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Diesel Furnace for FWC Eagle

Furnace Diesel

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#11 Desert Tortoise

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Posted 01 April 2021 - 12:02 AM

Thank you for the propex referral. I'm starting to research all the suggestions here, good thing I have the spring and summer to decide.

I called the dealer in WA. You say not as quiet as diesel, yet I hear noise as diesel's big complaint.


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#12 rando

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Posted 01 April 2021 - 12:25 AM

My previous camper had a Propex, my current camper has the ~2016 Atwood, and one of my regular camping buddies has a Webasto in his van and Chinese diesel heater for his garage.   Of the 3 (or maybe 4), the Atwood is actually the most quiet (or least loud).   I am not sure that is true of the current Atwood, as it seems to use more power than the slightly older ones. 

 

An advantage to the Webasto and Chinese knock off is that they are always on, and just cycle up and down in speed, so while they are louder, it is a more constant noise, so possibly less disruptive to sleep. 

 

On the down side the Webasto is significantly louder than either the Propex or Atwood outside the camper.    I am particularly noise conscious when out in woods, and sometimes feel uncomfortable running our Atwood around tent campers, say in a National Park campground. I would be even more uncomfortable with a diesel heater, but that is just me. 

 

I feel that the Propex fan is actually pretty quiet, but because it funneling a lot of air through a small diameter tube it ends up seeming a little louder than the Atwood.

 

For a really quiet and efficient heater, the Truma Combi seems to be the way to go. 


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#13 Wandering Sagebrush

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 08:19 PM

Chet, no update, but a bit of my experience on Wallas heater/stoves.  I had a 2 burner Wallas in my CDory boat, and the dory community either loved the Wallas or hated it with a passion.  I really liked mine.  What I found was to follow the Wallas operating instructions to the letter.  That includes fuel type and quality, start up and shut down procedures, and ensuring you had sufficient voltage for start up.  Another idiosyncrasy with my model was the need to avoid rapid changes in the heat settings.  
 

Our Wallas had a squirrel cage motor/fan in the lid to distribute heat, but we found an eco fan on the cooler burner plate did a good job of circulating the warm air, and there was no draw on the house battery.

 

Scan Marine in Seattle was the only dealer/repair facility at the time, and repairs could be expensive, as in 1.5 Boat Units ($1500) if you needed to send it in.  If there is a user group for your model, I recommend joining, as there is usually a lot of good information in the using community.  The CBrats (CDory group) has a great deal of information on the model we used.

Edit:  I just checked your link.  That stove/heater looks identical to my Wallas.

 

Second edit:   Our Wallas required a cool down period following turning the switch to off, which required it being wired to an always hot battery bus.  If it is shutdown immediately, the burner gets too much carbon and fuel on the next start.  The exhaust was very smokey when relighted. 


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#14 Vic Harder

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 09:44 PM

I also suspect that your Wallas worked well, at sea level.  Move it to 8000' and I bet it would have issues like other diesel heaters do.  I was very interested in diesel heaters until I discovered their altitude challenges.


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#15 Wandering Sagebrush

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 11:03 PM

I also suspect that your Wallas worked well, at sea level.  Move it to 8000' and I bet it would have issues like other diesel heaters do.  I was very interested in diesel heaters until I discovered their altitude challenges.

Vic, because of the way the diesel is delivered to the burners (I believe it is a high pressure pump), I don’t believe that’s going to be an issue.  A number of the CDory owners have boated at Yellowstone Lake, which is 7700+ feet, and I don’t recall altitude related complaints.

 

I used mine at 4000+ feet without issue.


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#16 Vic Harder

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 01:54 AM

that's awesome... 


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#17 Swaff1

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Posted 04 January 2022 - 05:59 PM

Thank you both for your helpful comments. I will definitely look for a users group to help answer any model specific questions I have - great idea!

 

Regarding burning diesel at altitude - I researched this quite a bit and this is actually one of the reasons I opted to go for the Wallas unit. The unit has built in calibration to operate above 5,000' MSL. Bruce at Scan Marine mentioned he had customers around 10,000' MSL with no reported problems. I guess it will be interesting to see for myself just how well it operates - I will be sure to report my findings.

 

 

I am interested to see this installed in a FWC. Looking for some good diesel alternatives to propane...


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#18 Mighty Dodge Ram

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Posted 04 January 2022 - 11:44 PM

You might want to check out GrizzlyNbear Overland on YouTube. They have a Grandby mounted on a Land Rover 130 and they installed a diesel heater under the right side wing. 


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#19 nikonron

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Posted 22 January 2022 - 11:28 PM

I've recently installed a Espar diesel furnace in my Eagle. Works great. I'm burning kerosene since it burns cleaner and less mess. Ron


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