Ardic diesel heater

[fox islander]

...been noticing a few "heater" posts recently. It must be fall.
Yesterday I attempted to fire up my Ardic 041-D heater. It's been two years since I last used it and it worked fine. The start-up cycle seemed (sounded) normal, but when I looked out the companion way I swear I almost had a stroke......the amount of very white thick smoke coming out the exhaust was shocking. Half the marina headed over to my boat assuming I was burning to the waterline. The smoke stopped as soon as I turned it off. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and had an idea what might be the problem. As I understand it Ardic parts are getting very hard to get.

Thanks

 

[petersea]

Most of the time "white" smoke is really steam or water that is now a vapor. Not familiar with you unit but could be just due to two years of no use ??

 

[John Nantz]

.... tend to agree

.... with the water possibility.

The exhaust is quite hot and if the pipe had, say, a dip, it might have collected water in the dip. If it didn't have a dip and the heater was lower than the exhaust outlet, then maybe water could have got into the muffler. Given the quantity of "smoke" you mentioned, my guess is probably the latter.

The muffler/silencer is quite large so it could hold quite a bit of water.

According to the weather forecast, "water" is in our future! .... basically until about Oct 18.

 

[fox islander]

...thanks for the input...I'm going to take the exhaust off and see whats in there b4 firing it back up again.
John, I see youre in the PNW also...more like water in the forecast until next july...july 5th to be exact. Cheers.

 

[John Nantz]

I wouldn't hold my breath for July 5th, either. Back in 1987 we had a green parking lot. There was measurable precip for every single day of July!

Well, with Global Warming that seems to have changed, though. This past July there was only a trace on a couple days in July.

By the way, I may still have a few 041-D heater parts, like the Glow Plug for example. Also have a digital "Word" document of the Ardic Manual, about 9 pages long, that I scanned and did OCR on if you're interested.

 

[fox islander]

OK dug back into the Ardic heater issues today. Fired her up and yes...copious amounts of smoke, but this time instead of panicking and shutting her off I let her go. Sure enough, in about 3-4 mins the smoke started to decrease. Another cpl mins after that...no smoke. Ran her for an hour, then shut her off. restarted...no smoke. Perhaps just lack of use? When I had the heater cover off I did notice some diesel had leaked from a brass fitting. Tightened her up...think I'm good to go. That little thing puts out an amazing amount of heat.

 

[Scotty C-M]

I've been thinking about getting a heat system for my boat. Does your unit have any odor in the interior of the boat?

Thanks,
Scotty