Gas or Diesel central heating?

[John]

Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John

--

[Reb]

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John
--

Hi John

I have an Eberwhatsit on mine and it works quite well. It is a little noisy,
mostly the pump ticking but not too bad. However, it had replacement
combustion fan and circulation pump both in the first year of operation. So
I'm not particularly impressed with the reliability. It was repaired under
warantee so no cost just inconvenience.

I had a gas boiler on my last boat which was much quieter and proved
reliable but ate gas!

Pete

[Les]

Post by Reb

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John
--

Hi John
I have an Eberwhatsit on mine and it works quite well. It is a little noisy,
mostly the pump ticking but not too bad. However, it had replacement
combustion fan and circulation pump both in the first year of operation. So
I'm not particularly impressed with the reliability. It was repaired under
warantee so no cost just inconvenience.
I had a gas boiler on my last boat which was much quieter and proved
reliable but ate gas!
Pete

I have a Mikuni and it is also a little noisy but reliable and very
efficient.

I too hate gas and will not use it on my boat for safety reasons,
hence the choice of a diesel fired heater!

Les

[Adrian Stott]

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John

I used to has gas (Alde) on my barge, but took it out because it
didn't give out enough heat and went through a 19 kg bottle a week in
winter. Apart from the cost, I got tired of lugging bottles about.

I put in a Kabola drip-feed, burning red diesel, controlled by a room
thermostat. It's been fine -- more heat, less cost, reliable. A man
with a tanker truck comes by once a year with the oil -- no hassle,
good price. Also heats the (domestic) hot water, but takes a while to
get the tank up to temperature.

However, if starting today, I would put in a pressure-jet diesel
burner. Much more efficient, much more controllable (the flame turns
off when not wanted, whereas the drip-feed one only turns down, which
isn't enough in spring and fall so I end up throwing heat out of the
windows), and can be much cheaper to buy. The pressure jet burner
needs 240 V AC (if you get a domestic one, which is much less
expensive than getting a DC boaty one), but with tiny inverters so
cheap now that shouldn't be a problem I think.

Adrian


Adrian Stott
***@unspam.ca

[Ron Gibbs]

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John
--

Many people report reliability problems with diesel boilers. AIUI diesel
boilers like to be worked in short (1 hr) bursts. I use my Webasto for
early-morning hot water and chill-removal, and Bubble diesel stove for cosy
long-term warmth.

My previous experience with gas (Alde) is that it uses up many expensive,
heavy gas bottles. Boiler takes up a bit more space than diesel, and needs
more routine maintenance (checking pilot, water level). And you get that
ugly pagoda thing sticking out of the roof!

Ron

[Adrian Stott]

Post by Ron Gibbs

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John
--

Many people report reliability problems with diesel boilers. AIUI diesel
boilers like to be worked in short (1 hr) bursts. I use my Webasto for
early-morning hot water and chill-removal, and Bubble diesel stove for cosy
long-term warmth.

I think Ron is referring only to the little caravan-type diesel units.
I wouldn't go for any of those, as they seem to be somewhat unreliable
and need a lot of maintenance (although I hear that Mikuni is the
least temperamental of the bunch). And somewhat noisy. And somewhat
thirsty for electricity.

I was referring to a conventional (pressure jet) central heating one,
such as from Kabola (or, less expensive, a domestic one).

Adrian


Adrian Stott
***@unspam.ca

[John]

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel
central heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John

Thanks for the replies! Looks like diesel wins. So which is better
Eberspacher, Wabasto or Hurricane I wonder? I gather that Wabasto has a
better service record and that Hurricane is only obtainable from
Calcutt boats? I have also seen a suggestion that a normal house diesel
boiler should be used running of a 230v inverter/generator - but I have
doubts as to whether that is a good idea.
Thanks,
John
--

[Julian Tether]

Post by John
Thanks for the replies! Looks like diesel wins. So which is better
Eberspacher, Wabasto or Hurricane I wonder?

No contest its Mikuni that is the best

[Neil Arlidge]

Post by Julian Tether

Post by John
Thanks for the replies! Looks like diesel wins. So which is better
Eberspacher, Wabasto or Hurricane I wonder?

No contest its Mikuni that is the best

...so why do some Mikuni owners carry a spare? :-)

[rjm]

Post by John

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel
central heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John

Thanks for the replies! Looks like diesel wins. So which is better
Eberspacher, Wabasto or Hurricane I wonder? I gather that Wabasto has a
better service record and that Hurricane is only obtainable from
Calcutt boats? I have also seen a suggestion that a normal house diesel
boiler should be used running of a 230v inverter/generator - but I have
doubts as to whether that is a good idea.
Thanks,
John
--

Don't rule out Mikuni.
My thoughts as follows:
1. Eberspacher; have heard that these need an engineer with specialist
diagnostic equipment if anything goes wrong.
2. Webasto; have heard nothing particularly against them. They reduce
heat on a linear scale (bit like turning the gas down on a gas cooker)
and this worries me a bit when burning some of the poor quality red
diesel that we can get on the cut. My opinion is that a flame that is
reduced and not on a fairly good blast may tend to coke up more than a
flame burning well. I have no proof of this, just my gut engineering
feel.
3. Mikuni; has two heat settings full and half so, IMO, not as
susceptable as Webasto. Easy to service, once you get the hang of it
and good parts back up from Mikuni........not cheap but good support.
Mikuni has self-diagnostic flashing light to help with faults although
it is somewhat limited in scope.

