Diesel fired cabin heaters

[Phil Y]

I'm interested in people's experience of diesel fired cabin heaters. We don't see a lot of them here in the land of endless sunshine, but with Balia down in Tasmania, where they do get some serious cold (by local standards) I'm thinking of installing one. A nice wood stove would be romantic and shippy, but I'm attracted to the idea of heat at the turn of a knob/press of a button.
As far as I can tell from a bit of internet searching there's a choice to be made between shiny stainless bulkhead mounted units and hidden away in a locker units. The latter also seem to be popular on RV's and trucks in Europe and the US-and perhaps as a result there's a few on ebay US and UK at any given time. at a couple of hundred $ rather than $1500 or more for a new one of either of these 2 types. So thats where I've got to.-looking at a second hand, hidden unit, from ebay US or UK. The most common brands seem to be Webasto or Eberspacher.
Thoughts, experiences, recommendations?
Thanks in advance
phil

[John P Lebens]

A really simple unit for a small boat is a Wallas.

http://www.wallas.com/campaign/us2/

Check the Dickinson site for other tried and true products.

http://www.dickinsonmarine.com/

[Phil Y]

Thanks-spendy though! I'm really interested to hear of experience from people who actually have diesel heaters in their boats:)

[cookie]

I had an old ebersbacher in a truck. Stank like hell. could have been a maintenance problem though...

[paladin]

The Dickensons are really nice...especially for a little heat and ambiance but as a total heater, perhaps not so good. I loved mine as I used it in conjunction with a trawler lamp, which , in addition to light, put out a lot of heat. Be sure to make a small air vent above the lamp to keep down the marring of the overhead.

[nautiguy]

We have a Sigma space heater (no longer mfg, but similar to Dickinson) that serves us very well. Sans Souci is a two cabin layout, about 27' by 13' inside, and the heater is in the middle of the main cabin. It puts out a lot of heat, but since it doesn't have a circulating fan like the newer Dickinsons I had to install a twelve volt CPU fan to get good heat into the fore cabin.

The stove was installed low in the boat, so the diesel fuel is gravity fed from the fuel tank. More common installations have a small fuel pump to feed the stove. Another option is to mount a small (2.5 gals) day tank that is pumped full from the engine fuel tank. The fuel then gravity feeds from the day tank.

We have no fuel smell inside the boat and very little in the exhaust because the heater is extremely efficient.

The only drawbacks to our system is that the heater has to be preheated with a small amount of lamp oil and lit with a match. I think newer heaters have glow plugs and electric or piezzo starters.

You didn't say how much volume or how many cabins you want to heat. I don't think you would like our system if you had more than three cabins or more than 40' of internal length.

Norm

[Zakkendrager]

I used to sail on and help maintain a 45 foot boat with a diesel Webasto. It was a hydronic system - it heated water that was circulated by pump throughout the boat to small coils with electric fans in each space. This is a "cadillac" method for a large boat. You can move more heat through a pipe with water than a duct with air of the same size - a consideration for a retrofit and a larger boat. Usually, when the thermostat was turned up it worked; occasionally, the damned thing wouldn't work. There's a lot of controls, wires, and little black boxes in a Webasto and it sometimes required a technician to fix it. They also make fan/ducted heat heaters. If it were me, I'd go for more simplicity (stove). That boat also had a wood stove in the main salon for ambiance and local space heating. Ralph

[Phil Y]

Thanks guys-got a quote locally for a new diesel heater. Around $3K Aussie, plus installation. Cripes. Definitely having a serious look at ebay for used webasto or eberspacher. As far as I can gather the older ones had problems because they fully shut down when the cabin reached the set temp, and then had to relight itself. The newer ones remain alight, but low and are apparently much more reliable. I'll report back.
Phil

[PeterSibley]

It's not that cold in Hobart Phil ,the snow melts off pretty quickly :D.There are some very neat kero heaters ..like the Taylors version .http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/taylors_079k.htm