Replace Or Repair Suburban Heater?

[5 Spotter]

I have an '03 Grandby with a Model DD-17DSI Suburban heater. My heater has the sail switch and a broken fan blade. It still operates but is loud and unbalanced with the broken blade. I broke the fan with a hanger wire trying to pull and overcome the sail switch.

My questions:
Should I attempt to replace only the fan or buy an entirely new and maybe superior heater? I don't mind spending the dough trying to bring my Grandby up to date. I probably don't need a thermostat and can simply turn a heater off or on.

I'm considering replacing the Suburban with a Camco Olympian Wave 3 Heater. Can I mount the Wave 3 in the same opening where the Suburban is currently located? The dimensions look similar but I might need to mount the Wave 3 on its end to fit the existing opening in the cabinet face. Will the Wave 3 function in this position?

Thanks for any and all opinions.
5spotter

 

[MarkBC]

The Suburban furnace in my 2005 Hawk was/is LOUD by nature. But a modern Suburban furnace - like in my 2020 rig - is considerably quieter - doesn't usually wake me up at night.
Of course, a catalytic heater is silent... But it's not quite an equivalent swap since it requires significant venting of the camper to reduce CO danger. Still... I use a Wave 6 in my Hawk when I want silent heat, but am careful about venting.

 

[craig333]

The last time I enquired of FWC about upgrading the heater they said the new models won't fit. Anything can be done but just be prepared that it won't be a bolt in operation.

 

[LuckyDan]

If you have the handiness required, repairing what you have is probably the easiest, and cheapest if retrofitting a new Suburban or the like requires some remodeling. The catalytic types, like the Wave series, are nice as they don’t require power. Wave heaters have been around a long time. The drawbacks are the mentioned vent management, and if ran awhile is condensation build up. I have a Buddy heater, (it’s catalytic), I use for cold camping so I don’t have to continually run the forced air unit and worry about power management.

Should yours be unrepairable, another option are the Propex propane heaters, they are kinda input efficient compared to the Suburban and about the size of a shoebox. They used to be very popular with the VW Van crowd. Somewhere on here are a couple posts about people using them in their FWC builds. The current rave of course are the diesel heaters. Espar ones have been around a long time. The Chinese knock offs are a fraction of the price. I don’t know anything about them other than what I have read.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[goinoregon]

i would upgrade to a new model, for efficiency, and safety sake. i would not go with anything i would need to worry about venting, condensation, etc.. not worth it, enough things to think about with solar, water, etc.
i have a propex in a box, and will be installing in a couple months. nice compact , and generally quiet product. if you went with something like this, you would end up with more storage space in the camper.

 

[fish more]

There have been a few posts regarding repair/rebuiding heater on Wander the West Forum. It would less exspensive to rebuild rather to upgrade. Plus you would not have to modify your cabinets. I belive there was a post by ski3pin regarding repair to heater, check it out, it could save alot of hedaches.

 

[5 Spotter]

Thanks, I appreciate the thoughtful replies. My experience with the Suburban heater is that my battery sometimes doesn't have enough juice to provide fan rpm's- to push the sail switch far enough- to allow ignition. It's worked well, or used to before I broke the fan blade.

I like the idea ditching my heater for something that suits me better, especially if it doesn't need battery power. I'll look at the Propex and investigate the diesel units too. Thanks for those suggestions.

I'm not too worried about venting. Maybe I should be. I've usually got a window open, and prefer to not have a heater running at night anyway, so don't think I'd need a thermostat. The heater might only be used a couple of times per day for an hour or two. I've got the artic pack and good down gear to help, plus my camper works great in the cold. The Wave 3 heater looks like it might be mountable on, or maybe even recess-able into the cabinet face. I'd need to compare dimensions of the Wave to my space and wish I had one to measure and see.

Thanks for any input or opinions. We traveled around the Olympic Peninsula last fall and needed a better furnace for drying qualities as much as heat.

 

[windy]

I put a wave 3 in my van. Depending on the climates you camp on I would be Leary of the wave 3 as a sole source of heat. They are great little heaters but not very powerful.

After much research, I opted for the propex ha2000 for my camper. Compared to the suburban they are much more efficient and significantly quieter. If I needed to replace my water heater as well I would opt for the truma combo.

We looked at diesel heaters and if I had a diesel rig I probably would have gone that route. Even though they have a small diesel tank, I didn’t want to carry around another fuel.

 

[ntsqd]

The heater in our old Phoenix was behaving oddly and that spurred a complete re-wire when I saw how the factory had stapled wires to the underside of the counter. In the process of deciding what to do with the heater, fix or replace I discovered that the replacement cost as compared to replacing what I thought was wrong with it made buying new the obvious choice. The new one was advertised as being much quieter. It wasn't, it was the same. I also found that there were two different BTU output options in the series. No difference in physical size between them, so I bought the higher output version.