Espar Heater Problems

[Jeffrey]

Scatter,

Try one of the ThermoKing locations I listed above for your parts. I bought my glow pin and screen from the one in Fontana ( I think) and got it in one day. And yes, sadly, that is the price. I carry a spare, and the necessary tool.

[Jeffrey]

UPDATES:

While I haven't posted any news here, I've continued to deal with Espar. It has NOT been fun. It's sad how stupid and stubborn some of the employees are, at the Canadian office. Numerous emails explaining to them the hours I've put into the problem and my costs. They simply ignored all of it, and provided the most generic, un-personal responses about 'policy' and 'warranty' and 'approved installers'. After talking with SMB to confirm that they are authorized installers, Espar refused to listen to hear my reference to that fact! I wonder how the Germans would have handled it if I were in Europe? I got SO tired of repeating myself to one moron after another at their company, I just took it upon myself to learn all I can somehow, and become my own expert, which I am not yet, but a heck of a lot closer to it. I did, however, finally call their offices, and managed to speak to another tech/support person who I was not dealing with yet. That gave me the opportunity to act like it was my first call and feign enthusiasm to a new guy, who caught on and started giving me some 'other' advice that had a little merit. So now I have a friend there (j/k!). Anyway, his take on the white smoking malfunction was simpler and gave me a suggestion. For whatever reason, an Airtronic will sometimes not fire up correctly, and smoke. That causes carbon buildup on the glowpin and in the chamber. I was told to run the unit at full blast (when I can start it) for 20 - 30 minutes and it will blow out much of the carbon. Better yet, he said to use kerosene as a fuel, which burns real clean and leaves almost nothing behind, when doing the half hour blast. So, the fun began again with messing with diesel fuel lines, and trying to rig up a connection to a tube going into a container of kero. Turned out to be not so hard (remember that I am very handy), and it burned quite clean and hot. Afterwards, figuring that I may need to do this as regular maintenance, I inserted a T barbed fitting in the line from the fuel tank to the heater fuel pumps. I attached a 24" piece of small ID hose to the 3rd barb and coiled it up and plugged the end. Now when I need a quick kero-blast, I put that hose in a can of kero and pinch off the diesel line.

Beats me if this is the answer or will even work. Right now I like to believe I have a clean heater, and am saving the next start for when I actually need it, while camping.

To be continued.........

[daveb]

Interesting. I was told to always run full blast for 15 minutes then drop it to the temp I want. Do you think the extra line will cause an air bubble? Seems I remember you talking about something like that. Sounds like a good plan though.
Dave.

[Jammyauto]

I too have been having some issues with my espar. Today I decided to see whats up. My van is a homemade and my espar is under the back seat so it comes out in about 5 minutes. I did not anticipate the heater coming in and out before deciding on this location, I just got lucky. I completely disassembled the heater fully expecting it to be full of dirt like Jeffrey's. I don't know why but it was not. I cleaned everything very carefully and put it all back togther. The problem tuened out to be a bunch of rotten fuel in the lines from just not being used enough. Ran it on high for about 2 hours the low for another hour. I will deffinatly run this thing every month from now on. I'm also building a intake air filter box that will feed both the airtronic and the hydronic. I'm also going to rout the exhaust in such a way as dust can't enter that way either. In the meantime I bought some rubber caps for the intake and exhaust from McMaster-Carr. Had to buy 100 of them! Anybody else need some?

[CJ]

Sure I will buy a few from you.

[Greg In Austin]

one or two here please.

[Jeffrey]

I'm in Death Valley right now, the last morning of this extended weekend. First two nights were so nice below sea level, I just enjoyed the breeze through the windows. Last night, in Panamint Springs area, it was blowing cold and I used the heater as well as this morning. IT WORKED PERFECTLY!! Maybe it was the kerosene blast I performed at home, or maybe luck, but I was happy and warm. I got a feeling I'm back on track with this thing. Of course, I'm at low altitude, but that never made a difference when it was new.

[wannaSMB]

So given all of this, Jeffrey, if you were adding heat to your SMB today, what would you choose? (anyone is of course encouraged to answer the same question)

Webasto and Espar seem to be the only two of their kind (http://www.lets-getaway.com/heating-gas-diesel-rv.htm). As I've mentioned in another post, I was recently told that Webasto's NEXT version will have a high altitude switch, but no statement as to timing on that next version.

http://www.webastoshowroom.com/blueheat ... r_van.html

A friend also forwarded this link, but I know nothing about it. Given how low the amp draw is, I wonder if it has a fan.

http://www.heatercraft.com/ProductInfo. ... ctid=1113H

[Scalf77]

WanaSMB,

The heatercraft link is for a hydronic heater and you would need hot water as your heat source. It is not a heater on its own, but if you already had hot water with a little bit of plumbing you use it.


http://www.solarhaven.org/HPArticle.htm

-greg

[Jeffrey]

Jim,

I would still recommend the Espar (or other similar type), even though I had problems. I know what brought them on and think I may be over them now. When that heater is on, it is REAL nice.