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Eberspacher D8lc


bigcol

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Hi

been reading on lumpy stuff forums

that big yachts have the eberspacher D8LC on 24/7 either on timer, or thermostat.

these white big yachts 55 ft plus of course can’t have a stove, so they rely on the blow heaters

throughout the year. People that live on these boats through out the year, some in colder climate countries further up the Globe.

 

us narrowboaters seem to feel these units are for short time heatng

knowing that London mayors dosent want smoke

 

Long question, obversation i know

col

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46 minutes ago, bigcol said:

Hi

been reading on lumpy stuff forums

that big yachts have the eberspacher D8LC on 24/7 either on timer, or thermostat.

these white big yachts 55 ft plus of course can’t have a stove, so they rely on the blow heaters

throughout the year. People that live on these boats through out the year, some in colder climate countries further up the Globe.

 

us narrowboaters seem to feel these units are for short time heatng

knowing that London mayors dosent want smoke

 

Long question, obversation i know

col

Not sure what you are saying / asking - I have a D8LC on a 36 foot x 14 foot Cruiser on 24/7 on thermostat.

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You are comparing hydronic heaters with air heaters that have more sophisticated controls with variable burn rates that do not cycle like water heaters, it's like comparing apples and oranges.

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Hi Alan

 

a few people on this forum say the eberspacher shouldn’t be used for long times.

there for cold mornings, and a couple of hours in the evening. Not a main form of heating.

yet the big gin palaces on the white stuff, that sit in coastal marinas, don’t have stoves lol

no black smoke down their, 

they rely on eberspacher 24/7 on timer or thermostat, year in and year out.

some of these 50 ft + up in the northern part of the globe, they live on theirs, but rely on blow heaters!

what I’m saying boats on the sea, rely all the time on blow heaters, and they use them 24/7

They can’t have all these breakdowns etc

col

Just now, NMEA said:

You are comparing hydronic heaters with air heaters that have more sophisticated controls with variable burn rates that do not cycle like water heaters, it's like comparing apples and oranges.

Hi so are we saying that blow heaters can be used 24/7 like some of these gin places have on all the time.

 

col

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20 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Not sure what you are saying / asking - I have a D8LC on a 36 foot x 14 foot Cruiser on 24/7 on thermostat.

I have a Mikuni MY 30 (3.5 Kilowatt)on a 70 Foot Narrowboat, 100mm Steel Ducting runs for 50 Feet through the Cabin.

Air heater are good for fast warm up with Zero Condensation if the Air to be heated is drawn from Outside.

This Mikuni is 19 Years old and has been rebuilt twice.

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Not sure I really understand this topic but I have a Eberspacher D5W SC, 16 years old. I've had it serviced twice in the two years I've have had it. I use it as my primary source of heating but also have a multi-fuel stove as my secondary source.

I don't see why it's not suitable for this purpose? Works well for me on the whole but I've learned not to use it for anything less than an hour at a time as they carbon up causing them to fail on startup checks & subsequently shut down. That said I would not be surprised if it needs servicing again next year but considering the convenience it provides, it has (so far) been a small price to pay. It's nice being able to schedule it to fire up so I can awake to a warm boat and a piping hot shower in the morning!

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51 minutes ago, bigcol said:

what I’m saying boats on the sea, rely all the time on blow heaters, and they use them 24/7

I would suggest that Sea-Going cruisers tend to either cruise every day, or, are tied up (with power) continuously so are not 'short of power'.

NBs (inland waterway boats) will be rarely cruised every day, they will moor up for days on end (in the 'wilds') so power usage becomes more critical and needs more management.

As you will know the D8LC usage is 330w on start up and 115watts on operation - so that is approximately a 'continuous 10amps' and during very cold weather is probably in excess of 100Ah per day. Not many NB's could cope with that, in addition to the other usages.

 

That is why I have 6x 230Ah batteries.

 

3 minutes ago, RichM said:

Not sure I really understand this topic but I have a Eberspacher D5W

Apples & Oranges.

The D5W is a 'water' heater, the D8LC is a 'hot air' central heating system with pipes running under the floor and emerging thru' vents/grills in cupboard bases, sofa bases etc. etc.

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Not explaining my post very well 

here on the forum, folks imply that having a diesel fired water or air heater,they would not use these as their primary heating

due to being very temperamental, breaking down etc,

prefable main form of heating is being a stove etc.

 

on coastal boats, they have blowheaters ad their main and only ways of heating

leaving them on 24/7 on thermostat or timer, or just on ticking over night and day

all year round.

 

in northern cold countries, they have big Tupperware boats big things,all having their heaters on all the time

 

so why is it I get the impression these blow heaters are not to be used for long lengths of time

or trusted as the main source of heat.

 

narrowboaters put their diesel heaters on perhaps 2 hours in the morning same in the evening and that’s it.

anyone on this forum have a diesel heater ad their main source of heat?

and is it on all the time in the winter

 

col

 

 

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4 minutes ago, bigcol said:

so why is it I get the impression these blow heaters are not to be used for long lengths of time

or trusted as the main source of heat.

Ours is on 24/7 when we are on the boat (probably alternate weeks during the Winter) and it is the only heating method when cruising. When moored in a marina with land-line we use electric heaters.

I have never suggested it is 'always breaking down or temperamental'.

We have had Eber & Webasto water heaters on NBs and they are 'less reliable' due to the continuous on-off cycling - they get coked up and need regular servicing.

