Diesel heater for your caravan.

[condor22]

Does anyone have any experience with diesel heating? In particular, I'm interested in the Planar on Ebay at $760 ie

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12v-PLAN...Caravan_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d10b6867f

I know there are other brands such as the Snugger, which is a similar price to the Planar and I know there are a couple of other brands such as Erberspacher and Webasto that are over $2,000.

How come 3 times the price?

Last year I woke up in my caravan to 0.1 degrees on a few mornings. Running my Honda 2kva to run the aircon heating in the evening is ok while awake, but even in a -10 deg rated sleeping bag, it still got cold. Plus I had condensation dripping from the roof.

I figure that a heater on low all night would a. keep me warm and b. eliminate the condensation. For about 2 lt of diesel all night rather than 4-5 lt of ULP in 5 or so hrs.

 

[malco]

Hi condor22,
I had the Eberspacer diesel heater fitted when I had our Kedron Caravan built, and you are
Right , not cheap, but it gets a workout when the temperature drops below zero.
Simple to use and quite economic. Just set the temperature to what you want and thats
It. I don't know the other brands so can't help you with info on them.
Regards mal.

 

[condor22]

Thanks for that, I was actually at a friends place today and he has a eberspacher in his Trakmaster.

As I said, I have run the genny to run a heater, but it's noisy and more expensive than the diesel heaters are to run. But, I got quoted $2,100 plus about $200 for a tank. I did see the Planar in a camper last year and I can get one for $800 incl tank.

 

[midlifecrisis]

Hi Condor22, the big difference between the cheap ones is the Temp controller
I have a Erberspacher with a digital control(About $300.00 for better controller) which can be set for the temp you want, they use 0.1 of a liter on low and 0.2 or 0.3 on high they are all a bit noisy at start up till they get up to temp.
I got an aluminum tank made ($180.00) goes between front boot and gas bottles
If you hunt around you will do better than $2100, and if you are a bit handy there not hard to fit
just a bit fiddly (5/6 hours)
PS I can put photos if you need more info
Cheers Trevor

 

[condor22]

Thanks for that, I may have to put my fuel tank in the front side locker. There's not much room on my drawbar. But I would be interested in pics of your install

 

[backcreek]

Thanks for that, I may have to put my fuel tank in the front side locker. There's not much room on my drawbar. But I would be interested in pics of your install

My mate installed one in his van and used an old stainless steel water fire extinguisher for his tank and mounted it under the van attached to the chassis.

 

[midlifecrisis]

Hi Condor22 . I hope this works ,I am not real smart with computers
Condor22 I got the photos done 2 hours then it tells me i can't post links
Till i have 10 posts

 

[Monty]

Does anyone have any experience with diesel heating? In particular, I'm interested in the Planar on Ebay at $760 ie

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12v-PLAN...Caravan_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d10b6867f

I know there are other brands such as the Snugger, which is a similar price to the Planar and I know there are a couple of other brands such as Erberspacher and Webasto that are over $2,000.

How come 3 times the price?

Last year I woke up in my caravan to 0.1 degrees on a few mornings. Running my Honda 2kva to run the aircon heating in the evening is ok while awake, but even in a -10 deg rated sleeping bag, it still got cold. Plus I had condensation dripping from the roof.

I figure that a heater on low all night would a. keep me warm and b. eliminate the condensation. For about 2 lt of diesel all night rather than 4-5 lt of ULP in 5 or so hrs.

Hi condor22

I did some research about 18mths ago when our van was being built. I was looking at the diesel vs gas heater setups for the van. Both types work very well. Not sure which one to choose....... Anyway I ended up talking to a caravan repair friend of mine and asked his opinion.

He asked me a couple of questions and one of which made a good point - 'When/where and how often are you going to use the heater?' Why? I asked. His reply was that if we are in the Snowy Region in the middle of winter that it would be good to use, bearing in mind that
Alpine Diesel is recommended for use here in the extreme cold. I then enquired further.......

If you had a suitable heater fitted to use your LP Gas, you can have it there at anytime and you don't have to worry about diesel 'freezing' in the cold, or having to carry a jerry can for the heater. Good point I thought.

We ended up purchasing a gas powered eberspacher heater and had it installed in the van. Works great!! No problems. Having it on low temp all night keeps the chill off the air and it is so much more comfortable inside the van.

If you purchase a gas powered heater, it is required to be installed by a licenced gas fitter/plumber, which may add to the overall cost of the unit.

Just my thoughts, based on my experience.

