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Old 08-02-2020, 02:17 PM   #1
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Chinese diesel heater altitude settings

I appreciate that most of the factory units have a pre installed heater from a branded company. I installed a Chinese diesel heater in my install for a couple of reasons, I thought I would havelimited need for heat, the cost against a branded one and just to see if it worked.

My question is about use at altitude, we travelled to Colorado last year and are looking at a return trip, once the border is opened.

When there last year. we tried our heater just outside Denver, as a test but noticed white smoke from the exhaust, it was a damp night and it could have been condensation or fuel/air mix issue.

I wondered if any members had this type of heater and if they had any fuel/air settings that worked at altitude. The unit can have various parameters adjusted, fuel pump speed via hertz and fan speed with varying RPM.

I have looked all over the interweb and not really found a concise set of values.

I notice that a couple of the new units have a different controller, blue and red and they state for high altitude.

Any insight would be of interest. Thanks.

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Old 08-04-2020, 11:57 AM   #2
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Old 08-04-2020, 08:19 PM   #3
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Me too. I plan to buy one anyway since I live at relatively low altitude but I have wondered this. Any info on this on Expedition Portal?
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Old 08-04-2020, 09:32 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by asgard View Post
I appreciate that most of the factory units have a pre installed heater from a branded company. I installed a Chinese diesel heater in my install for a couple of reasons, I thought I would havelimited need for heat, the cost against a branded one and just to see if it worked.

My question is about use at altitude, we travelled to Colorado last year and are looking at a return trip, once the border is opened.

When there last year. we tried our heater just outside Denver, as a test but noticed white smoke from the exhaust, it was a damp night and it could have been condensation or fuel/air mix issue.

I wondered if any members had this type of heater and if they had any fuel/air settings that worked at altitude. The unit can have various parameters adjusted, fuel pump speed via hertz and fan speed with varying RPM.

I have looked all over the interweb and not really found a concise set of values.

I notice that a couple of the new units have a different controller, blue and red and they state for high altitude.

Any insight would be of interest. Thanks.
Can,t really help you in regards to mixture etc but I also bought a Chinese version last winter just to play with it as it was like $150 or so and figured I would give it a go.
Have been very impressed with it so far and had no issues as I used it in the garage to help with the heat.
I live at just above 6000' and haven't needed to do any tuning for it to run clean.
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Old 08-04-2020, 09:55 PM   #5
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Also interested. Heard lots of good about the heaters as well, but what you never see is what brand people are using. While I assume most are built at the same location and branded by 400 different companies for resale, it would be nice to hear what brands people are having good or bad luck with.
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Old 08-05-2020, 08:55 AM   #6
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What size heater is it? The 5kw unit or smaller 2kw?
Very different air/fuel settings for each.
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Old 08-05-2020, 03:50 PM   #7
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The CDH are great because you can program them for elevation using a digital controller. Even the ones that come with a rotary dial can be fitted with a digital controller for about $15.
To tune for elevation, you reduce the fuel pump rate (hertz) by 4% per 1000 ft gain. The air RPM is not adjusted for elevation in most cases.

For the above to work you need your base settings sorted out and spot on.
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Old 08-05-2020, 03:57 PM   #8
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Also interested. Heard lots of good about the heaters as well, but what you never see is what brand people are using. While I assume most are built at the same location and branded by 400 different companies for resale...
This is correct. Luck of the draw. Buy from amazon prime or ebay with free return with shipping. I buy from the suppliers that have their warehouse closest to me.

These units need to be bench tested. If they don't work out of the box send it back and try again. I've installed two and both bench tested fine out of the box. One heater's fan did rub a little on the housing but I slid it back 2mm and it runs great.
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Old 08-08-2020, 07:04 PM   #9
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Anyone have a link or name to search for these heaters? Never heard of them until now ...
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Old 08-08-2020, 07:52 PM   #10
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There is a great resource for the knock off heaters on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/146837062640024
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