'Chinese' Diesel Heater

[trevskoda]

I do usually buy more in a oner but planning on moving next year and not sure when so don't want to leave too much behind

Think I use maybe 1500L a year? problem I have is sitting room has underfloor heating so takes a while to warm up but .... that room faces south with a pair of 8' wide patio doors so when the sun is out it hits 25C even in the winter so can never be sure about turning on that zone or not!

If your using rad end control valves,bin them its better to let all downstairs run on stat,i have a remote stat which i can move if required, up stairs is good for end stats,if moving let the next sod sort it out,cheers.

 

[TorrinFu]

Hi...I removed the inner clear plastic flap thingy from the lid and drilled it out to suit a metal electrical gland into which I inserted a piece of the supplied rubber tube, then on the inner side a piece of the supplied fuel pipe cut to just reach the bottom of the tank, and outside the filter then a short piece of the tube then the pipe to the tick tick pump. I did drill a tiny vent hole outside the diameter of the new gland fitting.

 

[StreetSleeper]

Could some kind person tell me whether these are push or pull pumps and is there any reason why the air filter cannot be positioned under the heater?

Rae

 

[wildebus]

Could some kind person tell me whether these are push or pull pumps and is there any reason why the air filter cannot be positioned under the heater?

Rae

Push or Pull? Don't know, but the pump should be angled upwards at an angle of between 15 and 45 degrees. Maybe that answers the question?

Air filter under the heater? the air intake pipe is around 1/2 a metre long and the filer goes on the end, so on the basis that they wouldn't supply stuff at extra cost that wasn't needed, I would assume best to be away from the heater to a reasonable degree? (again, only supposing here).

 

[StreetSleeper]

Thank you David for getting back to me. The only reason I want to know whether it was push or pull was where to situate the pump. Safety wise, it would be safer near the heater, if the pipe got damaged it would only draw in air, if it was near the tank it would pump diesel everywhere, so I think mine will be situated nearer the heater. Now for the inlet: yes I totally agree where you're coming from and will keep roughly to those measurements. By the way, I do like your exhaust on the inlet, I myself will be doing exactly the same and I will also be doubling up on the exhaust side but I shall be using straight through silencers and not the offset ones.

Rae

 

[wildebus]

Thank you David for getting back to me. The only reason I want to know whether it was push or pull was where to situate the pump. Safety wise, it would be safer near the heater, if the pipe got damaged it would only draw in air, if it was near the tank it would pump diesel everywhere, so I think mine will be situated nearer the heater. Now for the inlet: yes I totally agree where you're coming from and will keep roughly to those measurements. By the way, I do like your exhaust on the inlet, I myself will be doing exactly the same and I will also be doubling up on the exhaust side but I shall be using straight through silencers and not the offset ones.

Rae

Ok, I think I am understanding the push/pull question better. I guess it would be called a "push pump" as if the pump outlet was not connected, the fuel just sprays out on each pulse - so I guess the closer to the heater the safer it would be in the case of pipe damage as more pipe to be damaged on the feed in side.

I don't know if there is any direct recommendations for the chinese heaters, but certainly on the eberspacher the pump is advised to be fitted closer to the fuel source rather than the heater for performance reasons. On the heaters I have fitted, always put the pumps close to the fuel tank.
I'll see if there is any distance recommendations on the instructions I have got.

One comment on the exhaust pipe and exhausts ... You are a far better metalworker than I am so this may not be a factor for you, but I found the exhaust pipe supplied with the heater could not be split to fit a silencer between. The Corrogations made it very awkward and messy to try. I bought a length of Eberspacher pipe to act as an extension and that pipe CAN be cut to fit silencers between pieces.

 

[mistericeman]

Ok, I think I am understanding the push/pull question better. I guess it would be called a "push pump" as if the pump outlet was not connected, the fuel just sprays out on each pulse - so I guess the closer to the heater the safer it would be in the case of pipe damage as more pipe to be damaged on the feed in side.

I don't know if there is any direct recommendations for the chinese heaters, but certainly on the eberspacher the pump is advised to be fitted closer to the fuel source rather than the heater for performance reasons. On the heaters I have fitted, always put the pumps close to the fuel tank.
I'll see if there is any distance recommendations on the instructions I have got.

