Make a $100 Amazon Diesel Heater Even Better With This Simple Trick

I love the idea of the big radiator as a heatsink for the exhaust. I wonder how hot it actually get after 5 or 8 hours of use.

Thank you so much for sharing the idea!

Quick question, will this setup affect the efficiency of the combustion due to the exhaust back pressure change? Thank you!

If they can make propane refrigerators, and diesel generators, and hybrid cars, and electric airplanes and change your gender 72 times over today; why must this thing need external electrical power? Really?

I have one on the way, and when it does get dirty I thought about just adding some cataclean to the fuel.

Is that loud ticking sound coming from the heater? That's annoying...

That’s a big lump of cast - it ain’t gonna warm up from hot exhaust in 5 minutes

That could be a life saver during severe winter storms!

Stupid FKN idea like everybody's going to have a iron radiator to hook up to What a fuking dumbazz loser video.

So are you saying that people are being scammed buying an 8kW when infact they are buying a 5kW?

VEVOR RIPPED ME OFF I paid for Pure Sine Wave inverters and they are NOT. Just a regular modified sine wave. VEVOR is just a online harbor freight company rebranding Chinese products.

That cast iron radiator got me thinking. Possibly using a forced hot water baseboard heater . Attached to the exhaust, the fumes would travel thru the piping and heat up the fins then exit to a vent outside. Basically free heat that would have been wasted .

I really want my 8Kw Diesel heater to work. It did work for about 1 tank. Now no matter which battery (Car or Smaller 12V), It keeps giving me a power supply code. Recharged batteries tried everything. Fuse good, Starts fine. Just goes for about 1-2 mins and gives me power supply Code. Please help!

The heater exhaust should be piped into the top connection on the iron radiator.

you are shorting that radiator. Need to put the inlet and exhaust outlet at different sides. (the long side) Inlet on the lower left and outlet on the high right.

Hi there. Greetings from DownUnder. I have installed these with great success in campervans. Your idea about increasing the efficiency is good but it takes A LOT of energy to heat up 150lb of cast iron, energy that is robbed from the room. INSTEAD, all you need to do is extent the exhaust pipe same diameter as long as possible before it exits the building. Run it all the way around the container if you can 50, 100 ft if you can. Then that whole length the exhaust is loosing heat to the room through its thin walls. The cooler the exhaust at the exit point the better the efficiency. In regards to the ticking pump and burning thick oils...put the tank(s) a long way from the burner and suck the oil through a thin copper tube that is attached to long exhaust run...and voila...the waste heat is used to thin the oil by heating it to around 80C before it hits the pump. ALSO the pump separated out of the unit can be wrapped up in glass-wool and put into a box to kill the sound AND keep it extra warm. Keep up the great vids. Cheers Pete

Will these heaters be to much for a bobcat skidloader?

Run your used oil thru a coffee filter then cut it 50/50 with diesel

Bought a vevor and mixed diesel 50/50 with used engine oil. It worked for 3 days... Then the combustion chamber is clogged with so much crap that it won't burn right.... IMHO, used engine oil is too dirty to burn even if mixed

The exhaust MUST be installed diagonally from the intake on the radiator. That way you get to heat it up way quicker.

Heat sink inlet left hand end ,outlet right hand end full heat throughput faster heat conduction!

Diesel vs. heating oil?? (i.e. sans road tax)

Questions
How do you address accumulated snow fall with the low through wall exhaust height?
Could you show the exterior exhaust?

Is there back pressure in your exhaust design? Would that even matter?

Do you have a carbon monoxide detector?

Perhaps, bolting this entire setup to a wall hanger rack 3 to 5 feet off the ground could be an option for some people.
They could use angle iron or the Unistrut material plumbers and electricians use to hange pipe and conduit. A combination of the two could be finagled.

Tok tok tok tok tok tok tok !???

hows about the smoke?

WHAT is that ANNOYING LOUD TAPPING BANGING NOISE?

Where Would One Obtain A Radiator Like That?

brilliant idea

My understanding is the only difference between the two heaters is the fuel pumps. The pumps have different volume per stroke. Higher volume per stroke gives higher heat output.

Looks great but the knocking of that pump would drive me mad after ten minutes 😅

Another cheap method is to serpentine the exhaust piping through a box of sand before exiting the exhaust outside.

Some quick fire information about these little diesel heaters. 5 kilowatts is the highest power rating you're going to find in this size, if you want an 8 kw unit it's going to be almost twice as big. I bought one two weekends ago for this ice storm we just went through this weekend, I still do not have power and it's been 3 days, the little Hcal heater I bought has kept me and my family and pets alive for the past 3 days on a single $79 12 volt Walmart car battery and 1 gal of diesel. The only thing you need to watch out for when you buy them is making sure that your fuel and fan speeds are tuned properly. There's another guy on here who made a great video about how to get into the little heaters control system software and adjust settings on the screen to improve fuel efficiency, prevent soot and cote built up and how to prevent your heater from puffing any kind of smoke or contaminants.

"Because it was free"? Don't be ignorant. It wasn't made illegal because it was free. It's because when burned without proper filtration, used oil releases significant amounts of soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and potentially hazardous heavy metals and organic compounds like benzene and dioxins, which can harm human health and the environment. There are ways to burn it "cleanly", but rather than try and police people doing that (and let's be honest, no redneck is going to buy new filters to keep it burning clean), it makes more sense just to make it illegal.

So your saying good job ...

I use used shock absorber oil from my rebuilding business. it burns really hot!

The click click click all night from the fuel pump.... I surrounded the pump in foam and it is much better. Anyone else have any ideas? Any quiet pumps out there?

Looking forward to a year from now where you make a video that corrects all of your mistakes. The first thing that will break your heater is the used oil.

Curious about power supply.. I have one that puts out from 120 to 13.8 volts.. is that too much?

Being from the south we don't see many of those radiators. Think an old car radiator mount might work?

Why are these measured in kilowatts? They’re not generators… what happened to BTUs?

Shouldnt the exhaust out take go in at the top of the radiator due to water accumulation>>

200%...give your head a shake

Good vid thanks. Running the exhaust into the top of the radiator (heat exchanger), and out through the bottom you should get the radiator heating more evenly.

This hammering noise would drive me crazy after a while.

Makes me want to run the exhaust through an old propane tank full of sand. Great video.

that fuel pump is super loud

Off-road has more sulfur and it destroys the pump after a while I've had to replace them very often