Cheers Monty

 

[condor22]

Hi Condor22 . I hope this works ,I am not real smart with computers
Condor22 I got the photos done 2 hours then it tells me i can't post links
Till i have 10 posts

Thanks mate, I suppose all I can say is keep posting

 

[condor22]

Does anyone have any experience with diesel heating? In particular, I'm interested in the Planar on Ebay at $760 ie

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12v-PLAN...Caravan_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d10b6867f

I know there are other brands such as the Snugger, which is a similar price to the Planar and I know there are a couple of other brands such as Erberspacher and Webasto that are over $2,000.

How come 3 times the price?

Last year I woke up in my caravan to 0.1 degrees on a few mornings. Running my Honda 2kva to run the aircon heating in the evening is ok while awake, but even in a -10 deg rated sleeping bag, it still got cold. Plus I had condensation dripping from the roof.

I figure that a heater on low all night would a. keep me warm and b. eliminate the condensation. For about 2 lt of diesel all night rather than 4-5 lt of ULP in 5 or so hrs.

Hi condor22

I did some research about 18mths ago when our van was being built. I was looking at the diesel vs gas heater setups for the van. Both types work very well. Not sure which one to choose....... Anyway I ended up talking to a caravan repair friend of mine and asked his opinion.

He asked me a couple of questions and one of which made a good point - 'When/where and how often are you going to use the heater?' Why? I asked. His reply was that if we are in the Snowy Region in the middle of winter that it would be good to use, bearing in mind that
Alpine Diesel is recommended for use here in the extreme cold. I then enquired further.......

If you had a suitable heater fitted to use your LP Gas, you can have it there at anytime and you don't have to worry about diesel 'freezing' in the cold, or having to carry a jerry can for the heater. Good point I thought.

We ended up purchasing a gas powered eberspacher heater and had it installed in the van. Works great!! No problems. Having it on low temp all night keeps the chill off the air and it is so much more comfortable inside the van.

If you purchase a gas powered heater, it is required to be installed by a licenced gas fitter/plumber, which may add to the overall cost of the unit.

Just my thoughts, based on my experience.

Cheers Monty

Thanks for that Monty, I have looked at the LPG heater from Eberspacher, but the only supplier I can find in SA is Dario Caravans and they want $1,975 for the heater kit, then there's the install. They also want $2,100 for the Webasto diesel and about the same for the Dometic. I can buy the Webasto on Ebay for $1,149 and install myself, plus <$100 for the fuel tank.

The other thing is I have 2x 4.kg gas bottles and run the fridge on LPG when off power. So I guess I should ask, how much gas do you use and do you have it on all night.

 

[Monty]

Does anyone have any experience with diesel heating? In particular, I'm interested in the Planar on Ebay at $760 ie

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12v-PLAN...Caravan_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d10b6867f

I know there are other brands such as the Snugger, which is a similar price to the Planar and I know there are a couple of other brands such as Erberspacher and Webasto that are over $2,000.

How come 3 times the price?

Last year I woke up in my caravan to 0.1 degrees on a few mornings. Running my Honda 2kva to run the aircon heating in the evening is ok while awake, but even in a -10 deg rated sleeping bag, it still got cold. Plus I had condensation dripping from the roof.

I figure that a heater on low all night would a. keep me warm and b. eliminate the condensation. For about 2 lt of diesel all night rather than 4-5 lt of ULP in 5 or so hrs.

Hi condor22

I did some research about 18mths ago when our van was being built. I was looking at the diesel vs gas heater setups for the van. Both types work very well. Not sure which one to choose....... Anyway I ended up talking to a caravan repair friend of mine and asked his opinion.

He asked me a couple of questions and one of which made a good point - 'When/where and how often are you going to use the heater?' Why? I asked. His reply was that if we are in the Snowy Region in the middle of winter that it would be good to use, bearing in mind that
Alpine Diesel is recommended for use here in the extreme cold. I then enquired further.......

If you had a suitable heater fitted to use your LP Gas, you can have it there at anytime and you don't have to worry about diesel 'freezing' in the cold, or having to carry a jerry can for the heater. Good point I thought.

We ended up purchasing a gas powered eberspacher heater and had it installed in the van. Works great!! No problems. Having it on low temp all night keeps the chill off the air and it is so much more comfortable inside the van.

If you purchase a gas powered heater, it is required to be installed by a licenced gas fitter/plumber, which may add to the overall cost of the unit.

Just my thoughts, based on my experience.

