So I've seen this hooked up in a tiny home the unit is actually outside under its own little dugout so it's out of the elements but open. They upgraded the duct going into the house to have a filter on the inside. I wonder how the air quality is with that type of set up ....🤔
I run 3 of these exact heaters, 2 in my workshop and one in my utility room and yes, they do stink initially, mine stopped stinking after the 2nd full tank of juice had been through them. The ideal setup for these is either to have the main unit outside with the hot air ducted into the building or have the unit inside with the exhaust ducted to the outside properly, not just poked out the window. Running these at full output will result in un-burnt fuel in the burn chamber leading to it stinking. I've found that running them at about 50 to 60% (2.5hz to 3 hz) keeps my workshop at a comfortable 20 degrees. As for running them on oil or oil/fuel mix, yes it does work but it will clog the burn gauze and soot up the chamber very quickly thus leading to failed start-ups or no start at all. Ideally, these should be run on kerosene which is basically diesel without the additives so produces a very clean burn. I run my workshop heaters from around the start of November to the end of February, 8 to 10 hours per day. Each heater uses about 1 gallon of fuel every 12 hours, I start them off at full power for the first hour then dial it back to around 2.6hz to maintain the temp. I have just stripped one of my heaters down to give it a clean and found the burn chamber and gauze to be spotless, with no sign of any carbon build-up.
These units are so different from each other, even using a oil hydrometer to try to mix whatever it is that you're burning to the same consistency a diesel they all burn differently. It is best to run the unit separately and away from your home until you truly understand it and what it is that you were trying to burn through the unit . I have two separate tanks that I use, one for starting the unit on and the other for running the unit on and then I switched them back and forth to clean and D Coke the unit especially if I'm using that stupid flex pipe BS that seems to collect carbon and cause your unit to burn less efficient causing even more carbon. Obviously I don't use the flex pipe anymore. Right now I am building a unit with thermoelectric generators for my parents for when the power goes out .
Yea at full tilt they waste more fuel an stink , takes a good tank or 2 in order to burn clean an we would "pre" burn them before installing. We found out running full tilt they also clog up after a while where the one we never run full has never needed cleaning and disassembled like the one we used on full out. Anything over 4.2 or so they start to dumb to much fuel an ever point over it get worse an you can tell by monitoring the exhaust
These units are designed to be sealed to a truck, van or RV floor and have the air intake and exhaust fully on the outside of the vehicle. You really need to run the air intake out the window as well and seal up the crack in the window in order to properly test for a change in air quality. David McLuckie has done extensive testing on many different clones and originals of this style of heater and many of these do tend to burn less cleanly at full blast and will clean up a bit by making adjustments to the fuel and fanspeed where possible since the frequency setting also tends to control the fanspeed with some delay. I think part of the situation when you were running full blast is that the air intake was pulling a higher vacuum in the building and exhaust air was being pulled back through the opening in the window and across the intake in the back for the air to be heated and being forced through the outside of the heater exchanger and blown into the room so little by little it was filling the room with exhaust gasses that may not be just CO but other byproducts of combustion as well. I have 2 of these heaters without the metal case that are meant to be installed in a vehicle but I have one installed in my back garage workshop and one installed in the basement of my house as a backup incase the boiler goes down due to a power or natural gas outage which can sometimes happen here.
@@codman83 Well if you don't want it pulling a vacuum on the interior of whatever structure you are heating and potentially sucking exhaust gasses back into the space you are trying to heat, you really want both the intake and exhaust connected to the outside so that the air quality in the heated space is not affected. If the space is small and is really well sealed like a vehicle can be you can also run into issues where the heaters sometimes starve for enough air which will cause them to run rich which may lead to flame our or raw unburnt fuel making it's way to the exhaust which may or may not be an issue depending on how the heater is installed and operated.
When I drove tractor trailer all the trucks in the fleet had "bunk heaters" like this. Diesel powered heater that was mounted under the bed with a line drawing right out of one of the tanks. Eliminated idle time in the winter and kept the sleeper very comfortable. Awesome thing to have!
@@653j521 When first turning it on, can smell a little weird, but definitely manageable. Moreso the first firing of the season, but to be fair, your central heat smells funny the first firing of the season as well. They can really heat the small space these trucks typically have. Some companies have 8-10 hour timers on, and in my experience, I generally wake up about 4-5 hours in and turn it off because I'm sweating.
I was thinking this reminded me of the bunk heater in my Mack. It worked flawlessly for a few years and then stopped. My shop could never figure out the problem. It would just pour out white smoke and never get warm.
Many Americans use Watts for heat output now, since "1500 Watt" electric heaters are now so ubiquitous that many people know approximately what 1.5 kW of heat output feels like.
I've been using this for 4 years to heat up my workshop. Actually I bought two of them. The first one came broken from China and I had to mod it. The second one came perfect. My opinion is this machine is quite wonderful if you know what you are doing. And yearly maintenance is recommended during summer time. Fortunately parts are readily available from China and they are quite cheap.
Also the fuel pump is slowing down because the controller is reading the heat exchanger temperature which you can view by cycling through the menus. It slows the fuel pump to cool the chamber below it's threshold then speeds back up. You can also tune the air fuel mixture by adjusting fan speed vs pump speed in the controller. Google searches reveal all.
What you could do is try to have the machine outside and heat hose going inside. That way you can see if it's a diesel leak from the machine, something like that or if it's the heating itself that is worsening the air quality. Love the videos by the way
Why do people that just first learn about diesel heaters try to teach others try to teach others about how to use them. Please get some experience about what you were doing as in I have been using them for years now and have set the parameters of the heater to burn different fuel sources I have some knowledge as to what they can and cannot use. I wish that you would have some experience with the heater before trying to teach others and have some real experience before posting your experience experience with the product as in at least two or three months of using the unit before trying to show others how to operate the system. I understand the enthusiasm but I don't really know what it is that you're trying to get across the others before you really have any experience with the product.
Try putting the unit completely outside and ducting it in the window. Turn on 5.4 and see if it still has the same air quality issues. Isolate the plastic variable.
The heater is designed to be installed on the floor of a truck or van and the goes down through the floor. So, if you are bending the exhaust line, you may be causing back pressure that could cause leakage. Also, if you burn used oil, it will need more frequent service to clean the combustion chamber.
It should also be using a balanced flue and drawing combustion air from the outside. Otherwise it will draw cold outside air into the living space and create drafts, and use more fuel because it has to heat that cold air. To test it properly Tyler should have piped both connections on the bottom of the thing to the outside, with the exhaust slightly above the input (so convection takes the hot exhaust away from the intake)
Yes, and you should also check the overhead combustible flux chamber to prevent any inherent residue coming in from the zercobic phlogenic drives. They can get clogged up, so just a pre-warning. But yes, I agree.
yea those things work well.. I have seen some russian youtubers use these and they can also burn used (strained) vegetable oil. but it was always recommended to start on pure diesel then swap to an alternative fuel.. then at the end run for 10 or so min bure diesel to clean it all out (just a splice into the fuel line and a valve and you can swap your fuels and have a very small diesel tank) I have also seen them wrap the exhaust pipe and use it to heat water or such... many ways to increase the heat output on those. but yes they are start on full or near full then throttle down to what you want. You may want to check local laws .. those can be illegal in some areas
I love jumping to the comments to see how many people can't wait to comment on things you say that are obviously incorrect, for example the Kilowatts/BTU remark, if they only knew why, they would realize just how smart you really are! One of my favorite channels by far.
If it's colder outside than it is inside the window being open is letting the hot air draw in the cold air and is pulling the exhaust into the garage as it warms up the space in the garage. This explains the gradual decrease in air quality. Diesels don't really put out massive amounts of Carbon monoxide so it makes sense for the carbon monoxide detector not to see it.
I have almost the same model(think its the same). I removed the case and all mounting bits and builot an exlosuure to keep it outside my garden office (about the size of a garage). I made the control panel cable much longer and its mounted in my office along with the battery (so i can check its charge without going outside). The battery is charged with a scrap solar panel for the most part. I have the air intake and exaust facing in opposite directions. 2 years in and no regrets. Have an air quality monitor and it doesnt drop. Heats the office in no time. Awesome thing :) Got a second one ready to setup for my actual garage :)
I think the aqi would of been better if you had the air intake outside even better the whole unit. Your exhausting the air that was taking on frim the room out of the room so causing essentially vacuum, which because rhe window is open to allow the exhaust is then causing draft to come in. A small difference but definitely a difference this is why portable acs arent very good as they cause a vacuum sucking in warm air from elsewhere.
