Diesel Furnace for FWC Eagle

D

Desert Tortoise

Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
16
Location
Watsonville, CA
I am looking for a replacement furnace for my Atwood, something that will fit into the same space.
I love the Atwood but it is unreliable and repeated attempts to repair have me looking for a replacement.
I've researched several and am looking closely at Diesel Furnaces. A friend has a $150. Chinese one
that seems to work well.
Comments on these would be much appreciated.
thank you!
 
I have no personal experience with the Chinese diesel heaters but I have been reading about them. The only caveat I have read about for an interior installation is the ticking of the fuel pump. Outside, it may not be an issue but it is worth consideration if you are a light sleeper on a cold night.

Paul
 
I've used Webasto and Espar heaters in my Transit vans.
The fuel pumps can be quite loud and are tough to silence- if that is even possible.
The fuel pumps are typically mounted outside near the fuel source- still loud- can't imagine one inside.

Personally I am unwilling to trust a $150 heater with my life, hence the Webasto and Espars.
 
I have installed a diesel heater in our flatbed hawk. I have had both forced air propane and now a diesel heater. We use the FWC all winter skiing and traveling and am very satisfied. I put a mid range priced heater in and carry a few spare parts and never have replaced parts yet. The fuel pump is a noisy ticking sound,,,I installed it outside under the flatbed itself and i can hear it if listen hard and its not a bother to me. I like to hear it I use that as a assement tool while its operating. The air intake and exaust is outside and I clean it regularly and carry a spare air intake filter I built a metal shroud around the filter with plenty of space around it. there is so much sloppy wet snow and sand and glop that undercoats the rig on winter trips.
One struggle we all have is space to put things in our campers and in a flatbed felt like I had lots of room to install one (after four peeps and a dog in the winter in a fleet slide in....boys refused to sleep in a tent!!). I caution you if you decide to install one give yourself room to do maintanence and repair work. The forced air propane you can pop the plate off outside to get at it( sailswitch and reset butten). I think you would be hard pressed to pop the top off the case and to work on it in the space of the old furnace. I thought hard about mounting it either inside or outside and opted for inside. I think outside is a viable option as well .
I run the heater on low and like the constant heat and very minimal power use. cheers hoopy
 
A few thoughts »

I plan to install a Webasto heater in a ATC slide-in type camper later this year.

I'm not willing to trust the knockoff versions. The ones I have seen are cheaply made.

Webasto and Espar are spendy but have been used extensively in the trucking, farming, mining, and other industries for many years. That brings with it a level of reassurance and comfort. Life is too short to worry about the heater every time I turns on.

Webasto make a gasoline version of the same heater (I don't know if Espar do) that I plan to install. This will mean I won't need to find or carry propane as I travel long distances across borders. Gasoline is the most common fuel, and available everywhere in the world.
 
Hoopy said:
I have installed a diesel heater in our flatbed hawk. I have had both forced air propane and now a diesel heater. We use the FWC all winter skiing and traveling and am very satisfied. I put a mid range priced heater in and carry a few spare parts and never have replaced parts yet. The fuel pump is a noisy ticking sound,,,I installed it outside under the flatbed itself and i can hear it if listen hard and its not a bother to me. I like to hear it I use that as a assement tool while its operating. The air intake and exaust is outside and I clean it regularly and carry a spare air intake filter I built a metal shroud around the filter with plenty of space around it. there is so much sloppy wet snow and sand and glop that undercoats the rig on winter trips.
One struggle we all have is space to put things in our campers and in a flatbed felt like I had lots of room to install one (after four peeps and a dog in the winter in a fleet slide in....boys refused to sleep in a tent!!). I caution you if you decide to install one give yourself room to do maintanence and repair work. The forced air propane you can pop the plate off outside to get at it( sailswitch and reset butten). I think you would be hard pressed to pop the top off the case and to work on it in the space of the old furnace. I thought hard about mounting it either inside or outside and opted for inside. I think outside is a viable option as well .
I run the heater on low and like the constant heat and very minimal power use. cheers hoopy
Click to expand...
Kids didn't want to sleep in a tent? I never wanted to sleep inside with my parents unless the weather forced me to.
 
List,
Thank you for your responses, and future ones.
Space is a premium, hence my desire to find something to fit in the same space.
The new Atwood models will not fit my 20 year old Eagle.
I'm OK with price points up to about the $1000 range.
I would actually prefer propane since I already have that fuel on board,
electrical draw is a concern, but even the 4.5 amp Atwood I'm usually able to handle
with my solar and Lithium set up.
Almost all my camping is winter, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find quiet solitude with
OHVs everywhere.
 
Considered getting a Propex? I've installed two, and they are super reliable. Not as quiet as a Wave or diesel heater though. Can be made to fit into small spaces though!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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 Harder said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
ramblinChet said:
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.
Click to expand...
I am interested to see this installed in a FWC. Looking for some good diesel alternatives to propane...
 
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
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads - WTW

R
Furnace - What am I Missing?
ski3pin
ski3pin
P
Truma furnace install.... Amazing!
2
Utah
Utah
P
Heating Options for FWC Fleet High Elevation Winter
craig333
craig333
ski3pin
Propex Heatsource Furnace in pop up camper.
2
ski3pin
ski3pin
4wheelColeman
The New Guy
m5040
M

New posts - WTW

Back
Top Bottom