[Video] 2KW Diesel Heater Install

sipma02

Currently full time in the van
We took the van camping for 3 nights for my birthday. We used the heater on the last night as it got down to 33F. It kept the van warm and toasty @ ~75F. Worked amazingly. I opened our vent fan, set it to pull air in at the lowest speed, and just cracked the window on my side of the bed. The heater stayed on low almost the whole night, as the temp dropped it would ramp up to bring the van back up to temp and then idle at low. Also, the odd smell it initially had when test running it is gone. Very pleased. I should be getting my AfterBurner controller in the next week or so as well, going through customs in NY right now.

Now I've just gotta decide where the heck I am going to mount the controller haha.

Happy birthday!

That’s great news. I forgot if you went into detail, but what do you have for insulation again?
 

JoeyB

Active member
Happy birthday!

That’s great news. I forgot if you went into detail, but what do you have for insulation again?
I spray foamed our van with FoamItGreen. Worth mentioning though, the front cab is totally uninsulated and there was not even a divider on our camp trip, I believe even with minimal insulation the heater could keep you warm in 30F temperatures, but it'd run higher more often.

From what I've read on the Facebook group for these heaters, if you're planning to be under 0F often it's best to get a 5kw.
 

brokengranite

Hold my beer, watch this
Just came across this thread, I ordered a 2kw back in November but havnt installed it yet. No aux fuel tap which means I gotta drop the tank and add one.

I also ordered an Afterburner which showed up last week so Im even more excited to get this installed and start playing with it. Biggest reason for the Afterburner was being able to tune at higher elevations and being able to see the burn temps.
 

OChrisJonesO

Chris Jones
We took the van camping for 3 nights for my birthday. We used the heater on the last night as it got down to 33F. It kept the van warm and toasty @ ~75F. Worked amazingly. I opened our vent fan, set it to pull air in at the lowest speed, and just cracked the window on my side of the bed. The heater stayed on low almost the whole night, as the temp dropped it would ramp up to bring the van back up to temp and then idle at low. Also, the odd smell it initially had when test running it is gone. Very pleased. I should be getting my AfterBurner controller in the next week or so as well, going through customs in NY right now.

Now I've just gotta decide where the heck I am going to mount the controller haha.
Please report back on the experience with the afterburner! Considering adding one myself given that most of the things in my van have some sort of "smart home" aspect to them (be it bluetooth, wifi, or full on Google/Alexa integration) and the heater is one of the most important ones that currently does not. I'd love to be able to warm the van up remotely (well from my phone, from wherever... my heater came with a digital remote but it only works within range :bash:)
 

JoeyB

Active member
Please report back on the experience with the afterburner! Considering adding one myself given that most of the things in my van have some sort of "smart home" aspect to them (be it bluetooth, wifi, or full on Google/Alexa integration) and the heater is one of the most important ones that currently does not. I'd love to be able to warm the van up remotely (well from my phone, from wherever... my heater came with a digital remote but it only works within range :bash:)
Will do!

Here is a copy of the email giving some more details on the options of the afterburner:

I have 2 options for the Afterburner, all prices are in AUD:
Basic unit in a case, no GPIO (General Purpose I/O) : $90
Unit in a case with Full GPIO (single analogue input + 2 Digital
inputs and outputs): $110.
Tracked P&H to the US is $30.

The GPIO extension allows you to attach external switches, or indicators/relays.
A momentary switch input can be used to start or stop the heater or
even use an external thermostat.
The outputs can be set as user controlled, so you could turn on a
light for instance.
I know of one person using the analogue input to read a fuel sender in
his diesel tank.

Other than the ability to use the GPIO functions, the ability to
remotely control, timers, special features etc remains consistent
across both variants.

MQTT functionality is a recent addition which makes it a real IoT
device where you can control and monitor your unit over the Internet.


Temperature sensing is via a 1m leaded sensor.
I provide a cable to adapt the Afterburner to your existing loom, is
yours triangular or round?
Also I have black or white cases; with black, grey, blue, red or white
buttons - your choice!
Please advise your preference.
Just came across this thread, I ordered a 2kw back in November but havnt installed it yet. No aux fuel tap which means I gotta drop the tank and add one.

I also ordered an Afterburner which showed up last week so Im even more excited to get this installed and start playing with it. Biggest reason for the Afterburner was being able to tune at higher elevations and being able to see the burn temps.
Indeed. You may had known this, but the gold/blue lcd chinese controllers can account for altitude already (just sharing in case another user doesn't know)
With any of the LCD controllers, you can unlock the settings and adjust the pump/air ratio to account for elevation -- the rule I have seen is 4% less fuel (or 4% more air) per 1000ft in elevation should do the trick
 
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brokengranite

Hold my beer, watch this
Over the weekend I bench tested the heater with the supplied rotary controller. Fired up just fine and ran it for 30 minutes with no issues. Later we got the heater mounted in the van, we set the heater more outbound inside the pedestal, it was a tight squeeze but got it all hooked up. I didnt like the idea of having the intake hose directly above the vans exhaust pipe.

Next weekend we'll drop the tank and install the aux fuel tap and get this thing all wired up under its own power.

