Chinese Diesel Air Heater Part 17 - 2 Kw Heater

This video is about a 2 Kw Chinese Diesel air heater. It is a smaller version of the more common 5 Kw diesel heater, or the so called 8 Kw heater. It is aprox 50 mm (2 inches) shorter than a 5 Kw heater and weighs aprox 2.8 kg compared to aprox 4 kg for the 5 Kw heater. These heaters are close copies of the German Eberspacher heaters.


It makes an excellent heater, providing warm DRY air for a small caravan, camper van, small bus, cabin, tent, or even a roof top tent.



Of note, the 2 Kw, the 5Kw, and the 8 Kw heaters all use exactly the same fuel pump, delivering the same dose rate of .02 ml per dose. They use the same glow plug, and have exactly the same base mounting footprint, making it very easy to swap out a smaller heater for a bigger heater, or a bigger heater for a smaller heater.


In theory if you burn the same amount of diesel, you should produce the same amount of heat, but in practice, (due to inefficiencies) this is not always so. At the same pulse rate (fuel burn) the 2 Kw heater produces less heat than a 5 Kw heater.


These heaters, although burning diesel, also require DC power to run. They need power for the fuel pump, the ECU and controller, but most of all the fan motor. All these heaters require roughly the same amount of power for the same pulse rate and fan speed rate. At a minimum pulse setting of 1.6 Hz the heaters require approx .8 amps to run, and up to nearly 3 amps at a maximum pulse rate of 5.5 Hz. The higher the pulse rate the higher the fan speed.



My personal opinion, and opposite to many commentators, I feel it is better to have a bigger heater running slower, rather than a smaller heater running harder. It is the fan speed that creates the most noise. A 2Kw heater running full speed of around 5 Hz, using approx 360 ml of diesel per hour, and drawing nearly 3 amp hours out of your battery produces about 2 Kw of heat. A 5 Kw heater running at a pulse rate of around 2.5 to 2.8 Hz, with much less fan noise, uses about 200 ml of diesel per hour and draws approx 1.5 amp hours out of your battery and it also gives you approx 2 Kw of heat.


The rational behind running these heaters harder is because at low or idle speed these heaters tend to carbon up much quicker, (if your install is not gold standard), causing starting and running issues and requiring more frequent maintenance. This aspect can be mitigated by occasionally running your heater at full speed for 15 minutes or so to burn off excess carbon deposits before shutting the heater down.


But the flip side is, you do not want a big heater in a small space, creating far too much heat even at a minimum speed. In my opinion, an ideal set up is a heater that can give adequate heat for most occasions at a slow to mid range setting, that is approx 2 Hz to 3 Hz pulse rate. This will give the best compromise of low fan speed, less fan noise, good fuel burn of about 5 hours to the litre, and a power consumption of about 1.5 amp hours from your batteries.



Finally, I am often asked to recommend a supplier for these heaters, but the issue here is on line sellers come and go, or they buy a batch of heaters and when they are sold they often move on to some other product. All suppliers I bought heaters from last year are either no longer there or no longer selling heaters. I recommend you search on line for a supplier with a local warehouse in your own country for prompt delivery, one who offers returns, and one who has a good rating.
J McK