How Busy Can It Get?

[grendel]

fix the lids under a shelf and use them for storing nails and screws etc.

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

This has resulted in my now having more useful pots than I have uses for. Would anybody out there like some? I have about 20 going spare

An emergency holding tank maybe? 

[MauriceMynah]

4 hours ago, grendel said:

fix the lids under a shelf and use them for storing nails and screws etc.

Done that, but now have more.

[MargeandParge]

6 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

A fairly sensible post here from me for once.

Firstly I ask a favour from Griff. When you are on your "lads week out, would you be so kind as to look at the bridge clearance height on the symphony's and tell me what they say. I'm interested given that they are sister ships to Nyx.

Second, There is a product available in Tesco's called "Nature's finest Tropical fruits" that comes in a rather useful plastic pot. There are other fruits available in these pots and I get through quite a lot.

This has resulted in my now having more useful pots than I have uses for. Would anybody out there like some? I have about 20 going spare. See pic below.

Always love this thread. Up to the green spot with gin a slice of lemon top up with tonic and in the fridge for emergency. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[stumpy]

Gentleman single handers of a certain age who are careful about hydration might find one or two useful if kept within reach of the helm.

[Meantime]

3 hours ago, MargeandParge said:

Always love this thread. Up to the green spot with gin a slice of lemon top up with tonic and in the fridge for emergency. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

 

34 minutes ago, stumpy said:

Gentleman single handers of a certain age who are careful about hydration might find one or two useful if kept within reach of the helm.

Just make sure you don't mix them up 

[MauriceMynah]

I have just had a quote for the repair of my Eberspatcher hot air diesel heater.  £850 !!

Now, I know many of you have gone for the cheaper units from the Orient.  I rather need your advice on whose is best . I have a friend who is looking into this for me, he will be the one to fit it, but your input would be greatly welcomed. 

[Karizma]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

I have just had a quote for the repair of my Eberspatcher hot air diesel heater.  £850 !!

Now, I know many of you have gone for the cheaper units from the Orient.  I rather need your advice on whose is best . I have a friend who is looking into this for me, he will be the one to fit it, but your input would be greatly welcomed. 

what's wrong with it?

We have an Eberspatcher Airtronic D4 that wasn't working very well when we bought the boat (smoking a lot and kept cutting out), so I took it out and stripped it down, bought a D4 service kit, diesel filter, glow plug tool remover, heater gasket from various places (cost about £50 in total) cleaned the combustion chamber out (coked up) and put it all back together - been working a treat for the last 2 years.

Lots of videos on-line showing you how to do it - very easy to do in the end.

[Vaughan]

As an ex hire fleet operator I would still recommend Webasto.  They are solid and reliable, although, in my opinion, they are noisy and produce excessive pollution from exhaust gases - especially on stern moorings.

If you are going to make a change, have you considered gas?  I am aware that you are living on your boat full time and so you require more efficient heating than just for a holiday in "off" season.

I have worked for a company hiring boats with Trumatic - TRUMA - heating and I am very impressed with it.  It is used almost exclusively, by caravans and camper vans and comes in versions which provide a hot water boiler as well as central heating.  The central heating can be either blown air (by your existing pipework) or by hot water radiators to each cabin.

It is very quiet and needs much less electric power than a diesel heater, so less need to charge batteries.  And no need to run the engine to get hot water!  The exhaust gasses consist only of CO2 and water - there are no diesel particulates and no CO.

I would suggest that for your purposes, it is well worth looking into.

 

[grendel]

the service on planar / autoterm ones is excellent, we had a service engineer drive out from north wales to meet us at oulton broad the other year on lads week (aboard Broad Ambition)- we ended up with a replacement as there was an internal connection fault, these are a mid range price between the cheap chinese and the expensive webastro/ eberspacher ones.

https://planarheaters.co.uk/

priced between about £600 and £1000 depending on which one you want (thats for a complete kit)

[Bluebell]

I had a Webasto on Chiltern Lady, it needed repairing, but sadly parts were no longer available (it was 1995 vintage). I was surprised at the cost of a replacement unit, so went for the Autoterm (Planar UK) heater. It fitted the existing exhaust and air ducts and diesel connections (thanks to Paul, Muddy Waters for his help in fitting). I’ve been pleased with the performance of this 4Kw heater and would recommend it.

