Eberspacher heaters

[Guest Don Madge]

There's a very interesting article on page 210 of the January edition of MMM that might be of interest to motorhomers who have the Eberspacher heater fitted. I've copied the part that will interest some winter users. "The standard heaters are capable under normal conditions, of operating continuously up to 1500 metres, a height which is acceptable to the majority of operates. However, for those who wish to operate at higher altitudes it is necessary to install within the fuel system a second fuel metering pump, which is calibrated with a fuel/oxygen ratio to enable the heater to perform up to a maximum of 2750 meters. Eberspacher can provide this pump in kit form (under part number 24 0222 00 00), which includes the specially calibrated fuel pump, separate control switch, cable harness, connecting parts and installation instruction sheet. The operator uses the control switch to select the fuel pump (either standard or calibrated) to suit the altitude conditions." Their UK website is www.eberspacher.com/ I've only used my heater continuously up to 1200 metres at minus 6C there were no problems. Regards Don

[Guest PeteC]

Hi Don We have used ours almost continuously for a week at 1600 m and a temp of -15C And for a short period at 7500FT (Think that is a touch under 2500m - just for warming while having lunch Didnt realise there was any altitude problems

[Guest Colin Munro]

Hi Don & Pete I'm going to purchase a new Frankia with an Eberspacher heater but have heard that there are problems with them opp when battery voltage is a bit low can you advise Regards Colin

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Motorhome blown-air heating appliances, whether fuelled by diesel or LPG, will use roughly the same amount of 12V current (to drive the fan motor(s)) when providing comparable heat outputs. However, the diesel-fuelled heater also requires a sustained blast of electrical energy (200W for 12 seconds would be typical) during its pre-heating stage prior to fuel-ignition. Although this is not an enormous load for a large capacity, well-charged, good condition battery, it can cause problems if the battery is old, small capacity and/or the charge-state is low. An article on diesel-fuelled heaters advised that battery-related problems were more likely to occur in Spring or Autumn camping rather than during Winter. The reasoning was that, in Winter, the heater would be running continuously for long periods following start up (ie. there would plenty of low current drain fan usage but not many high current drain start ups), while, during Spring/Autumn, the heater would be running in short bursts with many more start ups to 'test' the battery. I'm guessing that your Frankia will have their "Polar" heating system which has either an Alde (LPG) or Eberspacher (diesel) combination air-heater/water-boiler, plus a Truma (LPG) blown-air unit. I don't know what capacity leisure-battery Frankia fit as standard with this system but, as it's universally acknowledged that diesel-fuelled heaters should be complemented by high capacity batteries, it's likely that Frankia will have fitted a big one (or even big ones). If this is not the case and there's the option to specify a larger battery (or multiple batteries), then you might consider doing this.

[Guest Don Madge]

Colin, I'm not into all the technical details but I've got two 100amp leisure batteries and have never had any problems in over two years of use. The heater does take a bit more power on start up but it soon settles down. We've used ours at -6C without any problems. Regards Don