The "diesel heater for a reason" comment is a true herald for the forum newcomer 😂. 3 years I've had mine on heating oil and 1 year on red before that , never had to touch it since the day I installed it
Definitely agree with you that Kerosene is a clean fuel for these heaters. However for U.S., K-1 (UK C-1) Kerosene is the most common and it has very little lubricity. I use Stanadyne Lubricity formula additive which is designed for use in K-1 to reduce fuel pump wear. Maybe I don't need, it but at the recommended 1:1000 ratio of additive it's cheap and adds an additional peace of mind for the pump piston wear.
I find everything you say is spot on. I have a friend that works at a small refinery that produces diesel and kerosene. They have three large tanks on site, one for crude oil, one for diesel and a smaller one for Kerosene. He explained that the crude oil is ran through the system and diesel is produced, then diesel is ran through again plus addition filters and kerosene is the final product. They have a wide range of fuels you can purchase through them like road diesel, off road diesel, jet fuel, home heating oil, kerosene, white kerosene, red kerosene, etc. basically these fuels are very close to the same fuel dependent on additives for temperatures your operation plus local terminologies might be different. All those fuels work well in these heaters but for me white kerosene which is the preferred fuel is more than double the cost of off road diesel, but there is no soot on the exhaust when using the white kerosene.
@@hardrock6034 it must be because I use that term and I don’t know where I got it from, It seems to be the highest priced of the kerosene labeled fuels where I live.
Having worked on Combustion Heaters for over 5 Decades I have always found that Heaters Burning Kerosene/Paraffin never 'Soot up' Gas/Oil Diesel fired ones Do. 🙂
I've been using C2 Kerosene for a few months now, I pay £1.01 litre. Cleaned out the burner when I switched from pump diesel, after a month of daily use I checked it: nothing to clean! Just put it back together again as was. Some say kero isn't as 'efficient' as diesel whatever that means, my reply is that my heater runs at exactly the same temperature on both, these burners are just crude bits of kit and any slight differences in fuel effieciency is lost anyway!
Very useful video thanks. I'd like to see if I could us Kerosene to thin down filtered used engine oil to a viscosity that would work in these airheaters.
Thank you for this. Always reassuring to see a level and measured approach. I had looked at kerosene online and it was more than diesel - finding it at the pump is obviously key. 👍
So far, my perfect blend is 30 percent highly filtered used oil or veggie oil etc. 60 percent new diesel or kerosene or fuel oil (preference because the slighly higher sulfur content) and 10 percent petrol (gasoline) to keep the temperatures up. Flawless running for 5 years per unit, just swap em out at that loint, working or not
I've found that while kerosine doesn't seem to effect the pump plunger it does seem to mess up the one way valves in them. They keep trying to pump but just can't shift any fuel. Some I've managed to revive by forcing in a bit of 3in1 oil and then tapping power manually to work it through. Put a brand new pump in at the weekend and it ran perfectly for the day. next day it struggled to get going and when it did wasn't able to get up to temperature (only lit the first 4 of the 6 indicator bars). I've had pumps last a month so the pump its self was probably to blame a bit this time. Swapped one of my revived pumps back in, chucked about 250ml of engine oil in the tank (10L) with the kerosine and gave it a shake. Its day 2 and still going, so fingers crossed. If this keeps it going I might try a bit of vegi oil next to keep costs down.
The cost saving of heating oil over diesel outweighs everything. The only problem is buying and storing at least 500 litres to obtain a good price. 62p/l for heating oil vs 135p/l for diesel (October 2024). Red diesel is cheaper if you can get it.
The biggest cause of sooting is low temperature operation and/or having dead spots in the exhaust. Run on high as often as possible, keep the exhaust short as possible and always going down (to avoid condensation too). I mount my heaters indoors, have the intake air (for combustion and cooling the housing) from the same heated area/ room and fuel tank indoors if possible , fuel line warmed to room temp always. My soot issue is so low i am able to run a fan on the exhaust pipe and recover a few hundred watts /btus more.
Time tells all. Been running a pair of 5kw and a 2kw on 2/3rds kero and 1/3 diesel for just over 3 years now (about 1000hrs on each 5kw and 400hrs on 2kw), stripped them down for the first time this September. Very light surface carbon 1mm deep on 5kw burn chambers and sub 1mm on 2kw, no real build up soot on exhausts. Still running original pumps/glow plugs/motors/pcb etc on all. I adjusted all 3 heaters mixtures out of the box using a cheap monoxide tester, the 5kw ended up 1.2/1650-4.2/5000 and the 2kw at 1.0/1500-3.0/4500, they were way off these settings out of the box and would have sooted up quickly at factory defaults! (they were at 1.5/1500-5.5/5500 and 1.5/1500-5/5000, see the pattern there lol! they just stick in base numbers to get them running and out of the factory).