Hope that helps Maurice Mynah…😎

[OldBerkshireBoy]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

I have just had a quote for the repair of my Eberspatcher hot air diesel heater.  £850 !!

Now, I know many of you have gone for the cheaper units from the Orient.  I rather need your advice on whose is best . I have a friend who is looking into this for me, he will be the one to fit it, but your input would be greatly welcomed. 

Was the quote from the local indie guy or a main dealer type?

[BroadAmbition]

We changed over to Planar and are also impressed with it. I fitted it mysen (twice  ) recommended 

Griff

[dom]

I think the chinese ones are all pretty similar in quality. A lot are probably coming from the same source anyway. A common chinese tactic is for one source to flood the market with a number of seemingly different brands, so the market is saturated and difficult for competitors to enter.

Whatever brand you go for, be aware that the major issues are:

1. Exhausts leak and are lethal. If you can't re-use your Eberspacher exhaust, don't fit one from a chinese kit. The pipes tend to be weak and silencers are generally spot welded, so leak from the seams. They're designed for external fitting on trucks, where CO build up isn't a problem. Stick with branded pipe, and fully seam welded silencers from trusted sources.
2. A common failure with all diesel heaters is carbon build up. Running at low level for extended periods is the worst culprit. Run the heater flat out for a while on a regular basis to burn off deposits. I've heard some suggestion that running on paraffin reduces the issue and might potentially be cheaper.
3. Add an extra CO alarm or two. Everyone who's done a BSS recently should have one per cabin with a potential source, but CO alarms fail like everything else. Add a bit of redundancy and check batteries regularly. At least two major fatality incidents investigated by MAIB in recent times have been CO related, one from diesel heating.

As long as you're mindful of the above, you should be fine with a chinese unit, and the cost savings are vast - so much so that you can afford to replace several times before the cost equals a branded unit.

[BuffaloBill]

Anyone used one of these? A friend is looking to install one to warm his garage. Will be housed outside the garage and piped in. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373442385579?hash=item56f2e696ab:g:l5EAAOSwNqxlAV3R&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwEHprL5R0MhaFT3e8wNfeL2vlk57aCaJBHvOnqxj5P3sJuvDvzi6C1tHm4a4HYVgIHtjAcaT1siEykAQovdgALlpJNrXyiHPi4KzX2%2FH8%2B9LalM59YIzGVl3AIlyA8O66kIqbf%2FPx7E5rk%2BkOSQXbLa2It%2FVXqLIUUIgLFmT0zXDyxRTnhaTcHP%2BOIdlEQVOXNKOpL3zX%2BmziHFreY71e8p8M%2BcjxjjvZg5%2F80Q3WFN7ep34qYrkKUFahzzpcxV8Tg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABlBMUKSN-JTqYg

[floydraser]

36 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

Anyone used one of these? A friend is looking to install one to warm his garage. Will be housed outside the garage and piped in. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373442385579?hash=item56f2e696ab:g:l5EAAOSwNqxlAV3R&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwEHprL5R0MhaFT3e8wNfeL2vlk57aCaJBHvOnqxj5P3sJuvDvzi6C1tHm4a4HYVgIHtjAcaT1siEykAQovdgALlpJNrXyiHPi4KzX2%2FH8%2B9LalM59YIzGVl3AIlyA8O66kIqbf%2FPx7E5rk%2BkOSQXbLa2It%2FVXqLIUUIgLFmT0zXDyxRTnhaTcHP%2BOIdlEQVOXNKOpL3zX%2BmziHFreY71e8p8M%2BcjxjjvZg5%2F80Q3WFN7ep34qYrkKUFahzzpcxV8Tg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABlBMUKSN-JTqYg

I use a normal 2kw fan heater to get the garage warmish then switch to two wall hung heaters to maintain it, so I can hear the radio. In extreme cold I use a Clarke Little Devil propane jobby which is a bit of an overkill; it's toastie in about 3 minutes.

