New Wabasto heater on my Sundowner 30

[man7sell]

Finally got some time to look around my new to me Sundowner 30. One item I came across is the newly installed Wabasto heater. Now I am intimately familiar with these heaters from my last boat that had a bad install (Professionally installed....not).


This new one is installed in the engine compartment, but guess what's missing. The intake air is coming straight from the engine compartment, big no no.


Now I have to find where to install it as I needs 70% internal air and 30% external air.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

Mine uses 100% internal air from the engine room.

 

[koliver]

Like any furnacce installation, you need to provide both combustion air and heating air.
My boat had a Diesel heater, an Espar D7L. Combustion air came from the engine room, which was well supplied for the twin propulsion engines and the genset before heater installation.
Heater air was piped down from the saloon area, just above where the heater was installed, so not a long run of pipe, attached to a grate located in an inconspicuous position.
You should have no trouble adding a similar air intake for yours.

 

[man7sell]

Like any furnacce installation, you need to provide both combustion air and heating air.
My boat had a Diesel heater, an Espar D7L. Combustion air came from the engine room, which was well supplied for the twin propulsion engines and the genset before heater installation.
Heater air was piped down from the saloon area, just above where the heater was installed, so not a long run of pipe, attached to a grate located in an inconspicuous position.
You should have no trouble adding a similar air intake for yours.

That would be perfect.

 

[man7sell]

Mine uses 100% internal air from the engine room.

Mine did on the last installation, and it stunk the whole boat. The smallest diesel leak, and it will happen, will ruin your interior. There is a s reason that the installation instructions says that is not recommended. I hope this does not happen to you.

 

[Bmarler]

I always ran 100% external air on the intake. Combustion air from the engine room. No real difference in heat output, and slightly pressurizing the cabin is a good thing.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

I've bled the injectors, had the engine completely out, replaced the fuel lines, changed filters, had my fuel tanks opened and repaired, etc., all since installing my heater. I cleaned things up afterwards each time and no diesel smell in the cabin from taking air from the engine room. I'm sure my wife would tell me if there was.

I agree that slightly pressurizing the cabin is a good thing, especially when winter cruising and condensation is an issue. I removed the PO long intake from the cabin and use engine room air.

Next to bad fuel, the killer for small diesel heaters is air restrictions. When I installed an Espar years ago, it came with extensive schedules for how long each intake/exhaust line could be, including deductions for Ts, Ls, and register vents. As I recall, no runs should be longer than two meters of straight tube. If the airflow is restricted too much, they carbon up.

I do have two slight restrictions on mine. One is a "bug screen" over the hot air intake in the engine room. It keeps out anything big enough to mess up the little fan blades. The other is a "silencer" on the combustion air intake in the engine room. The intake is a surprisingly loud whine without it.

 

[SeaDogAK]

It’s not about smell, it’s a safety issue. If you’re pumping engine room air into your cabin, any exhaust leak will put carbon monoxide in the cabin.

Drawing combustion air from the ER is fine, but not heating air.

 

[Portage_Bay]

A side benefit to bringing in outside air for heating is the change in relative humidity. Bring in cool saturated air, heat it up and the relative humidity drops enough to help overcome humidity from showers and cooking.

 

[man7sell]

Fixed

Hah. Went to the boat today with my list of things to do, the Wabasto intake being high on the list. Entered the 'Engine Room (Not much room). The external air hose had come disconnected. FIXED Yay