@@maxtheax4615 My 5kw is running at Low 1.2hz@15ppm, 3.0hz@20ppm, 4.0hz@25/30ppm. That's with a 2/3rds kero and 1/3rd diesel. If your using only diesel then add about 5/10ppm to those figures as it wont burn quite as clean, over 40/50ppm and you usually have a mixture problem or restricted air intake/exhaust...
My home oil boiler (kerosene) pump has been running for 30 years does that not say it is oil lube and at 70 pence a litre it's very cheap so I have used it 😊in my blow heater now for over six years heating my house as a back up to my oil central heating. So for all those sceptics over the years saying they'd rather burn waste oil because of more lube it's just wrecking your heater and costs more to repair. In the long run kero has always kept my heater soot free and trying to tell people that diesel is full of additives that eventually soot up and cause trouble even in the pump which need cleaning out in kerosene anyway. 😊
I tried running JetA in my russian planar heater but the pump seized up after a few minutes. But was fine again after mixing some diesel with it. Will be trying heating oil soon.
That is interesting. I do not know much about aviation fuels but I just thought it was a modified kerosene. Looks like they've put something in there that the pump does not like. No chance a small piece of grit or contaminant got in there? These pumps should run happily enough on beer! 🤔
If i memory serves me right Jet A1 is made up of kerosene, a product of extremely refined oil , from my Jet Fuel hauling days , gonna look it up again 🤔
i got one of the heaters in my living room they are good carnt find kerosene seller where i live so i order it from a ebay seller and no bother as i dont have a car
at work we ran jet A aviation fuel in forced air heaters....been wanting to get ahold of some to experiment with my vevor heater. diesel soots it up too much.
Yep... That should work for you... a few people have commented that they have used it. I don't know what additives they put in it that might cause problems but defo be worth giving it a go.
The "diesel heater for a reason" comment is a true herald for the forum newcomer 😂. 3 years I've had mine on heating oil and 1 year on red before that , never had to touch it since the day I installed it
Definitely agree with you that Kerosene is a clean fuel for these heaters. However for U.S., K-1 (UK C-1) Kerosene is the most common and it has very little lubricity. I use Stanadyne Lubricity formula additive which is designed for use in K-1 to reduce fuel pump wear. Maybe I don't need, it but at the recommended 1:1000 ratio of additive it's cheap and adds an additional peace of mind for the pump piston wear.
I find everything you say is spot on. I have a friend that works at a small refinery that produces diesel and kerosene. They have three large tanks on site, one for crude oil, one for diesel and a smaller one for Kerosene. He explained that the crude oil is ran through the system and diesel is produced, then diesel is ran through again plus addition filters and kerosene is the final product. They have a wide range of fuels you can purchase through them like road diesel, off road diesel, jet fuel, home heating oil, kerosene, white kerosene, red kerosene, etc. basically these fuels are very close to the same fuel dependent on additives for temperatures your operation plus local terminologies might be different. All those fuels work well in these heaters but for me white kerosene which is the preferred fuel is more than double the cost of off road diesel, but there is no soot on the exhaust when using the white kerosene.
Do you happen to know if white kerosene is the same terminology used in the US?
@@hardrock6034 it must be because I use that term and I don’t know where I got it from, It seems to be the highest priced of the kerosene labeled fuels where I live.
Having worked on Combustion Heaters for over 5 Decades I have always found that Heaters Burning Kerosene/Paraffin never 'Soot up'
Gas/Oil Diesel fired ones Do.
🙂
I've been using C2 Kerosene for a few months now, I pay £1.01 litre. Cleaned out the burner when I switched from pump diesel, after a month of daily use I checked it: nothing to clean! Just put it back together again as was. Some say kero isn't as 'efficient' as diesel whatever that means, my reply is that my heater runs at exactly the same temperature on both, these burners are just crude bits of kit and any slight differences in fuel effieciency is lost anyway!
Very useful video thanks. I'd like to see if I could us Kerosene to thin down filtered used engine oil to a viscosity that would work in these airheaters.
Thank you for this. Always reassuring to see a level and measured approach. I had looked at kerosene online and it was more than diesel - finding it at the pump is obviously key. 👍
So far, my perfect blend is 30 percent highly filtered used oil or veggie oil etc. 60 percent new diesel or kerosene or fuel oil (preference because the slighly higher sulfur content) and 10 percent petrol (gasoline) to keep the temperatures up. Flawless running for 5 years per unit, just swap em out at that loint, working or not
I've found that while kerosine doesn't seem to effect the pump plunger it does seem to mess up the one way valves in them. They keep trying to pump but just can't shift any fuel. Some I've managed to revive by forcing in a bit of 3in1 oil and then tapping power manually to work it through. Put a brand new pump in at the weekend and it ran perfectly for the day. next day it struggled to get going and when it did wasn't able to get up to temperature (only lit the first 4 of the 6 indicator bars). I've had pumps last a month so the pump its self was probably to blame a bit this time. Swapped one of my revived pumps back in, chucked about 250ml of engine oil in the tank (10L) with the kerosine and gave it a shake. Its day 2 and still going, so fingers crossed. If this keeps it going I might try a bit of vegi oil next to keep costs down.