Indeed. You may had known this, but the gold/blue lcd chinese controllers can account for altitude already (just sharing in case another user doesn't know)
With any of the LCD controllers, you can unlock the settings and adjust the pump/air ratio to account for elevation -- the rule I have seen is 4% less fuel (or 4% more air) per 1000ft in elevation should do the trick
I was originally looked at the LCD controllers, but had heard varying results about the altitude compensation, I think Ray Jones even states that it doesnt do anything when he looked at the coding. Ultimately the best way to tune these is by monitoring the body temp which none of the standard controllers can do, so the Afterburner is a no brainer, plus Im just psyched to support guys like Ray who have dedicated so much of his time to these silly heaters.

 
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Cwhite87

Member
So I'm curious can one simply swap out fuel pumps to have access to a feed tube if they wanted to install one. Even tho there van didnt come factory with one in the front.
 

JoeyB

Active member
So I'm curious can one simply swap out fuel pumps to have access to a feed tube if they wanted to install one. Even tho there van didnt come factory with one in the front.
You need to install a fuel tap into the top of the tank where the factory tap would be installed. There are plenty of threads on here about it:

https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44013
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12706
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62096
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79643
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53476
 

Midwestdrifter

Engineer In Residence
If you buy/find/have a fuel tank sender assembly with the Aux tap, you can simply swap that onto the fuel tank (or swap the fuel tanks complete). Note that this only applies if the two vans are both the same engine (612/647).

Otherwise you can install a fuel pickup tube. Both require dropping the tank sadly.
 

brokengranite

Hold my beer, watch this
Update...

We dropped the fuel tank and added a fuel tap, it was a good amount of work, but nothing overly difficult.

This past weekend I ran the wiring to the heater and got everything buttoned up. Fired it up and ran fine. My only issue is theres kind of a "smell" to it. Ive done a fair bit of searching and it seems that its normal and just needs some time to burn off. Anyone else experience this?
 

JoeyB

Active member
Update...

We dropped the fuel tank and added a fuel tap, it was a good amount of work, but nothing overly difficult.

This past weekend I ran the wiring to the heater and got everything buttoned up. Fired it up and ran fine. My only issue is theres kind of a "smell" to it. Ive done a fair bit of searching and it seems that its normal and just needs some time to burn off. Anyone else experience this?
They always smell a bit for the first 20 hours or so. As long as there is no smoke, and your eyes aren't burning.
Basically what midwestdrifter said is true. I even had a slight smell after running mine for 3 hours. I thought maybe I did not get it tightened down enough under the van, but when we took the van camping a couple weeks later we used the heater and there was no smell or fumes, so I think it just took a while to burn off/dissipate.
 

GSWatson

2013 144
Same experience. My guess is it’s something like the casting release fluid in the aluminum that’s burning off. I ran mine on medium with the doors open for about half the day and it seemed to burn everything off. Now no smell whatsoever.




Cheers,
Greg
 

brokengranite

Hold my beer, watch this
Thanks guys,

Thats what I assumed. Ive only run it a few times and only for 30 minutes or so testing it out. Next step is to install the Afterburner and figure out all the features!
 

esmattcrna

New member
5Kw Chinese Heater and Yeti 1400 issue- HELP

Curious. I Have mounted my Chinese heater in the standard fashion, under the front passenger seat.

My problem:
I have a Yeti 1400 battery. The 12v panel on the Yeti will cycle off, and show a RED indicator, on occasion. Either at the warm up or shut down cycle of the heater. This occurs randomly and at other times the heater powers up/down with no issue with the Yeti 1400.

With the harness routing, it would be easy to drop the HOT lead to the actual vehicle fuse panel and not even utilize the Yeti (its independent of the van power).

Any thoughts on

1. Whats causing the 12v portion of the Yeti to turn RED and shut down?
2. Thoughts on wiring direct to the Van fuse panel/battery?

Any help would be appreciated.

Ed
 

JoeyB

Active member
Re: 5Kw Chinese Heater and Yeti 1400 issue- HELP

Curious. I Have mounted my Chinese heater in the standard fashion, under the front passenger seat.

My problem:
I have a Yeti 1400 battery. The 12v panel on the Yeti will cycle off, and show a RED indicator, on occasion. Either at the warm up or shut down cycle of the heater. This occurs randomly and at other times the heater powers up/down with no issue with the Yeti 1400.

With the harness routing, it would be easy to drop the HOT lead to the actual vehicle fuse panel and not even utilize the Yeti (its independent of the van power).

Any thoughts on

1. Whats causing the 12v portion of the Yeti to turn RED and shut down?
2. Thoughts on wiring direct to the Van fuse panel/battery?

Any help would be appreciated.

Ed
The heater pulls about 9-10A on start up for the glow plug. I looked up the manual and it seems all the ports on the Yeti 1400 max at 10 amps except the Power Pole ports which are rated for 20 amps. You could try shortening the cables to the heater to lower voltage drop and see if that helps (lower voltage is compensated by slightly higher amperage). Your overall best bet is to rewire it to the power pole ports, though.


I personally wouldn't wire it to your starter battery but others do it without issue. After it starts it just powers the fan, which should be okay if you're starting your vehicle at least 1x per day to recharge
 
G

gassyjack

Guest
Skip to 0:50 to get to the good stuff (first 30-40 seconds is me revealing the new Monstaliner paint job lol).
Thanks for the video on the heater install. I am doing the same right now. The question I have has to do with getting the heater level - front to back. Did you just mount it to the floor and not worry about the slight tilt on the floor or did you raise one end of the heater? What did you use for this, if you did? Thanks John
 

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