mikemelson Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Yesterday evening I went to heat my 'van, leisure batteries showing 12.8v which I thought was fully charged. Switched on Eberspacher, fan started up, but noticed batteries dropping 12.7, 12.6 down to 12.3v, heater wound down & eventually stopped. When plugged into the mains or during the day with light on the solar panel and the regulator showing 14.2v there is no problem, also when I start the engine, the alternator provides enough power to start the heater. I realise the fan and glowplug will be quite a drain on the batteries but thought they were fully charged, one of the batteries has an indicator window showing this to be the case. My 'van is 9 years old, does an Eberspacher need extra power to start when it gets older? Any information will be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 mikemelson - 2013-03-28 4:23 PM My 'van is 9 years old, does an Eberspacher need extra power to start when it gets older? Not to my knowledge but it does rather sound like your battery(ies?) are past their best. They should not drop in voltage anything like that fast running your Eberspacher. Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duetto owner Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 just posted a similar problem last week. conclusion a failing L/Battery has enough oomph to start the heater, but when the thermostat kicks in, it does not have enough power to re start the eberspacher heater. took to eberspacher at guildford where a very helpful engineer tony suspected the battery was the problem. Had a service at fords today who confirmed the L/Battery was only holding low charge. tony at eberspacher was spot on with his advice, bad news £130 for a new battery. what was odd the meter in our duetto showed the battery ok, the needle shot straight to the good end on the dial. it was pointed out they are not reliable] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Dave Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 The Eberspacher takes a hefty 10-12 amp for about a minute or two when starting to get the glow plug up to temperature then the current drops to about an amp or less depending on fan speed when running however when the temperature gets up to the determined level and the heater switches off the current again rises to 10-12 amp for another minute or so to clean the glowplug. so to save these hefty pulses of battery power set the thermostat at a level so that it will not switch on/off to maintain the temperature but to keep ticking over at a low heat output . As the thermostat adjustment is a bit coarse this takes a bit of experimentation but is possible and will save some battery capacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Excellent post Dave :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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