diesel heater

[Ray]

Does anyone have an answer to a Webasto forced air diesel heater that cycles, blows lots of air but won't kick in the heat. For some reason the igniter and fuel sequence doesn't occur. It has worked in past months but only after I hit the reset button on top of the unit. Now even that doesn't seem to do the trick.Any ideas greatfully accepted.

 

[tom mcnamara]

heat

i have a 4 zone webasco heater in my boat. the fans should not come on without hot water,but if i recall mine came on and i found that i was out of fuel and i also opened the burner unit at the same time. the unit opens easy,there are two bolts that allow the back of the unit to open and clean what they call the gun. my installer led me over the phone i dont think i had directions. you also have clogged fuel lines to consider if you dont use addatives and a fuel filter. but one thing is that the system ie great,i live aboard and it sure is better than reverse cyclemcbubba720@aol.ccom

 

[Patrick Ewing]

I would check

fuel filter(s), glow plug, and then wiring. The unit will use a lot of current when starting. If you can measure it, it should draw 15 to 20 or 25 amps for 20 seconds or so and then start blowing smoke while it starts up. If it doesn't draw a lot of current, the glow plug is suspect and you can measure its resistance which should be very low. The relays in the control unit are something else to be suspicious of but the manufacturers make these things too complex for mere mortals to work on. You can also measure the dc voltage at the unit and see if it has too much of a voltage drop. Connections will corrode and fail in time if they are not done properly in the installation and many that I have seen are poorly installed and wired. Is the fuel pump working properly? Is there an air leak or air lock? Check the lines or replace them if you suspect them. You might use a small temporary tank to see if the problem is in that part of the system.

 

[Trevor]

Tom, I don't think it's a water system

I agree the Webasto diesel water systems with the heat exchangers are terriffic for liveaboards... I had one installed on my last boat. However, Webasto also makes a forced air system similar to the Espars. I think Ray has this system...T

 

[Howard Morton]

A possible solution

Ray, if this is the same heater I had in my Catalina 30, there was a problem with a computer chip on the control board. You may need some help figuring out which chip (we're fortunate that one of our electrtics stores can help us diagonse bad chips) The replacement cost around 99 cents.You might check it outHoward