Diesel Night-heater hot air outlet

[Lee37]

Hi, I've just had an MV Airo kit fitted by a local garage, so an external heater with just the vents in the van under and next to the driver's seat.

All looks OK but the hot air pipe doesn't reach the back of the driver's seat. The garage just said it wasn't long enough, and I need to somehow extend it...

Also, this pipe is really close to the electric cables that were already there, so I'm concerned that this will be dangerous although the cables are well insulated.

So I suppose my questions are - is this acceptable that I have to extend this vent pipe? If so how on earth do I connect an extra length of the pipe? And then is it safe that it's basically touching the cabling (surely not) in which case can anyone recommend a good way to separate these to remove any risk of overheating the cable?

Here's a photo of what it looks like under the driver's seat: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ss9u6B3dHQJWXsfQA

Thanks in advance for any help to these barrage of questions...

 

[oldiebut goodie]

What idiots they are! Either put the correct length duct in to start with or extend it with a joiner.
( Have they extended the ducting to its full length? - I quite often get people who don't extend it and leave it compressed then say that I didn't supply enough. A 2m length of duct is compressed down to 1m when I supply it)
Put Thermoduct insulation on it if you are at all concerned.

 

[Lee37]

The garage were recommended as they've fitted Eberspachers before, but he admitted he'd watched the Kiravans video before he fitted this one!

I'll take another look and see if the ducting can be extended, but it seemed rigid. I'll look up Thermoduct insulation - haven't heard of that before.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[oldiebut goodie]

The ducting is corrugated and flexible. I won't recommend a joiner as I don't know what size ducting that is as I only deal with Webastos.
The conversion co who did my van hadn't a clue how to fit my Webasto using the OEM mount etc so I only let them fit the fuel pump! They got that wrong! Mounted it the wrong side of the van and shortened the fuel line so that I have to either drop the tank to fit a new one or extend it - I thought that they were experienced enough for that as they fit Webastos to their vans but they were clueless! I thought that I was saving myself some effort as I have to do it on my drive.

 

[James1982]

Hi
I am just working out options of the inlet and outlet for the diesel heater. Done loads of reading on here , foot step for intake , under seat for outlet and the factory option in the b pillar. I have a leisure battery under my drivers seat and don`t really want to go down the b pillar route. So is there a reason why i couldn't put the outlet in the door foot step and leave the intake under the vehicle with say a high flow car air filter fitted to protect the heater? This there for using fresh air from outside. I understand it would not have the recirculating option or would this just pick the fumes up from the diesel heater exhaust? (maybe extend the exhaust on the diesel heater to the back of the van)
Thanks in advance.
James

 

[oldiebut goodie]

If you use fresh air you could be in the position in winter of having to heat the -10° outside air to +20° instead of +10° to +20° - which is more efficient use of that expensive road fuel? You could well be using very moist air from outside some of the time also, at least with recirculated air the moisture level will be virtually constant.
I installed my heater underneath using the step intake but ran two outlets to the middle of the van, one blowing forwards to the cab and the other blowing aft to the shower room. It doesn't have to be the B-pillar or driver's seat base.
Depending upon your vans internal layout and size of heater envisaged consider mounting the heater internally rather than underslung.

 

[James1982]

I have a titan rock and roll bed intalled, as it has to be easily removable for my motorbikes to go in. I also have a double passenger seat swivel fitted. The way my van is used camping and bike transport it limits my options. I was thinking of using a eberspacher 2kw, has this the ability to heat a low outside air temp even if does use a little more fuel?.
Thanks
James

 

[oldiebut goodie]

Personally I would use a 3.5 or 4Kw heater if using a fresh air intake. I fitted a 4Kw to mine anyway as I had a couple to hand. But then I have a hightop.
How about just having the outlet through the floor just behind the driver's seat? You might have to replace the outlet grill occasionally due to breakage if broken accidentally.

 

[James1982]

motorcycle wheel chocks and thats where the dog sleeps ha ha ha. Are the 4kw heaters alot bigger in size? Is there any route to getting in behind the panels from underneath? say the panel under the window on the non sliding door side?

 

[Ads_Essex]

What about an outlet at the sliding door step? That way it’s towards the rear and well out of the way, and you get to keep your inlet at the front step. I don’t know what the panel work is like there.
There’s the option of having the inlet at the drivers step and the outlet at the passenger, too, but that might not result in a good air circulation.

 

[Ads_Essex]

motorcycle wheel chocks and thats where the dog sleeps ha ha ha. Are the 4kw heaters alot bigger in size? Is there any route to getting in behind the panels from underneath? say the panel under the window on the non sliding door side?

There’s not much room there at all - the bottom depth is very narrow.

 

[James1982]

Yeah never thought of the sliding door step, would there be room to run ducting under the van?

 

[Ads_Essex]

Yeah never thought of the sliding door step, would there be room to run ducting across the van?

I’m not 100% sure with the tank being against the nearside, so check underneath before you commit. But the passenger side step should still be ok, even with an AdBlue tank (I’m assuming you’ve got a Eu6 engine).

 

[James1982]

Its not AD blue, thanks for the idea s, i will investigate the routing and sliding door step as this would give good re circulation.

 

[Ads_Essex]

If you’ve not got AdBlue then the best option would be to fit the heater underneath your passenger seat, as there’s a big void there where one of the OEM heaters would fit (Thermo Top?). That would allow you to vent out of the rear of the passenger seat, missing any kitchen furniture that you may install in future.
If you’ve got a swivel double-seat then that will prevent that outlet being there, though.

But looking back at the leisure battery placement - my outlet runs alongside my LB under the drivers seat - the battery sits side on (running front to back) and the pipe fits nicely beside it, with no heating of the battery occurring.
Or you could mount the battery underneath the van if it’s taking up precious room?

 

[James1982]

yeah double swivel fitted and 110ah leisure battery fitted under drivers side. Going to look into external mount drivers side , inlet drivers step and see if i can route the ducting to the sliding door.

 

[James1982]

have you any pics of your LB and pipework?

 

[Ads_Essex]

They may say that the run from the drivers seat to the sliding door is too long and it’ll cause heat loss. I don’t know. It’s worth asking.
If that’s the case then mount the heater under the passenger seat, which’ll shorten the run.

If the slider is a no-go then have the heater and the outlet under the drivers seat and mount your battery sideways, and it should fit.

I haven’t got any photos of mine, but it’s a 110 Xtreme so it’s a decent size.
My heater inlet is in the drivers step.

 

[James1982]

yeah i have the same battery with ctek charger and a little fuse box under there.

 

[Ads_Essex]

I couldn’t fit my Ring under there because of its size, but your CTEK will fit beside a LB and the heater outlet.
You may have to resite your fuse box - maybe make up a panel and mount it to the front of the seat, or take off the side pocket and mount it there?
The van is back with the joiner, but when I’ve got it back I’ll take some photos.