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8 hours ago, bigcol said:

Hi Alan

 

a few people on this forum say the eberspacher shouldn’t be used for long times.

there for cold mornings, and a couple of hours in the evening. Not a main form of heating.

yet the big gin palaces on the white stuff, that sit in coastal marinas, don’t have stoves lol

no black smoke down their, 

they rely on eberspacher 24/7 on timer or thermostat, year in and year out.

some of these 50 ft + up in the northern part of the globe, they live on theirs, but rely on blow heaters!

what I’m saying boats on the sea, rely all the time on blow heaters, and they use them 24/7

They can’t have all these breakdowns etc

col

Hi so are we saying that blow heaters can be used 24/7 like some of these gin places have on all the time.

 

colI run mine 24/7 when I'm aboatd if that answers your question but I'm on a Gin Palace in a marina with shore power. If I was a narrowboater off grid with a water heater I would cut it down to a couple of hours at a time. its not that water heaters cant be run for longer if you have battery capacity but more frequent servicing will be tequired. A 5kw Webo air heater burner and exchanher are twice the size of a water heater one and the birn is variable. It is really a red herring to compare the two. Also availability of power is crucial. I have air hearers installed in hospitality units and they do thousands of hours but are sericed regularly.

 

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So can we put this concisely as...

The water heaters must be fully loaded with heat sinks (rads etc) and not allowed to cycle. 

The air heaters control their outputs and so can be left running 24/7 BUT they are a larger unit and consume a lot of power when operating. 

??

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Just as an aside - he benefit f a 'water heater' is that you gethot water (for a shower, washing the pots etc.), With a blown air system you do not get any hot water so must use alternative methods of heating the calorifier (immersion = more power, or running the engine).

You can of course have the worst of both worlds with a 'water system' converting hot water to a blown air system via heat exchangers - complex, expensive and power hungry.

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Folks keep saying that the Diesel heaters require regular servicing. Could I ask which bit gets serviced, what is done and how difficult is it to do DIY-wise? Is it the glow-plug that cokes up, the combustion chamber or exhaust? How difficult is it to service? I'm re-commissioning an old one and would like to do the job myself.

Stephen

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6 hours ago, WotEver said:

So can we put this concisely as...

The water heaters must be fully loaded with heat sinks (rads etc) and not allowed to cycle. 

 

I think so, and it's how I run mine.

Firstly, it's an (Eber) 4 kW unit, so it's working harder than a larger one would in a Narrowboat (I think that's an important point, as many might think it better to have plenty of capacity). Secondly, my room thermostat is set to max, so cabin temperature doesn't cause it to start and stop. Thirdly, it's secondary to my stove as my heat  source, so I don't need it to run continuously. Fourthly, the balance of the line through the calorifier is important to avoid cycling, as is not running it with all the rads off in summer.

When I run it, even though it has a programmer, I use the one hour button which gives me a warm boat and a tank of hot water, but I listen out for it going into low power mode and stop it early if that happens (on milder days). I tend to use it chiefly first thing on a morning in winter to warm the boat before I go and get the fire back up to daytime temperature (the control panel is by the bed!), or other similar occasions when a boost of heat and hot water is needed. 

Given this usage pattern, I've elected to put it on my reliability centered maintenance routine. That is to say, I'm leaving well alone 'til it needs me to fiddle! It's 8 years old now and has responded well to my approach - until shortly after I've written this, I suspect. (I may, of course, change this approach quite quickly if NMEA or someone of similar standing says something like "if you don't do xxxx every x years, it explodes"!)

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No, you sound like you have a well balanced system and are using it in a way that should mean a long life for it. Even if you have to put a new burner in tomorrow you have had your money's worth.

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8 hours ago, Stephen Jeavons said:

Folks keep saying that the Diesel heaters require regular servicing. Could I ask which bit gets serviced, what is done and how difficult is it to do DIY-wise? Is it the glow-plug that cokes up, the combustion chamber or exhaust? How difficult is it to service? I'm re-commissioning an old one and would like to do the job myself.

Stephen

If you want to service it properly first invest in a flue gas analyser, pressure tester and software otherwise all you can do is a scrape out. I have seen more damage done to burner evaporators than I care to remember by people scraping at them.

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Surely must be my last question.

i have recently bought a oil rayburn

it should run on heating oil, which is kerosine?

does a eberspacher D8lc or any eberspacher like running on this

is it better for the eberspacher

as aposed to red fuel diesel

 

col

The oil rayburn I recently bought has a power flue

has anyone had any experinaces with power flues

which run on 12/24 dc and of course has a transformer plugged into mains

can this be wired direct into DC supply

 

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Kerosene is thinner, (28 second oil rather than red diesel which is 35 second oil, as measured through a British Standard orifice). It also burns cleaner.

However, whether your Ebersplutter will need recalibrating to run properly on the thinner oil (my Kabola Old Dutch drip feed stove does) I cannot say.

NMEA will probably give you the definitive answer.

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Power flue? I zoom this is some kind of propeller in the flue to assist the exhaust to escape. I'd be careful connecting the wires to it. Reversing the motor feed wires around and it could tear the whole flue pipe out of the roof and take off into the blue like a helicopter, never to be seen again. It becomes a Powered Flew.   You could call it ''The BigColflue drone'' secret weapon.

Edited by bizzard
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