These things WILL happily burn just about any flammable liquid. The only problem you'll run into is soot buildup inside the burn chamber. Any impurities in the fuel will coat the walls of the burner chamber, which will act as an insulator, so your fuel efficiency absolutely plummets. So you CAN run fry oil, used oil, bio blends, jet A, anything, but you'll need to service and clean the burn chamber far more regularly.
It’s been said already, but you’re supposed to mount the machine outside and just the heat duct comes inside. That’s also why the faceplate detaches. You can run it through the wall to control it from the inside, while the heater is mounted on the wall on the outside
@@yinglyca1 "Supposed to" may be a strong way to say it. "Ideally" is probably better. The intake air needs to come from outside either way. On a van, it's not always so easy or practical to mount it outside. But for a shed or garage, as was the example in the video, it's a MUCH better choice to mount it outside.
The original use was for heating Semi Trucks, as they could tap into the same tank, and you didn't have to idle the truck all night when sleeping just to have heat. The 8kw is a like. The meanest of them is 5kw (allegedly) but you can put a sticker on them that says anything...it just doesn't make them hotter. The portable units (as you have) are better for actual portable uses, such as for tent heating. The unit inside is what you buy for a fixed installation, and you get a far larger tank.
When i got one of these the instructions said to burn off 1 tank of fuel for the break in process and to have it outside, it is a lot like if you buy an electric heater they always smell and burn off stuff for a short time, the nature of these diesel heaters means that the combustion chamber is isolated from the air that is being heated the issue in your test is not only that you did not do the burn in process but also that you had the exhaust just stuck out the window and the intake for the hot air is on the back of the heater which is an inch or so from that open window it is also possible that you had a slight exhaust leak like mine did. As for using oil it will work but it is something you would regret later, Diesel burns fairly clean but the used oil does not and very quickly you get carbon deposits building up in the burn chamber that lead to malfunction and the need to pull it apart and clean it and the higher the used oil content the faster it happens.
I remember watching someone use the same heater. He used an extra long exhaust pipe to increase the heating efficiency. You can use a lot of different fuels to run that heater.
We have one in our off grid yurt in Alaska. We are still experimenting with what setting we prefer. So far we have found that running it at about 2.2 constantly except a couple hours a day when we charge up the car battery that we run it off of. (We charge our solar battery bank, back up battery bank and now this in a period of 2-3 hrs every day with a generator during the darkest months of the winter.) Our yurt has barely any insulation and we use an incredible amount of firewood. It's 30 feet across and very tall ceiling. So, this heater doesn't heat the yurt while it's this cold, but running it at 2.2 has cut our firewood usage down to about half and 5 gallons of diesel lasts about a week! Ours stunk badly the first couple days. We have it indoors without the cover on and it's hooked directly to our 300 gallon fuel tank. We have a carbon monoxide detector. It's vented outside with a toyo heater exhaust pipe. We used to use a monitor heater, but we don't have enough electricity to run it Nov-February because we have solar and Alaska is too dark in the winter. The monitor alone would heat the yurt in the spring and fall. This seems to produce the same amount of heat as the monitor, and more at higher settings, so we should be doing great in the spring and fall with all the extra daylight. Great video. I wasn't aware of the air quality and that's very good to know since I'd like to get my daughter one of these heaters in her small, well insulated, off grid cabin. She probably only needs the lowest setting which seems safe. Now we might consider installing the main unit outside in her case. Hate to have to heat cold air, but since she's so insulated, it would probably be good to have fresh air intake.
Something like this would be amazing for "van life" or heating small rooms/homes. Cabins would be amazing if you could haul this out to the woods with some used engine oil.
ive heated a whole 2 bedroom house for over 12 years with one of these they originally where meant for trucks when parking in sub zero temps ... hey are infact knows as a parking diesel heater
I know someone who uses one of these as a shop heater and in his hunting deer stand shack. The main downside is that it needs continuous 12v power to run.
Questions, would you trust this unit in a small 10x20 shed/cabin that's actually 165 square feet when you subtract the porch cut out, it's R13 insulated with drywall? Your test was the most thorough test especially with the air quality test. Though you used different fuel mixtures and it lowered the air quality, it makes cautious especially having 2 smalls boys that will be in the cabin on weekends.
I used mine indoors for 3 Winter seasons. Then again, I am a retired Engineer and went out of the way to make the unit safe and stupid proof. Screwing around with fuels is asking for trouble. Red diesel is strictly what I burn. Last October I opened mine up after hundreds of hours of operation and the combustion chamber was clean. My unit is clamped to the top of a fireplace insert and exhausts through a 3/4'' hole I drilled and tapped in the side of the stove insert. The fireplace is brick with standard masonry chimney liner. The exhaust comes out at 350F and heats the top of the fireplace insert and creates a good draft up the chimney. Mine runs 24/7 so the chimney stays warm, the draft pulls out any combustion products. When it's off for days, I sometimes burn some cardboard and charcoal briquets to establish a draft. Here's a recent video of the draft.. th-cam.com/video/6n8WMu7Mq3k/w-d-xo.html This ''air quality'' test stirred up too many bogus concerns. These units will off gas plastic, paint, manufacturing oils, etc, when new until they have been run hard for a day. The only time my air quality meter shows significant reading increases is when I vacuum the living room with my $800 Miele German vacuum cleaner. The dust stirred up increases the readings. To consider..... can be run indoors safely bolted to a shelf, low enough to easily refuel. Wrap the exhaust with hot rod header tape cloth. Make absolutely sure you penetrate the cabin wall with a fireproof insulated sleeve, use decent automotive hose clamps on the exhaust tube and throw away the Chinese ones. The exhaust runs at 350F and should make the 90 degree turn under the unit and head straight outside horizontally, muffler side with drain hole goes downward. You need a reliable 12+ volt DC power source like an Ecoflow or LFP lithium battery with solar or 120vac charging. Need a pair of 1.5 gallon fuel jugs with push button spout for dripless fueling. These things burn 1 to 3 gallons a day depending on the heat setting. Once broken in, there will be no small at all inside. Also, the fuel pump does the tic tic day and night. On low setting, its like a clock. The internal fans are noisy at anything above H2 heat setting. I had a propane Hunting Buddy with 20 pound BBQ tank, hose extension, and their filter adapter, a Cojee kerosene heater, and an unvented natural gas 15,000 btu heater. I tested them all for a week or more. They ALL stink from combustion gasses when operated indoors. The Chinese diesel heater gets my thumbs up. I hope this helps. th-cam.com/video/ceeSfqwcNOs/w-d-xo.html
@@HughWoo I have and use this heater to help heat our home and I learned a lot. The air quality was very informative. What temps to run it on to reduce that. Also, just to see the results someone else has with fuel usage at different settings and also with different types of fuel. We've considered experimenting with that. Now, I don't have to experiment myself, because I've come to some conclusions and saved some time.
Here in Montana the furnace went out last year in the winter for 3 weeks and I was rather worried about the pipes freezing, we just had a single space heater for everything. I wonder if it would be worth having a backup of some sort.
Absolutely, YES, great for heat backup. I bought a few of these to experiment with to get some actual run time for several months to get to know everything about them in real life operation. I run mine strictly on red farm diesel with no problems. I have a pair of plastic 1.5 gallon fuel jugs with push button spouts and refuel mine indoors every time. Never spilled a single drop! There's a 35 gallon diesel tank on wheels in the garage with a hand pump so I can stock up on red diesel and easily fill my 2 push button jugs. The other consideration is the 12+ volt source to run it. I use a lithium battery pack that has an automatic 8 amp charger plugged in at all times. When we lose power, it can still run 20 hours on the battery on the H3 medium heat setting. These units need to run a cool down cycle for about 5 minutes. Cutting the power off suddenly sometimes cooks the electronic control board. I have 3 brands of portable kerosene heaters. The K-1 kerosene is expensive and they stink. I start/stop mine out on the porch to avoid the worst of the fumes. Need window slightly opened to vent. These are my last resort heaters, they stay in the shop. You can also buy a Hunting Buddy propane heater, run it off a 20 or 30 gallon BBQ propane tank, buy the long hose extension and ABSOLUTELY buy the hose filter unit to avoid troubles. The burnt propane smell requires windows to be slightly opened to vent. Running it on the 1 pound camping cylinders will run you into the poorhouse. They last 3 hours. The 20 pound BBQ tank lasts for days. I run my diesel heater sometimes 24/7 for weeks at a time and it fits my situation the best. We are not allowed to burn wood on some days in my County so this works wonders and keeps Ma warm in her corner. I hope this helps!
19:00 the plastics used are not "microwave safe plastics" so they off gas as they continue to slowly vulcanize in heat, releasing solvents used to brake down tar.
