Espar Heater Problems - Page 11

PeasBugs · 01-11-2010, 03:40 PM

Digging up an old topic I have started to get the dreaded white smoke from the exhaust of the espar. Jeffery (or anyone else who has done this procedure) could you post pictures of your set up with the fuel line for the kerosene. I have and idea of how I would do it but if I have to do the blast once a year I would just like to put in a permanent line and not mess with having to install and take apart every year.
Thanks

LanduytG · 01-11-2010, 05:06 PM

After running the kerosene through it run the heater on high for 30-60 minutes once a month or every other month. That will do the most for preventing carbon build up.

Greg

PeasBugs · 01-12-2010, 08:59 AM

Thanks for the info. I was hoping to get acouple photos of the hose and fittings that people used.

John and Dana · 01-12-2010, 05:15 PM

Have you tried starting the heater and running it on high for 30 minutes. Back in September at the end of the 3 week trip where we had used the heater almost every night it failed on the last night and would not start. Looking back we had noticed that it didn't sound right for about the last week of the trip. When we got home I got it to start and ran it on high for a good 30 minutes and it has worked great ever since.

John

PeasBugs · 01-13-2010, 09:08 AM

Yes I have taken that approach, but it usually only lasts for a few weeks to a month or so. I wanted to try the kerosene blast to try and get the system cleaned out a bit.
Thanks

kmessinger · 01-23-2010, 01:35 PM

I was getting ready to pull my propane system and put a D2 in to warm us in the rare times we need heat. After reading all this I wonder if I should just keep the Suburban heater.

There must be thousands of Espar heaters that work correctly. Why the problems with Sportsmobile? It seems the common problem is not using it enough at a high setting to keep it clean.

Regards,
Keith

LanduytG · 01-23-2010, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmessinger

I was getting ready to pull my propane system and put a D2 in to warm us in the rare times we need heat. After reading all this I wonder if I should just keep the Suburban heater.

There must be thousands of Espar heaters that work correctly. Why the problems with Sportsmobile? It seems the common problem is not using it enough at a high setting to keep it clean.

Regards,
Keith

You have hit the nail on the head. The D4 is over sized and runs on low most of the time. A D2 will heat the van except in the coldest of conditions like way below zero.

Greg

fmiles · 01-24-2010, 09:54 PM

Keith,

I have a rear couch layout EB Sprinter with a D4 Airtronic heater under the couch. I am very happy with it. It will heat up the van in about 20 minutes then run on low the rest of the night. It has kept me very comfortable. I have experienced outside temps with a low down to about 25 degrees F. So far no problems.

I leave the interior door open to the storage space under the couch to improve return air flow to the heater, otherwise the reduced air flow causes the discharge air temp to run higher than I am comfortable with. I am concerned it may cause a problem and scorch something.

I have the 7 day controller and remote thermocouple mounted on an instrument board high up in the van at eye level. That works well for me. I didn't want to have to get down on all fours to operate the heater.

I think going with the smaller D2 may be a good idea, any you will be happy with it. It may run faster with a little more fan noise than the D4 at idle. I can barely hear the D4 running at idle when sleeping right on top of it.

BTW - how do you make hot water?

Hope that helps.

kmessinger · 01-24-2010, 11:05 PM

Thanks for the info. I am pretty sold on a D2. We have an electric hot water heater but we don't use it very much. My DW would rather boil water on the stove for dishes.

stikine · 06-08-2010, 07:50 AM

Just spent the last couple of days working on my Espar D4. Like many, I too had the "white smoke" and "error 52" then the heater shut down.

After removing the heater and talking with Greg, at Lubrication Specialists (who was quite helpful) I pulled out the glow pin and inspected the glow pin chamber for carbon fouling. I didn't have the special socket that comes with a new glow pin (price has gone up to about $140 for the glow pins now) and in attempting to get it out using some needle nose pliers, I snapped the ceramic pin. I had Greg send me a new one and got a new screen and pin installed, even though my pin and screen were really quite clean, with very little carbon deposited.

Following the rather detailed instructions and diagrams in the Espar manual, I removed the blower assembly, then the combustion tube and cleaned out the carbon and sand in the burner (really a fairly simple job). You can reuse the seal to the blower (contrary to what the manual states, & Greg agrees) but you will need a new seal to the burner, as it will be quite brittle when you remove it. I had about 2 tbl. of red sand in the combustion chamber and my intake tube had about 1/8 of a cup of sand just sitting in it. I have been in S Utah and out in the Owyhee desert this spring with lots of washboard roads and dust/sand.

I reassembled the unit and reinstalled it and tested it several times and it is working just fine.

I only run mine on high and I have a good down sleeping bag, so I don't leave it on all night.

Some observations:

>I believe all my problems come from fine sand/dust entering the intake hose that SMB mounted behind the Transfer Fuel tank - having the hose level and not pointing down allows lots of sand to collect in the tube, just waiting to get sucked into the heater when you turn it on, even though on initial inspection this looks like a pretty protected place.

>I purchased 5ft of 1" vinyl braided hose and wrapped the piece that contacts the combustion intake with aluminum heat shielding and re-routed it to the same place as Jeffery did which makes it easy to attach a plug when you are not using it - I believe Jeffery used some flexible aluminum hose (which I never could find) and this may work just as well. As there is only a 2" air gap between it and the exhaust, and it gets pretty hot there I will be keeping my eye on it.

>I also rerouted the exhaust tube to make sure it is pointing down and not collecting any sand

>Greg said he is working on a filter for the intake, and hopefully will have something available in the near future

> If you just run these things full blast, and change your intake so it doesn't collect sand, I really think you are good to go and will have solved most of the problems.

Hope this helps,

Scotty