[MauriceMynah]

A good friend of mine, has one of this type of unit to warm his shed. His is inside with the exhaust vented out. I would suggest that this is a better option than the heater outside with the hot air vented in.

He recommends the unit as bloody good.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

55 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

Anyone used one of these? A friend is looking to install one to warm his garage. Will be housed outside the garage and piped in. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373442385579?hash=item56f2e696ab:g:l5EAAOSwNqxlAV3R&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwEHprL5R0MhaFT3e8wNfeL2vlk57aCaJBHvOnqxj5P3sJuvDvzi6C1tHm4a4HYVgIHtjAcaT1siEykAQovdgALlpJNrXyiHPi4KzX2%2FH8%2B9LalM59YIzGVl3AIlyA8O66kIqbf%2FPx7E5rk%2BkOSQXbLa2It%2FVXqLIUUIgLFmT0zXDyxRTnhaTcHP%2BOIdlEQVOXNKOpL3zX%2BmziHFreY71e8p8M%2BcjxjjvZg5%2F80Q3WFN7ep34qYrkKUFahzzpcxV8Tg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABlBMUKSN-JTqYg

Plenty of videos online showing the same set up, others have the heater inside with the exhaust outside.

[MauriceMynah]

First, Thanks all for the replies. They have been most helpful though they have proved the rule, "the more you find out, the less you know."

I am looking at a Chinese item where all the fittings will fit the existing pipework.  All I shall be buying is the heater unit and pump.

More details will be given when I have some idea what I'm talking about.  Exhaust system, hot air venting etc will all be the existing Eberspatcher stuff.

However, I do have a worry. The replacement unit is 8kw where the replaced unit was 5kw. Question, will the exhaust be hotter?  

The new unit will be £150. If it turns out that the money is down the pan, well, so be it. I'll be in a better situation next year to go for the more expensive options should it be necessary. 

[Regulo]

1 hour ago, BuffaloBill said:

Anyone used one of these? A friend is looking to install one to warm his garage. Will be housed outside the garage and piped in. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373442385579?hash=item56f2e696ab:g:

That exhaust silencer looks like one of the leaky ones I warned about 10 years ago. DO NOT FIT THESE INTERNALLY. 

[Smoggy]

That 8kw will likely only really be 4-5kw, they are renowned for their exageration of the figures on these.

You will have to use the controller from the chinaspacher as the eber unit will not work with it.

[MargeandParge]

Hi MM

Ever thought about an oil boiler and rads as it is your home and small diesel boilers are available you can re jet most boilers to run on gas oil just need to cut the word marine out of the equation. If you were attempting to navigate Cape Horn then it would be a different story. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

 

 

[MargeandParge]

Another post from Old Parge. If the guy that will fit your new system is the the fellow it could be. Then tell him to" save the old system " as it could be turned into a moonshine producing still for libations that would recoup any costs and could be distributed on a trip to Cape Horning. .

Kindest RegardsRegards Marge and Parge 

Edited October 21, 2023 by MargeandParge
Add a bit

[Vaughan]

13 hours ago, MargeandParge said:

Ever thought about an oil boiler and rads as it is your home and small diesel boilers are available

These are called KABOLA and I have used them on hire boats in France.  It is indeed just like living in a house, with radiators in each cabin.

They are a very expensive and very complicated installation, sometimes on dual voltage (DC and AC with inverter) and would only really be fitted in a boat being built new.  They also have an electronic control box which breaks down too often.

 

[NeilB]

I have radiators with individual thermostats onboard powered by a Webasto.  It also heats the hot water and if you have the space I can thoroughly recommend it.  Not sure if our Chinese friends make these as well?
Still have the Eberspacher but I don’t use it as much, usually a quick burst when I’ve been away and the boat is stone cold.