I bet this video took a lot of time, and effort; I appreciate it! I personally hate the smell of diesel, it gives me a headache. Lol. I still love watching this channel! ❤
Would be nice to measure the AQI of the bulk room not just adjacent to the source. Also what’s the room temp when you measure the motor oil output? The differential (how much the heater adds) is what matters. If the room is cooler, then given the same heat input the discharge air will be cooler.
The air quality might be lowering for a few reasons, - Cheap plastics are off gassing - Diesel vapors are coming out of the cap and building up vocs - paint and other materials are burning off - the seal between the combustion chamber and air chambers are slightly leaking - the port connecting the exhaust to the hose are not tightened enough - exhaust is blowing back into the house - air in the room is being circulated quickly and kicking up particulates.
I was thinking along the lines of, when it's running full bore, if the intake is creating enough suction that it's drawing back through the open window. Especially when he didn't have the muffler installed at first.
I camp just about every weekend in my built up 4runner and travel all across the country. I have been using diesel heaters in the winter for the last couple years. They work great. It's the best way to heat tents and RTTs. It's dry air and won't cause all the continuation build up like a buddy heater or other options. Also if you set it up right you can get 4-5+ nights out of a tank of diesel. Me and about 20 others run these all the time. They have better setups then this for travel that come in plastic cases. I can also say this will keep your garage warm in the winter as well.
Just for reference. If you have a very common electric furnace in your home it will have 3 heat strips. Sometimes 1-5 heat strips but 3 is most common in my trade. A good amp draw for a single heat strip in a furnace with proper air flow is 17-20 Kw. So this would be the equivalent to a very low btu output. Also, every 5Kw is roughly 17k btu output. ROUGHLY
That is why gas heat is so efficient. Much lower power usage for more heat output. All the customer houses I have ever gone to that had an oil furnace or a gas furnace that was replaced with a heat pump complained about the heat output. The heat pump with electric heat strips puts out much colder air than gas or oil heaters. Usually about 30 to 50 degrees less with the heat strips running. That being said, I live in Florida and most units have 5 to 10 KW of heat strips in them unless they are straight cool units with only electric heat.
@@jw3843there's no such thing as efficiency when it comes to electric heaters, all the electrical energy you put into will come out as heat energy, there's no where else for it to go
@@iamgood5544 yes they are 100% efficient but use way more power than a gas furnace or oil furnace. That would be the efficiency of heat you get out for what goes in. A 15Kw heater uses 15kw of power, a gas furnace will use about 1 kw and you will get about 15 kw of heat out.
When the AQ alarm went off, you also had your duct pointing to the floor… my guess is the drop in AQ was more to do with disturbing dust (even when in it was facing upright).
Those air quality sensors are really sensitive to VOCs - And heating up plastic will produce VOCs, especially when it's new. Taking off the metal case allowed the built-up off-gassing from the plastic bottom unit and fuel tank can blow into the room all at once.
Love the video I’ve been thinking of buying one of these for my garage. From the other videos I’ve seen you might get better heating with putting the air intake side outside as well. I also noticed your muffler might be upside down, if you are going to install it permanently you might want to invert it.
So wonder with the "cleaner" mixed fuels if you could crank it back up and if the temp would go up without drop in air quality? Will it run on kerosene? I've noticed in my torpedo kerosene runs way cleaner than straight #1... Might have to look into one of these though...
Get the admin code and adjust your air/fuel mixture. If you run it rich for too long it'll soot up and and you will have to take it apart and clean it all out. It's a mess, but fairly easy if you are mechanically inclined.
So that's just a bunk heater that they use in a semi all they did was put all the electronics in a case. But you really need to put both those pipes outside and sealed be a better option. And like others have said you are stirring up all the dust in the garage. But look up Espar bunk heaters, exactly the same thing. Also the air intake is right next to the window sooooo the faster the fan the more exhaust you'll pull back in....
You could also try kerosine mixed with just about anything, filtered used oil, power steering transmission fluid.. not sure I would trust gas and oil though. Also if you take a small tin cup of the fuel your gonna use outside and drop a lit match to it and it burns, I wouldn’t risk my building and life with it..Another thing to consider, the fuel line used, is it rubber or silicon. Gas may decompose it if gas is used. We had one in our shop although a much bigger one, same concept and design, we used everything from gear oil, trans, motor, old diesel, kerosine, run through a heavy duty oil filter first, in a large tank keeping the viscosity generally similar by adding diesel or kerosine, heated a hugh building workshop with it.
If you use a length of 3 inch duct run the length of the shop mounted on the ceiling capped at the end and cut 1-1/2 inch holes every 2 feet pointing down, it will distribute the heat more efficiently, and his exhaust is running out the window and can be blowing exhaust fumes back in the garage, the heater uses a heat exchanger so no combustion fumes cone through the hot air output
I am a truck driver they call them espar heaters. They are powered by battery and diesel and they work. Very very good. Can get the temperature inside the cab up to 90° or hotter they work pretty good we can run them up to 10 hours off the battery’s of the trucks they come in most trucks now and were they are brand new they put off oils and nasty smells give it a couple of days burn it off in the smells will go away also during the winter we use them during the summer we do not so as they sit the carbon sits in the exhaust when it’s time to reuse them during the winter they smoke out the exhaust pretty bad, and it smells horrible, but it will go away after a few minutes. Once the carbon in the exhaust is burnt off.
This is what I am assuming about your air quality monitor. I do feel that this is one of those fake monitors. The reason your numbers were going high once the heater was running, is because I believe that if this monitor is fake, it has a TVOC sensor inside not PM sensor (and also your PM levels should have been higher than what the monitor was showing), and the odor from the heater would cause those numbers to go high, because TVOC sensors go nuts when there are odors around, and that heater new will produce a noticeable amount of odor in the beginning, and then the odor will change based on the type of fuel used (stronger or weaker). I also believe this is a fake monitor because the CO2 should be around 550-800 ppm inside a house. and maybe around 500 and higher in your garage, but with all you do in there, I would think the CO2 would be like a house, around 550-800 (from months of personal testing). Only on the outside a CO2 will read around 405- 410 not 400, as 400 ppm CO2 is what is in the ozone, and about 405-410 on ground level outside. I created a video about fake monitors, and this one that you have unfortunately looks like a fake one. If you paid 20.00-30.00 for that monitor (especially since it "registers" CO2 (CO2 sensors are expensive)), it more than likely is fake, so please get a legitimate monitor before you start getting paranoid. There are allot of people that use these heaters in their homes and vehicles with no problems with bad air (assuming they are vented correctly), it is just that your (more than likely fake monitor) is giving you incorrect information, causing concern for bad air quality. I noticed that the CO2 level never changed in this video, which is certainly a big red flag indicating it is fake. Your CO2 in that garage should be between 500--800 ppm if it is a legitimate and real CO2 monitor. I did like the video however, great testing of different fuels. It would be interesting to see if you could burn biofuel. as a person may have biofuel around for emergency heating. - just a thought ;).
Same brand I actually got a PID heater controller that is a copy of a SESTOS; the software seemed to be identical. So Inkbird may just be into making knockoffs.
I'm not often impressed by videos but i really enjoyed this one and liked what you did and how you tested it. Since most folks will be using straight diesel, I do wish you performed two more tests to further confirm air quality concerns. (1) block the crack in the window. (2) move the unit outsice with only the heat output tube running to the shop. The air quality difference may be negligible tho. Great video
Burning used engine oil will carbon up your burn chamber, yes short term use it will work, but I bet you can’t get more then 3-4 gallons before it quit working.
Quite the contrary actually, i have seen a few videos of people running these on straight used oil for 6+ months in the colder parts of the world. Just got to mess with the Pump speed for best burn. Heck if you are still wanting to air on the side of caution, then just do a 50/50 mix with diesel and you are set.
you can use those oil gas mixes but fyi plan on taking the unit apart and cleaning the carbon out. so many people complain they stop heating and all they are is carboned up from dirty fuel , also you can run off road diesel. its cheaper but i imagine city people don't have access to it. also check all connections inside , a simple nut loose will throw a code and it won't work, ive actually got 5 for free claiming they don't work. well each work just fine . some people truly don' t need to be playing with these. there cheap because build quality is sub par. 3 units were fixed just by tightening the nuts on inside of case where you connect 12v source... 2 were just all carboned up inside exchanger. most pull around 45 watts at start up then it drops .
