Quietest diesel heater?

[TimA]

Hi all, please can I ask for your advice on the quietest diesel heater, both inside and outside the vehicle, for my T6 panel van undergoing conversion to a camper. I'm planning to fit it underneath the vehicle below the driver's seat with the air outlet in a panel fitted in the driver's seat base.
I'm asking because I hired a camper earlier this year and found the heater really noisy, even on low speed, and don't want to have that problem (sorry, don't know what brand it was).
Alternatively, is there a way to reduce noise on a unit?
Many thanks.

 

[Dellmassive]

What make heater was fitted in the hire van?

Was it the air flow noise? Fan noise? Or fuel pump noise your refering too?

Was that one installed internally or externally?

......


Id start by looking at having one fitted externaly in the OEM location.

 

[Spaghetti]

Some of the Chinese heaters have no exhaust silencer fitted, or they have thinner sheet metal exhaust and they can be a bit louder.

I’ve a Webasto and that has a genuine exhaust on it, and an intake silencer too. I don’t find it too noisy, but they’ll always make a bit of noise when they first get up to temperature.

 

[drinfinity]

As @Spaghetti says, they will have a bit of a roar on first ignition. The fuel pump will tick - you could wrap it with some sound deadening material. The exhaust silencer can be quite basic, but aftermarket ones with more baffles are available cheaply.

On mine (Miro? from Kiravans) most of the noise is air swooshing through the ducting. It is possible to buy acoustic ducting that takes a few decibels out, but it’s not flexible enough to use for a driver’s step installation.

I usually only run mine for a few minutes to get the van up to warm, so it’s not running when we are going to sleep.

My next one is a Vevor from China, so once I install it I’ll let you know how it compares.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

Don't add a silencer with more baffles - you will alter the back pressure and thus mess up the mixture therefore the CO2 levels. The silencer must be free flowing. If you add one with more baffles you will need to recalibrate the CO2 levels for which you will need a decent CO2 meter.

 

[TimA]

Thanks for the replies. After googling loads of images of controllers (I could remember the one in the hire van) I am 95% sure it must have been a Planar/Autoterm system and assume it was the Air 2D model heater (it was in a SWB T6). I didn't investigate where it was installed but, judging by the noise, it must have been underslung below the driver's seat (is that the OEM location??).
I didn't notice any pump ticking noise but I found the airflow or fan noise inside quite intrusive even after it settled down to a lower fan speed after the noisier initial start up. Personally I found it too noisy to leave on while sleeping.
The other issue was the noise outside. After it had settled down, I could actually hear it half way across the campsite I was on! Granted it was a small, quiet site but I would have been very irritated if I had been staying on a pitch nearby.
Maybe it was a rogue, faulty or badly installed unit but I don't want to shell out a grand or so and find the same issues on my van!!

 

[DXX]

Have you considered a combined Diesel hob / heater? The Wallas XC Duo is complete silent externally, not a whisper. Inside there is a gentle pulse from the pump once it had reached the thermostat set point. Quite a relaxing sound.

 

[TimA]

Thanks DXX, funnily enough I have. You're right it's silent but I didn't like the slow heat up time and where the hot air is discharged so discounted it.

 

[TimA]

Maybe I'm looking for something that doesn't exist!!