Diesel Heater Project Emergency Heating Window Unit Style
- Thread starter Smokin
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Cool, I have the same style of all in one but in black. Same controller too. I did its maiden run and testing at 8700ft above sea level in late September one afternoon at like 60*F outside. It ran fine so after 20 or so minutes I shut it off. Then it got to below freezing that night and I went to use it but no dice, glow plug error 
Plug had cracked, if I had just waited until night to test it... I would have kept it running and not had a miserably cold night. I feel like it shut off quicker from the remote control vs the control panel, which doesn't make sense.. but because of that I'm wary of using the remote.
I enlarged one of the useless blank holes on my unit a smidge to fit a panel mount (bulkhead mount, whatever) ethernet jack passthrough with waterproof cap. Took a spare ethernet cable and hacked the ends off, wiring two blues, two oranges, two greens, and discarding the brown wires... since the control panel needs 3 wires to communicate. TL;DR all I have to do is set this thing up outside of my camper and run (non-modified) ethernet to inside the camper, to the control panel. I've tested with 50ft and it still works fine, and that's way longer than I'd ever run duct for - more like 5ft. But gives me flexibility placing it around my camper.
Figured I'd mention if you ever want to divorce the control panel from the unit.
Plug had cracked, if I had just waited until night to test it... I would have kept it running and not had a miserably cold night. I feel like it shut off quicker from the remote control vs the control panel, which doesn't make sense.. but because of that I'm wary of using the remote.
I enlarged one of the useless blank holes on my unit a smidge to fit a panel mount (bulkhead mount, whatever) ethernet jack passthrough with waterproof cap. Took a spare ethernet cable and hacked the ends off, wiring two blues, two oranges, two greens, and discarding the brown wires... since the control panel needs 3 wires to communicate. TL;DR all I have to do is set this thing up outside of my camper and run (non-modified) ethernet to inside the camper, to the control panel. I've tested with 50ft and it still works fine, and that's way longer than I'd ever run duct for - more like 5ft. But gives me flexibility placing it around my camper.
Figured I'd mention if you ever want to divorce the control panel from the unit.
I've got one I use in my van, I camp for several months every winter, it's a fantastic addition. I run mine on kerosene, a 5 gallon jug of heater kerosene is about $20 locally, about the same as diesel, smells better and much less carbon buildup in the heater. Being able to wake up on a cold morning, hit the remote control and feel the van warm up to "toasty" before crawling out of bed, priceless...
Truth, kerosene smells so much better and burns cleaner, and handles the cold better from what I understand. I've been adding somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% kerosene to my diesel can before I fill it at the pump. While I did run my last heater on just kerosene for several test runs, I read that it has less lubricity than just diesel and can cause the oil pumps to fail.
Yeah my controller has the mountain symbol and reads elevation pretty accurately, but as I understand it from many posts on the diesel heater fartbook group... that's about where it ends for most controllers/control boards. Seems silly but not too far fetched since controllers aren't necessarily matched to heaters. Lucky you though if yours is.
I too need a filter solution, just no logical way to cram an inline fuel filter in my all-in-one but I sure wish the manufacturer had figured it out. I do have a couple specks of dirt in the bottom of my tank and know diesel is notoriously dirty, but thankfully the stuff has settled on the bottom. Would love to have a pour through filter like you've described.
I'm running something similar to those settings @ 5,500ft (home, when testing in garage) but the case temp gets up there and it begins to throttle back the fuel pump - 220*C or so. I dialed numbers back and can get it to hang out around 195 which I'm happy with, but will probably have to make additional adjustments when I go from fresh air to recirculating.
I too need a filter solution, just no logical way to cram an inline fuel filter in my all-in-one but I sure wish the manufacturer had figured it out. I do have a couple specks of dirt in the bottom of my tank and know diesel is notoriously dirty, but thankfully the stuff has settled on the bottom. Would love to have a pour through filter like you've described.
I'm running something similar to those settings @ 5,500ft (home, when testing in garage) but the case temp gets up there and it begins to throttle back the fuel pump - 220*C or so. I dialed numbers back and can get it to hang out around 195 which I'm happy with, but will probably have to make additional adjustments when I go from fresh air to recirculating.
Short_Shot
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FYI. I've yet to see a remotely accurate altitude reading from one of those AND nobody to date that I'm familiar with has ever determined that it does anything with that data anyways.
As best anyone can tell, even with intercepting the control data, none of them self adjust for altitude and that's just an outright lie by the manufacturer to make it look like it has a feature the big boy heaters have.
I think I'll do something very similar to this with my 5kw when I swap it for a 2kw unit in my camper... at some point.
As best anyone can tell, even with intercepting the control data, none of them self adjust for altitude and that's just an outright lie by the manufacturer to make it look like it has a feature the big boy heaters have.
I think I'll do something very similar to this with my 5kw when I swap it for a 2kw unit in my camper... at some point.
"lamp oil" is mineral oil like paint thinner, not mineral oil like kerosene.
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