So i just saw this video, i would say not to run in on 5.4 because this things dont have good overheat protection, its supposed to be 8kw about 28000 btu buttt big but in that size its more lik 5kw max if you want to use it to heat a shop my recomendation is to use a kerosine for best results but if you dont want to you can use used motor oil and diesel or gas, even cooking oil works. If i coulde i would add a dmall radiator or sand battery on exhaust because a big part of heat escapes from exhaust would recoment to have a end of exhauste lower than unit so condensation or oil can run out. We have them in our semies to heat a cab
With your mention of the plastic heating, Phthalates came to mind but as far as being an air contaminant I wouldn't know. Those things would be a terrible place for any use of PVCs, likely being worst than the Phthalates.
Air quality = particles in the air. When you start the dieselheater, it starts moving the air inside your garage, this in turns causes dust to lift. I have one of those fit in my garage. It's awesome.
Seen a few videos running diesel heaters on alternative fuel, most start to play up and stop working pretty quickly. Ive had mine for 2yrs now, only diesel added, and never had an issue. Personally I would just keep to regular diesel to ensure your machine keeps running properly
Is the lower "air quality" from oxygen being used from the heater? Try running fresh air intake hose that is away from the exhaust. Or run nothing but the duct into your shop. Btw diesel, kerosene, propane ect don't admit co2
How do you know if that air quality meter is real? 99% of those things are fake even with thousands of 5+ star reviews. It says it detects carbon dioxide but CO2 detectors are expensive, more than that whole device costs. Maybe they mean carbon monoxide CO? If so then it's still fake because your actual CO detector didn't show anything.
Actually that monitor does look like the fake ones I have seen, and you are right - CO2 sensors are expensive, and a legitimate CO2 sensor will not show 400 ppm inside. Normal CO2 readings are from 600-800 ppm inside, and his monitor never went above 400 throughout this video, so yes, I believe this is a fake monitor. I took one apart in a video of mine, and this one looks very similar in construction as the one I demonstrated that was fake. I just hope that Tyler can get a legitimate monitor, so he knows if something is wrong. I really liked the video though, nice demonstration. I have one of these heaters, but only have it to use in an emergency, so haven't hooked it up yet.
You could double the heating power of this heater very easily. For an example if you locate the heater say in the middle of a wall and get a section of piping and run it from the exhaust side down the wall and pipe it through the wall using cement board and ducting for wood burning stoves or equivalent. and use tubing on the hot air side and do the same but blowing the hot are into the area. And then piping the intake line outside for fresh air. I also don't see why you couldn't rig up a DC thermostat to control when the heater turn of and on.
Great Video, The air intake is in the rear next to where you placed the exhaust, just outside the window,, have you tried keeping the exhaust and the air intake further away ? just a thought .
FYI I've seen that you can add a radiator to the exhaust and get even more heat out of it, I'd like to see what else it can burn as well like vegetable oil diesel, worth a try, right
@TylerTube re Air Quality. The air movement created in the garage by the hot air out will act like a fan and disturb then move some dust around - thus changing air quality Great video my friend
Is the exhaust clamped down? Maybe you have a little leak from where the exhaust connects to the heater try using some exhaust paste and a good clamp to seel it.
the air intake filter has to be outside where the exhaust is, your pulling a vacuum and its pulling in contaminates. you can set the controller for temp us frequency, theres videos for different controllers.
No, don't do that, carbon monoxide is good for you, the headache is just clearing your mind and purifing your alignments, that's why you sleep so good after.... and if you believe that i have some ocean front property in Arizona and ill even throw in the golden gate bridge for half price
10:05 if I’m not mistaken, diesel engines use heat and compression to ignite fuel, rather than inducing a spark for ignition, like with a gasoline engine. When a diesel engine starts cold, glow plugs inside the engine heat up to provide the heat needed to allow for combustion upon mechanical compression. That initial power draw was probably glow plugs 🤷🏻♂️ 100% blind guess. I guess I could’ve googled it before sticking my neck out here 😂 let’s hope I’m right 🤞
The glow plug is only used to establish combustion in this unit. It shuts off during operation. The controller will turn it back on for a while during the cool down cycle to assure a good start the next time it is called for.
Tyler, recently I bought one of those I thought steel but maybe aluminum bar manual knife sharpener. I sharpened my knives with it and it only dulled it. What am I missing? thanks, pal, and I enjoy you very much.
another possibility is with the air intake inside the garage and exhaust out of a partially open window it creating lower pressure and some of your exhaust air is flowing back into the open window.
I have a similar model (same brand). All heaters like this are like wood stoves. The first burn should be completely outdoors so you don't breathe the possibly toxic burn-off. Also, where is the intake pipe? If outside, you may be pulling in exhaust fumes.
You may have an exhaust leak right at the connection to the pipe. Tighten the exhaust pipe down with a hose clamp. And then run the exhaust outside your shop and seal it out. Using some sort of fire proofing, steel plate bolted to your wall with a hole directly in the center with the pipe ran through the plate.
It is probably the vent cap on the diesel tank which is inside venting diesel fumes in a minute levels that would trigger the air filter alarm. Try the same experiment with the fuel tank outside
I've seen these before. A guy I watch uses one of these in his truck, as he regularly travels the country and sleeps in the back of his truck with a cap on it. He's only had a couple problems with them and usually he says it's just because he installed it wrong or did something he shouldn't have, it's pretty neat. Big tip for these btw, run it for an hour minimum (2 hours is better) outside, before you actually plan on using them. They smell AWFUL at first when running them, much to Tyler's discovery. And 100% run a CO detector along with it. I usually recommend 2 of them, on the off chance one of them fails or the battery dies.
diesel heater link - amzn.to/3stFcYX
So I've seen this hooked up in a tiny home the unit is actually outside under its own little dugout so it's out of the elements but open. They upgraded the duct going into the house to have a filter on the inside. I wonder how the air quality is with that type of set up ....🤔
You're actually supposed to use kerosene in these for best performance.
Why not used cooking oil ?
Why would he know that? lol@@nicholas4839
@tylertube can you give a link to your air quality meter?
I run 3 of these exact heaters, 2 in my workshop and one in my utility room and yes, they do stink initially, mine stopped stinking after the 2nd full tank of juice had been through them. The ideal setup for these is either to have the main unit outside with the hot air ducted into the building or have the unit inside with the exhaust ducted to the outside properly, not just poked out the window.
Running these at full output will result in un-burnt fuel in the burn chamber leading to it stinking. I've found that running them at about 50 to 60% (2.5hz to 3 hz) keeps my workshop at a comfortable 20 degrees.
As for running them on oil or oil/fuel mix, yes it does work but it will clog the burn gauze and soot up the chamber very quickly thus leading to failed start-ups or no start at all.
Ideally, these should be run on kerosene which is basically diesel without the additives so produces a very clean burn. I run my workshop heaters from around the start of November to the end of February, 8 to 10 hours per day. Each heater uses about 1 gallon of fuel every 12 hours, I start them off at full power for the first hour then dial it back to around 2.6hz to maintain the temp. I have just stripped one of my heaters down to give it a clean and found the burn chamber and gauze to be spotless, with no sign of any carbon build-up.
Thanks for the info!
These units are so different from each other, even using a oil hydrometer to try to mix whatever it is that you're burning to the same consistency a diesel they all burn differently. It is best to run the unit separately and away from your home until you truly understand it and what it is that you were trying to burn through the unit . I have two separate tanks that I use, one for starting the unit on and the other for running the unit on and then I switched them back and forth to clean and D Coke the unit especially if I'm using that stupid flex pipe BS that seems to collect carbon and cause your unit to burn less efficient causing even more carbon. Obviously I don't use the flex pipe anymore. Right now I am building a unit with thermoelectric generators for my parents for when the power goes out .
nose blind
Yea at full tilt they waste more fuel an stink , takes a good tank or 2 in order to burn clean an we would "pre" burn them before installing. We found out running full tilt they also clog up after a while where the one we never run full has never needed cleaning and disassembled like the one we used on full out. Anything over 4.2 or so they start to dumb to much fuel an ever point over it get worse an you can tell by monitoring the exhaust
comfortable 20 degrees🤔
These units are designed to be sealed to a truck, van or RV floor and have the air intake and exhaust fully on the outside of the vehicle. You really need to run the air intake out the window as well and seal up the crack in the window in order to properly test for a change in air quality. David McLuckie has done extensive testing on many different clones and originals of this style of heater and many of these do tend to burn less cleanly at full blast and will clean up a bit by making adjustments to the fuel and fanspeed where possible since the frequency setting also tends to control the fanspeed with some delay.
I think part of the situation when you were running full blast is that the air intake was pulling a higher vacuum in the building and exhaust air was being pulled back through the opening in the window and across the intake in the back for the air to be heated and being forced through the outside of the heater exchanger and blown into the room so little by little it was filling the room with exhaust gasses that may not be just CO but other byproducts of combustion as well.
