I am having a composite truck camper built that I use for work year round, and I live in the Tetons so it’s really cold 6 months of the year. The recommendation is an Espar DH15 hydronic heater/water heater for my setup. I have some reservations about hydronic as it is much more complex than forced air. However, in terms of heating in a very cold place, there do seem to be some benefits. We don’t live in an area where getting work done on the system would be easy, so are shooting to have a relatively modular build that wouldn’t be that difficult for us to trouble shoot on our own. We do have PTSD from trying to trouble shoot our previous campers, but they were all commercially built, so there’s that. From what I am told, the DH15 system is less complex than other hydronic heating systems. Anyone have any experience with it or any thoughts on hydronic vs forced air diesel heat? I would love any thoughts or opinions!
Anyone Used an Espar DH15 Hydronic System?
- Thread starter kdawnz
- Start date
Peter_n_Margaret
Adventurer
I have had a Webasto hydronic style diesel heater in our motorhome for 9 years. It has been totally problem free. Best thing since sliced bread. It is connected to the engine cooling system which provides exceptional benefits.
Drive 20 minutes and the HWS is hot, and you can heat the living area without running the diesel heater.
We have a seperate radiator and fan for the bathroom which we can use for cloths drying without heating the rest. The bathroom has a small sliding window that can be left slightly open while driving to facilitate this.
I did make my own radiator/fan assemblies because I wanted something quiet. You could also plumb it for under floor heating.
I am now building another vehicle and have purchased a Eberspacher-D5E-HS3 for that. I chose it because the heat output will go lower and reduce cycling.
ps, I can also use the Webasto to pre-heat the engine in cold conditions.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
Drive 20 minutes and the HWS is hot, and you can heat the living area without running the diesel heater.
We have a seperate radiator and fan for the bathroom which we can use for cloths drying without heating the rest. The bathroom has a small sliding window that can be left slightly open while driving to facilitate this.
I did make my own radiator/fan assemblies because I wanted something quiet. You could also plumb it for under floor heating.
I am now building another vehicle and have purchased a Eberspacher-D5E-HS3 for that. I chose it because the heat output will go lower and reduce cycling.
ps, I can also use the Webasto to pre-heat the engine in cold conditions.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
Peter&margaret. Do you have a build thread going?
Question for kdanz. Is your truck diesel or gas? I've had a hard time starting a diesel in Wyoming when it gets really cold so if you can use it to preheat your engine that would be a benefit.
Peter_n_Margaret
Adventurer
No, but I have pics of most things if there is a specific question.
My vehicle(s) are diesel. They have no glow plugs and can be very difficult to start if cold. Heating them with the Webasto takes a while (45+ minutes), but is always effective.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
Truck is gas for that reason, haha. The camper heater will have a diesel tank for me to fill.
Peter_n_Margaret
Adventurer
I have a seperate diesel tank for the heater too because that lets me add 10% kerosene to reduce gelling in cold conditions.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
Trail Talk
Well-known member
There are gasoline hydronic systems, we’re using the Webasto version tapping into our main tank.
GR8ADV
Explorer
Consider Rixon, for the more modern Garmin interface alone.
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