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Diesel heater
- Thread starter bosco659
- Start date
Yeah, I thought about that after I posted.
Through the wall fitting. Sold as a through transom fitting for a boat.
I'm sure you're aware, but I'll point it out anyway...
Those through transom outlets also have the engine block cooling water coming out of 'em as well as the exhaust. Means they run a lot cooler than just pure exhaust. I don't know what the exhaust is like on your heater, but keep in mind those outlets aren't exactly "hi-temp" rated.
Those through transom outlets also have the engine block cooling water coming out of 'em as well as the exhaust. Means they run a lot cooler than just pure exhaust. I don't know what the exhaust is like on your heater, but keep in mind those outlets aren't exactly "hi-temp" rated.
Thx @Jim . The fitting I’ll be using is quite small with an outer diameter of the small tube just under 1”. I believe the fitting was made specifically for use with the diesel heater. I will be attaching this to a 7’ x 8’ steel garage door without the gaskets so I figured that would be a supersized heat sink. I too was concerned about the temperature of the exhaust. Once installed I’ll hit it with the IR heat gun and take some temperature readings. If the fitting and exhaust pipe get too hot I might insulate them with a ceramic blanket material. The pipe in free air isn’t a concern, but I want to make sure it doesn’t adversely affect the styrofoam insulation panels I stuck to the garage door last year. The larger OD of the fitting is 1-3/8”. I intend to bore a 3” hole though the styrofoam, then attach the fitting to the door. That will leave me enough space to stuff in the ceramic or rock wool insulation if needed.
I agree the piece probably isn’t temperature rated. After all it’s made from pure Chinesium but the vendor claims it’s SS.
When I had the heater running yesterday, when holding my hand over the exhaust, the exhaust temperature didn’t appear to be that high. I’ll report what I find as I complete the installation. Will post final pictures too!
Quick update. The exhaust port is in the garage door and I ran the heater for about 1-3/4 hours today. I couldn’t measure or feel any excessive heat at the fitting in the door or inside near the doors insulation. Just as a precautionary measure, I wrapped some exhaust baffle wrap around the fitting where it passed through the insulation. I ran on a battery with a charger and expect my 110V / 12V power supply to arrive in a few days, then I can do some finishing touches to the install and the heater can stay put until the springtime.
It wasn't too cold out today. Iirc, earlier the outside temperature earlier today was about 7C. The inside of the garage was just around 9.5C. After 1 hour of running at 100%, the temp inside the garage was 15C and for me was quite comfortable to be working in there. So far it looks like a win. Negative points - the reported ticking fuel pump can become annoying but I can live with it. The only other thing is there’s a very, very slight odor I can smell. The exhaust is outside but maybe some is getting in through the cracks around the garage door? I usually seal up that door for the winter so I should be able to eliminate that as a probable cause.
Next and final post will be the heater hooked up, running on the power supply.
It wasn't too cold out today. Iirc, earlier the outside temperature earlier today was about 7C. The inside of the garage was just around 9.5C. After 1 hour of running at 100%, the temp inside the garage was 15C and for me was quite comfortable to be working in there. So far it looks like a win. Negative points - the reported ticking fuel pump can become annoying but I can live with it. The only other thing is there’s a very, very slight odor I can smell. The exhaust is outside but maybe some is getting in through the cracks around the garage door? I usually seal up that door for the winter so I should be able to eliminate that as a probable cause.
Next and final post will be the heater hooked up, running on the power supply.
I'd recommend running a seperate burner air intake from the outside, too.
Otherwise, all that's happening is you're drawing already heated air from the garage and putting it through the burn chamber, then exhausting it to the outside, which is a waste of precious heat.
Otherwise, all that's happening is you're drawing already heated air from the garage and putting it through the burn chamber, then exhausting it to the outside, which is a waste of precious heat.