I have 2 of these heaters without the metal case that are meant to be installed in a vehicle but I have one installed in my back garage workshop and one installed in the basement of my house as a backup incase the boiler goes down due to a power or natural gas outage which can sometimes happen here.
The intake does not have to be outside
@@codman83 Well if you don't want it pulling a vacuum on the interior of whatever structure you are heating and potentially sucking exhaust gasses back into the space you are trying to heat, you really want both the intake and exhaust connected to the outside so that the air quality in the heated space is not affected. If the space is small and is really well sealed like a vehicle can be you can also run into issues where the heaters sometimes starve for enough air which will cause them to run rich which may lead to flame our or raw unburnt fuel making it's way to the exhaust which may or may not be an issue depending on how the heater is installed and operated.
When I drove tractor trailer all the trucks in the fleet had "bunk heaters" like this. Diesel powered heater that was mounted under the bed with a line drawing right out of one of the tanks. Eliminated idle time in the winter and kept the sleeper very comfortable. Awesome thing to have!
And the air pollution was...?
@@653j521….. way less than leaving the engine running for heat
@@653j521 When first turning it on, can smell a little weird, but definitely manageable. Moreso the first firing of the season, but to be fair, your central heat smells funny the first firing of the season as well. They can really heat the small space these trucks typically have. Some companies have 8-10 hour timers on, and in my experience, I generally wake up about 4-5 hours in and turn it off because I'm sweating.
I was thinking this reminded me of the bunk heater in my Mack. It worked flawlessly for a few years and then stopped. My shop could never figure out the problem. It would just pour out white smoke and never get warm.
@@jamesrevell6475 Pull the glow plug and replace the screen
"I don't use kilowatts, I use BTUs." *proceeds to measure power draw in watts, which is the same measurement system*
Many Americans use Watts for heat output now, since "1500 Watt" electric heaters are now so ubiquitous that many people know approximately what 1.5 kW of heat output feels like.
Well it's about power concentration less than how.much heat you are getting
Tyler using something he has no knowledge of how it works
@glennschlorf1285 that's nothing new
Good ol BRITISH thermal units
I've been using this for 4 years to heat up my workshop. Actually I bought two of them. The first one came broken from China and I had to mod it. The second one came perfect. My opinion is this machine is quite wonderful if you know what you are doing. And yearly maintenance is recommended during summer time. Fortunately parts are readily available from China and they are quite cheap.
Also the fuel pump is slowing down because the controller is reading the heat exchanger temperature which you can view by cycling through the menus. It slows the fuel pump to cool the chamber below it's threshold then speeds back up. You can also tune the air fuel mixture by adjusting fan speed vs pump speed in the controller. Google searches reveal all.
That air quality level is better then walking through downtown New York on a Sunday night at 4am
Yes because New York is filled with burning plastic particles in the air……right
What you could do is try to have the machine outside and heat hose going inside. That way you can see if it's a diesel leak from the machine, something like that or if it's the heating itself that is worsening the air quality. Love the videos by the way
I was coming to say just this. The heater stays outside, the house leads inside.
I really hope he sees this comment and decides to try this suggestion.
@gabrielaguilar1391
"The house leads inside?" Inside what?
@@PruneHub lol. Meant hose
Why do people that just first learn about diesel heaters try to teach others try to teach others about how to use them. Please get some experience about what you were doing as in I have been using them for years now and have set the parameters of the heater to burn different fuel sources I have some knowledge as to what they can and cannot use. I wish that you would have some experience with the heater before trying to teach others and have some real experience before posting your experience experience with the product as in at least two or three months of using the unit before trying to show others how to operate the system. I understand the enthusiasm but I don't really know what it is that you're trying to get across the others before you really have any experience with the product.
"I'm an American, I don't use Kilowatts (Watts are used even in America), I use BTU (Stands for, get this, British Thermal Unit)."
That's what I said, "But, btu stands for British Thermal Unit."
That doesn't dismiss the fact it's what we use for measuring heat output in the United States.
americans use British Thermal Units. i find that hilarious@@Carl_Jr
Yes, North America often uses BTUs to measure heat output rather than KW. The origin of the unit of measure doesn't change that.
This is the most ive ever seen Tyler theorize on something.
Lmao same
Try putting the unit completely outside and ducting it in the window. Turn on 5.4 and see if it still has the same air quality issues. Isolate the plastic variable.
The heater is designed to be installed on the floor of a truck or van and the goes down through the floor. So, if you are bending the exhaust line, you may be causing back pressure that could cause leakage. Also, if you burn used oil, it will need more frequent service to clean the combustion chamber.
Correct.... I also advise looking up videos where others burned used oil, and had combustion chamber messes.
in a van, you'd just have the 90' bend a little further along
@@collectorguy3919 It's supposed to be a gradual bend so it doesn't kink the flex pipe. Any resistance will affect the burn.
It should also be using a balanced flue and drawing combustion air from the outside. Otherwise it will draw cold outside air into the living space and create drafts, and use more fuel because it has to heat that cold air.
To test it properly Tyler should have piped both connections on the bottom of the thing to the outside, with the exhaust slightly above the input (so convection takes the hot exhaust away from the intake)
Yes, and you should also check the overhead combustible flux chamber to prevent any inherent residue coming in from the zercobic phlogenic drives. They can get clogged up, so just a pre-warning. But yes, I agree.
yea those things work well.. I have seen some russian youtubers use these and they can also burn used (strained) vegetable oil. but it was always recommended to start on pure diesel then swap to an alternative fuel.. then at the end run for 10 or so min bure diesel to clean it all out (just a splice into the fuel line and a valve and you can swap your fuels and have a very small diesel tank) I have also seen them wrap the exhaust pipe and use it to heat water or such... many ways to increase the heat output on those. but yes they are start on full or near full then throttle down to what you want.
You may want to check local laws .. those can be illegal in some areas
I love jumping to the comments to see how many people can't wait to comment on things you say that are obviously incorrect, for example the Kilowatts/BTU remark, if they only knew why, they would realize just how smart you really are! One of my favorite channels by far.
If it's colder outside than it is inside the window being open is letting the hot air draw in the cold air and is pulling the exhaust into the garage as it warms up the space in the garage. This explains the gradual decrease in air quality. Diesels don't really put out massive amounts of Carbon monoxide so it makes sense for the carbon monoxide detector not to see it.
You are supposed to have the Intake Filter outside with the Exhaust, so that it doesn't create a Vacuum.
I have almost the same model(think its the same). I removed the case and all mounting bits and builot an exlosuure to keep it outside my garden office (about the size of a garage). I made the control panel cable much longer and its mounted in my office along with the battery (so i can check its charge without going outside). The battery is charged with a scrap solar panel for the most part. I have the air intake and exaust facing in opposite directions.
2 years in and no regrets. Have an air quality monitor and it doesnt drop. Heats the office in no time. Awesome thing :) Got a second one ready to setup for my actual garage :)
I think the aqi would of been better if you had the air intake outside even better the whole unit. Your exhausting the air that was taking on frim the room out of the room so causing essentially vacuum, which because rhe window is open to allow the exhaust is then causing draft to come in. A small difference but definitely a difference this is why portable acs arent very good as they cause a vacuum sucking in warm air from elsewhere.
Would've may sound like "would of" but the 've is from the word HAVE. It's would HAVE, not "would of."
Tyler, you can use (heavily) used fry oil. Just filter it first and it can take the place of diesel in any engine.
These things WILL happily burn just about any flammable liquid. The only problem you'll run into is soot buildup inside the burn chamber. Any impurities in the fuel will coat the walls of the burner chamber, which will act as an insulator, so your fuel efficiency absolutely plummets.
So you CAN run fry oil, used oil, bio blends, jet A, anything, but you'll need to service and clean the burn chamber far more regularly.
I’m sorry to hear of your impending suicide. 😢
Yup if it burns and pours, it will run but the soot build up is the issue
Not in any diesel engine. New ones cannot handle the harsh oil
@@ShockingPikachu Well, the ENGINE loves it, but the electronics get a bit pissed off. 😂
It’s been said already, but you’re supposed to mount the machine outside and just the heat duct comes inside. That’s also why the faceplate detaches. You can run it through the wall to control it from the inside, while the heater is mounted on the wall on the outside
I think it's a matter of preference. Ours is inside.
So when using it in a vehicle, The main unit is supposed to be mounted out side of the vehicle?
@@yinglyca1 "Supposed to" may be a strong way to say it. "Ideally" is probably better. The intake air needs to come from outside either way. On a van, it's not always so easy or practical to mount it outside. But for a shed or garage, as was the example in the video, it's a MUCH better choice to mount it outside.
