Cleaning Diesel Heater

[BobnBev]

Hi All, Well its easy to do, I thought that the heater was slowing down in heat out put, So removed it, that was the hard bit, and gave it a clean inside. No big deal as they are very simply made. Some of those funny end screw drivers, and allen keys. There was half a match box of soot in the fire box.
Just watch where the plugs go ,( I think? they wont go back but where they come from) thats it. I thought that it would have to go back to have this service done.
We have a 2Kw Planar and its been very good, @ around $700 its been good value...
They come in 5 Kw and 2 Kw, It gets very warm with the 2 Kw one in our 21ft van, maybe a big MH would use the 5 Kw one..
Hope this helps.
Bob...

[T1 Terry]

If genuine heating oil wasn't so hard to find the sooting wouldn't occur at all. I wonder how they would go on winter fuel, 30% kero by volume with the diesel.

[BobnBev]

Hi Terry,
I have used kero just to clean the heater last thing before summer arrives, Put a few lts of kero in the tank ,it runs hotter and cleans the in side. But I also wanted to have a look at how they worked !
We have had a nice drop of rain in the last few days, its nealy back to winter.
All good now..
Bob n Bev...

[T1 Terry]

Is kero dearer or cheaper than diesel now? as you have a seperate tank, maybe it would be better to run it on kero.

[Greynomad]

Hmmm...
Sounds good, but I don't think Girt would like a dose of kero in the fuel tank.
Our diesel heater feeds off the diesel generator's pick-up in the vehicle fuel tank.

Funny, when the weather is cold we get terrible fuel economy. Must be the winter winds or something.

[BobnBev]

Is kero dearer or cheaper than diesel now? as you have a seperate tank, maybe it would be better to run it on kero.

Kero is an abrasive and may do damage to the pump, plus it may burn too hot useing it straight, its a little more costly than diesel as well.
You should get better econ. in winter as the air is colder, getting more cool air in gives you a bigger bang.....Smile...
Bob...
ps. I used to run the old Vangard on power kero , the blue stuff, was half the price of petrol then @ 2 bob a gallon ....

[Greynomad]

I used to run the old Vangard on power kero , the blue stuff, was half the price of petrol then @ 2 bob a gallon ....

[T1 Terry]

The old kero tractors and stationary motors would be warned up on petrol and then switched over to kero and the torque would improve dramatically. When I was working Tassie on the property they had an old petrol/kero dozer, to get it to climb the hill to the radio transmitter tower for a battery change we'd mix a brew of 505 kero and 50% heating oil, run it hard on petrol till it was smoking hot and then switch in the kero/heating oil mix and hold on tight. The thing would turn into a fire breather and climb up the side of the hill with a flame out the top of the stake it was a 6km drive round and round the hill otherwise.
When the heating oil ran out in the shearers’ quarters we tried filling the tank with diesel. Had to strip the heater down every mth for a de carb till we finally used it all up, never did that again
Now there is a tax on kero, a tax on heating oil and now a hefty tax on LPG pushing it up to 3/4 the price of petrol. Diesel will be the next to cop a tax increase, too many people bought diesel vehicle for the govt to miss cashing in on that one, but they will leave petrol alone as that's a political hot potato and they already tax petrol fairly heavily anyway.

[BobnBev]

They tax fuel twice as it is ! Anyhow you would laugh at the way I started the old Vangard.
Had a small bottle of metho used to tip it over the carby and manafold light it and get it hot as hell , when started she didnt stop unless you stalled it in gear, I could turn the key to off but it dieseled making a real rattle.
so the poor old thing ran all day , Thats when they made engines that lasted Terry.
Big smile.....
Bob n Bev...

[Newcastle George]

I had a Fordson Major, petrol kero version, used it to drive a large circular saw and cut all the timber for our log home, including all the internal framing timbers.

George

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