Diesel camper van type heaters for workshop - any advise ?

[jamesd1972]

Thinking of adding a heater to the workshop - it's old and a bit damp and adding some heat will help things, know some of you have experience of these camper van type diesel air heaters and wondered if I could look for recommendations.



This sort of thing:


www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166394366638?itmmeta=01HT5FVSXB1R34ETCQBZ263N22&hash=item26bde08aae:g:kTAAAOSwhM5lriNr&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4FjgJpE5Loz1Ai68QjbBMQI4aObLl6ZU%2Fa9AXPF12KbpvLyKyg5XPgM2v9gO3VvUPc8gHZgRZqyQcDHdr6yNdGdkbvzrLeBcqcEMMGZl5K0GhIKgNO%2FWRkmYfQ9ACMzPZU3kNGvjlo5cDV2emiEW%2Fbst8KHzhQ1NT14HuOQPeIUiVcfsQzmUBkdvGdwppUt5AA6Ht9B6Od%2BRVbObkuNDFy7rtqS3%2BcoLXRIi5g8A1uUjrIGZOQZed%2F2r8y%2BG3UD8wB5uL%2FJNfQLV1riluFnLigmSOPQ6l4UA%2B0Ruyxqd40jg%7Ctkp%3ABFBM1p_vr9Fj

glenanderson you've used one of these haven't you ?

Thanks James

[redratbike]

loads of people have done it go look at the garage build threads as lots of info within those posts or try a search

here’s one
forum.retro-rides.org/thread/212380/building-timber-garage-workshop?page=8

[madwrx]

going to get expensive to run long term at £7.00 a gallon

[glenanderson]

Yes, I have one of those. If you look towards the end of the “why my Austin isn’t finished” thread you’ll find out about it.

It’s pretty good. Factor in a battery and trickle charger to use as a power supply.

You don’t need to use pump diesel, you can use red, kerosene, heating oil or paraffin in them, whatever you can pick up really.

[jamesd1972]

Mar 29, 2024 21:39:23 GMT glenanderson said:

Yes, I have one of those. If you look towards the end of the “why my Austin isn’t finished” thread you’ll find out about it.

It’s pretty good. Factor in a battery and trickle charger to use as a power supply.

You don’t need to use pump diesel, you can use red, kerosene, heating oil or paraffin in them, whatever you can pick up really.

Thanks for the reply Glen, did try a search but didn’t come up with much. 
How many amps needed ? I have some chunky 18v computer power supply transformers kicking about so hoping that might work within the 12-24v bit nicely.
on heating oil here so 60p litre ish will make a big difference over diesel as well.
James 

[glenanderson]

They need about 10-12 amps to start up, as the glow plug is pretty hungry. However, once they’re running it drops down to about 1 amp.

The big issue is that they rely on having a power supply to run their cooling circuit when you power them down. If you run them off a transformer and you have a power cut, they will just melt.

[crockpot]

I have one in my workshop. If you don't have insulation don't expect miracles but it's welcome heat on a cold day.
I don't use a lot of heating oil, 20 to 30 litres gets me through winter and that's with wifey having one in her craft room (it's the conservatory but it's her's now).

[jamesd1972]

Noted on the start up / power cut situation, there is an old car battery kicking about somewhere so can see what charge it will hold.
Thanks everyone will report back on progress.
James

[mollydog1]

Here’s a link to my fitting one of these Chinese Diesel heaters in my timber garage

I can honestly say they do work in keeping my garage warm, but my garage is very well insulated, apart from if it’s on full power the slight noise it makes soon get used to it and not noticeable after some time

forum.retro-rides.org/thread/212380/building-timber-garage-workshop?page=7

I have both the all in one and the separated heater, I’ve not fixed the all in one heater up (yet)

I hope the link is of help to you

[quaggers]

I've got one in my freestanding single garage. It's single skinned brick with a flat roof and no insulation. When it's around zero outside it can daily easily get the garage up to 15 or so degrees in an hour or so.

I bought a "triclicks" branded kit, which is mounted to a board screwed to the wall inside the garage. Combustion air intake and exhaust gas are routed out through the wall. On full chat it sounds like a small jet engine from the outside, inside it's like having a large fan on.

Things I have changed so far:

The standard silencers really do very little to silence anything and are literally just have a spring inside and a tiny sheet of some kind of silencing material. I drilled out the spot welds, stuffed with rockwool and rivetted back together. This made a marked improvement to the noise.

The standard ribbed exhaust also doesn't help. After reading about on it, I swapped this for some spiral walled tube which is more like the legit weber/eberspacher hose. This cut noise a bit more.

I bought an "afterburner" control unit for it. This is the best thing I have done as it gives you all kinds of control, including remote monitoring.

From the afterburner stats I can see that I use on average about 240ml an hour (running pump diesel).







David mcluckie has a lot of interesting stuff to watch on YouTube.

[caprijake]

I run one in my garage. I hacked an old PC power supply apart and soldered up the 12v rails to deliver the power.
I have connected it to a battery, but this solution is easier for me, i don't need a battery and a charger hooked up all the time and it was free for me.
Run it up an hour or so before i start and nicely just knocks the cold off in my double garage in the area I'm working in to make it comfortable

[jamesd1972]

Have bought one and will report back on progress!
Thanks everyone for your helpful input.
James

[jamesd1972]

So I ended up with a Triclicks one as well as the reviews seemed ok and was mentioned in dispatches above.








Busy working out how to fit to the wall. Had some ideal length dexion so have mocked together. Actually found my pot of dexion nuts and bolts and after a small re-shuffle had all one type - 1/2” bsc (or af as I would call it) rather than a mix with whitworth ones.

Have started with the long side under the unit as the short side gives access to the side clamps.
Having dwelt on it I’m going to swap this and use the long side sitting below the unit to give some protection for the exhaust as the holes in the feet match up with holes on the dexion to secure it.
James

[jamesd1972]

Original version against revised version to protect exhaust.




And revised revised version using another piece of dexion to give triangulation and protection.
James

[glenanderson]

Looking good. 👍

Pop the cover off and double check the tightness of all the electrical and fuel connections before you fire it up.

[jamesd1972]

Mostly I overthink and over-plan stuff and get stressed working about the best options.
Other times like this I get stuck in thinking I want this done it'll be OK.
It wasn't the exhaust was too far from the wall and it poked out too much.
Rethink time. At least with dexion I just undid it all !
James

[jamesd1972]

So after drilling into the stone we got here #4. Fail, too close to the wall to open catches.




So we are now on version # 5 by flipping the wall bracket.



Which appears to be about there.




Hole drilled for exhaust, thinking of sealing joints / gaps with silicone unless anybody thinks this is stupid...
To be continued.James

[welshpug]

silicone no, heat resistant sealant definitely.

[glenanderson]

Silicon will be plenty heat resistant enough.

[jamesd1972]

Having looked it up it seems that std silicon is Ok up to 250c so on balance should work to seal the outside face.
Got to set up the power supply and siphon some heating oil tomorrow so we can give it a go.
Need to get some drying heat on the go as with no damp proof and it being so wet stuff is getting damp and damaged in there.
James