The original use was for heating Semi Trucks, as they could tap into the same tank, and you didn't have to idle the truck all night when sleeping just to have heat.
The 8kw is a like. The meanest of them is 5kw (allegedly) but you can put a sticker on them that says anything...it just doesn't make them hotter.
The portable units (as you have) are better for actual portable uses, such as for tent heating. The unit inside is what you buy for a fixed installation, and you get a far larger tank.
- "I'm an American, I operate in BTUs [British Thermal Units]". 100% thought that was satire at first. -_-
You are surprised an American is dumb? 😂
When i got one of these the instructions said to burn off 1 tank of fuel for the break in process and to have it outside, it is a lot like if you buy an electric heater they always smell and burn off stuff for a short time, the nature of these diesel heaters means that the combustion chamber is isolated from the air that is being heated the issue in your test is not only that you did not do the burn in process but also that you had the exhaust just stuck out the window and the intake for the hot air is on the back of the heater which is an inch or so from that open window it is also possible that you had a slight exhaust leak like mine did.
As for using oil it will work but it is something you would regret later, Diesel burns fairly clean but the used oil does not and very quickly you get carbon deposits building up in the burn chamber that lead to malfunction and the need to pull it apart and clean it and the higher the used oil content the faster it happens.
I remember watching someone use the same heater. He used an extra long exhaust pipe to increase the heating efficiency. You can use a lot of different fuels to run that heater.
We have one in our off grid yurt in Alaska. We are still experimenting with what setting we prefer. So far we have found that running it at about 2.2 constantly except a couple hours a day when we charge up the car battery that we run it off of. (We charge our solar battery bank, back up battery bank and now this in a period of 2-3 hrs every day with a generator during the darkest months of the winter.) Our yurt has barely any insulation and we use an incredible amount of firewood. It's 30 feet across and very tall ceiling. So, this heater doesn't heat the yurt while it's this cold, but running it at 2.2 has cut our firewood usage down to about half and 5 gallons of diesel lasts about a week!
Ours stunk badly the first couple days. We have it indoors without the cover on and it's hooked directly to our 300 gallon fuel tank. We have a carbon monoxide detector. It's vented outside with a toyo heater exhaust pipe. We used to use a monitor heater, but we don't have enough electricity to run it Nov-February because we have solar and Alaska is too dark in the winter. The monitor alone would heat the yurt in the spring and fall. This seems to produce the same amount of heat as the monitor, and more at higher settings, so we should be doing great in the spring and fall with all the extra daylight.
Great video. I wasn't aware of the air quality and that's very good to know since I'd like to get my daughter one of these heaters in her small, well insulated, off grid cabin. She probably only needs the lowest setting which seems safe. Now we might consider installing the main unit outside in her case. Hate to have to heat cold air, but since she's so insulated, it would probably be good to have fresh air intake.
Something like this would be amazing for "van life" or heating small rooms/homes. Cabins would be amazing if you could haul this out to the woods with some used engine oil.
Almost all van life ppl do use these
ive heated a whole 2 bedroom house for over 12 years with one of these they originally where meant for trucks when parking in sub zero temps ... hey are infact knows as a parking diesel heater
I know someone who uses one of these as a shop heater and in his hunting deer stand shack. The main downside is that it needs continuous 12v power to run.
Questions, would you trust this unit in a small 10x20 shed/cabin that's actually 165 square feet when you subtract the porch cut out, it's R13 insulated with drywall? Your test was the most thorough test especially with the air quality test. Though you used different fuel mixtures and it lowered the air quality, it makes cautious especially having 2 smalls boys that will be in the cabin on weekends.
I used mine indoors for 3 Winter seasons. Then again, I am a retired Engineer and went out of the way to make the unit safe and stupid proof. Screwing around with fuels is asking for trouble. Red diesel is strictly what I burn. Last October I opened mine up after hundreds of hours of operation and the combustion chamber was clean.
My unit is clamped to the top of a fireplace insert and exhausts through a 3/4'' hole I drilled and tapped in the side of the stove insert. The fireplace is brick with standard masonry chimney liner. The exhaust comes out at 350F and heats the top of the fireplace insert and creates a good draft up the chimney. Mine runs 24/7 so the chimney stays warm, the draft pulls out any combustion products. When it's off for days, I sometimes burn some cardboard and charcoal briquets to establish a draft. Here's a recent video of the draft.. th-cam.com/video/6n8WMu7Mq3k/w-d-xo.html
This ''air quality'' test stirred up too many bogus concerns. These units will off gas plastic, paint, manufacturing oils, etc, when new until they have been run hard for a day. The only time my air quality meter shows significant reading increases is when I vacuum the living room with my $800 Miele German vacuum cleaner. The dust stirred up increases the readings.
To consider..... can be run indoors safely bolted to a shelf, low enough to easily refuel. Wrap the exhaust with hot rod header tape cloth. Make absolutely sure you penetrate the cabin wall with a fireproof insulated sleeve, use decent automotive hose clamps on the exhaust tube and throw away the Chinese ones. The exhaust runs at 350F and should make the 90 degree turn under the unit and head straight outside horizontally, muffler side with drain hole goes downward.
You need a reliable 12+ volt DC power source like an Ecoflow or LFP lithium battery with solar or 120vac charging. Need a pair of 1.5 gallon fuel jugs with push button spout for dripless fueling. These things burn 1 to 3 gallons a day depending on the heat setting. Once broken in, there will be no small at all inside.
Also, the fuel pump does the tic tic day and night. On low setting, its like a clock. The internal fans are noisy at anything above H2 heat setting. I had a propane Hunting Buddy with 20 pound BBQ tank, hose extension, and their filter adapter, a Cojee kerosene heater, and an unvented natural gas 15,000 btu heater. I tested them all for a week or more. They ALL stink from combustion gasses when operated indoors. The Chinese diesel heater gets my thumbs up. I hope this helps. th-cam.com/video/ceeSfqwcNOs/w-d-xo.html
That was a very interesting test run, very informative and I only feared for your safety through half of the video, great job!! 😊❤
Honestly a better worry about Tylers safety ratio than most videos.
Informative how? He said he doesn’t measure in watts and then measured in watts… it’s pretty ‘restarded’
@@Vyce223 absolutely! 😂
@@HughWoo I have and use this heater to help heat our home and I learned a lot. The air quality was very informative. What temps to run it on to reduce that. Also, just to see the results someone else has with fuel usage at different settings and also with different types of fuel. We've considered experimenting with that. Now, I don't have to experiment myself, because I've come to some conclusions and saved some time.
Here in Montana the furnace went out last year in the winter for 3 weeks and I was rather worried about the pipes freezing, we just had a single space heater for everything. I wonder if it would be worth having a backup of some sort.
Absolutely, YES, great for heat backup. I bought a few of these to experiment with to get some actual run time for several months to get to know everything about them in real life operation.
I run mine strictly on red farm diesel with no problems. I have a pair of plastic 1.5 gallon fuel jugs with push button spouts and refuel mine indoors every time. Never spilled a single drop! There's a 35 gallon diesel tank on wheels in the garage with a hand pump so I can stock up on red diesel and easily fill my 2 push button jugs.
The other consideration is the 12+ volt source to run it. I use a lithium battery pack that has an automatic 8 amp charger plugged in at all times. When we lose power, it can still run 20 hours on the battery on the H3 medium heat setting. These units need to run a cool down cycle for about 5 minutes. Cutting the power off suddenly sometimes cooks the electronic control board.
I have 3 brands of portable kerosene heaters. The K-1 kerosene is expensive and they stink. I start/stop mine out on the porch to avoid the worst of the fumes. Need window slightly opened to vent. These are my last resort heaters, they stay in the shop.
You can also buy a Hunting Buddy propane heater, run it off a 20 or 30 gallon BBQ propane tank, buy the long hose extension and ABSOLUTELY buy the hose filter unit to avoid troubles. The burnt propane smell requires windows to be slightly opened to vent. Running it on the 1 pound camping cylinders will run you into the poorhouse. They last 3 hours. The 20 pound BBQ tank lasts for days.
I run my diesel heater sometimes 24/7 for weeks at a time and it fits my situation the best. We are not allowed to burn wood on some days in my County so this works wonders and keeps Ma warm in her corner.
I hope this helps!
At 26:30 its slowing down then speeding up also bc its thicker. Therefore making the pump work harder.
19:00 the plastics used are not "microwave safe plastics" so they off gas as they continue to slowly vulcanize in heat, releasing solvents used to brake down tar.
