$200 5KW Portable Diesel Air Heater
- Thread starter hour
- Start date
I have been considering putting one of these in a Pelican case and using it to heat my roof top tent. While browsing Ebay I found a couple 5kw units that are already enclosed in a metal case. I have no experience with these heaters so thought I'd post here and see if anyone knows if this unit would work sitting on my truck tailgate with the output running through a flexible tube into my tent.
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I was going to grab one off eBay yesterday $153.00 looked like the Aluminum body amazon one above --5KW -- sale had "make offer" also so I did -- Offered $145, saw some others sold for $147 or so -- Seller declined and raised the price to $173 -- had a bunch of different auctions listed from the same location -- Ontario, CA
Search "diesel air heater aluminum" -- turns up a bunch of sales for what seem to be the version 2 heater mentioned above
2kw is more then adequate to heat that space up. 5kw is not going to run long at high heat and idle at low temps building up soot in the burner.
Remember that these need to be run at full
Blast occasionally to clean out the burner from time to time. I’d suggest once a month minimum for 30 mins
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Chris Boyd
Explorer
I love this thread, I’ve been thinking about a propex heater to heat my RV5 oztent or RTT for quite a while, but now I’m rethinking that based on this. Just spent a few hours watching the demo and subsequent teardown videos —quite informative!
I have a lot of experience running a boost converter with ham radios, and I would say that it’s not worth it given the teardown video that was shown earlier in the thread. Voltage is not really an issue for this unit, as he showed it going Down to 6v.
The voltage converters end up using a more of your stored energy, as the inefficiency for boosting the voltage does have a penalty, and just serves to deplete the battery quicker. With ham radios you actually need the voltage to get max RF wattage output to the antenna whereas here you don’t need the voltage.
What I would do, is add a low-voltage circuit protector (cut off) to protect the battery from going below 10v, especially in the cold. Else the cost of replacing batteries will get quite expensive...
maybe the display based newer units have this functionality built In? Somewhere I saw the LCD icon listing and it showed low voltage error. Not sure if that’s 6v or something more reasonable to not damage the battery.
Even an 11V cutout would be lower than I'd want, very much will shorten lifespan of an expensive deep cycling bank.
Of course with cheap batts who cares don't last more than a few years anyway.
FYI 10.5V is the standard definition for 0% SoC (100% DoD) when 20-hour load testing for State of Health.
Of course with cheap batts who cares don't last more than a few years anyway.
FYI 10.5V is the standard definition for 0% SoC (100% DoD) when 20-hour load testing for State of Health.
Chris Boyd
Explorer
Excellent point. Lately I’ve been running the X2Power Deep Cycle AGMs from batteries plus and they seem to be fairly reasonable (compared to optima, etc) and well performing. By the time I build this, I’ll have twin group 31s in my trailer running in parallel, so I’m not worried about the amperage or capacity for a few nights.
Edit: found this LVD, while isn’t cheap, does the job:
https://powerwerx.com/low-voltage-disconnect-battery-guard
One question for the group running the lcd display models: do I take it correctly that the set temperature is sensed from inside the return air intake, and not the remote?
This seems like it would be one -- https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-a...h=item4d855d2625:g:XzEAAOSwmvpcExuM:rk:1:pf:0
b_doornenbal
New member
I started my project today since I was the only one at work. Ran to Home Depot, and picked up this metal toolbox for $20 and some other do dads that I don’t think I’m going to be able to use.
Off to a good start, I went home at lunchtime. If I’m motivated, I’ll go in and do more over the weekend.
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How the progress coming, I ordered the same one today.
luthj
Engineer In Residence
Kerosene works great. Exhaust will be 400f max in most cases. High temp silicone sleeving or header wrap works.
Instead of insulating the exhaust, simply have the heater pull its air from inside the box and then install a vent on the outside of the box. This will allow the airflow in the box to keep it cool.
Instead of insulating the exhaust, simply have the heater pull its air from inside the box and then install a vent on the outside of the box. This will allow the airflow in the box to keep it cool.
Kirby McRae
New member
This is a good option, but I just want to make sure it's apparent that you are talking about putting the cabin air intake inside the box and not the combustion air intake. The combustion intake and exhaust must be outside the vehicle.
I'm just about to pull my 5kw out and replace it with a 2kw in a box, I'll take pictures when I get around to it!