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Heaters On Boats


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Geez I'm really on a posting marathon at the moment!

Webasto last long time, Eberspacer have a gauge that need frequent cleaning, Webasto doesn't. The cheap chinese heaters aren't safe and won't adhere to BSC standards out the box..

Best advise Talk to Tom at JPC direct. Meantion NBN for a discount. Click the advert on the right -> -> -> -> 

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I have an Eberspacher that to my knowledge has been in the boat since it was built in 1994.

It certainly has been in since we bought the boat 19 years ago and is clicking away quite happily at the moment keeping us nice and toasty.

The 3 boats we have owned with warm air heating have all had Eberspacher and after initial problems with them which we have sorted out have given us almost zero problems. Almost zero as I had to change the control unit on this one last year.

Best bit of advice I was given was before stopping them always run them at full power for a short while.

Best people for getting them sorted out have been Colchester Fuel Injection. It's worth the trip even from Norfolk.

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4 minutes ago, JawsOrca said:

Geez I'm really on a posting marathon at the moment!

Webasto last long time, Eberspacer have a gauge that need frequent cleaning, Webasto doesn't. The cheap chinese heaters aren't safe and won't adhere to BSC standards out the box..

Best advise Talk to Tom at JPC direct. Meantion NBN for a discount. Click the advert on the right -> -> -> -> 

And me !!!

Having a quiet night on the boat towards the end of a long break on the boat.

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Sorry must add that I have found someone locally who sorted me out when I had a complete debacle with a local franchise.

If anyone wants the number of this chap feel free to PM me as he does not advertise but relies on word of mouth recommendations.

Deals with both Eberspacher and Webasto but won't touch the Chinese ones that in his opinion are dangerous 

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1 hour ago, petersjoy said:

Had a Mikuni on the boat i fitted 14 years ago, changed the glow plug once, thats all it's ever had done. hope it dosen't let me down now, got it running now just taking the chill off.

Think my guy does Mikuni as well.

Can't swear to it but think so. He really is good and reasonably priced too 

 

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Never really understood why Broads boats should not have proper propane gas central heating like canal boat with a boiler and hot water in an airing cupboard and radiators in the boat itself - I am sure they would find plenty of room for the rads if they thought about for a little. Ah but then I remembered it was Norfolk - cannot include anything useful like that! 

Would certainly make moorings quieter without having to run the engine for showers!!

Thats what canal boats had 50 years ago - won't catch on here yet!!!

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50 minutes ago, marshman said:

Never really understood why Broads boats should not have proper propane gas central heating like canal boat with a boiler and hot water in an airing cupboard and radiators in the boat itself - I am sure they would find plenty of room for the rads if they thought about for a little. Ah but then I remembered it was Norfolk - cannot include anything useful like that! 

Would certainly make moorings quieter without having to run the engine for showers!!

Thats what canal boats had 50 years ago - won't catch on here yet!!!

Didn't Richardson's try that on their Suncharm and Sunray class boats albeit powered by an Eberspacher diesel unit some time ago when they were new.

IIRC it was not a great success, yard gossip was it was too complicated for people to operate properly and caused more breakdown call outs and was replaced by the more conventional blown air system.

The reason I was interested is that my boat is the same class and would have been interested in maybe fitting this system but never took it any further as my conventional blown air system seemed to work OK but without the need to start the engine to start or run it. 

But then I keep my batteries in good condition. 

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Sunbird had an Eberspacher Hydronic, which was a mini central heating boiler really. Fed a normal household radiator in the rear cabin and hot air outlets via fan matrixes (matrices?) to saloon and front cabin. Also heated the calorifier via a second primary coil. Very pleased with that system. It would have been even better to have had all radiators, but space wouldn't allow. 

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6 hours ago, FlyingFortress said:

Didn't Richardson's try that on their Suncharm and Sunray class boats albeit powered by an Eberspacher diesel unit some time ago when they were new.

IIRC it was not a great success, yard gossip was it was too complicated for people to operate properly and caused more breakdown call outs and was replaced by the more conventional blown air system.

The reason I was interested is that my boat is the same class and would have been interested in maybe fitting this system but never took it any further as my conventional blown air system seemed to work OK but without the need to start the engine to start or run it. 

But then I keep my batteries in good condition. 

Suncharm certainly did and it worked really well at 1st, instant hot water in the morning heated tail rail in shower etc.. hired her a few times when she was new. It's was all taken out for the reasons you've stated. I personally never found it difficult to  operate.Only downside for me, the heating system was behind the helm area and it was quite loud. Don't quite a few of the ex swancraft fleet richardsons now own have radiator heating ?? 

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16 minutes ago, Maxwellian said:

Sunray had it as well. Hired both before they changed it. Worked very well.

