[Closed] Van heating options - portable / electric

A electric heater from a battery will not last very long.

Anything less than an Eberspacher D2 in a T6 would be unseemly, surely.

Aside from ticking the correct brand name boxes, they're awesome in real life. They blow lots of hot air instantly and can turn a van from frozen to comfortable in minutes. There's also a big following for the Chinese copies like Facebook groups full of advice and info.

Don't know of anything electrical that would work without a hookup.

Anything less than an Eberspacher D2 in a T6 would be unseemly, surely.

How much!!

An extra fleece and some star jumps / press ups outside of the van would be a better option.

(That does look like a fantastic bit of kit though.)

I had an electric heater in my van - a mains powered one that worked when on campsite hook up so an integrated kick space heater type of thing. Not sure what the KW output was but it wasn't very good on cold nights. Took a while to feel the effects of it and was only man enough to take the edge off the temp so certainly still had to cozy up in a decent sleeping bag or sit in the van in a warm jacket/fleece. Alot will be do to with insulation...my van had windows so insulation not great, but if I were doing it again I'd just bite the bullet and go for a diesel heater. Don't have to spend alot on the main brands...the cheap Chinese ones are plenty good and safe enough. They've been around long enough and been bought and used by enough people for any horror stories to emerge.

Other options that the 'van life' crown have used alot are the small portable gas 'buddy' heater things. Potentially unsafe due to CO emissions, but make sure you have a CO detector and ventilate the van and don't use when sleeping.

the cheap Chinese ones are plenty good and safe enough.

Oh look, words not often seen together.

I have a gas heater in mine. Truma e2200 or there abouts and a gas it kit

Plus's gas is cheap as chips
It's quieter than a D2 by an order of magnitude both inside and out.
Warms the van up fast.
Can be mounted inside or out.

Cons
Costs as much as a D2

You can get a Planar for a fair bit less than an Eberspacher. I have one and it works well. I do not have the remote control, wish I did, but I just turn it on before leaving when walking / cycling. It uses hardly any fuel and won't drain the tank below about where the light comes on.

My mate put a small woodburner in his. surely the STW option

T6 is too small for a wood burner really imo.

I was skeptical but the Chinese Planars do actually seem to be fine.

was skeptical but the Chinese Planars do actually seem to be fine.

Planars are not Chinese, they're Russian and comparable quality to Eberspachers for about half the price (I've owned both). There's full UK support and warranty (PF Jones and others).

The Chinese ones do seem fine, too for about a 5th of the price (no support or warranty) - as said above, there are enough of them in use now to prove that they're basically OK.

However, if one was amenable to arguments of 'just as good, but cheaper', one wouldn't own a T6 😀

The starter pack idea is a non-starter.

I think the Chinese ones are Planar copies no?

Easiest/cheapest option is a few tea-lights. They will warm a confined space surprisingly quickly. They also go out after a while if you nod off. Not ideal if there is a lose dog running about in there for obvious reasons.

There's a guide to fitting a Planar/Eberspacher/chinese copy in T4/5+ magazine this month. It really doesn't look that complicated.

Easiest/cheapest option is a few tea-lights. They will warm a confined space surprisingly quickly. They also go out after a while if you nod off. Not ideal if there is a lose dog running about in there for obvious reasons.

I think this, properly executed, sounds like a great idea.

Only reservation is how much ventilation you'd need, and if that'd rob too much of the heat

The usual way is under a terracotta plant pot. Never tired it to see how effective it is / isn't

I’d want a properly ventilated van if I was burning anything at all inside.

The diesel heaters are excellent btw

Nothing to add to the tealight theory other than physics.

I've just this weekend done most of the installation of a chinese diesel heater under my Trafic, just the fuel to connect. I'm waiting for the t-piece to connect it into the return fuel line rather than dropping then drilling into the fuel tank. I'll update when I've done it.
Oh and if you do go this route make sure you get a 2kw rather than a 5kw unit as you'd have to run it on low and they soot up apparently.

A 2kw Diesel or Gas heater is really your only choice. Diesel being the obvious one as you already carry a tank of it around. If you're not looking to run it overnight then you should be fine running it off the van battery, maybe carry a jump start pack for backup just in case. You could probably wire it through a battery guard device to cut it off if the battery ever got low (not great for the heater but saves you getting stranded).

