Roger Long
Senior Member
My experience with cabin heat, including Beaufort, SC to Washington, DC in January (long story), is that you must have something HOT in the cabin if you really want to be warm. Dryness can often be as important as warmth and nothing dries a boat out like a fuel burning heater with an exhaust stack. We also like quiet so Espar and similar heaters have never appealed to me.
I had a Dickenson diesel Newport heater on my sailboat and loved it. It was the heart of the boat and filled the cabin with flickering light like a fireplace. It ran for weeks and months non-stop and I never had to worry about finding a source of fuel. If there as fuel for the engine, the heater could heat the boat.
We just installed the larger “Antarctic” model on our trawler. There is a learning curve to these heaters and they do require some understanding but, after living with one for 20,000 miles, I was surprised how hard it was to get the new one burning right. I was also surprised to find a lot of fuel coming out of the overflow line that prevents the heater from flooding if it malfunctions. I had some long conversations with Dickenson and they said that was normal. I was surprised because, when I sold my sailboat, I pointed to the plastic soft drink bottle in the bilge the overflow line led to and told him he needed to keep an eye on it. However, after over 20,000 miles, there was not a single drop of fuel in it and never had been.
Dickenson is an interesting company, I’ve talked to several people there and it sounds like they all have one of their heaters on a boat so they understand their products better than any tech reps I’ve talked to elsewhere. However, I think this familiarity leads to some acceptance of things that they should perhaps be a bit more concerned about. I heard, “Oh, that’s normal.” a lot. I even heard that when I found my engine drip pan half full of diesel, and the tray under the heater flowing over into a big pool of diesel on our new teak floor. I was told they all lead their overflow line to a sandwich box tray and keep an eye on it if their boat is not configured so the overflow line can be led directly back to the main fuel tank.
After another long conversation, I followed their advice to disassemble the metering valve of our brand new heater. It is a very simple device, a close cousin to a toilet tank. They were sure that it had debris in it picked in the tubing during installation. They also wanted me to check that the float hinges had not been bent by impact during shipping. I’d previously been told that banging on the valve at the beginning of the season or long shutdown period is SOP but this isn’t mentioned in the manual. During these conversations, I told them about my great experience with my Newport and they said, “Well, you were lucky.”, kind of a strange thing to say about your product.
When I opened up the valve, I found it pristine inside. No debris, no FO gunk, nothing. The float was also perfectly positioned. However, the plastic float had an overhanging burr edge and I could see faint scuff marks where it had rubbed on the casing during the long truck journey across the continent. With no fuel to dampen it, it would have rattled around pretty freely. When I pulled out the needle valve to check for debris in the valve seat, it moved freely but sliding it back and forth, it felt “burry”. I could clearly feel microscopic bumps of metal sliding over others and the slightest sideways pressure would prevent movement. The needle valve has flutes to act as guides while fuel flows through the grooves. The faces of the flutes had faint striations on them, possibly from rattling up and down dry during shipment. I took a Dremel tool with a polishing head and polished the flutes. I also sanded off the burrs on the corners of the plastic float. When I reassembled the heater, it worked perfectly. Not a drop of fuel has come out of the overflow line since.
I still love Dickenson heaters and their customer service is old time great but, as I told them, I had to finish their manufacturing process for them. They said they were glad things worked out and would pass my findings along but no apology for two days of marina bills and hours spent covered with diesel working on a brand new piece of equipment we spent thousands for.
I had a Dickenson diesel Newport heater on my sailboat and loved it. It was the heart of the boat and filled the cabin with flickering light like a fireplace. It ran for weeks and months non-stop and I never had to worry about finding a source of fuel. If there as fuel for the engine, the heater could heat the boat.
We just installed the larger “Antarctic” model on our trawler. There is a learning curve to these heaters and they do require some understanding but, after living with one for 20,000 miles, I was surprised how hard it was to get the new one burning right. I was also surprised to find a lot of fuel coming out of the overflow line that prevents the heater from flooding if it malfunctions. I had some long conversations with Dickenson and they said that was normal. I was surprised because, when I sold my sailboat, I pointed to the plastic soft drink bottle in the bilge the overflow line led to and told him he needed to keep an eye on it. However, after over 20,000 miles, there was not a single drop of fuel in it and never had been.
Dickenson is an interesting company, I’ve talked to several people there and it sounds like they all have one of their heaters on a boat so they understand their products better than any tech reps I’ve talked to elsewhere. However, I think this familiarity leads to some acceptance of things that they should perhaps be a bit more concerned about. I heard, “Oh, that’s normal.” a lot. I even heard that when I found my engine drip pan half full of diesel, and the tray under the heater flowing over into a big pool of diesel on our new teak floor. I was told they all lead their overflow line to a sandwich box tray and keep an eye on it if their boat is not configured so the overflow line can be led directly back to the main fuel tank.
After another long conversation, I followed their advice to disassemble the metering valve of our brand new heater. It is a very simple device, a close cousin to a toilet tank. They were sure that it had debris in it picked in the tubing during installation. They also wanted me to check that the float hinges had not been bent by impact during shipping. I’d previously been told that banging on the valve at the beginning of the season or long shutdown period is SOP but this isn’t mentioned in the manual. During these conversations, I told them about my great experience with my Newport and they said, “Well, you were lucky.”, kind of a strange thing to say about your product.
When I opened up the valve, I found it pristine inside. No debris, no FO gunk, nothing. The float was also perfectly positioned. However, the plastic float had an overhanging burr edge and I could see faint scuff marks where it had rubbed on the casing during the long truck journey across the continent. With no fuel to dampen it, it would have rattled around pretty freely. When I pulled out the needle valve to check for debris in the valve seat, it moved freely but sliding it back and forth, it felt “burry”. I could clearly feel microscopic bumps of metal sliding over others and the slightest sideways pressure would prevent movement. The needle valve has flutes to act as guides while fuel flows through the grooves. The faces of the flutes had faint striations on them, possibly from rattling up and down dry during shipment. I took a Dremel tool with a polishing head and polished the flutes. I also sanded off the burrs on the corners of the plastic float. When I reassembled the heater, it worked perfectly. Not a drop of fuel has come out of the overflow line since.
I still love Dickenson heaters and their customer service is old time great but, as I told them, I had to finish their manufacturing process for them. They said they were glad things worked out and would pass my findings along but no apology for two days of marina bills and hours spent covered with diesel working on a brand new piece of equipment we spent thousands for.