I bet this video took a lot of time, and effort; I appreciate it! I personally hate the smell of diesel, it gives me a headache. Lol. I still love watching this channel! ❤
Would be nice to measure the AQI of the bulk room not just adjacent to the source.
Also what’s the room temp when you measure the motor oil output? The differential (how much the heater adds) is what matters. If the room is cooler, then given the same heat input the discharge air will be cooler.
The air quality might be lowering for a few reasons,
- Cheap plastics are off gassing
- Diesel vapors are coming out of the cap and building up vocs
- paint and other materials are burning off
- the seal between the combustion chamber and air chambers are slightly leaking
- the port connecting the exhaust to the hose are not tightened enough
- exhaust is blowing back into the house
- air in the room is being circulated quickly and kicking up particulates.
Yeah I'm thinking it's the diesel
I was thinking along the lines of, when it's running full bore, if the intake is creating enough suction that it's drawing back through the open window. Especially when he didn't have the muffler installed at first.
I camp just about every weekend in my built up 4runner and travel all across the country. I have been using diesel heaters in the winter for the last couple years. They work great. It's the best way to heat tents and RTTs. It's dry air and won't cause all the continuation build up like a buddy heater or other options. Also if you set it up right you can get 4-5+ nights out of a tank of diesel. Me and about 20 others run these all the time. They have better setups then this for travel that come in plastic cases. I can also say this will keep your garage warm in the winter as well.
Just for reference. If you have a very common electric furnace in your home it will have 3 heat strips. Sometimes 1-5 heat strips but 3 is most common in my trade. A good amp draw for a single heat strip in a furnace with proper air flow is 17-20 Kw. So this would be the equivalent to a very low btu output. Also, every 5Kw is roughly 17k btu output. ROUGHLY
That is why gas heat is so efficient. Much lower power usage for more heat output. All the customer houses I have ever gone to that had an oil furnace or a gas furnace that was replaced with a heat pump complained about the heat output. The heat pump with electric heat strips puts out much colder air than gas or oil heaters. Usually about 30 to 50 degrees less with the heat strips running. That being said, I live in Florida and most units have 5 to 10 KW of heat strips in them unless they are straight cool units with only electric heat.
@@jw3843there's no such thing as efficiency when it comes to electric heaters, all the electrical energy you put into will come out as heat energy, there's no where else for it to go
@@iamgood5544 yes they are 100% efficient but use way more power than a gas furnace or oil furnace. That would be the efficiency of heat you get out for what goes in. A 15Kw heater uses 15kw of power, a gas furnace will use about 1 kw and you will get about 15 kw of heat out.
@@jw3843 okay I see what you're saying
When the AQ alarm went off, you also had your duct pointing to the floor… my guess is the drop in AQ was more to do with disturbing dust (even when in it was facing upright).
Those air quality sensors are really sensitive to VOCs - And heating up plastic will produce VOCs, especially when it's new. Taking off the metal case allowed the built-up off-gassing from the plastic bottom unit and fuel tank can blow into the room all at once.
Also heating the air drys the air which enables the dust in the room to be more susceptible to floating around the room.
Love the video I’ve been thinking of buying one of these for my garage. From the other videos I’ve seen you might get better heating with putting the air intake side outside as well. I also noticed your muffler might be upside down, if you are going to install it permanently you might want to invert it.
You have the muffler upside down it has a small drain hole in so it don't get clogged up over time
It's Tyler tube, this is normal 😋
Don’t need the muffler it’s quite enough with out it
So wonder with the "cleaner" mixed fuels if you could crank it back up and if the temp would go up without drop in air quality?
Will it run on kerosene? I've noticed in my torpedo kerosene runs way cleaner than straight #1...
Might have to look into one of these though...
Get the admin code and adjust your air/fuel mixture. If you run it rich for too long it'll soot up and and you will have to take it apart and clean it all out. It's a mess, but fairly easy if you are mechanically inclined.
You always put out videos at the right time for me! I just bought a van and was considering a diesel heater to heat it!
So that's just a bunk heater that they use in a semi all they did was put all the electronics in a case. But you really need to put both those pipes outside and sealed be a better option. And like others have said you are stirring up all the dust in the garage. But look up Espar bunk heaters, exactly the same thing. Also the air intake is right next to the window sooooo the faster the fan the more exhaust you'll pull back in....
Good 'ol freedom units... Oh wait, does anyone know what the B in BTU stands for?
I now know its British but I used to think it was for Basic. Felt silly when I learned I was wrong... granted I was 13!
You could also try kerosine mixed with just about anything, filtered used oil, power steering transmission fluid.. not sure I would trust gas and oil though. Also if you take a small tin cup of the fuel your gonna use outside and drop a lit match to it and it burns, I wouldn’t risk my building and life with it..Another thing to consider, the fuel line used, is it rubber or silicon. Gas may decompose it if gas is used.
We had one in our shop although a much bigger one, same concept and design, we used everything from gear oil, trans, motor, old diesel, kerosine, run through a heavy duty oil filter first, in a large tank keeping the viscosity generally similar by adding diesel or kerosine, heated a hugh building workshop with it.
Night owls, let be reaaaallly honest, it’s always good to watch Tyler doing his shenanigans before sleeping.
If you use a length of 3 inch duct run the length of the shop mounted on the ceiling capped at the end and cut 1-1/2 inch holes every 2 feet pointing down, it will distribute the heat more efficiently, and his exhaust is running out the window and can be blowing exhaust fumes back in the garage, the heater uses a heat exchanger so no combustion fumes cone through the hot air output
The irony of an American saying he only works in BTU (British Thermal Units) :)
Damn you beat me to the punch. He makes me shake my head sometimes
I am a truck driver they call them espar heaters. They are powered by battery and diesel and they work. Very very good. Can get the temperature inside the cab up to 90° or hotter they work pretty good we can run them up to 10 hours off the battery’s of the trucks they come in most trucks now and were they are brand new they put off oils and nasty smells give it a couple of days burn it off in the smells will go away also during the winter we use them during the summer we do not so as they sit the carbon sits in the exhaust when it’s time to reuse them during the winter they smoke out the exhaust pretty bad, and it smells horrible, but it will go away after a few minutes. Once the carbon in the exhaust is burnt off.
This is what I am assuming about your air quality monitor. I do feel that this is one of those fake monitors. The reason your numbers were going high once the heater was running, is because I believe that if this monitor is fake, it has a TVOC sensor inside not PM sensor (and also your PM levels should have been higher than what the monitor was showing), and the odor from the heater would cause those numbers to go high, because TVOC sensors go nuts when there are odors around, and that heater new will produce a noticeable amount of odor in the beginning, and then the odor will change based on the type of fuel used (stronger or weaker). I also believe this is a fake monitor because the CO2 should be around 550-800 ppm inside a house. and maybe around 500 and higher in your garage, but with all you do in there, I would think the CO2 would be like a house, around 550-800 (from months of personal testing). Only on the outside a CO2 will read around 405- 410 not 400, as 400 ppm CO2 is what is in the ozone, and about 405-410 on ground level outside. I created a video about fake monitors, and this one that you have unfortunately looks like a fake one. If you paid 20.00-30.00 for that monitor (especially since it "registers" CO2 (CO2 sensors are expensive)), it more than likely is fake, so please get a legitimate monitor before you start getting paranoid. There are allot of people that use these heaters in their homes and vehicles with no problems with bad air (assuming they are vented correctly), it is just that your (more than likely fake monitor) is giving you incorrect information, causing concern for bad air quality. I noticed that the CO2 level never changed in this video, which is certainly a big red flag indicating it is fake. Your CO2 in that garage should be between 500--800 ppm if it is a legitimate and real CO2 monitor.
I did like the video however, great testing of different fuels. It would be interesting to see if you could burn biofuel. as a person may have biofuel around for emergency heating. - just a thought ;).
100%
Same brand I actually got a PID heater controller that is a copy of a SESTOS; the software seemed to be identical. So Inkbird may just be into making knockoffs.
@soundspark Sounds about right LOL
I'm not often impressed by videos but i really enjoyed this one and liked what you did and how you tested it. Since most folks will be using straight diesel, I do wish you performed two more tests to further confirm air quality concerns. (1) block the crack in the window. (2) move the unit outsice with only the heat output tube running to the shop. The air quality difference may be negligible tho. Great video
Burning used engine oil will carbon up your burn chamber, yes short term use it will work, but I bet you can’t get more then 3-4 gallons before it quit working.
