking about various health risks associated with exposure to asbestos, nasty things like mesothelioma that can appear decades later. We were saying, yeah, like all that exposure to asbestos in "lagging", ie pipe insulation. When he went to a Home Depot recently looking for some "lagging" material they didn't know what he was talking about. Ha ha.

Slightly OT: WillieC, I'm working on putting together a slide show on our 2018 Desolation Sound cruise to do a presentation at our sailing club's March meeting. Will upload it to YouTube when I'm finished. Hope you don't mind my including you in the narrative. Brings back a lot of good memories.

Heater? We don't need no stinking heater! We're scheduled to be the committee boat (serving as start & finish line) out on Lake Pleasant this coming weekend for our club's annual "Sweetheart" fun sailboat race. That's where the distaff half of crew (ie the ladies) skipper & take the helm of their sailboat while the gentlemen serve as crew and take orders from the gals. Current forecast for the weekend is sunny & highs near 80. So much for winter.

[WillieC]

"Hope you don't mind my including you in the narrative."

Well there is plenty of the narrative in my life that needs to be censored, expunged, excoriated, ripped to shreds and taped back together by the archivists. Just be kind.

And yes, that was a great trip. One we never could have made without your's and Helen's expertise and encouragement.

[DesertAlbin736]

Well there is plenty of the narrative in my life that needs to be censored, expunged, excoriated, ripped to shreds and taped back together by the archivists. Just be kind.

Only the kind & flattering stuff. Since it's a presentation for our LPSC sailing club meeting in Phoenix (Greg and Amanda with the big Alden 44 are members) it's time limited to less than 30 minutes, so only covers the run up from Blaine & concentrates mostly on the time in Desolation Sound but not the return trip through the Gulf Island & no mention of the Hummingbird bus or which other islands we stopped at & only a brief mention of the Ladysmith Rendezvous. Dave K gets a shout out on his hosting us on the way up.

[WillieC]

Mild setback but clarity is good. I can't make the 84 buck heater work with other controllers. It works fine with the low function digital controller it came with but not the knob style I would prefer. Big deal. I have swapped the muthaboard twice to no avail. The newer boards are clearly marked +24 V for input but the suppliers advertise and affirm they are good for 12/24 VDC. This is the world of electronics taken over by...well I don't want to digress too much. In the electrical industry, if a motor says 240V you better give it 240V, not 208. I seriously thought that changing the ECB and the controller simultaneously would work. Simple minds. Enough.

I will install it as is and when it fails, I know where to get a replacement. And it does work great as is. I have contacted John McK and he acknowledges that there are anomalies in the cottage industry of diesel heaters, even suggesting that I may have a Webasto copy which changes some things. Others on his site note that swapping two wires fixes everything. I have a working unit and hope to keep it that way so I'll leave it alone.

This has been my experience with the cheap $84 (advertised at $89) Chinese heater. I hope others have more success with spare controllers.

[WillieC]

84 buck heater is installed. I pretty much installed it in the same manner as the original Eberspacher. I was able to fit the cheap bendy exhaust pipe into the much larger original exhaust elbow, so I essentially made my own double walled pipe. Found an old bronze nut in my dad’s detritus in the shop and stuffed it into the original through-hull thereby centering the new exhaust pipe. I also used some muffler goo to seal up voids. Easily accomplished with a dremel and colorful language.

I had to jigger the original mounts to accept the mounting plate where I should have started from scratch. Ended up raising the unit about ¾” partly to accommodate the old mounts and to make the outlet line up with the hole in the bulkhead for existing ductwork. New tubing runs from the shutoff which is mounted just above the propshaft compartment on the sole support. Reconnecting the supply duct was easy enough. The new flex tube supplied with the heater is a bit larger than the original so I simply sleeved it over the first short section of tube and clamped it tight. Close enough. The head could use a little heat as well so a small leak is fine with me.

I had trouble purging the tubing of air when I bench tested it in the shop so I adapted my suction oil change pump to fit the tiny tubing at its very end, where it attaches to the heater. (My lungs apparently are not strong enough to overcome the little solenoid pump seals.) Then I also rigged up a push button and stuck some telephone wire into the main plug corresponding to the pump leads and hot-wired it (with a fuse) to the battery. I basically simulated cycling the pump by hand. With a few pumps on the suction tank and triggering the dosing pump a few times, fuel started filling the filter and purging the line. Easiest part of the job. Now the hardest part was wrenching this old body into that tiny space without dropping all the nuts and bolts into the bilge. Sure I should have stuck a towel in there but what’s the challenge in that? I only dropped one piece of shrink tube easily retrieved with a piece of masking tape stuck backwards on a stick.

All is connected and tied down and chafe protected. No intake muffler and no exhaust muffler were harmed in this project. Just like the original.

Low 30s here today, and I have a warm boat! Now I may need to upgrade the DC system. It’s always sumthin!

IMG-5028.jpg

[Sookelarry]

Hello
Here are few pics of the heater I have installed. Seems to be working fine. Lots of small tasks in the install. Finding some good plate to mount the heater, ensure pick up from main tank is clear, mounting pump, trying to prime pump, hooking up exhaust pipe, hooking up air vent pipes, etc. Purchased 22 mm exhaust for going through hull.

[WillieC]

Yup. That’s the basic drill. Mine is working just fine. Using the suction oil change pump really simplified bleeding the fuel line

On to new canvas enclosure! Ordered all the fabric etc. today.

[Tree]

Just finished installing mine ready for summer! Even with lagging that exhaust gets really hot so I’ve added more lagging on top and then slipped it inside the left over ducting to create an air gap - no more hot surfaces!

[WillieC]

Tree, did you install an official double wall thru-hull? like this:

Chinese heater thru-hull.jpg

I used the existing 1-3/4" thru-hull (same as the original engine exhaust fitting on these A25s) then centered the heater exhaust with a bronze nut. Consequently the thru-hull gets plenty hot, too hot for human skin...don't ask... I think I may need to upgrade to an official heater vent, since the gelcoat surrounding the existing thru-hull is showing signs of imminent combustion.

Thanks!

[Tree]

I did indeed - otherwise exhaust heat is in contact with the hull. Make sure you get an angled one to stop water coming back down the pipe.

[Fredstraw1]

If you want reliable clean radiant heat you can't go wrong with a Dickinson diesel heater. 12V electric pulse pump and fuel line to your main tank. But you would have to run a stove pipe. Classic go to for PNW

[WillieC]

I totally agree and came close to that option but the space is tight and the heat may be too much. When the cheap heater craps, I still might go that route. I already had the ducting from the original Eberspacher which I modified by cutting the heat to the aft cabin and making an outlet under the helm seat. Should be nice for warming the Starfleet Commander's feet. Happy Starfleet Commander, Happy Life. Maybe this should be my new motto.

Thanks, Fred!

[SalishAire]

The marine answer is that Sure Marine in Seattle will make up exactly what you want (we did this on Salish Aire and it worked GREAT). The very cheap answer is look on Longship Marine's website (or better yet for a rainy day outing go to the store in Poulsbo) and I believe they have several in stock. Hyacinth has the fancy Wallas diesel heater for at anchor and cooking and a heater suck as you are describing under the step. We had hoped with the cockpit cover in place and the vee berth door open we would get enough heat to keep the windows defrosted - our recent very rainy trip to Jarrell Cove proved the concept didn't work (the pilot house is warm but the windows were VERY foggy) so V2 will be to add a 12V fan to circulate the air/heat over the windshield.