None of the three above particularly like the red diesel that you get
on the canals, despite what they may claim. They are all designed to
work on DERV.
I have always had and liked Mikuni and am specifying an MX60 for my
new barge rather than the standard fit Webasto. The barge will be used
in France and so will be burning DERV (by law) so the issue with red
won't be a problem.
I have no experience of the Hurricane although I have seen some of the
few users with them reporting satisfaction on other groups. I would be
slightly concerned at limiting my source of warranty and parts to just
one boatyard/chandlery (Calcutt) in the whole of the UK with the next
back up being Canada.
Roger

[Mike & Krystyna Wooding]

Post by John

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel
central heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John

Thanks for the replies! Looks like diesel wins. So which is better
Eberspacher, Wabasto or Hurricane I wonder? I gather that Wabasto has
a better service record and that Hurricane is only obtainable from
Calcutt boats?

We have a Webasto on Draco that has seen 5 years of service now, 3 of those
years as a liveaboard, it has neither failed nor needed servicing - yet. It
heats the hot water and also feeds two radiators, when required. The running
hours when living aboard were 2 hours in the morning and between 2 and 5
hours in the evening.

Post by John
I have also seen a suggestion that a normal house
diesel boiler should be used running of a 230v inverter/generator -
but I have doubts as to whether that is a good idea.

That's exactly what we have here on Janna, a Somy pressure-jet oil-fired
boiler, no problems, extremely efficient, but a bit big for a narrow boat I
have to admit.

Mike

[Mike H]

In college a few years ago one lecturer's view was that the answer to the
question was "it depends", doesn't matter what the question is, the answer
is always "it depends". You could apply that here, it depends,

How often do you use the boat ? Infrequenty gas maybe the best, very
reliable, but costly if using a lot. Diesel less reliable but maybe less
costly in weekly running. Live-aboard, then solid fuel with maybe diesel or
gas back up.

It depends !!

Mike H

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John
--

[Reb]

Post by Mike H
In college a few years ago one lecturer's view was that the answer to the
question was "it depends", doesn't matter what the question is, the answer
is always "it depends". You could apply that here, it depends,
How often do you use the boat ? Infrequenty gas maybe the best, very
reliable, but costly if using a lot. Diesel less reliable but maybe less
costly in weekly running. Live-aboard, then solid fuel with maybe diesel
or gas back up.
It depends !!
Mike H

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John
--

I agree with Mike to some degree it does "depend". My own thought is that
for space heating solid fuel/back boiler takes some beating. The problem
arises then in Summer heating water without frying the occupants of the boat
or running the engine to the delight of neighbours.

[Tiny]

Post by John
Hello,
has anyone got any comments for or against either gas or diesel central
heating on narrowboats?
Thanks,
John
--

We have a 4W mikuni system. Talking to the engineer servicing it he
told me that none of the systems available really liked red diesel but
the mikuni seemed to handle it OK. The down side was that (again) the
mikunit and the eber systems were really designed for light use (as in
heating for a few hours at most per day and used like this could go
years without a good clean out. But if used for a lot of the time, as
primary heating, they could loose efficiency as they coked up meaning
a lot of cleaning was needed. The other thing was that the eber and
the mikuni 4w were designed for smaller boats with 4 radiators and
about 30' pipe runs. For bigger boats you need the 7w. I don't know
about the other systems.

On gas systems we have fast heat up blown air which works well in the
main 20' cabin but we have this and the mikuni as we do not spend
winter on the boat. If we did we would definately have an oil or solid
fuel stove to keep us warm.

[rjm]

Tiny said

Post by Tiny
We have a 4W mikuni system. Talking to the engineer servicing it he
told me that none of the systems available really liked red diesel but
the mikuni seemed to handle it OK. The down side was that (again) the
mikunit and the eber systems were really designed for light use (as in
heating for a few hours at most per day and used like this could go
years without a good clean out. But if used for a lot of the time, as
primary heating, they could loose efficiency as they coked up meaning
a lot of cleaning was needed. The other thing was that the eber and
the mikuni 4w were designed for smaller boats with 4 radiators and
about 30' pipe runs. For bigger boats you need the 7w. I don't know
about the other systems.

Our Mikuni MX40 was on a 59ft trad boat and would heat it perfectly OK
if required. Having said that it was not our primary source of heating
as we had a Squirrel stove in the saloon. The Mikuni ran a large
double rad in the saloon/galley, a towel rad and airing cupboard
heating coil in the bathroom and a reasonable size single rad in the
aft bedroom. It also ran the hot water coil in the calorifier at the
same time.
Roger