Cheers Monty

Thanks for that Monty, I have looked at the LPG heater from Eberspacher, but the only supplier I can find in SA is Dario Caravans and they want $1,975 for the heater kit, then there's the install. They also want $2,100 for the Webasto diesel and about the same for the Dometic. I can buy the Webasto on Ebay for $1,149 and install myself, plus <$100 for the fuel tank.

The other thing is I have 2x 4.kg gas bottles and run the fridge on LPG when off power. So I guess I should ask, how much gas do you use and do you have it on all night.

Hi condor22

We have 2x 9kg bottles on the front of our van and use gas for hot water, cooking and heating. The average 9kg bottle lasts us about 2 weeks, using it with all the appliances as required.

We have left the heater on all night a couple of times, but had the thermostat up too high and got hot!! So, turned it off and went back to sleep!! Not exactly sure on the consumption of gas, but I probably can find out.

Also, is your van insulated? This does help a lot.

We have the control knob mounted next to the wife's side of the bed and she just turns over, presses the button and it automatically starts heating. Bliss!!

Your set up sounds good, especially if you can DIY and save some hard earned. From memory we did pay just under $2k for the heater and the caravan manufacturer installed it for free during construction.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers Monty

 

[midlifecrisis]

Condor22 I did something different look like it works, That"s the tank holds 9.4 Lts
I put additive in mine stops the algae growing in the tank and freezing
And I would check up I think the tank has to on the outside
They use 0.1 on low 0.15/medium 0.28/ on high that's 90 hours on low with that tank about $14.00

 

[midlifecrisis]

Condor22

That's from under, fuel pump top right

 

[midlifecrisis]

Condor22 I mounted under the lounge in wasted space area,A lot are mounted under the bed
because it's easier for them.The worst part was putting the 125mm hole through the floor

 

[condor22]

thanks for all of that, I think I'm going to get the Webasto I mentioned, by the time I get a tank should be less than $1,300
I'm a Toolmaker by trade and a Design Drafter by profession and I used to do my own car repairs, so it'll be a self install.

 

[Mungass]

some pics of the project as it goes along would be great !

 

[condor22]

So, I went for the Erberspacher D2, but the 10l fuel tank could not be fitted anywhere. So I got the Planar 5 lt tank and it's mounted horizontal in the side locker at the front of the van.

I did a month in the GT and had it on from about 7.30pm to 8.30am. I set 22 on the control and it holds 20 deg whilst up in the evening. When in bed I turned down to 16 to hold 14 deg, which is plenty when in a -10 sleeping bag. No condensation in the van, used bugger all battery power and about 1.5 litres (measured) for the 13 hours.

Best money I ever spent on a caravan.

For "Midlifecrisis" Where did you get the fuel tank made?

BTW I had 5 in the tank and 2 x 5 lt jerries, so about a weeks worth, my vehicle is ULP not diesel.

 

[MYSPOT]

Hello Mike,

We met last year near Marborough, I had a Diesel heater fitted in my camper. Yes its a ebay special @ 800 bucks and easy to install. If you still have the same van the small unit will do you fine. We have it running for 5 nights ( all night) and uses about 5 litres of diesel total. Batteries are 2 x 6volt 240ah sla each + one 120ah agm. minus 3 outside and 18 deg all night in the camper.
So far we have put almost 50 litres through the heater and it still works well,

Cheers

Steve

 

[condor22]

Hello Mike,

We met last year near Marborough, I had a Diesel heater fitted in my camper. Yes its a ebay special @ 800 bucks and easy to install. If you still have the same van the small unit will do you fine. We have it running for 5 nights ( all night) and uses about 5 litres of diesel total. Batteries are 2 x 6volt 240ah sla each + one 120ah agm. minus 3 outside and 18 deg all night in the camper.
So far we have put almost 50 litres through the heater and it still works well,

Cheers

Steve

Gday Steve, I remember, great to hear from you, will PM

 

[condor22]

Hello Mike,

We met last year near Marborough, I had a Diesel heater fitted in my camper. Yes its a ebay special @ 800 bucks and easy to install. If you still have the same van the small unit will do you fine. We have it running for 5 nights ( all night) and uses about 5 litres of diesel total. Batteries are 2 x 6volt 240ah sla each + one 120ah agm. minus 3 outside and 18 deg all night in the camper.
So far we have put almost 50 litres through the heater and it still works well,

Cheers

Steve

Gday Steve, I remember, great to hear from you, will PM

For some reason, I can't send you a second PM..........