[wightsurf]

How much , does anyone know ?

[robert mitchell]

there are prices at boat chandlers for their boat heating versions , i would imagine this version should be cheaper as it doesn't ned the remote control etc

[robert mitchell]

just out of interest , what part of the island are you from?

I used to live there and still have family in east cowes.

[wightsurf]

The Capital - Newport 

[robert mitchell]

Are the two crappy little nightclubs still there ?

one by the library was called 2bs and then there was booker t's by the church?

[wightsurf]

The Church is now ummm, a night club lol, or was ,think it shut down and reopened.
2bs has changedhands and names sooo many times now I cant remember what it was last called.

As always things are pretty much the same, mind you we are trying to catch the mainland up with traffic lights 
And still ripping everyone off on ferry charges !

[robert mitchell]

my son lives over there and i must have spent many thousands coming over to the island over the last ten years -rip off and crap service but there is no alternative.

[Spruce]

It would seem in the boating world some people are finding the webasto to run a lot better by mixing diesel mix with kerosen50/50

Spruce do you know anything of this ?

I don't, sorry. At one time the only mixture that Webasto seemed OK with was a 50/50 mix of diesel and biodiesel. I see that that ratio has been reduced in the latest brochures to 20% biodiesel and 80% diesel. They don't say anything about Kerosene/paraffin. They use the name diesel in the Marine brochures - not Red Diesel for the UK.

Hurricane say that their unit will run on everything including Kerosene and gas oil (Red Diesel).

On one of the forums a 'marine heating engineer' says that he has failures with all makes of diesel heaters including Hurricane.
What he won't know is what the proportion of heater failures are when compared to units in service. For example, if that service engineer is called to repair 50 Webasto faulty units, then he may conclude that these Webasto heaters aren't very good. In the same time he may have to attend to 3 Hurricane heaters. But if there are 1000 Webasto's in service and 10 Hurricanes, then you have to conclude the Webasto is a better unit. The heating engineer doesn't see the whole picture.

[wightsurf]

The one thing I do know is , you mention the word boat and the price goes up.

[Rayleigh Window Cleaning Services]

This is another view of a heat exchanger

Could a mixer valve be used on this type heater exchanger to adjust water temperature ?

Steve

[Spruce]

This is another view of a heat exchanger

Could a mixer valve be used on this type heater exchanger to adjust water temperature ?

Steve

Definitely. You need to be able to regulate the temperature automatically going to the brush and the mixer valve is one of the best ways of doing this.

[Rayleigh Window Cleaning Services]

Spruce or anyone who may know,

With mixer valve fitted to heat exchanger, should the water flow and pressure remain roughly the same?

Steve

[windowswashed]

Here is the hurricane heater , supposed to run on red diesel  etc with no problems and be for for intermittent use .


http://www.dieselheating.com

I use to use one of them ITR diesel heaters. Heats the water to about 60 degrees. After a while the heater does start to produce smoke at the exhaust point. I use to run mine on red diesel from a separate small fuel tank solely to run red diesel for the heater.

Another option is a lot more complicated but uses similar principles by installing a twin coil indirect boat calorifier tank and you obtain the free heat from the van's radiator which is circulated through the twin coils inside the calorifier tank along the same principles as a glorified, well insulated radiator which heats up the stored DI water stored inside the calorifer.

You circulate the heated DI water from the calorifier to your wfp tank with a simple 12 volt pump to add more heat to your wfp tank which then pumps more replacement cold water back into the calorifer tank which can then be heated again. Only warning with this is you need car radiator hoses for the the pipes connected to the twin coil fittings as they get up to about 90 degrees. The heated DI water can easily reach 90 degrees if left running for a considerable time as well.

I have insulated all my hoses and my WFP tank so any heat put in my tank is about 80 percent retained over 24 hours. I don't use hot water anymore as I find 20-38 degrees is sufficient to remove most soiled windows quickly without the risk of cracking sealed window units in extremely cold winter months.

If you take the time to google heat sources there is a wealth of information there for the taking like I had to do quite a few years back.

[Spruce]

Spruce or anyone who may know,

With mixer valve fitted to heat exchanger, should the water flow and pressure remain roughly the same?

Steve

When I tested mine out I found very little difference - it was hardly noticable. I was concerned about this as Nat Jones 'threw' his off when he tried it. I have a 1/2" Saracen C20253 unit with non return valves on the hot and cold inlet side.

My only concern with this valve is that it is to spec TMV3 which is designed primarily as a anti hot water scalding device for the NHS to be used in hospitals. My feeling in that it hasn't a low enough water temperature adjustment for our winter needs. I have also considered a shower mixer valve as some of them can be adjusted down to 20 degrees. They are easier to operate IMO as well.

I haven't found the supplier of the one supplied in the 'free heat' unit - it appears to be the same mixer valve as used on this heat exchanger

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WEBASTO-or-EBERSPACHER-Instant-Hot-Water-Heat-Exchanger-with-Mixer-Valve-/271200647299?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CommercialVehicleParts_SM&hash=item3f24d17883#ht_995wt_1399

£89.65 seems rather expensive for this mixer valve although it is the one used by the diesel heaters supplied by some suppliers.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WEBASTO-or-EBERSPACHER-Instant-Hot-Water-Heat-Exchanger-Mixer-Valve-Kit-/290957122518?pt=UK_Campervan_Caravan_Accessories&hash=item43be655bd6#ht_882wt_1399

[Spruce]

Here is the hurricane heater , supposed to run on red diesel  etc with no problems and be for for intermittent use .


http://www.dieselheating.com

I use to use one of them ITR diesel heaters. Heats the water to about 60 degrees. After a while the heater does start to produce smoke at the exhaust point. I use to run mine on red diesel from a separate small fuel tank solely to run red diesel for the heater.