One comment on the exhaust pipe and exhausts ... You are a far better metalworker than I am so this may not be a factor for you, but I found the exhaust pipe supplied with the heater could not be split to fit a silencer between. The Corrogations made it very awkward and messy to try. I bought a length of Eberspacher pipe to act as an extension and that pipe CAN be cut to fit silencers between pieces.

1mm slitting blade in grinder/or thin disk in dremmel works well on the exhaust ;-)

 

[StreetSleeper]

I'm glad you can make sense of my scribblings, I apologise I am not an educated man and so some of my terminologies may not be correct but, hopefully, mixed up with the rest of the sentence you can work out what I'm trying to get across. Anyway, moving right along, joining the two exhaust chambers together.......piece of cake: Ann used to have a stainless steel kitchen roll holder that sat on the work top; unfortunately, Ann now has a kitchen roll that sits on the work top..........I'll get her another one..........a better one.

Rae

 

[wildebus]

I knew you would have a solution for the exhaust pipe
I don't know if push or pull is right terms, but it seems appropriate enough (and I don't have a better name )

I recall how it worked as I was trying to work out how much fuel was pumped on each pulse of the heater, and the fuel squirted out a fair way before I managed to divert it into a chinese food container (seemed right for a chinese heater ) to measure.
I count the pulses to use as a fuel gauge to save having to lie on the ground and look at the tanks under the van (If anyone is interested, each pulse pushes out 0.0125 ml of fuel. Doesn't sound a lot but since last refill used 1.9L of fuel and the pump has clicked over 150,000 times!

 

[StreetSleeper]

After our little conversation last night I decided it was time to find out what was actually inside this little tin box, do we really need to have it and is there another way we can get a better effect by using something else? Well here we have it taken apart; basically a shell, a spring and some sort of matting. After looking at this I thought wrapping the exhaust in exhaust bandage would probably do the same, or better.

Rae

 

[mistericeman]

The genuine eberspacher one has slightly different design BUT largely the same effect.....

I find I cant hear my heater running from beyond a metre away with genuine eberspacher inlet and exhaust silencers.

The chinglese intake silencers are hopeless some are barely more than a plastic tube...
You can run 2 exhaust silencers as long as you don't go daft with the length of tubing involved from heater to final ou

 

[StreetSleeper]

When I was looking at silencers there were four options: Eberspacher, Chinese straight through, Chinese kink (copy of Eberspacher) or motorcycle, where a spacer would have had to be made. The problem with the Eberspacher and it's Chinese clone is it slows the exhaust gasses down and that's why I've opted for the cheap Chinese straight through but really I think I should have just bought a length of exhaust bandage and lagged it twice. I think a yard and a half should be more than adequate as a length of pipe. The only problem I foresee now is on the inlet. I fully intend to run a cheap Chinese silencer and see how that works. I did even think about putting a conical shape filter on the end of the heater just to prevent large particles being pumped around the van........that's another job.

Rae

 

[mistericeman]

When I was looking at silencers there were four options: Eberspacher, Chinese straight through, Chinese kink (copy of Eberspacher) or motorcycle, where a spacer would have had to be made. The problem with the Eberspacher and it's Chinese clone is it slows the exhaust gasses down and that's why I've opted for the cheap Chinese straight through but really I think I should have just bought a length of exhaust bandage and lagged it twice. I think a yard and a half should be more than adequate as a length of pipe. The only problem I foresee now is on the inlet. I fully intend to run a cheap Chinese silencer and see how that works. I did even think about putting a conical shape filter on the end of the heater just to prevent large particles being pumped around the van........that's another job.

Rae

Take my word f

When I was looking at silencers there were four options: Eberspacher, Chinese straight through, Chinese kink (copy of Eberspacher) or motorcycle, where a spacer would have had to be made. The problem with the Eberspacher and it's Chinese clone is it slows the exhaust gasses down and that's why I've opted for the cheap Chinese straight through but really I think I should have just bought a length of exhaust bandage and lagged it twice. I think a yard and a half should be more than adequate as a length of pipe. The only problem I foresee now is on the inlet. I fully intend to run a cheap Chinese silencer and see how that works. I did even think about putting a conical shape filter on the end of the heater just to prevent large particles being pumped around the van........that's another job.

