Van heating thread
- Thread starter Mwilliamshs
- Start date
Paddy
Adventurer
My impression has been that they will work fine at higher altitudes without the altitude kit but they will run rich and coke up quicker. But for occasional trips into higher country it’s not been an issue for us.
Basically you have to adjust the air fuel ratio (AFR). Sometimes that means a different jet (changes the amount of fuel injected for air coming in), or you can change the fuel's energy density (kerosene vs diesel).
vwhammer
Adventurer
If you search and look closely at the controllers on some of the cheap ebay heaters you will see a small yellow mountain icon on the controller.
It is usually the blue controller that has the icon shown.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5KW-Air-Di...rentrq:e7e652091680aa132e81c22dfff68311|iid:1
Many have assumed that this means it has some type of altitude adjustment.
I have one that has such an icon but I have not actually run it yet.
I will look more closely at the instruction manual to see if it mentions setting it to high altitude mode and post back here.
Also, there is word on the street that you can get into some nerdy type settings by entering a code on the controller.
This will let you adjust many more things than you can by not loggin in.
I have a bigger Ebay unit that I have run out in the garage.
I am going to instrument and hack into that one to see if I can actually change some things and see what results I might get.
More or less if you can change the pump frequency and fan speed independently then you should be able to manually adjust it for higher altitude.
I have not had mine apart but from the vids I have seen online there does not appear to be any kind of fuel jet or anything like that that might be changed for altitude.
I just got both of my heaters a couple months ago and have not had a chance to really tinker with them but there are people on youtube doing all sort of things.
They are even being set up so you can turn them on and off with a text message.
It is very likely that these do not put out the heat that they are rated at but they put out enough that the 5kw units are cooking people out of some smaller full camper trailers.
Again there are a handful of vids showing some reviews in different sized campers.
TomsBeast
Member
Forced air vs catalytic radiant: I’ve used both over the years, but mostly propane fired/12v fan forced air, with a wall mounted thermostat. My experience is from 3 different campers, and a lot of nights over 30yrs.
Radiant catalytic heaters are so quiet you don’t even know they are on. You get this nice, even glow of heat, the temperature inside the camper is consistent all night long, great for sleeping. Most don’t require power, so if your coach battery gets low, or dies completely, you’ll still get a good night’s sleep with a bag, a flashlight, and your radiant heater. I once used a (borrowed) Mr. Buddy in a 1963 VW camper in the snow, and stayed nice and toasty all night long. You’ve gotta love the portability of those. On the negative side, they put out a lot of moisture, particularly if it gets real cold (and you’re burning a lot of fuel). From experience, the inside condensation can be a real pain, water can drip on you, in the middle of the night, from the skylight/escape hatch of a cabover camper. You have to open a window so you don’t die of asphyxiation. This is a big deal, as I once woke up with a splitting headache, from what I figured was a lack of O2. Yep, after a long cold day of duck hunting, I forgot to open a window. Having a mandatory window cracked open, let’s noises from outside, in, and can be a problem for light sleepers, depending on where you are camped.
Forced air furnaces: I love the quick warm up of forced air camper heater. In the small campers I’ve owned, the entire place warms up from 30deg F to 60 in 10min. The CO2 produced is exhausted through an exterior vent, part of the installation. You can warm your hands faster, dry wet boots and clothes overnight, and it’s dry. So dry in fact, that sometimes your nose dries out, I find myself keeping a bottle of water next to where I’m sleeping. If someone opens the door to climb in or out, the forced air furnace re-warms the inside very quickly. The downside, is you’ve got to have fuel and 12v, or else it’s a cold night. I had one, in my old SixPac cabover, that once power got down to lower voltage, the dam thing would close off the regulator, and run the fan. Run the fan until every last bit of power was extracted from the poor coach battery, that the lights wouldn’t even work. My Lance’s furnace would just shut off, run the fan for a couple minutes, and go silent, which was much better. Speaking of fans, I find the forced air furnaces noisy, wakes me up almost every time it cycles on. I was camping in Flagstaff AZ over Christmas, where temps dipped to 15deg F, the forced air furnace ran more than it was off during the night. The constant cycling on and off kept me from ever getting into a real deep sleep.