My T5 had a D2 in it (infact it's in the garage waiting for me to eBay it). I have just installed a diesel combi boiler for heating and hot water in my new van, but it's a bit overkill for a T6...

There are a few alternatives though - I have an Eberspacher copy supplied by KiraVans - it worked out at around £700 supply only, plus it took me a day to fit (would take half a day the 2nd time). Wasn't difficult to fit, but did involve dropping the fuel tank and getting access to wiring. It consumes around 6-10 Amps when running so does have an impact on any car battery (leisure or vehicle).

There are cheapish 12V electric heaters that plug in to a cigarette lighter - but at 10 Amps these only kick out 100 Watts or so and will kill your battery (especially on a cold day). Probably better with a few tealights!!

Somewhere on the internet there must be a chemical based heat exchanger (like those handwarmers that you put in boiling water to "reset") that is the size of a shoebox and kicks out 2kW of heat for a while. Probably unsafe though.....

If you can hook up to mains then those little portable heaters are brilliant

https://campfiremag.co.uk/campervan-heaters/

This might help. We just use a fan heater in ours. We had a Diesel heater in our old T4 and never used it. (We tend to stay on sites with hook up in winter)

It consumes around 6-10 Amps when running so does have an impact on any car battery (leisure or vehicle).

Only on start up, it should be about 1A once it's up and running.

I watched the one I've just fitted and it pulled about 10A for 2 minutes, then drops to 2 and below 1A when it's just ticking over.

think the Chinese ones are Planar copies no?

Not especially - not any more than they are Eberspacher copies. They're all the same fundamental design (incl. Eberspacher D2 and Webasto Airtop, etc.), but the execution varies.

The start-up / shutdown cycle uses about 2 amp hours at 12V, but if you can avoid the heater cycling on and off, they only consume ~1 amp otherwise. (The Planar 2D has a brushless fan motor which is quieter / more efficient than the brushed motors and on its lowest setting consumes ~0.6A, which is a bit lower than an Eber D2 when I last looked.)

Agree that 2kW is plenty for a van - they all need a good full-power blast once in a while to stop the build up of soot.

there was a chap on t'internet who disassembled a Eberspacher and Chinese copy side by side and compared the component parts. The Chinese one was a bit rough around the edges and not as pretty internals but functionally identical. Things like the heat exchanger casting on the Eber had been polished and nicely finished whereas it was still out of the mould rough for the Chinese version - so functionally fine - who gives a stuff now nice it looks when you can't see it. Electronics were not as protected as the Eberspacher, just a simple circuit board in a plastic cover instead of coated and protected in a plastic sealed coating...so again functional but possibly not as robust over time, but cheap as chips for a replacement. The biggest difference in their function was the quality of the bendy metal hoses that go on the outside of the van and the noise the fuel pump made...but even if you replaced these items with the Eberspacher parts they were cheap enough so a significant saving to be made over the Eberspacher.

Think it is a case that the Eberspacher is over engineered and too good for the application, which you pay for, and the Chinese copy is probably a bit more optimally designed...just about good enough.

Try Propex as well. They make gas heaters that work really well. I use mine with the same bottle I cook with. Can also get lpg tanks that go under the van which make them much cheaper to run.

On the tea light / ventilation front, most people have some ventilation in the van when they're sleeping anyway (like the front windows open a bit).

Any links to good versions of the Chinese Eberspacher copies?

Our diesel heater is a Webasto. No idea how it compares cost-wise to the options but it is very very good. It is mounted under the drivers seat and the air comes out in the main body of the van. There is a little induction noise from the internal air supply but other than that, it's pretty much unnoticeable in use.

second hand caravan gas fire ? They flue externally so you dont get asphyxiated

electric heater and a portable generator ? Gennys can be very loud and smelly so it really is a quick blast only solution.

If you really want to spend some dosh and improve the van, one of the webasto engine pre-heaters, they warm up the whole engine block and cooling system, so the van starts smoothly and doesnt run cold. Very popular in places like Norway where they need it.

