Chinese Diesel Heater Troubleshoot

[Eaks77]

Hello everyone!

I posted some threads late last year and everyone was extremely helpful! I return, looking for chinese diesel heater wisdom.

Last year, I converted my shed into an office. I installed a chinese diesel heater in the attic, which worked very well with heating the space! Towards the end of last years winter season, the heaters controller (screen/thermostat?) was acting up. I thought nothing of it and then eventually unplugged (removed from power 12V power source) for the summer months.

It's getting cold again and I went to go fire it up, but it's got an issue. Once it's connected to 12V, the screen shows "- - - v" (see pic) and nothing I do will get it started up or change anything on the screen. Pushing the buttons does nothing. Help? -> I've checked that there's 12V going to the heater from the 24V(battery bank) ->12V converter.

Thanks!

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

You may have a current issue if you are using a different power supply, but... All the pixies live in that unit. If you had problems last year with it, I recommend you source another control/display.

 

[robstrom]

y tube JohnMcK47.
His videos are the best.
My trailer build unit is working fine.
Was gonna buy extra parts, decided on a whole new one. Cheaper.
Cannibalize the old one.
I'm buying it right now, ha.
169 buks!!

 

[robstrom]

That big red minus is ominous.
If I saw that on mine, I'd contemplate an ECU issue first.
Swap, play w the old one

 

[Eaks77]

Thank you for the responses.

I've actually ordered a afterburner which will replace the controller and ECU. Haven't isntalled yet, but excited!

 

[12VoltInstalls]

Thank you for the responses.

I've actually ordered a afterburner which will replace the controller and ECU. Haven't isntalled yet, but excited!

Update when you get it installed

 

[Eaks77]

Update when you get it installed

Hoping to have it installed this coming weekend

 

[mike2scuba]

That big red minus is ominous.
If I saw that on mine, I'd contemplate an ECU issue first.
Swap, play w the old one

The big red minus on the display just means the heater isn't running

 

[mike2scuba]

There is a sequence to reset the LCD on these diesel heaters. If I dig out my manual later I will post them

 

[Zwy]

Hoping to have it installed this coming weekend

How is it working?

 

[TinSoldier3]

Hello everyone!

I posted some threads late last year and everyone was extremely helpful! I return, looking for chinese diesel heater wisdom.

Last year, I converted my shed into an office. I installed a chinese diesel heater in the attic, which worked very well with heating the space! Towards the end of last years winter season, the heaters controller (screen/thermostat?) was acting up. I thought nothing of it and then eventually unplugged (removed from power 12V power source) for the summer months.

It's getting cold again and I went to go fire it up, but it's got an issue. Once it's connected to 12V, the screen shows "- - - v" (see pic) and nothing I do will get it started up or change anything on the screen. Pushing the buttons does nothing. Help? -> I've checked that there's 12V going to the heater from the 24V(battery bank) ->12V converter.

Thanks!

Hi, How did you get on with this problem as i have an identical problem with mine, worked fine then this ??

 

[Eaks77]

Hey everyone,

Sorry for delayed response! So two items:
1) Initial problem - I had to cut and resolder the wires between the ecu and control unit/screen. The problem was with my soldering.... There was a break in the connection.

2) Afterburner. This unit is awesome and more importantly the guy who manufactures/sells them is very helpful! In hindsight, The afterburner wasn't necessary to resolve the problem above as I encountered similar issues mentioned above.... Hence allowing me to find the problem and fix the connection. But the afterburner provides more options and while complex, it is more user friendly (,keeping in mind more options). Biggest benefit I like is treating it like a standard house thermostat where the heater will turn on/off to maintain the temp.... And not just remain on the whole time. The only thing I wish it could do is have an option to just have the fan run with no heat..... It would help circulate it bring fresh air into my shed/office

 

[johng143]

Hey,

I bought 2 of the vevor 8kw diesel heaters, but did the math and according to their own fuel consumption data, the things cannot burn enough fuel to get to 27,000 btu.

Anyway after a couple weeks poking around I found this one eats the most fuel, so went with that. will get into fuel consumption later..

I tested one of the units and it works well.. but because I am heating a large space I cranked it up full blast for an hour and found later that the exhaust pipe nearest to the heater had changed color to blue from the high exhaust heat. I need a heat exchanger to retrieve the heat going outside in the exhaust.

So I bought the 10 meter exhaust, and coiled it up into a flat spiral. I sandwiched the spiraled 10 meter corrugated tube between two sheets of heavy sheet metal, and fixed all that with machine screws. Then I connected the outside end of the spiral to the heater exhaust port, and the center of the spiral I connected to the original exhaust tube and sent that outside. In the center of the spiral tubing assembly outside the sheet metal I fitted a 3" 12v dc computer case fan to pressurize the center of the assembly at the center of the spiraled tubing. Now cool room air is forced over the spiraled tube and it removes heat from the exhaust and sends it into the room.