Radiant catalytic heaters are so quiet you don’t even know they are on. You get this nice, even glow of heat, the temperature inside the camper is consistent all night long, great for sleeping. Most don’t require power, so if your coach battery gets low, or dies completely, you’ll still get a good night’s sleep with a bag, a flashlight, and your radiant heater. I once used a (borrowed) Mr. Buddy in a 1963 VW camper in the snow, and stayed nice and toasty all night long. You’ve gotta love the portability of those. On the negative side, they put out a lot of moisture, particularly if it gets real cold (and you’re burning a lot of fuel). From experience, the inside condensation can be a real pain, water can drip on you, in the middle of the night, from the skylight/escape hatch of a cabover camper. You have to open a window so you don’t die of asphyxiation. This is a big deal, as I once woke up with a splitting headache, from what I figured was a lack of O2. Yep, after a long cold day of duck hunting, I forgot to open a window. Having a mandatory window cracked open, let’s noises from outside, in, and can be a problem for light sleepers, depending on where you are camped.
Forced air furnaces: I love the quick warm up of forced air camper heater. In the small campers I’ve owned, the entire place warms up from 30deg F to 60 in 10min. The CO2 produced is exhausted through an exterior vent, part of the installation. You can warm your hands faster, dry wet boots and clothes overnight, and it’s dry. So dry in fact, that sometimes your nose dries out, I find myself keeping a bottle of water next to where I’m sleeping. If someone opens the door to climb in or out, the forced air furnace re-warms the inside very quickly. The downside, is you’ve got to have fuel and 12v, or else it’s a cold night. I had one, in my old SixPac cabover, that once power got down to lower voltage, the dam thing would close off the regulator, and run the fan. Run the fan until every last bit of power was extracted from the poor coach battery, that the lights wouldn’t even work. My Lance’s furnace would just shut off, run the fan for a couple minutes, and go silent, which was much better. Speaking of fans, I find the forced air furnaces noisy, wakes me up almost every time it cycles on. I was camping in Flagstaff AZ over Christmas, where temps dipped to 15deg F, the forced air furnace ran more than it was off during the night. The constant cycling on and off kept me from ever getting into a real deep sleep.
Paddy
Adventurer
Damn that serious camping!
Paddy
Adventurer
Cycling is my issue too, that’s why I like the espar style heaters. They just stay on low all night rather than cycle.
paddlenbike
Adventurer
I use an Espar D2 in my diesel van and couldn't be happier. I have no propane onboard and it's nice to have the system fueled straight from my vehicle's fuel tank. The fuel and electrical consumption is very low. When you activate the thermostat it runs in "boost mode" until it reaches the set temperature, then every activation after that the Espar runs in the lowest setting it can to maintain temperature. It measures the intake air temperature and the room temperature and it measures the time it takes to warm and cool, so it knows what setting it needs to maintain temperature without constantly starting and restarting.
Here's the electrical and fuel consumption for each mode:
Boost mode - 34 watts; 0.28 gal/hr diesel
High - 22 watts; 0.23 gal/hr
Medium - 12 watts; 0.15 gal/hr
Low - 8 watts; 0.10 gal/hr
Circulation - 5 watts; 0 gal/hr
I'm at two years now without a single hiccup. That said, it is a little combustion engine and therefore requires occasional maintenance. An added benefit not often discussed is diesel heating dries the air while combustion of propane introduces additional moisture into the air.
Here's the electrical and fuel consumption for each mode:
Boost mode - 34 watts; 0.28 gal/hr diesel
High - 22 watts; 0.23 gal/hr
Medium - 12 watts; 0.15 gal/hr
Low - 8 watts; 0.10 gal/hr
Circulation - 5 watts; 0 gal/hr
I'm at two years now without a single hiccup. That said, it is a little combustion engine and therefore requires occasional maintenance. An added benefit not often discussed is diesel heating dries the air while combustion of propane introduces additional moisture into the air.
luthj
Engineer In Residence
Only unvented heaters add moisture. Neither diesel nor propane actually dry the air. However warm air can hold more water vapor, so circulating hot air out through a vent, and pulling in cool outside air serves to release more moisture than comes in, thus eliminating water vapor produced by wet gear, breathing, and cooking.
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