Webasto fire

[TomC]

Granted I live in S. Cal. After 21 years of cross country truck driving, I can tell you-if there's white on the ground or it's under freezing temps, I won't be there.

Living where you do in the northern states, maybe the btu output of the Diesel fired heaters will be better.  I would stick with propane-although propane stops flowing around 0 degrees also.  CNG might be a good alternative since truck stops are gearing up for being able to fuel cross country natural gas powered trucks.  Good Luck, TomC

[bobofthenorth]

No doubt you need to use winter fuel but for those of us where it really gets cold its pretty well impossible to buy summer fuel from about September on.  My ProHeat gave no end of trouble until Chris-the-GM-Bus-Guy diagnosed a bad pump.  That's probably 5 years ago now and it has never blinked since then - it works so well that I tend to ignore it.  I did some PM on it this summer and changed the burner tube which had pretty well disintegrated but other than that I just turn it on and get warm.

I remember when I first bought the bus I asked a local trucker what he could tell me about ProHeats and he said he could tell me in great detail how to work on a Webasto but all his ProHeats just worked so he didn't have any experience repairing them.

[opus]

I've never seen CNG, in all my travels.  If I had to heat my home with other than wood, it would be oil.  Propane just doesnt have the btu's for my $$$.  But that my opinion.

[luvrbus]

I had the Primus system in my Eagle for cost of running and maintenance there was none compared to the diesel fired units and with diesel at 4 bucks a gal now and heading up must be something as Aqua/Hot has starting building propane fired systems now also

You can slice the pie anyway but diesel fired units use a lot of fuel in a 24 hr period that .4 gals a hour usage sound good but it  runs into money over a 24 hr period   

The AquaHot people tell you 4 to 6 gals a day under normal usage 20+ bucks a day is expensive for just heat and add the hot water making feature it gets on up there for sure

[opus]

By comparison, propane only supplies 66% of the BTU's that #2 does.  Be curious to see what propane usages costs were....in cold weather.

Fortunately, we only use the Webasto for overnight sleeping.  We dont park for any longer than overnight.  Either way, its not cheap to heat anything but with wood.

[sledhead]

My proheat works every time and I use it to preheat the eng.and for floor heat, forced air heat rad .After the eng. is up to temp. I turn off the proheat . We drive all day and when we pull over at night the radiant heat in the bus is all we need (unless its 25f or less )                                                  dave

[opus]

It wont help at 25 or below?  Mine will cook us out at 0.  But I think I have 240,000 btus worth of heaters though.

[sledhead]

I have fired mine up at 5 deg f no problem (winter fuel ) I put a set of shut off valves in so I can heat up the floor only and not the bus eng. The 4500 proheat will cycle on for about 1.5 min then off for 10 min as the 5 loops I have do not hold a lot of anti freeze.The down side is the noise .                      dave

[opus]

I have a circulator pump mounted.  I need to mount it on rubber or something.  You can feel it running on the wall from the engine compartment.

[rv_safetyman]

When I was in business and attending trade shows, I heard a ton of horror stories about fires.  I only heard of a couple of Aqua-Hot issues and no fires.  A couple of folks talked about having fuel in the pan, but no fire. 

I had an electrical fire in my electrical box where the 120V enters.  Someone at the factory had installed the wires so that they touched.  When I first hit the electrical power, I noted that it did not heat the water.  I saw that the breaker had tripped and reset it, but no heat.  Finally got around to trouble shooting the problem (assuming it was something I had done).  When I opened the box, I could have crapped!   I talked to Aqua-Hot and sent them pictures.  They could not have cared less.

Every time Aqua-Hot comes up, there are a host of folks who talk about problems.  I have been running mine for over 7 years without a lick of problems.  I have the non-PC board version and I am glad about that. 

I use mine to keep the bus above freezing in the shop (no heat).  I rely on an electrical heater (on a thermostat outlet) and 120 heater in the Aqua-Hot for most of the winter (installed what is called a garage thermostat that lets me set the Aqua-Hot stat at very low values).  When they predict temperatures below zero, I turn on the diesel.  I have seen the shop at minus 20 a time or two, and the diesel worked fine (summer fuel).  Recall that most of our tanks are somewhat shielded.  In my case, I have a separate tank in the bay.  My bays are heated a bit by the AH boiler, but also a heat exchanger. 

Yes, the noise and smell are not great, but if I get in close range to folks, I use my Gen-turi (does not add restriction to the exhaust) for a roof-top exit.  Helps with the smell, but there is still some noise.  I have hear propane water heaters that are pretty noisy.

I have heard of several folks talking about issues with altitude.  We live at 7500 and have used it at over 10K.  Never a problem.

I love the easy ability to heat the engine, wonderful bus heat, "unlimited" hot water.  I also love the fact that I have hot water (from engine heat) when we pull over for the night and boondock. 

Jim

[luvrbus]

Now Jim we were both at the 1st Bus'n USA rally and the guy in the Newmar that his wife sold jewelry that Aqua Hot caught fire not once but twice in 3 days I seen several that have burn 

Maintenance is the key with anything that has a flame, John C makes a good living off neglected Aqua Hots they line up for him at the FMCA rally lol I never was impressed with my Webasto/AquaHot like Bryon mine never worked when you needed it

good luck