Planar Diesel Heater - Road Debris, Water Ingress and a Warning From History.

[mommabear]

Guys

Recently had an issue with my Planar 2kw diesel heater
PU27 Display kept showing the following error.


Sometimes when you get this - its a case of checking two things

1) Has your leisure battery been low/ flat
2) Disconnect the control unit and re-connect it

Putting these things straight may reboot the system and happy days.

Mine wouldn't.

So, went under the van and discovered that a piece of road debris had smashed through the under tray like a bullet, sliced the ducting that carries the hot air from the heater to the van, and allowed copies amounts of water (because I drove through some fat puddles recently) to be pushed back up into the heater outlet and into the unit itself.

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET!


Stripping down the unit I found this.

ICE AND A SLICE?


SHOCKING (Best Sean Connery voice)


I LOVE THE SMELL OF A SMOULDERING PCB BOARD IN THE MORNING.


So - what to do.

I've dried it all out, cleaned it up and still looks totally wracked


Worst case scenario - Planar want:
£118 for the circuit board
£145 for the Fan motor.

Not had these electrically checked yet so could be either or neither or both that are the issue.
Planar have agreed to take them away - and only charge the above prices for testing, fitting and re-testing again which I think is ok.

Id have a chuck at this myself, quite happy to repair my own stuff on a day to day basis, but I don't fancy this one chaps, not when there's fuel, heat and a potential fire being involved.
Not that I down trust my own work, id just rather have it done and certified safe.

Any thoughts on where I could go on the cheap for the parts?
anyone got an old/working unit for sale that I could buy? save me the hassle of all the above?

Cheers chaps.

 

[VanDamMan]

Wow... it’s Sod’s law this time you might consider armoured plating and it never happens again ..but it’s that old conundrum how far do you go at under body protection..feel your pain

Ps.. looking at the casing do they warranty the casing for debris damage

 

[mommabear]

No the casing on the unit is intact, Its the under tray on the vw that's smashed - the water was forced back into the heater through a torn duct

 

[oldiebut goodie]

Buy cheap and that is what you get - a circuit board that is exposed to anything unwelcome entering the heater. At least the old Webasto exposed circuit boards had a fighting chance as they were lacquered giving some protection to the components. More recent models have an enclosed ecu which has far greater protection. 1980's technology from Russia hasn't evolved like it has on the German heaters!

 

[Dellmassive]

DIY PCB conformal coating? (I've used similar on external cctv, solar, RC projects before. )

though you would think that the internals would already be coated?

**

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...


or old skool brush on gear . .

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i wonder why they only bothered gluing / coating these bits? and not the rest of the board.?

mechanical fixing?

hide chip numbers?

heat dissipation ?

@mommabearare these bit rubbery like silicone or hard glue like epoxy resin?







looks like that PCB has a bad case of the "green crusties" . . . (YT Scanner Danner reference)

once that corrosion and electrolysis damage starts its hard to stop.

.

 

[mommabear]

Hmmm...

I dont agree its anything to do with Planar as a manufacturer - they wouldn't put them in tanks, boats and the MOD wouldn't use them if they were crap.
Its been magic for 2 years, snow, ice, big puddles, floods... not a sausage.
Its been to Northern Europe in -20 degree temperatures and worked faultlessly.
I've driven through Fjords, floods, ice, snow and mud with an underslung planar with no problems - but on this occasion, there were mitigating circumstances, what I would call a "cluster f***"
the issue as shown was clearly an extreme one - the fast moving debris that penetrated the undertray, smashed the outlet pipe and allowed water to be forced inside the motor housing.
Could happen on any product thats underslung, damaged and moving fast enough to allow water to be pushed back into it., Planar, Webasto, any of them and I wouldn't like to run any unit that has had its circuitry submerged in water. " sealed" or not, "Fighting chance" isn really a phrase I like especially when electrical fires and fuel.

Talking about Webasto - i had 3 webasto units go pop on a t6 in a 12 month period, all top dollar units, all had to be replaced under warranty - wires becoming dislodged, solder melting, overheating, leaks, this is the first issue I've had with a planar and it wasn't the units fault,

Think about it like this, if you get a splash of water on a DVD player, its likely going to be fine, if you throw it in a paddling pool, different story.

All heaters have condensation in their components at some point, its part and parcel of burning fuel and getting hot/cold - if you look at the circuit board, most of it is sealed with resin - just the fact the whole unit was washed out and for some reason thats been pointed out - some of the board wasnt sealed......love to know what thats about??

the story continues

To be fair lads, looking at the cost of repair is comparable to a new unit.