Another option is a lot more complicated but uses similar principles by installing a twin coil indirect boat calorifier tank and you obtain the free heat from the van's radiator which is circulated through the twin coils inside the calorifier tank along the same principles as a glorified, well insulated radiator which heats up the stored DI water stored inside the calorifer.

You circulate the heated DI water from the calorifier to your wfp tank with a simple 12 volt pump to add more heat to your wfp tank which then pumps more replacement cold water back into the calorifer tank which can then be heated again. Only warning with this is you need car radiator hoses for the the pipes connected to the twin coil fittings as they get up to about 90 degrees. The heated DI water can easily reach 90 degrees if left running for a considerable time as well.

I have insulated all my hoses and my WFP tank so any heat put in my tank is about 80 percent retained over 24 hours. I don't use hot water anymore as I find 20-38 degrees is sufficient to remove most soiled windows quickly without the risk of cracking sealed window units in extremely cold winter months.

If you take the time to google heat sources there is a wealth of information there for the taking like I had to do quite a few years back.

I looked at using a calorifier has a heat source. I wanted my diesel heater to heat the contents in the tank and use to heat exchanger in the calorifier to heat the water to the brush head. I contacted each calorfier manufacturer and none believed the heat exchanger would 'zap' the heat quick enough even using the twin coils in series.

This is a big issue with the boating world as the diesel heater produces more heat than the heat exchangers in the calorifier will transfer which causes the boilers to cycle. They also all advise that heating a calorifier with engine coolant will heat the hot water in 20 minutes. This is rubbish.

Another issue is that you have to travel some miles to heat that water up - most of us don't. My van rarely gets to normal operating temperature in the winter.

Another point in using the calorifier as a heat source is the anount of antifreeze needed to protect the calorifier is quite a lot. Antifreeze is rather expensive - 5 litres cost me £17.99 from our local parts supplier. 

[Spruce]

It would seem in the boating world some people are finding the webasto to run a lot better by mixing diesel mix with kerosen50/50

Spruce do you know anything of this ?

Webasto do not recommend you run the unit on kerosene. It is some of the marine suppliers that have suggested its okay to use kerosene in Webasto heaters.

[windowswashed]

The antifreeze for the calorifier is what goes through the vans radiator which you would normally add in the winter anyway, think you may be a little confused how to set it up properly for waterfed use. I can assure you if you insulate everything properly you can gain sufficient heat for purpose of window cleaning

[Spruce]

The antifreeze for the calorifier is what goes through the vans radiator which you would normally add in the winter anyway, think you may be a little confused how to set it up properly for waterfed use. I can assure you if you insulate everything properly you can gain sufficient heat for purpose of window cleaning

I understood what you had in mind with the twin coil heat exchangers.  You would utilise the engine heat through the one coil and the other is used the heat the water in the wfp tank. Using the engine heat wouldn't require that much more antifreeze. We wouldn't do enough mileage to warm a calorifier, so in our case it would be a waste of time.

I was just memtioning that I had thought of using the whole calorifier as a heat source; so in effect using the unit the wrong way round. So in this case I wanted to use the diesel heater to heat the whole 22 or more litres in the calorifier, and this would require the addition of a lot of antifreeze.

[windowswashed]

For Spruce:

Think you understand where I'm coming from. I would use a 75 litre calorifier tank, a good quality boat version not the cheaper versions on ebay as they have twice as many fins inside the calorifier to distribute the heat to the stored water better. I insulated the hoses running from the radiator to the calorifier running underneath the vans floorpan as a huge amount of heat is wasted with the car radiator hoses. Insulated my wfp tank to the max so all heat is kept hot all day long and overnight.

A lot of my work is between 20-45 mins away from where I live in the more affluent areas but all compacted into mini rounds which take between 1 and 7 working days to complete so my engine would reach full temperature easily so I was able to take advantage of the free heat from the radiator.

I was looking at fitting a DIY solar water heater on the roof rack for summer use but never got the time to mess around at it but I did it for my transfer tank by mounting two DIY water solar panels on the garage roof which heated the water up before being pumped into van WFP tank.

[Spruce]

For Spruce:

Think you understand where I'm coming from. I would use a 75 litre calorifier tank, a good quality boat version not the cheaper versions on ebay as they have twice as many fins inside the calorifier to distribute the heat to the stored water better. I insulated the hoses running from the radiator to the calorifier running underneath the vans floorpan as a huge amount of heat is wasted with the car radiator hoses. Insulated my wfp tank to the max so all heat is kept hot all day long and overnight.

A lot of my work is between 20-45 mins away from where I live in the more affluent areas but all compacted into mini rounds which take between 1 and 7 working days to complete so my engine would reach full temperature easily so I was able to take advantage of the free heat from the radiator.

I was looking at fitting a DIY solar water heater on the roof rack for summer use but never got the time to mess around at it but I did it for my transfer tank by mounting two DIY water solar panels on the garage roof which heated the water up before being pumped into van WFP tank.

Personally I would try fitting a water to water plate heat exchanger and heating the water directly in the wfp tank. This will cut the calorifier out all together.

Overseas I worked with a guy who had an big indoor swimming pool. He had black pvc coiled pipes on the roof of an outside single garage and that kept the water in his pool at about 22 degrees all through the winter. During summer he bypassed the system. The house was built on the side of a hill covering 3 stories and the heat of the pool kept the house warm as well.

This was in Johannesburg with a fairly warmish winter day temperature of around 17 to 18 degrees, although night temperature would drop to freezing.