My garage has two 8ft steel doors. For the winter I seal the east door shut. I literally bolt it closed and the stuff foam backer rod around the perimeter gaps to prevent excess cold air intrusion. With my new diesel heater in operation I’m sensing an odor that may be coming from the rubber through door fitting I installed for the exhaust. I plan to remove those seals and use high temp RTV instead. When the door would open I could reach around and re/re the fitting by myself. Now that the door is sealed I need to find a helper who can hold a screwdriver on the opposite side. Unfortunately many of my lical friends and neighbours aren’t up to this simple task. Pita! Lol
Got them off single handed with the help of Gorilla duct tape (expensive but a very good product). Two of the three came off willingly but the third was a challenge because some smart guy decided to put a nylock on that one. Anyway, necessity is the mother of invention so I did this. Apart and back together. I think part of the odor was antisieze burning off on the one joint. Fingers crossed it’s all good now.
Well my power supply arrived this evening, but the not so bright shippers at Amazon decided it didn’t need a box for shipping, so they send it in a regular plastic courier bag (no padding). Well it arrived banged up so it’s going back and I’ve already ordered a replacement. I considered keeping it but something is rattling inside the case and I thought that can’t be good. Wonder if they’ll make the same mistake twice. 
. Anyway, I took measurements and made mounting brackets for the device and will have to wait until tomorrow for the final installation.
. Anyway, I took measurements and made mounting brackets for the device and will have to wait until tomorrow for the final installation.
Replacement power supply installed. Surprised (or maybe I shouldn’t be) that there isn’t any fuse protection on the unit. I’ll just have to add an in-line fuse on the 12V output side. The output voltage as received was 12.07 V, but I wanted a bit more so I adjusted the pot to put out 12.5 V. I was relatively impressed that voltage remained fairly constant both under load and no load.
I joined a FB group for Chinese Diesel heaters and it was suggested I plumb the combustion air intake outdoors. That is the second last thing to do to it. I’m also going to wire in a relay that will switch the power to a battery in the event of a power failure. That way it can still operate and /or go through a proper cooling cycle to protect the innards.
I joined a FB group for Chinese Diesel heaters and it was suggested I plumb the combustion air intake outdoors. That is the second last thing to do to it. I’m also going to wire in a relay that will switch the power to a battery in the event of a power failure. That way it can still operate and /or go through a proper cooling cycle to protect the innards.
Scrapped the power supply and I’m running with a deep cycle battery and battery tender. I’ll have to see if I need to put a bigger charger on it for prolonged use. The through door exhaust works well but it’s a bit noisy outside. The unit comes with a muffler but the diameters are wrong so I made this adaptor from a 3/4“ to 1” reducing coupler. A couple of cuts with a hack saw, lots of filing, then “massaged” the fitting back to round, closed the gap I created and I came up with this. Press fit into the muffler and nice snuff fit onto the door fitting. Silicone wasn’t necessary because it’s outside but I had an open tube….
The heater works well.
The heater works well.
If anyone does not know, diesel is very close to being Home heating oil.
Burning it for fuel oil is nothing new.
I have helped out friends who were low on home heating oil by having them put diesel into it.
The suggestion came from another forum where the owner of a home heating oil company told us to put diesel from the pump into the tank before it ran too low and helped us get it started one very cold sunday night when he could not make a delivery.
Another time a different friend used off road diesel from a neighbor's farm tank to put into his home heating oil tank to get through a period before a delivery could be made.
Here is a link to the difference which is mostly sulfer content and taxing. DIesel from the pump being the cleanest and highest taxed.
https://hartfueling.com/the-difference-between-heating-oil-and-off-road-diesel/
Link about using diesel in home heating oil furnace
https://marstellaroilconcrete.com/blog/diesel-vs-heating-oil/
Burning it for fuel oil is nothing new.
I have helped out friends who were low on home heating oil by having them put diesel into it.
The suggestion came from another forum where the owner of a home heating oil company told us to put diesel from the pump into the tank before it ran too low and helped us get it started one very cold sunday night when he could not make a delivery.
Another time a different friend used off road diesel from a neighbor's farm tank to put into his home heating oil tank to get through a period before a delivery could be made.
Here is a link to the difference which is mostly sulfer content and taxing. DIesel from the pump being the cleanest and highest taxed.
https://hartfueling.com/the-difference-between-heating-oil-and-off-road-diesel/
Link about using diesel in home heating oil furnace
https://marstellaroilconcrete.com/blog/diesel-vs-heating-oil/
Yebbut, depends on locality.
Around here, the vast majority of home heating oil is kerosene 28sec oil.