I can get just the unit for £301.85 trade
the repairs cost what...£260...?

its not even worth my time trying to repair it.
However, might be a nice little project, see if I can restore it and keep it as an emergency.
Its currently on the kitchen table in bits - the Mrs is almost as happy as the time I built an A+ 1275 Mini engine on the table......fastest I've ever done it though

i wonder why they only bothered gluing / coating these bits? and not the rest of the board.?

mechanical fixing?

hide chip numbers?

heat dissipation ?

@mommabearare these bit rubbery like silicone or hard glue like epoxy resin?


View attachment 103244




looks like that PCB has a bad case of the "green crusties" . . . (YT Scanner Danner reference)

once that corrosion and electrolysis damage starts its hard to stop.

.

They are hard like epoxy.
Im going to speak to them about this now actually.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

There is protection and then there is Planar protection!
Webasto:

 

[DXX]

It seems pretty common for the standard underbody guards to be damaged by water, snow etc. I’ve been through some fairly deep flood water at low speed and not had any issues (stock running gear).
Is it mainly lowered vans that are getting the guards damaged?

 

[mommabear]

There is protection and then there is Planar protection!
Webasto:

Ok..... so where are you going with this sorry?

 

[mommabear]

There is protection and then there is Planar protection!
Webasto:

View attachment 103256
View attachment 103257

It seems pretty common for the standard underbody guards to be damaged by water, snow etc. I’ve been through some fairly deep flood water at low speed and not had any issues (stock running gear).
Is it mainly lowered vans that are getting the guards damaged?

Yeah I've never had an issue before - but if you look at the picture, its either a sniper had a shot at my van, or a big rock has smacked the granny out of the casing and severed the ducting allowing water in.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

So are you saying if that PCB board was submerged and frozen, you would just carry on using it?

That is not what was said at all.
Which board? The Webasto ones generally survive a considerable amount of water, I cannot see that there is any protection at all on the Planar one. On the Webasto one the only component that may suffer damage is the CO2 trimming pot as it is open but that is soon replaced. I would replace that pot first before shelling out £300 or so for a new ecu.
Anyway the newer models, ST, STC and EVO Air Top 2000 models have enclosed sealed ecus which protect them even better, the ecu pictured was more a reference as to the protection applied in the 1980's Webastos type of ecu compared to the protection afforded to the 2020 model of a Planar. The Planars are cheap for a reason, slightly better than the Chinese offerings but still not robust.

 

[mommabear]

There is protection and then there is Planar protection!
Webasto:

View attachment 103256
View attachment 103257

Somebody should

That is not what was said at all.
Which board? The Webasto ones generally survive a considerable amount of water, I cannot see that there is any protection at all on the Planar one. On the Webasto one the only component that may suffer damage is the CO2 trimming pot as it is open but that is soon replaced. I would replace that pot first before shelling out £300 or so for a new ecu.
Anyway the newer models, ST, STC and EVO Air Top 2000 models have enclosed sealed ecus which protect them even better, the ecu pictured was more a reference as to the protection applied in the 1980's Webastos type of ecu compared to the protection afforded to the 2020 model of a Planar. The Planars are cheap for a reason, slightly better than the Chinese offerings but still not robust.

Im not debating they are cheaper - im not debating theres clearly a quality issue - im just showing a thread what happened to my heater, incase someone else gets the same issue and they find it helpful.
Would you feel better if I just said your heater is better than mine?

 

[oldiebut goodie]

Which one? There are approximately 35 in the workshop at present.

 

[mommabear]

Which one? There are approximately 35 in the workshop at present.

why didn't ya say so!! you're the man to talk to!

 

[Qnapper]

That's handy to know as I have one fitted to van and so far great big of kit.

 

[Insert Coin]

i wonder why they only bothered gluing / coating these bits? and not the rest of the board.?

mechanical fixing?

hide chip numbers?

heat dissipation ?

@mommabearare these bit rubbery like silicone or hard glue like epoxy resin?


View attachment 103244




looks like that PCB has a bad case of the "green crusties" . . . (YT Scanner Danner reference)

once that corrosion and electrolysis damage starts its hard to stop.

.

That’s a common trick to disguise the pcb components, makes it harder for people to copy/clone.

 

[Loz]

Title edited to REMOVE SHOUTING.

 

[mommabear]

Title edited to REMOVE SHOUTING.

Sorry for the capitals didn't mean it as a shout...

 

[mommabear]

That’s a common trick to disguise the pcb components, makes it harder for people to copy/clone.

Well that's a nugget of info I'm glad to learn - is that really a thing then?

 

[mommabear]

Which one? There are approximately 35 in the workshop at present.

If you take a PCB board thats like the planar one, pretty sketchy, can you dip it in a resin to completely coat it or would you be having issues with heat build up etc.
I've seen the link with the paint on stuff, but could you dip the whole thing in something to coat it?