Diesel (vented) Heaters

[GypsyDogs]

Seriously considering replacing the oooooold suburban propane heater with a diesel vented heater. Going to explore the heater cubby and see if I can delete and replace to save on space. Looking at various affordable models and pretty well targeted on a 2kw or 3kw size.  Hoping to find one that uses some sort of standardized parts. I know a few brands are stupid-proprietary... :/

I am a huge believer in Not saturating my interior with exhaust-water, and not wasting a bunch of ah on the suburban heater/fan..

Wondering if any of you here have any experience with these little beasties?

[Gr8ful]

When I bought mine about 2 years ago I foumd 5kw was way more popular, cheaper & seemed parts were more universal for the 5kw. Also my ambo has water heat to the rear from the engine so I plan to use an air to water heater convertor as shown in the link at the bottom. I just looked at Ebay & they have more 2kw than before but the price is about the same & you can turn them down. You want to turn it on high for a couple minutes before you shut it off. Also Eberspaecher cost much more but made in china also. I would go over it & seal any wires, check conections & do a quality check before installing. The 2nd you tube shows how the water heater works. You can heat the water from the exaust in the winter & from the hot air in warm months. There are you tubes on both & kits available. Even underfloor heat is possible.

[Blacktank]

pretty sure those diesel/gas heaters have a blower too

your suburban is vented so no interior moisture,the blower does suck up 5+ amps,propane burns cleaner and doesnt smell as much as diesel,i like mine,sure wish i could get a more efficient blower though but for quick heat its great

[worth]

My Suburban RV furnace does not vent water vapor into my van. The propane doesn't risk spill while filling nor does it stink up gloves or clothing. The propane exhaust doesn't stink.

[tx2sturgis]

Since all of the cheap chinese bunk heaters (trucking name for the good ones) have reliability reputations that are unknown and parts availability is next to zero anywhere on the road...and when (not if) they do fail, it will be at 3AM when it's minus 5 windchill outside and you are 63.8 miles from anywhere with parts, electrical plug-ins, propane, fuel, food, or a 24 hour facility where you can go in and at least warm up...here is my advice:

Keep the functional, existing propane furnace as backup, and then buy TWO identical bunk heater units so you will have an entire backup supply of parts and components....install one of the units in another space somewhere and keep the spare unit boxed up and ready to scavenge from when needed.

But now you need to carry two or possibly three different fuels...

[Gr8ful]

Ther's no moisture problem because the diesel heaters draw air from the outside & vent to the outside. They are made to tap into your fuel tank & they make a gasoline unit if you have a gas engine so no handling or smell. I'll keep a spare fuel pump & wall controller as spares but doubt I'll ever use them. I'll try to find the article but a high $$ boat forum that ran the $1500+ name brands tested the cheap chinese ones & if I recall there were almost 1000 people voted 80%-90% for the chinese ones. Amazon shows plenty of parts as does Ebay & any place working on trucks I bet. Amazon is next day for me. I'm very careful with propane as it goes down & fills up until you have a huge fire before you can smell it. I had a forklift regulator go bad in the shop & all of a sudden everything was 4' fire. Lost leg & arm hair & nearly the whole 52'x84' shop & me. We've all seen complete houses explode from a partial 20# tank on the news. Diesel is much much safe.

[tx2sturgis]

Amazon shows plenty of parts as does Ebay & any place working on trucks I bet. 

Yes obviously you can buy parts online...or maybe not... in three years..or 5 years...or 2 weeks....the exact part that you need for 'zhengoui' brand or whatever....who knows. 

The point is that when they quit working is exactly the worst time for them to quit working. I spent more than 20 years in trucks equipped with the top-of-the-line bunk heaters and APUs and trust me, they fail when you really need them to be working. They have proprietary parts and connectors, and electronic controls and all of that stuff needs to be working or they go into fail-safe mode and shut down.

You need a backup heat source.....or at least be willing to idle your engine for cab heat on the day you are stuck in 2 feet of snow and the bunk heater quits at 3 am and it's minus 5 windchill.

I'm guessing that Jeff Bezos won't be delivering an ignitor module or electronic control board for your heater in his cute little Amazon Van at 3:30 am in the middle of nowhere when the heater stops working.

[Gr8ful]

No worry 1st I'll never be where it's that cold, that's why I'm getting out of Michigan. 2nd I have front & rear heat from the engine so I'm all set & refuse to sleep where there's propane open. Every year hunters & others die from propane heaters. I lost a cabin & almost 4 friends from a gas leak. Looks like you believe propane heaters never fail. I have a 5 mile bridge I'll make you a killer deal on. I'd rather have a diesel smell from a leak than to be dead by gas or explosion but it's your call & mine what we use.

[Blacktank]

propane can go boom but so can most things,the smell they add will let you know if the tiniest leak happens,glad i added an exterior little run for a quick connect so i can cook outside,i only turn it on when i am using it,have suburban propane,marine coal stove,electric space heat and the ability to drive somewhere warmer

thousands and thousands of rv's and homes use propane,common sense is your friend

[Gr8ful]

For $15 now you can get a LP leak detector which I'd highly recomend as when the forklift thing happened I was standing next to it but smelled nothing as the odor go's down. An RV goes down bumpy rds, many are plumbed with copper all below nose level. Spend the money & buy a detector & 2 exrtinuishers one size bigger than you think you need. Here's the stats. Approximately 3000 propane fires and explosions are reported yearly. More than 9% of these cases result in bodily injury, and the mortality rate is more than 7% of the injured.