Diesel Heater and CO...A Review

[Rbertalotto]

Received my Diesel all in one heater from AMAZON yesterday. As most thing I get from China via AMAZON it was a bit beat up. Terrible packaging for such a journey. But all fixable as it was all just bent sheetmetal.





Link to 5kw Diesel Heater

I put all the pieces together, and I filled it up with K1 Kerosene that I purchased at the hardware store.

Pushed the "power" button and let it go through its warm up as I saw on YouTube. After about 4 minutes it fired right up and started to heat my 144sq ft garage. Raised the temperature 5C in just a few minutes. This thing blows huge amounts of heat.

A few comments:
The LCD control is incredibly complicated....AND THERE ARE NO INSTRUCTIONS FOR IT!!!! The instructions that came with it are for a different controller and are written in Chinglish.....(Thank God for YouTUbe)

The fuel pump is very loud while in the warmup stage. It is a pulse type pump and the "clicking" is quite loud.
Once unit is running you can't hear the pump but the heater itself is loud....even with the optional muffler.

Most of the noise is simple combustion and air intake and output. The exhaust is relatively quiet with the optional muffler.

I bought a CO detector and held it about 3 feet from the exhaust output and it never alarmed. Strange as I thought these things put out a sizable amount of CO.



Few Improvements I'll be making:
The spring clips that hold everything together are drilled for 1/8" pop rivets. but are not riveted. They fall out when you open the unit and could easily be lost. Easily rectified with a few Pop-Rivets

Need to figure out how to silence the combustion air intake. Even with the included filter it is noisy.

In closing, Like the British say..."This is an amazing piece of kit!".....Can't believe you can buy this thing with all the stuff that comes with it, shipped all the way from China for around $150!

Can't wait to use it in my RTT......The noise issue is not a concern for me, but it might be for other campers if close by.

 

[Toyaddict]

That is strange you didn't pick any CO up on the detector. Mine puts out well over 1000ppm when measured undiluted from the exhaust.

 

[Red90]

The exhaust and the air intake should go outside. I’m not sure that I understand the purpose of this test.

 

[Rbertalotto]

Only purpose was to be sure it worked. And I was interested in the CO output. So far, so good.

 

[alia176]

That is strange you didn't pick any CO up on the detector. Mine puts out well over 1000ppm when measured undiluted from the exhaust.

There's a difference between using a CO alert device vs a CO reading device. What is the alarm setpoint on a First Alert CO monitor? Yeah, I don't know it either!

 

[Toyaddict]

The specs I found say 70ppm 60-240 minutes. As ppm increases the time to alert decreases. I've never used a CO alarm for testing purposes, mostly because I have the proper testing equipment. Having actually tested the CO output on one of these heaters I will still say I'm surprised it didn't hit the alarm threshold. His other thread read as though he did some extended run times and still no alarm.

 

[alia176]

I've has a CO monitor in the Kamparoo, about 12" away from Espar and never had it go off in the 12 years I've used it. Even the Chinese units are built well and with proper gaskets.

The most annoying thing I had to deal with is the battery losing juice after running the heater for couple of cold nights intermittently with cloudy skies. The solar wasn't doing a good job at topping off the bat daily so the ignition wasn't firing off.

 

[Rbertalotto]

I've has a CO monitor in the Kamparoo, about 12" away from Espar and never had it go off in the 12 years I've used it. Even the Chinese units are built well and with proper gaskets.

But in my tests, I had the exhaust pointed directly AT the CO meters, about 36" away...........So we are not talking about "leaking" CO. Very strange. I thought the first CO detector was defective so I tried a second one....Both Self Test OK.

 

[alia176]

But in my tests, I had the exhaust pointed directly AT the CO meters, about 36" away...........So we are not talking about "leaking" CO. Very strange. I thought the first CO detector was defective so I tried a second one....Both Self Test OK.

That's a good test and happy to hear your unit passed with flying colors!!!

 

[jeepers29]

Received my Diesel all in one heater from AMAZON yesterday. As most thing I get from China via AMAZON it was a bit beat up. Terrible packaging for such a journey. But all fixable as it was all just bent sheetmetal.

Any chance you could post a video of this running so we can hear how loud it is. I have this in my cart but noise is a concern. Also, you spoke of battery drain. Does this run a battery down that quickly or was your battery not fully charged? Thanks for any info.

View attachment 569084

Link to 5kw Diesel Heater

I put all the pieces together, and I filled it up with K1 Kerosene that I purchased at the hardware store.

Pushed the "power" button and let it go through its warm up as I saw on YouTube. After about 4 minutes it fired right up and started to heat my 144sq ft garage. Raised the temperature 5C in just a few minutes. This thing blows huge amounts of heat.

A few comments:
The LCD control is incredibly complicated....AND THERE ARE NO INSTRUCTIONS FOR IT!!!! The instructions that came with it are for a different controller and are written in Chinglish.....(Thank God for YouTUbe)

The fuel pump is very loud while in the warmup stage. It is a pulse type pump and the "clicking" is quite loud.
Once unit is running you can't hear the pump but the heater itself is loud....even with the optional muffler.

Most of the noise is simple combustion and air intake and output. The exhaust is relatively quiet with the optional muffler.

I bought a CO detector and held it about 3 feet from the exhaust output and it never alarmed. Strange as I thought these things put out a sizable amount of CO.

View attachment 569085

Few Improvements I'll be making:
The spring clips that hold everything together are drilled for 1/8" pop rivets. but are not riveted. They fall out when you open the unit and could easily be lost. Easily rectified with a few Pop-Rivets

Need to figure out how to silence the combustion air intake. Even with the included filter it is noisy.

In closing, Like the British say..."This is an amazing piece of kit!".....Can't believe you can buy this thing with all the stuff that comes with it, shipped all the way from China for around $150!

Can't wait to use it in my RTT......The noise issue is not a concern for me, but it might be for other campers if close by.

Can you post a video of this running, so we can hear how loud it is? Also, you spoke of battery drain. Does this use that much battery of was yours not fully charged? Thanks for any info.

 

[helidave]

I have the same one. It pulls 5-8 amps during startup and shutdown (only a few minutes) because the glowplug is on. Once its up and running it draws much less. I don't remember the exact number, but somewhere between 1 and 3 amps depending on the fan speed.

 

[Rbertalotto]

Yes, 5-8 amps when glow plug is on during start up. But then around 1 amp while heating. Fan and pump draw very little.

 

[alia176]

There's a video that is done by a gent from UK that clearly shows the amp draw during ignition and during normal run. He is pretty comical actually.

 

[sneeker]

But in my tests, I had the exhaust pointed directly AT the CO meters, about 36" away...........So we are not talking about "leaking" CO. Very strange. I thought the first CO detector was defective so I tried a second one....Both Self Test OK.

I've installed one of these in my van and did the deep dive into the world of Chinese diesel Heaters (CDH) on the various dedicated Facebook groups and YouTube pages.
The air/fuel ratio can be adjusted. If the air/fuel is spot on dialed in, the CO from combustion exhaust can be less than 30ppm. Your factory default settings must be perfect. Don't change your default settings! FYI, your high settings and low settings can provide different CO readings. The low settings tend to burn dirtier because the combustion chamber is not working quite as hot.