@beamers your van may already have an aux diesel heater that is used to warm up the engine faster. You can check by seeing if there is a webasto sticker in the drivers door shut or a small exhaust under the van near the fuel tank. If you you can buy a kit that allows you to use it when the engine isn't running and the heat comes out of the vents.

@yourguitarhero I was looking into this a while ago and I found this https://www.vanlifeuksurvivorsguide.co.uk/post/tried-and-tested-chinese-diesel-heaters

But I can't vouch for how reliable the site is - the ones linked to seem to be well-reviewed in general though.

I think a Webasto is a bit cheaper than Eberspacher but still quite spendy, IIRC.

Lucky enough to own a T6 Velle with a factory eberspacher. It's truly awesome. Can sit at breakfast table & flick it on 10 mins before the school run via the remote & it'll be toasty warm when we head out. They can be retrofitted pretty easily or you could fit a cheaper heater in the same space as the OEM and use the factory vent in the footwell & B-pillar.

I suspect your electric heater would kill any li-ion pack very quickly.

The other alternative would be to put a telestart remote control unit on the Webasto Thermotop block heater that your velle will already have (sticker on driver's door, or possibly on B pillar under the lock striker). These can be integrated into the climatronic unit so you can preheat the engine coolant, and do a cabin preheat off that. Less effective than an air-air heater, but still a better option than an electric heater. (edit: drat didn't read jonk's post, but yes, that)

Before thinking about a heater, how well is the van insulated. Any gaps or insulation not fully taped up will suck the heat out. Have the good multi layer insulation stuff, survived - 18 at Dalwhinnie one winter without heating. Is it not said each person throws out 1/2-1 kw of heat.

I've fitted a chinese night heater with remote.

It's quite frankly the best 100 quid I've spent....

 Is it not said each person throws out 1/2-1 kw of heat.

Not much good when you want the van warm to return to (read the OP 😉 )

Before thinking about a heater, how well is the van insulated. Any gaps or insulation not fully taped up will suck the heat out. Have the good multi layer insulation stuff, survived – 18 at Dalwhinnie one winter without heating. I

Sounds good. I slept in under a regular duvet in my skids without being cold at all on top of glenshee in -double digits , got up in the morning had a wazz and put on a t-shirt and trousers and made breakfast nice and relaxed comfortable at x.15 degrees inside.

Then I got fully dressed before going out for a ski. Returned to a nice 15 degree van for coffee.

Before I got heating is have said waste of money....now I'm converted makes van considerable more useful and comfortable for 4 season use.

The best part is it hardly used any gas to do so. And I only have the *omg will rust your van out in 19 seconds flat glass wool insulation in my walls (which is neither wet nor rotting my van out ...it's 15 years old and been converted for 10 of them)

Wouldn't call it surviving , I'd call it being happy comfortable and it being a home away from home....

Would fit again.

If you really want to spend some dosh and improve the van, one of the webasto engine pre-heaters, they warm up the whole engine block and cooling system, so the van starts smoothly and doesnt run cold

I've got one of these factory fitted in the T5.

Doesn't really heat the interior much and kills the battery.
You can set it to come on at a set time, but I never use it (irregular use and van is too far away for the remote to work).
If you use it and don't start the engine soon after you might find your batteries (motor and leisure) flat.

Tick

Thanks everyone for your input

@Jonk and @hot_fiat I've just had a quick check and found these:

and

So, what do I need to do next to get this to blow hot air into the vehicle?

Here

If your van doesn't have climatronic there is another kit - These guys did mine mine has only manual heating

Get the van scanned with VCDS. Webasto are a bugger for fitting random controllers to those heaters. VCDS will show you exactly which controller you have and then you can work out which remote you’d need. If you’re planning on having one fitted, ask for a demo first - they are slower than an air-air.

Here

If your van doesn’t have climatronic there is another kit – These guys did mine mine has only manual heating

Cheers @Jonk. I've had a look at that kit on Ebay and it says it's not compatible with my Caravelle. Looks like T5 only.

I'll get in touch with the guys at Advanced In Car Technologies and see what they say.

Also Butler Technik & Espar have been helpful with advice & tech info for me recently. Might be worth a call / email.

cant OP just get changed quicker and drive off

cant OP just get changed quicker and drive off

Absolutely. I'm just thinking of the comfort of my family members though.