Agreed, it's was great not having to run the engine to get hot water. Suncharm must be a good 15 odd years old now at a guess, surely technology has come on since then and there's a much user friendly system available now. 

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45 minutes ago, andyg said:

Don't quite a few of the ex swancraft fleet richardsons now own have radiator heating ?? 

I’ve not heard of that. Reflection definitely doesn’t. However we’ve hired Rose Emblem a few years ago. Ferry Marina bought that from being a private boat. That had radiators and hot air. Toasty warm when in use but you had to be careful how long you ran the heating without the engine on according to the skipper’s manual onboard. 

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28 minutes ago, SwanR said:

I’ve not heard of that. Reflection definitely doesn’t. However we’ve hired Rose Emblem a few years ago. Ferry Marina bought that from being a private boat. That had radiators and hot air. Toasty warm when in use but you had to be careful how long you ran the heating without the engine on according to the skipper’s manual onboard. 

I wasn't sure, i looked at hiring swan ranger a few years back when richardsons first acquired the Swan boats. I'm sure I saw pictures of radiators. I could be wrong. 

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The chinese eber versions are well known for the hoses and clips being dangerous to use in boats but there's no real evidence of that with the units themselves if you already have a dead eber in place with all the fittings, and they're a tenth of the cost.

I know plannar have moved out of russia but I would want to know for sure of the actual ownership and where the money goes before I touch one with a bargepole.

Both eber and webasto got hit by big fines from the EU for price rigging, webasto got away lighter as they admitted it and dobbed eber in.

If I were to replace my eber I'd buy two chinese versions so I have a full set of spares and still save a bundle but use the existing ducting and exhaust, you can get a new chinaspacher for the cost of a service on the others.

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I'm sure fleet operators would love to eliminate the use of gas on all hire boats. Barnes have to some extent with the use of there electric oven,hobs and microwave etc. Friends of ours hire brinks tempo every year and find in can be problematic if unable to get a hook up. Who remembers the days of wall mounted gas space heater, jeez how dangerous would they be deemed in todays world. 

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Interesting what you said about the price rigging Smoggy.

I think if my Eber went toes up I still think I would replace like for like as it is a proven system.

Yes Andy I remember the gas space heaters very well. Efficient but the amount of condensation they produced :default_2gunsfiring_v1:

Only drawback was that on the boats I had with them on they were mounted high up so took an age to warm your cold feet. At least the blown air systems start low down and work their way up.

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2 hours ago, SwanR said:

Toasty warm when in use but you had to be careful how long you ran the heating without the engine on according to the skipper’s manual onboard. 

There'll be a circulator pump for the central heating circuit, and a fuel pump for the diesel boiler. Combined, those are going to be pulling enough juice to flatten a battery (and damage it) if left on for a long time.

This is the problem really... Gas radiant heaters were dangerous and caused condensation, but are quiet and need no electrical power whatsoever.

Diesel-fired systems need electrical power to run, and the unit itself is fairly noisy. Adding ducted air into the mix really makes things loud. When I was on syndicate, people never wanted to use the ducted air system as electric rads were simpler and made no noise.

Personally I prefer wet heating with rads like we have on canal boats, but it would be much more complicated to fit to Broads cruisers. There are hireboats with wet systems (Commodore 1 definitely had it when new), but the control systems are fairly rubbish.

I have thought for a while that there would be a market for an electronics specialist catering for the Inland waterways market and specialising in Broads boats.

If an effective hybrid system (ie a normal diesel donk with a massive alternator rather than anything silly) was fitted so there was lots of electrical power, and a well thought out wet heating / hot water system was installed you'd then have integrated systems to make sure the boat could manage all of the power demands and make it all seamless to the end user so they don't even need to think about it.

Barnes have had a go at this and I don't know how good their latest Brinks Prelude is, but clearly it's the way to go.

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1 hour ago, andyg said:

Barnes have to some extent with the use of there electric oven,hobs and microwave etc. Friends of ours hire brinks tempo every year and find in can be problematic if unable to get a hook up.

I believe they’ve gone the same way with their new boat (Prelude), but fitted a generator to help with charging.

Should our Eberspacher give up the ghost, I think I might be tempted to get an MV (new name for Mikuni, apparently) fitted.  At about half the price of Webasto and Eber and without the doubt over the place of manufacture like Planar (now called Autoterm), they do seem like a viable and branded alternative.

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2 hours ago, Mouldy said:

I believe they’ve gone the same way with their new boat (Prelude), but fitted a generator to help with charging.

Should our Eberspacher give up the ghost, I think I might be tempted to get an MV (new name for Mikuni, apparently) fitted.  At about half the price of Webasto and Eber and without the doubt over the place of manufacture like Planar (now called Autoterm), they do seem like a viable and branded alternative.

Any links to the MV heaters?

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