[Simon Trapani]

Stumbled across this on ebay. What’s the crack? Looks too good to be true but maybe worth a punt for that money? Probably sold now but for future reference, can something like this be retro fitted easily enough?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Window-cleaning-diesel-water-heater-/303856255691

[High-Tower]

I think it’s a 5kw.

[Simon Trapani]

Is that bad?

[NWH]

Put a bid in the cabinet is worth the starting bid,it’s a single user the 5kw look inside the cabinet easy to maintain yourself not like the 9kw.
All the piping has been changed to John Guest standard piping you can get from anywhere,I’m not liking the upright position of the heat exchanger though.

[dazmond]

That's  a 5kw  thermo top C......it doesnt heat the water hot enough to be called a hot water system...

The 9kw thermo pro 90 is what you want if your gonna invest in a diesel heater.....

[NWH]

It does heat the water enough for a single user Daz I used one for years m8 with decent batteries they work well,it’s worth buying for the cabinet alone if you got that cabinet for 500 notes you could go on the Webasto site and buy the complete kit for that for around 1200 notes.
That cabinet doesn’t look anywhere near as heavy as mine was from Varitech the cabinets they put there heaters in are like Sherman tanks way over engineered and like I say are seriously heavy,although it’s a single user you’ll still need 2 batteries that are well looked after and it will supply water hot enough to crack glass trust me.

[Simon Trapani]

What do the batteries do?

[Simon Trapani]

And if you can buy all the parts from Webasto, why can't I get a cabinet made up at a fabricators?

[dd]

NWH is the only person on here who thinks the 5kw version is OK. Why does he now use the 9kw version?

(I use the term "person" loosely in describing NWH, my theory is that he is a Russian spambot gone wrong).

[NWH]

The 9 kw gets a lot hotter therefore can be used as a 2 man system and yeah you could get a fabricator to make you one you just need a tray for the heat exchanger and a hole drilled in the side so the main unit can sit off the bottom of the cabinet.
I had one of these for 10 years and they work well but just like any diesel heater they need good battery supply they’ll drain em like a porn star,my opinion if you can get that between 4-500 you haven’t done bad no more though if the main heaters going it would make more sense to buy the whole kit rather than just the heater unit,it would work out cheaper.

[NWH]

Just looked at that cabinet again it’s inferior quality to the Varitech one,I would say that starting to bid would be about right I wouldn’t pay a lot more.

[dazmond]

NWH is the only person on here who thinks the 5kw version is OK. Why does he now use the 9kw version?

(I use the term "person" loosely in describing NWH, my theory is that he is a Russian spambot gone wrong).

Years ago all he ever did was moan his old 5kw heater didnt get his water hot enough!

[NWH]

The main thing I needed that I didn’t have was a decent charging system,a normal split charging system is not enough unless you are prepared to run a charger into the van every night or lug the batteries in forget a heater.
These heaters need a plug in system I just get home plug into the side of the van and forget about it so the batteries stay in top condition,even the 5kw heater will kill the batteries if they aren’t charged up.

[Spruce]

Stumbled across this on ebay. What’s the crack? Looks too good to be true but maybe worth a punt for that money? Probably sold now but for future reference, can something like this be retro fitted easily enough?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Window-cleaning-diesel-water-heater-/303856255691

Personally saying, its not the best put together. Looks like all the white plastic pipe work is a botched add on.

The water circulation pump has been removed from the webasto unit and just left hanging in the pipe work. It just doesn't look professional.

I once priced up a cabinet as well as an electrical cabinet and they were both about £500 to buy.  So when NHW says that the unit is worth £495 for the cabinet alone I would agree.

A 5kw heater will work for a single operator. It raised my water temps from 9 degrees to 35 degrees. It could have got to a higher temperature at the brush head had I reduced the water flow a bit.

[Smudger]

The main thing I needed that I didn’t have was a decent charging system,a normal split charging system is not enough unless you are prepared to run a charger into the van every night or lug the batteries in forget a heater.
These heaters need a plug in system I just get home plug into the side of the van and forget about it so the batteries stay in top condition,even the 5kw heater will kill the batteries if they aren’t charged up.

So to be clear your 5kw system needed charging every night so you brought a 9 kw system to charge every night .....

Darran

[P @ F]

As you know I run my Chinese water heater which is far less power hungry than this type here .
Mine will use about 6 amps per hour with the pump , I wouldn’t entertain trying to get 2 days from it without a full charge

[NWH]

The main thing I needed that I didn’t have was a decent charging system,a normal split charging system is not enough unless you are prepared to run a charger into the van every night or lug the batteries in forget a heater.
These heaters need a plug in system I just get home plug into the side of the van and forget about it so the batteries stay in top condition,even the 5kw heater will kill the batteries if they aren’t charged up.

So to be clear your 5kw system needed charging every night so you brought a 9 kw system to charge every night .....

Darran

Hi Smudger thanks for that comment I bet you are a lovely bloke aren’t you,I can’t imagine staff talking about you behind your back for a minute m8

[NWH]

As you know I run my Chinese water heater which is far less power hungry than this type here .
Mine will use about 6 amps per hour with the pump , I wouldn’t entertain trying to get 2 days from it without a full charge

This is the thing people don’t see when they buy these you must having welll charged batteries,if you go out after a full day and don’t put them on charge for the next it’ll power on for an hour or so and just keep turning off.

[NWH]

You either need to buy one of these and get it installed or start off with looking for a cabinet like this particular one and just keep it till you are ready to put the new kit in it.
I’ve seen these installed on a ply board it doesn’t look great tbh although it can be done especially with the 5kw version as you can see there’s very few parts required.

[Simon Trapani]

Don’t want to revisit the debates of hot & cold of the past but there has to be a more affordable way of somebody getting hot system addons to market whilst still looking professional. I just can’t justify 5 grand odd per van. A grand or two maybe.

And yes I’m aware of  L5’s, immersions & P@F’s system.

I just want a professional looking diy hotbox install for a more reasonable price.