I will give you a very brief over view. I have installed 4 of them.Thanks for the link, 15 pages may take a while to read.
Does anyone have experience with one of these.
They are useful at any time!I watched that video. According to a lot of the replies, your tests/checks.claims were seriously flawed. I am in agreement with those comments, I’m afraid.
They are a useful form of heating at this time of expensive energy and possible energy shortages - even possible mains outages in the UK this winter.
This is the sort of power supply to get if you have reliable mains power. Be careful terminals are exposed and live!If they work half as well as the opinions state, they seem well worth the money.
I ordered one, so I am now committed.
Thanks to all that replied.
This is the sort of power supply to get if you have reliable mains power. Be careful terminals are exposed and live!
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People turning off my diesel heaters at the mains when they were running used to happen a lot until I pointed out the error of their ways! Never caused any damage although it obviously should be avoided. I don't think it is as bad as you think!But not if they turn off the mains, to save the grid from crashing, this winter. If they do (you can find out when, in your area, from your leccy supplier), do turn off your heater before the grid turns it off at full heat (as that will not do the motherboard any good at all, and may even kill it on the first occurrence).
The battery and ‘float’ battery charger is more cost effective - apart from the initial cost of the battery and charger, maybe. DC power packs run at highest efficiency at near maximum output and are (generally?) lousy at lower powers. Buying a DC power pack at least three times more powerful (for the couple of minutes driving the glow plug at start-up) will leave the user wasting expensive electrical power for all the normal heater run-time. No safety issues either.
Unfortunately, my battery charger cannot be set to auto-charge the battery on cheap E7 leccy because it needs to be turned on manually - so I don’t know whether the cost of buying and running a time switch would be worthwhile, anyway.
I don't think it is as bad as you think!
But I do have the actual experience not just my view! I have 3 running all day long. My first one bought about 3 or 4 years ago!Your view, but as you say you don’t actually know. I don’t have first hand experience, but there are plenty of reported failures, due to this, on the internet.
Some of the electronic components on those motherboards are heat sensitive so the PCB was not installed in a cool air stream for no good reason. The chinese did not follow webasto and eberspacher‘s layout for no good reason, either, and I would prefer to understand their design philosophy rather than guess and get caught out.
Your over-sized power supply from the mains is virtually certain to be rather less efficient than my much smaller float charger (it only needs to be a 3A charger for most users). Leccy cost should not be ignored by anyone fitting these heaters, while trying to save money on heating costs!
Those reading these posts should be able to make up their own minds on which is safest, more economical and less likely to fail suddenly. I know which and why I took the path I did.
How will a 3amp charger run the glow plug that is required for ignition of the fuel. Eberspacher specify a 20amp main fuse. I know the Chinese heater may be slightly different but they operate on the same principle. Using too small a power supply is more likely to cause more issues at start and could damage the power supply. When I first installed the eberspacher I have I used a standard 20amp blade fuse and with the supplied wiring loom and had issues with the fuse body melting changing to a maxi fuse solved the problem. A quick google search for the chinese diesel heater shows the current draw at startup between 10amps and 18ampsYour over-sized power supply from the mains is virtually certain to be rather less efficient than my much smaller float charger (it only needs to be a 3A charger for most users).
I think he meant to keep topping up a 12v battery not power it directly.How will a 3amp charger run the glow plug that is required for ignition of the fuel. Eberspacher specify a 20amp main fuse. I know the Chinese heater may be slightly different but they operate on the same principle. Using too small a power supply is more likely to cause more issues at start and could damage the power supply. When I first installed the eberspacher I have I used a standard 20amp blade fuse and with the supplied wiring loom and had issues with the fuse body melting changing to a maxi fuse solved the problem. A quick google search for the chinese diesel heater shows the current draw at startup between 10amps and 18amps