We have an old Hi seas diesel cabin heater aboard Shikari, must be 25 yrs young at least. After much disassembly and cleaning, as well as some cursing, we have decided that we've gotta replace it or........, keep reading.....

We want to stick with Diesel as we we've got plenty aboard and the BTU output/unit of fuel is a real plus. AS you can see from the picture the installation is pretty tight. The current heater is located in the walkway between main cabin and forward cabin, thats the door to the head just forward. We don't want to put another hole in the deck so we want to put the new one in the same place.

As I see it we have two options;

1. Take the burner box (very rusted) to a very good metal fabrication shop we've used before and have them replicate it. The upper part of the stove is OK needs some more wire brushing and cleaning, fuel flow is a very simple needle valve and drip control (the main reason I love this heater, it's simple!) Current installation uses a gravity feed tank located in a locker in the head.

2. Buy a new Force 10 Cozy Cabin Heater-Diesel version.

Question is this, does anyone have one of these Force 10 heaters (diesel version) and if so are you satisfied with it's performance? Is the pre-heat procedure (understand you have to use alchohol) pretty straight forward?

Some caveats----

* The installation must go where the existing heater is, the depth of the unit can't exceed 7" because of clearance...

* The admiral has a big say in this, she likes being warm!

* If we install a new heater we'll switch to a feed off the main fuel tank with a pump....most likely...

* I've also looked at Taylors, and Sigmmarine.

* I've posted this question on other BB's and not received one positive bit of feedback on Force 10!
I've used the propane version on other boats but have not liked the exposed flame nor the fact that it goes out frequently. I suppose thats why they engineered the "auto shut off" feature.

Thanks in advance for your responses.