Diesel is 35sec oil.
There are a lot of farmers who run their vehicles and home furnaces on the same 35sec diesel oil, but the burner nozzle and pump pressure are selected for that viscosity. You can't just bung any old snot in without doing some prep work first.
I would think diesel would be more expensive than home heating oil. Kerosene is definitely more expensive. Right now at big box stores you’ll pay $4.50 -$5.50 / L cdn. Diesel right now is about $1.85 cdn / L.
That's fancy-dancy lighting kerosene.
No, the normal heating oil kerosene is a fraction of that.
https://www.oilprices.ie/
As well as that, the farmers run a low-duty diesel, dyed green to prevent it being used in road vehicles.
It's about the same price as heating kero.
Heater update. Since I installed the heater I was smelling something like exhaust fumes (very slight odor). At first I thought maybe it was just oil and paint burning off. Then I convinced myself it was a leaking gasket or seal on the heater. I contacted the distributor and they are sending me replacement gaskets.
The other night I decided to prepare for the gasket swap so I emptied the heater of fuel and started disassembling some pieces. I found that the true source of the smell was most likely a poor seal between the exhaust port and pipe. The exhaust port is cast aluminum and the exhaust pipe is very thin SS. The fit between the two pieces is not snug. Using the supplied Chinesium gear (jubilee for our UK friends) clamps didn’t do a proper job “squishing” the pipe to seal on the port. It actually deformed the end of the pipe and created a space for the exhaust gases to escape. Lucky for me, I was able to trim off the bad section, then stick an 11/16” socket inside and tap in back round. I ordered small T-bolt clamps that I’ll use along with high temp silicone and hopefully that will seal things up. I may also put a slit in the end of the pipe so the clamp can squeeze the pipe tightly around the port.
These heaters are great but you need to be prepared to mess around with them to get them operating correctly. Note the slight exhaust leak would have been a moot point if the heater assembly was mounted outside. I chose to keep it inside, therefore I have to make sure the joints are very tight.
Pictures show the deformed pipe section which was under the cheap clamp. I had that clamp cranked down really tight.
I think I’m getting close to the final install. Fingers crossed.
The other night I decided to prepare for the gasket swap so I emptied the heater of fuel and started disassembling some pieces. I found that the true source of the smell was most likely a poor seal between the exhaust port and pipe. The exhaust port is cast aluminum and the exhaust pipe is very thin SS. The fit between the two pieces is not snug. Using the supplied Chinesium gear (jubilee for our UK friends) clamps didn’t do a proper job “squishing” the pipe to seal on the port. It actually deformed the end of the pipe and created a space for the exhaust gases to escape. Lucky for me, I was able to trim off the bad section, then stick an 11/16” socket inside and tap in back round. I ordered small T-bolt clamps that I’ll use along with high temp silicone and hopefully that will seal things up. I may also put a slit in the end of the pipe so the clamp can squeeze the pipe tightly around the port.
These heaters are great but you need to be prepared to mess around with them to get them operating correctly. Note the slight exhaust leak would have been a moot point if the heater assembly was mounted outside. I chose to keep it inside, therefore I have to make sure the joints are very tight.
Pictures show the deformed pipe section which was under the cheap clamp. I had that clamp cranked down really tight.
I think I’m getting close to the final install. Fingers crossed.
Follow up - the diesel heater in conjunction with my electric heater are doing a good job of making my garage space habitable in the cold weather. We have yet to experience real cold weather, but I’m confident that I will be able to keep comfortable in there this winter. I looked at some old notes and last winter in February / March, my cost per hour to run my electric heater was about $.72/hr (4.8K electric heater). My cost to run my diesel heater is about $.72/hr at current diesel prices. What a coincidence! The electric heater will cycle on and off and if I were to guess, if it’s not crazy cold out, maybe runs 50% of the time. The diesel heater isn't as smart and the way I’m running it, will operate at 100% when I have it turned on. That said, the electric heat appears to be considerably less costly. Mind you, the numbers quoted above were at last year’s electrical rates of about $.15/kwh.
I seem to have worked the bugs out of the diesel heater and it’s running very well now. On to the next project…..
I seem to have worked the bugs out of the diesel heater and it’s running very well now. On to the next project…..