The cost saving of heating oil over diesel outweighs everything. The only problem is buying and storing at least 500 litres to obtain a good price. 62p/l for heating oil vs 135p/l for diesel (October 2024). Red diesel is cheaper if you can get it.
The biggest cause of sooting is low temperature operation and/or having dead spots in the exhaust. Run on high as often as possible, keep the exhaust short as possible and always going down (to avoid condensation too). I mount my heaters indoors, have the intake air (for combustion and cooling the housing) from the same heated area/ room and fuel tank indoors if possible , fuel line warmed to room temp always. My soot issue is so low i am able to run a fan on the exhaust pipe and recover a few hundred watts /btus more.
Time tells all. Been running a pair of 5kw and a 2kw on 2/3rds kero and 1/3 diesel for just over 3 years now (about 1000hrs on each 5kw and 400hrs on 2kw), stripped them down for the first time this September. Very light surface carbon 1mm deep on 5kw burn chambers and sub 1mm on 2kw, no real build up soot on exhausts. Still running original pumps/glow plugs/motors/pcb etc on all. I adjusted all 3 heaters mixtures out of the box using a cheap monoxide tester, the 5kw ended up 1.2/1650-4.2/5000 and the 2kw at 1.0/1500-3.0/4500, they were way off these settings out of the box and would have sooted up quickly at factory defaults! (they were at 1.5/1500-5.5/5500 and 1.5/1500-5/5000, see the pattern there lol! they just stick in base numbers to get them running and out of the factory).
I just bought a cheap CO monitor. What CO levels did you set your 5KW unit for?
@@maxtheax4615 My 5kw is running at Low 1.2hz@15ppm, 3.0hz@20ppm, 4.0hz@25/30ppm. That's with a 2/3rds kero and 1/3rd diesel. If your using only diesel then add about 5/10ppm to those figures as it wont burn quite as clean, over 40/50ppm and you usually have a mixture problem or restricted air intake/exhaust...
My home oil boiler (kerosene) pump has been running for 30 years does that not say it is oil lube and at 70 pence a litre it's very cheap so I have used it 😊in my blow heater now for over six years heating my house as a back up to my oil central heating. So for all those sceptics over the years saying they'd rather burn waste oil because of more lube it's just wrecking your heater and costs more to repair. In the long run kero has always kept my heater soot free and trying to tell people that diesel is full of additives that eventually soot up and cause trouble even in the pump which need cleaning out in kerosene anyway. 😊
Hi,
Can we mix 75% diesel with 25% parafin/kerosene?
😊
Yes you can! In fact the Eber D1 manual I have recommends that when it is cold
@campervan_hackers
Thanks for info. It helps a lot.
Just bought a second hand camper with a Chinese diesel heater and think the seller told me it ran on petrol not diesel? Could that be right ??Ta
Dude.. possible.. there are a few out there.. based on the Eberspacher B series but the vast majority are diesel heaters. Best check!
@@campervan_hackers
Thanks. Mine looks like regular Chinese supplier - Zhengmai Electrical Appliances Co. Fuel smells like petrol.
Subbed, great video!
I tried running JetA in my russian planar heater but the pump seized up after a few minutes. But was fine again after mixing some diesel with it. Will be trying heating oil soon.
That is interesting. I do not know much about aviation fuels but I just thought it was a modified kerosene. Looks like they've put something in there that the pump does not like. No chance a small piece of grit or contaminant got in there? These pumps should run happily enough on beer! 🤔
I think it was lack of lubrication as it would also run fine with oil mixed with the JetA as well@@campervan_hackers
If i memory serves me right Jet A1 is made up of kerosene, a product of extremely refined oil , from my Jet Fuel hauling days , gonna look it up again 🤔
Just for the know it alls; go to an F.B.O. near an airport and buy jet A, you can't go wrong...bring your extra pennies !! 👍💛
i got one of the heaters in my living room they are good carnt find kerosene seller where i live so i order it from a ebay seller and no bother as i dont have a car
at work we ran jet A aviation fuel in forced air heaters....been wanting to get ahold of some to experiment with my vevor heater. diesel soots it up too much.
Yep... That should work for you... a few people have commented that they have used it. I don't know what additives they put in it that might cause problems but defo be worth giving it a go.