‘Chinese’ diesel heaters

Rioja John

Neckender
T6 Legend
I’ve seen this on a motorhome forum. I am also halfway through installing a Chinese diesel heater, they don’t say the heaters are dangerous but they don’t have sufficient instructions to install the heaters safely.

John.

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Suffolk Trading Standards Imports Surveillance Team have detained 973 diesel heaters at the Port of Felixstowe over the last two months. All products were found to be unsafe, with listings for all sellers removed on eBay.
Consignments arrived at the Port in October and November and were stopped by the team, with samples sent to a test house for assessment.
Each of the products did not meet the requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 because they could present hazards of fire and death due to poor supporting installation information.
Manuals supplied with the products failed to give measurements for installation and did not give the minimum distance the exhaust pipe should be installed from flammable material or material that could give off poisonous fumes when heated, such as insulation material.
If installed incorrectly, no warning was provided about heat and dangers to the user.
Large parts of the manuals were written in poor English and used the wrong words. The intended meaning was, in some cases, difficult to understand.
Additionally, the products and instructions did not have the name and address of the importer or manufacturer and did not include the required Declaration of Conformity (DoC). A DoC is a formal declaration by a manufacturer or the manufacturer's representative that the product to which it applies meets all relevant requirements of all product safety directives applicable to that product.
If you have purchased a product that you think may be unsafe, stop using it immediately and report it to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133.
 
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I fitted mine using installation guides from other manufacturers, and using webasto/Eberspacher exhaust and ducting. It's mounted externally. It has fuel and air going in, with exhaust and warm air coming out, and is the same shape as size as other heaters. I'm not saying it won't explode and fry me, but installation instructions won't be the weak link.
 
I’m 3/4 through my install and understand the standards needed to do a competent install.

John.
 
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To be fair, they haven’t said that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with the hardware, just the paperwork. So the heaters are only as dangerous as the person that installed them. It’s a bit like the warning on microwaves “not to be used for drying animals”. If I buy a 13A plug from Screwfix, it doesn’t come with installation instructions.
I’m not defending the Chinese heaters, I wouldn’t have one given. But I think it’s an overblown headline.
 
It’s a bit like the warning on microwaves “not to be used for drying animals”
Or as I had on my Black and Decker hot air gun / paint stripper which I bought years ago: 'WARNING NOT TO BE USED AS A HAIRDRYER'. That said, even a moron like me can do a 13A plug but I think I'd shy away from a heater, Chines or otherwise (although having watched a few videos on You Tube, even that looks reasonably straight forward).
 
I was thinking about buying a 2nd Chinese heater for my garage but now I think I will swap out the heater in my van for an Autoterm and use the van Chinese heater in my garage as a boost. The current 3kw heater in the garage is struggling to make difference to the temp right now. Incidentally the Autoterm heaters are no longer made in Russia..they have moved production to Latvia.
 
On a bag of salted peanuts WARNING this product may contain nuts!
We live in a who is to blame society and how much can I claim.

There are some people who have paid me to put panel pins in their walls to hang pictures, I think they didn’t have any parents to teach them the basics to tie shoe laces etc.
But each to their own if they know their limitations, those who don’t are the problem.
 
I’ve seen this on a motorhome forum. I am also halfway through installing a Chinese diesel heater, they don’t say the heaters are dangerous but they don’t have sufficient instructions to install the heaters safely.
You are right, they don’t say the heaters are dangerous. But they don’t say they are safe either - and neither do the suppliers as there were no DoCs with them.
Of course, why pay for certification when there appears to be little restriction on importing them and there is sufficient demand for them?

But don’t kid yourself that they are safe just because no-one has proved that they are dangerous. Equally, no-one has proved they are safe!
 
Testing will be the next thing they won't just leave it the installation instructions are a bit sketchy if they can't even do a decent set of instructions what hope is there for the heater
 
Not much to test.

Compliance with the EMC Directive (as amended and as it applies in GB) is, I believe, self-certifying.

There is the Energy Efficiency Directive for which space heaters have to have a type-test, but I'm not sure vehicle heaters are included.
 
Have had two Chinese diesel heaters fitted and both gone tits up within 6 months of being installed. Have been quoted £1,620 (inc vat) for a Webasto to be installed but that's a bit above my budget. Suggestions welcome! Thanks in advance.
 
What's gone wrong with them? They are fairly simple bits of kit and going through them to check all the requirements are there (power supply sufficient, fuel lines in right, pumps in correct orientation, filter right way round or changed for a better one etc) before fitting can go a long way to ensuring problem free installation. Mine has been in for 4 years and I've had no issues so far.
David McLuckie and Lowered Expectations on YouTube have some in depth insights into their operation.
A cheap CO meter can help with setting them up so they are not overfuelled, which is the normal cause of failure as they then soot up and block orifices.
 
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