Quite the contrary actually, i have seen a few videos of people running these on straight used oil for 6+ months in the colder parts of the world. Just got to mess with the Pump speed for best burn. Heck if you are still wanting to air on the side of caution, then just do a 50/50 mix with diesel and you are set.
you can use those oil gas mixes but fyi plan on taking the unit apart and cleaning the carbon out. so many people complain they stop heating and all they are is carboned up from dirty fuel , also you can run off road diesel. its cheaper but i imagine city people don't have access to it. also check all connections inside , a simple nut loose will throw a code and it won't work, ive actually got 5 for free claiming they don't work. well each work just fine . some people truly don' t need to be playing with these. there cheap because build quality is sub par. 3 units were fixed just by tightening the nuts on inside of case where you connect 12v source... 2 were just all carboned up inside exchanger. most pull around 45 watts at start up then it drops .
U got great videos Tyler
So i just saw this video, i would say not to run in on 5.4 because this things dont have good overheat protection, its supposed to be 8kw about 28000 btu buttt big but in that size its more lik 5kw max if you want to use it to heat a shop my recomendation is to use a kerosine for best results but if you dont want to you can use used motor oil and diesel or gas, even cooking oil works. If i coulde i would add a dmall radiator or sand battery on exhaust because a big part of heat escapes from exhaust would recoment to have a end of exhauste lower than unit so condensation or oil can run out. We have them in our semies to heat a cab
Always the youtubers that never shaves, that sells shaving products.
Just because his face isn't shaved doesn't mean he doesn't shave. Just saying...
Well manscape is for downthere care not so much your face
With your mention of the plastic heating, Phthalates came to mind but as far as being an air contaminant I wouldn't know. Those things would be a terrible place for any use of PVCs, likely being worst than the Phthalates.
ive run one for over 12 years heating a 2 b2droom home ... the plastics dontt get hot enough to offgass anything
Air quality = particles in the air. When you start the dieselheater, it starts moving the air inside your garage, this in turns causes dust to lift. I have one of those fit in my garage. It's awesome.
Did you watch the entire video? When he uses a mix fuel it does not change the air quality. So it cannot be the dust............
Glad you did this video, I've been looking into getting one of these to put in my suburban for a trip to Alaska.
Probably one of Tyler's most honest and thorough tests I've seen on his channel.
I'm impressed with that. Now, app control is in it so that's also easier than chambering across the shed lol
Look at our man forming hypotheses and testing them, Professor Tyler over here.
For the blacl diesel if you think thickness is a problem and if ita hard to start you can mix some gas with it
I love your videos im always waiting for the next one
Seen a few videos running diesel heaters on alternative fuel, most start to play up and stop working pretty quickly. Ive had mine for 2yrs now, only diesel added, and never had an issue. Personally I would just keep to regular diesel to ensure your machine keeps running properly
Too much safety in this video 😂
Is the lower "air quality" from oxygen being used from the heater? Try running fresh air intake hose that is away from the exhaust. Or run nothing but the duct into your shop. Btw diesel, kerosene, propane ect don't admit co2
How do you know if that air quality meter is real? 99% of those things are fake even with thousands of 5+ star reviews. It says it detects carbon dioxide but CO2 detectors are expensive, more than that whole device costs. Maybe they mean carbon monoxide CO? If so then it's still fake because your actual CO detector didn't show anything.
Actually that monitor does look like the fake ones I have seen, and you are right - CO2 sensors are expensive, and a legitimate CO2 sensor will not show 400 ppm inside. Normal CO2 readings are from 600-800 ppm inside, and his monitor never went above 400 throughout this video, so yes, I believe this is a fake monitor. I took one apart in a video of mine, and this one looks very similar in construction as the one I demonstrated that was fake. I just hope that Tyler can get a legitimate monitor, so he knows if something is wrong. I really liked the video though, nice demonstration. I have one of these heaters, but only have it to use in an emergency, so haven't hooked it up yet.
You could double the heating power of this heater very easily. For an example if you locate the heater say in the middle of a wall and get a section of piping and run it from the exhaust side down the wall and pipe it through the wall using cement board and ducting for wood burning stoves or equivalent. and use tubing on the hot air side and do the same but blowing the hot are into the area. And then piping the intake line outside for fresh air. I also don't see why you couldn't rig up a DC thermostat to control when the heater turn of and on.
Maybe it’s just me but you know remotes needs batteries but what do I know lol
Or take out the battery plastic strip that comes with new remotes.
Great Video, The air intake is in the rear next to where you placed the exhaust, just outside the window,, have you tried keeping the exhaust and the air intake further away ? just a thought .
“I’m an American, I use btu’s”. You mean the British Thermal Unit?
FYI I've seen that you can add a radiator to the exhaust and get even more heat out of it, I'd like to see what else it can burn as well like vegetable oil diesel, worth a try, right
Tyler. I will not rest until you freeze dry some deli meats and hot dogs. I'm on my knees in a CVS begging you rn.
@TylerTube re Air Quality. The air movement created in the garage by the hot air out will act like a fan and disturb then move some dust around - thus changing air quality
Great video my friend
That hollowed out muffler is a nice touch for sure.
Is the exhaust clamped down? Maybe you have a little leak from where the exhaust connects to the heater try using some exhaust paste and a good clamp to seel it.
It is sucking the fumes from the outside back in. Tape off the opening.
you should use used fryer oil ^^if warmed, you'll be able to use it pure, only filtered
For once I think you did an actual good review on a product
Links to your channel so we can see your reviews please mate....
the air intake filter has to be outside where the exhaust is, your pulling a vacuum and its pulling in contaminates. you can set the controller for temp us frequency, theres videos for different controllers.
If you plan on buying one of these get a carbon monoxide detector.
No, don't do that, carbon monoxide is good for you, the headache is just clearing your mind and purifing your alignments, that's why you sleep so good after.... and if you believe that i have some ocean front property in Arizona and ill even throw in the golden gate bridge for half price
You need the air intake on the outside also. That way it is not using your conditioned air for combustion.
he has no clue what he's doing
10:05 if I’m not mistaken, diesel engines use heat and compression to ignite fuel, rather than inducing a spark for ignition, like with a gasoline engine. When a diesel engine starts cold, glow plugs inside the engine heat up to provide the heat needed to allow for combustion upon mechanical compression. That initial power draw was probably glow plugs 🤷🏻♂️ 100% blind guess. I guess I could’ve googled it before sticking my neck out here 😂 let’s hope I’m right 🤞
The glow plug is only used to establish combustion in this unit. It shuts off during operation. The controller will turn it back on for a while during the cool down cycle to assure a good start the next time it is called for.
Tyler, recently I bought one of those I thought steel but maybe aluminum bar manual knife sharpener. I sharpened my knives with it and it only dulled it. What am I missing? thanks, pal, and I enjoy you very much.
another possibility is with the air intake inside the garage and exhaust out of a partially open window it creating lower pressure and some of your exhaust air is flowing back into the open window.
One of the best reviews on this channel so far
It was originally used by tractor Trailer drivers while sleeping roadside in their bunk. The product has been around a long time
I have 3 of them, I use one to heat my house and I’ve never had an issue with bad air.
Just an issue with your nose/lungs
There's one of those under my bunk in the freightliner I drive. The one I use is a different brand, but the exhaust looks just like that.
I have been looking at these for awhile. Yup, I'm going to have to buy one now. 😂
I have a similar model (same brand). All heaters like this are like wood stoves. The first burn should be completely outdoors so you don't breathe the possibly toxic burn-off. Also, where is the intake pipe? If outside, you may be pulling in exhaust fumes.
I seen them before it has to be on the out side of the horse and the air duct threw the window and the part 9f the window has to be covered
You may have an exhaust leak right at the connection to the pipe. Tighten the exhaust pipe down with a hose clamp. And then run the exhaust outside your shop and seal it out. Using some sort of fire proofing, steel plate bolted to your wall with a hole directly in the center with the pipe ran through the plate.
It is probably the vent cap on the diesel tank which is inside venting diesel fumes in a minute levels that would trigger the air filter alarm. Try the same experiment with the fuel tank outside
I have been running a wippro heater for a while now while camping I do not have any bad to say about it. its awesome
I have one of these in my yurt. I love it. I only run diesel or kerosene in it. Any Black fuels will totally gum up the heat exchanger with carbon.
I've seen these before. A guy I watch uses one of these in his truck, as he regularly travels the country and sleeps in the back of his truck with a cap on it. He's only had a couple problems with them and usually he says it's just because he installed it wrong or did something he shouldn't have, it's pretty neat.
Big tip for these btw, run it for an hour minimum (2 hours is better) outside, before you actually plan on using them. They smell AWFUL at first when running them, much to Tyler's discovery. And 100% run a CO detector along with it. I usually recommend 2 of them, on the off chance one of them fails or the battery dies.