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I thought I would report on my Espar diesel furnace problems and the service I got to fix it.
A few weeks ago I fired up the Espar diesel furnace for the first time in many months. It created lots of light gray smoke from the exhaust pipe but no heat in the van. I was in the mountains but below the 3,000 foot level so I had the thermostat set in the "1" position. (My thermostat has a switch to set to 1 below 3,000 feet and to 2 above three thousand feet. I have heard newer versions don't need this switch.) When I got home I tried it again and it did the same thing. The second try at home (which is at sea level) was slightly better as it did create some heat but still smoked badly. Two weeks ago I was back in the mountains and the furnace acted the same as before.
Finally I had some time to deal with it and I made an appt. with Thermo King in Kent WA to have it looked at. They are the closest Espar service center but a two hour drive from my home.
The location of the furnace in the RB50 is not really an easy place to get to. It is under the forward section of the clothes closet in the driver's side rear of the van. But there is a trap door in the bottom of the closet that helps greatly with servicing the heater. The service tech was able to plug in his laptop computer and read the computer in the furnace to see any trouble codes.
He asked me when I had the furnace serviced last... Serviced?... Uh... Well it's 2.5 years old and never needed any until now... The tech said the unit had 57 hours on it. While he was pulling the glow pin and fuel screen to replace them I read all the manuals for the furnace and we talked about common uses and problems. The manual recommends running the furnace 20 minutes each month. I had never run it during the summer months so it would have sat unused for at least 6 months each year. The tech said the unit should have preventive maintenance once each year as well. Replacing the glow pin, the fuel screen and cleaning any carbon build up are the main service items to possibly do each year.
It was tight getting to it but the tech replaced the glow pin and fuel screen without having to remove the furnace from the van, which saved lots of time, and therefore money. He tested the fuel pumps and they were fine. After the new parts were in and the system was primed again, which took several minutes for the fuel to reach the furnace, the unit fired up and ran fine. Since the chamber was not cleaned of any possible carbon build up, he said it might smoke a little but it should run fine. (The unit would have had to be removed from the van to clean the carbon out.)
The parts were $117 dollars, and labor was $206... With taxes it was $360... Ouch... But they got it diagnosed and fixed in two hours and they had the parts in stock, so I can't complain too much. The people at Thermo King were all great to deal with.
I tested it tonight (it's 46 degrees out now) and it ran great with no smoke.
Most of these units are installed in semi truck sleeper cabs, where they are often used for hours each night. The service manager told me you can get an accessory to start the unit remotely using your cell phone, and also a thermostat that can control like a home furnace having it come on at a certain time each day.
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