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Diesel Heater Service

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dnks34

dnks34

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Sorry to thread hijack, I have a webasto 5000 air top and when you switch it off and it starts its cool down cycle a faint diesel smell comes through the warm air vents for a short time. This only happens briefly on cool down. Is this anything to worry about?

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BroadScot

BroadScot

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It's been doing it 5 years and always worked faultlessly otherwise!!

No service schedule with the heater? I know very little about them, but with diesel being used a sookie hoover job or simlar may be called for soot deposits?

 

 

cheers Iain

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Viking23

Viking23

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I hope anyone with any form of heating or cooking using oil or gas have a fully functioning carbon monoxide detector on board.

Certainly any diesel fumes into the cabin from the heater mean there is a leak from the combustion side to the boat side, this can also pass carbon monoxide across too.

CO is called the silent killer, you can't see it, you can't smell it...

It might be a faulty gasket, or a seal, or corroded heat exchanger, either way it should be checked out.

I can't imagine it getting any better, only worse.

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Hockham Admiral

Hockham Admiral

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I have a Mikuni MY30 diesel heater in need of a service. Can anyone suggest a reliable engineer to service it please ?

My boat is at Brundall. Thanks for any help.

 

Mark Bird posted this article a couple of years ago and I should think that they're all quite similar. Now that we use low sulphur diesel they shouldn't need this level of attention so often.

 

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Oddfellow

Oddfellow

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It is true that the modern diesel tends to burn cleaner than the old stuff (it also screws with the old seals in many fuel systems). 

 

Service schedules therefore are less obligatory than before. 

 

HOWEVER, as has been stated, all combustion gasses from any blown air heater should be COMPLETELY separate from the warm air system. 

 

IF ANY get into the warm air system, then a gasket (or worse) has failed and the heater SHOULD NOT BE USED before it is inspected and fixed. 

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JPCTom

JPCTom

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Sorry to thread hijack, I have a webasto 5000 air top and when you switch it off and it starts its cool down cycle a faint diesel smell comes through the warm air vents for a short time. This only happens briefly on cool down. Is this anything to worry about?

Hi Dan,

 

There are no specific service internals for this Webasto unit, however a good sign that a service would be advantageous would be failed start up attempts or a heavily smoking exhaust system.

I echo the advice given that the 'combustion air' and 'fresh air' are separate, although I would suggest that a failed gasket is unlikely (however getting this checked is never a bad idea). The separation between the 'fresh' and 'combustion' air could/will be compromised if your 'fresh air' inlet is sited next to the combustion air inlet rather than having a specific air intake from the cabin, outside for example.

If the combustion air pipe is 'leaking' exhaust fumes back down the combustion air intake pipe on shut down, it is possible that the fresh air inlet is sucking these fumes in. In any event I would strongly recommend you (or someone) checking the location of your intake pipes and ensuring that no combustion air can mistakenly be distributed around your boat.

 

I hope waffle this helps a little!

 

Tom

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dnks34

dnks34

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Hi Tom, thanks for that advice, yes the way it's been installed (not by me, by a rather large hire operator) is all the air for the unit is coming from the same space, a rather enclosed box under a seat unit, there is some ventilation however. Could this be the reason for my smell on cool down, as I said before its works faultlessly otherwise, no smoke, starts first time and no smell whilst running normally.

Many Thanks

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Hockham Admiral

Hockham Admiral

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Hi Dan,

 

There are no specific service internals for this Webasto unit, however a good sign that a service would be advantageous would be failed start up attempts or a heavily smoking exhaust system.

I echo the advice given that the 'combustion air' and 'fresh air' are separate, although I would suggest that a failed gasket is unlikely (however getting this checked is never a bad idea). The separation between the 'fresh' and 'combustion' air could/will be compromised if your 'fresh air' inlet is sited next to the combustion air inlet rather than having a specific air intake from the cabin, outside for example.

If the combustion air pipe is 'leaking' exhaust fumes back down the combustion air intake pipe on shut down, it is possible that the fresh air inlet is sucking these fumes in. In any event I would strongly recommend you (or someone) checking the location of your intake pipes and ensuring that no combustion air can mistakenly be distributed around your boat.

 

I hope waffle this helps a little!

 

Tom

 

Many thanks, Tom and a warm "Welcome Aboard" the NBN from us!  :wave

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  • 3 weeks later...
dnks34

dnks34

Posted
Posted

I have rectified my heater issue, the gasket for the burner tube was trapped and split, but suprise of suprises the exhaust pipe fitting to the unit had been bodged with a smaller diameter pipe with a slot in it pushed into a larger diameter pipe as a collar onto the exhaust outlet.  I dont see how that would have sealed properly.  I wont advertise the yard that would have originally installed it but no more smell anyway!

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