Rae

Take it from my own personal experience.... The chinglese silencers (inlet and exhaust)
Are miles away from the genuine items.

 

[wildebus]

Take it from my own personal experience.... The chinglese silencers (inlet and exhaust)
Are miles away from the genuine items.

Interesting pics of the internals from you and Rae.

On a audio test, using Mk 1 ears, I found fitting the chinese silencers did have a noticable effect when fitted to the Inlet, and also to the Outlet pipes. Looking at the photos, I'm a bit surprised how much effect they did actually have!

I did try a pair on the exhaust pipe, after Alf suggested that was very effective, but I found while it seemed to change the tone, it didn't seem to make it any more quieter compared to just one. But I suspect now that may have been down to the two Chinese jobbies rather than the - probable - two Eberspacher ones Alf had used?

Making me curious about trying a genuine one now, but I have to say even these cheap Chinese ones ARE useful.

 

[mistericeman]

Interesting pics of the internals from you and Rae.

On a audio test, using Mk 1 ears, I found fitting the chinese silencers did have a noticable effect when fitted to the Inlet, and also to the Outlet pipes. Looking at the photos, I'm a bit surprised how much effect they did actually have!

I did try a pair on the exhaust pipe, after Alf suggested that was very effective, but I found while it seemed to change the tone, it didn't seem to make it any more quieter compared to just one. But I suspect now that may have been down to the two Chinese jobbies rather than the - probable - two Eberspacher ones Alf had used?

Making me curious about trying a genuine one now, but I have to say even these cheap Chinese ones ARE useful.

YES the chinglese exhaust silencers make a good difference (though I have to the the genuine ones even more so)
The Chinglese inlet ones generally need chucking straight in the bin...
I reckon close to 50% noise reduction (none scientific MK1 human ear) with a genuine eberspacher inlet silencer over a chinglese one.

Some VERY worthwhile reading on Lektons page (my go to no nonsense bible eberspacher wise)
On silencers

Buying advice

 

[wildebus]

Not sure if I am familiar with the Chinese Inlet Silencers (unless by these you are meaning the end piece wirh the foam insert?). I am using the same style Silencer on both exhaust and inlet, with the foam and plastic end piece which is a debris catcher mainly I would say?

That website you linked to certainly is the business. Always been my first port of call for these heaters

 

[SquirrellCook]

Has anyone tried the eberspacher boat silencers?

 

[StreetSleeper]

Decided to do some doctoring to the air filter.
First job: remove the foam and put some gauze in it's place.

While I was fitting the gauze I thought some extra holes wouldn't go amiss.

All together, ready to be glued.

In my experience with air filters, once you take the lid off they become very noisy so I decided, in this case, we would try and encase it in a plastic bottle: basically, drill a hole one end so the filter can fit into it and saw the mouth of the bottle off.

With the aid of a glue gun it was just a matter of running a bead on the inside and then the same on the top.

Here we have it from the other end; loads of room for the air to circulate.

Rae

 

[StreetSleeper]

I've been thinking about what's been written about the silencers and I am still going to opt for the Chinese option, two reasons: first one being straight through and the other the Chinese ones have a drain hole and I think the drain hole is a very important part of the system. I will lag it in exhaust bandage, including the silencer, but still leaving a hole for the water to escape.

Rae

 

[StreetSleeper]

Coupling the bits together.
First job. I needed to expand the tube so it would fit over the air filter pipe; easy enough job, find a socket of the right external size and then knock the tube down over it.

Nice, neat fit. Now the other end.

Cut four slots in each end so that when the jubilee clip gets tightened the pipe will contract.

The finished job: inlet and exhaust........the exhaust was far simpler.

As some of you may have noticed, I have used a genuine Eberspacher silencer: the main reason being I had it laying about and, also, it should not have the problem of condensation so much on the intake.

Rae