The exhaust now exits at less than 110 degreesF. I can hold the exhaust tube headed outside in my hand indefinitely, it's warm but not hot even after an hour at full blast.

The heat coming from that home made exchanger is considerable.

Heat saved!

I am gonna add a 160F manual reset hilimit snap disc to the now cool exhaust pipe and put that in series with the fuel pump so if the exchanger fan fails the pipe gets hot and shuts off the fuel.

It worked great! just thought I'd share. BTW, no condensate trouble so far, I only run full blast due to the large space being heated so condensate I don't think will be an issue..

 

[jdfnnl]

Hi, I am having the exact same problem as the OP with this heater installed in a small cabin and yet I am suspecting some moisture may have gotten into the unit (ECU?) via the exhaust port. I was careful to bend the end of the exhaust in an upside-down 'U' at the end so that water would not have an easy way in. Regardless, I had not finished mounting the exhaust properly and some moisture pooled in the low point of the exhaust line just under the heater. It started smelling of incomplete combustion even through the hot air port and wondered how fuel made its way from the combustion chamber to the hot air stream. I decided not to use the heater again until some dry days and after draining the exhaust pipe. But of course I ran into the problem that started this thread. Unfortunately I do not think there is anything that needs resoldering as I have not changed anything with the wiring. Attached is a crude back of envelope sketch that should at least show the geometry involved.

 

[hugemoth]

Water is a product of diesel combustion so it doesn't come in from the outside, it comes from the inside. The exhaust pipe needs to have a downward slope or drain holes drilled at the low points for the water to exit.

 

[Rednecktek]

Right at the bottom of the loop you need to put in the muffler with the hole on the bottom. As mentioned, water is created by the combustion process so it's not so much keeping the water out as understanding there WILL be water in there, you need to give it a way out. Once you have some sort of weep hole in the bottom point I think you'll find that your heater runs much better.

 

[jdfnnl]

Thanks for reminding me about water as a byproduct of combustion as I was wondering how the rain got in the pipe despite the 180 at the top. Maybe I would terminate the exhaust 20 ft downward from the heater, except going up would better ensure it doesn't mix with air for breathing. A small weep hole drilled at the low point makes great sense -- it was not a consideration prior out of concern for keeping the system air tight, though whatever exhaust escapes here would likely be negligible?

 

[jdfnnl]

Any ideas on how to get the unit back running? Here is the screen showing no error codes, though dashes instead of voltage.
There is also a chance there has been insufficient power to the unit when running as I am 300ft from the main breaker panel on a 14 ga extension cord already running about 1000W of power. Though figured the voltage drop shouldn't be a problem since it is stepped down from 110V to 12V.



To avoid a low spot, would people advise running the exhaust simply down and out, maybe buried partway?

 

[Dave in AZ]

Thanks for reminding me about water as a byproduct of combustion as I was wondering how the rain got in the pipe despite the 180 at the top. Maybe I would terminate the exhaust 20 ft downward from the heater, except going up would better ensure it doesn't mix with air for breathing. A small weep hole drilled at the low point makes great sense -- it was not a consideration prior out of concern for keeping the system air tight, though whatever exhaust escapes here would likely be negligible?

Hey... these are clones of the Eberspacher heater. They have a 98pg installation guide. It applies to all these Chinese heaters too, they are just too cheap to provide it. Go download it. You are violating like 3 basic install requirements. This is why Eberspacher charges 3000$ and required professional install.
1. The exhaust tube must go downwards, not bend up.
2. No more than 270 degrees of bend in exhaust total or it inhibits combustion too much
3. NO U BENDS, traps water from exhaust
4. No restrictions to combustion air intake or exhaust...the intake covers provided by chinese filters usually are too restricted
5. Startup demands 120w or so, with voltage nevee dropping below 12.2 or so. That means a 15A dc circuit! A normal cigarette plug only flows 120w but will give voltage drop, which will throw a V error. The barrel plugs, 5521 or 5525, do not flow 120w and will error out. A long wire, often the one it comes with, will give voltage drop on weak dc sources, throwing the V. A bad connection like alligator clips, voltage drop. You need a 12.8v source that can supply 120w, 10Amps, with NO VOLTAGE DROP.

Go watch John McK on youtube. Series of 18 videos on these heaters. And there are several FB groups.

 

[Rednecktek]

A small hole at the bottom of the U is a decent second choice to just having a shorter pipe pointing downwards.

That error you're getting is the voltage dropping too low, as mentioned you'll need 12.8v @ 14a to fire up cleanly and voltage drop is a real factor.

You can do more than 270 degrees if you're really careful to get that weep hole in the right place and start it up on the highest setting to get everything heated up as quickly as possible. I've done it, but it took some fenagling to get everything flowing correctly. It's amazing what a couple degrees off level on that muffler can screw up.

Yeah, I'm a fanboy and have 3 in service at my camp and a portable unit here at yhe house I built.