When choosing a heater
there are several choices to be made.
Forced Air or Thermo (hot water) heating, sizing, and where to buy.
We can answer the last question first, buy your heater here at Seacraft.
What type of heater should I buy, Forced Air
or Hot Water? First let me tell you that both types have their advantages
and disadvantages. Forced air is the easiest to install and usually
can provide fresh air to the cabin. Just put a duct on the intake side
of the heater and duct it to the great outdoors, or simply pull air
out of a locker that leaks air from the great outdoors. Fresh air from
the outside is cold air and cold air is drier with its molecules closer
together, when you heat the air the molecules expand and the air can
absorb moisture. The cabin is then slightly pressurized and the air
leaks out of the boat. Result is a warm and much drier cabin that contains
fresh air. Or for you energy efficient types, you could recycle the
cabin air which is already heated, making for a much easier and efficient
job for the heater, and musty old air for the people. OK I admit you
could mix the two ideas.
Or, you could install a hot water system. Hot
water delivers heat to the ends of the boat better, providing a more
even heat. You can zone your system with different thermostats with
hot water for even more control. You can do neat things with hot water
like steal extra BTU's off of the engine, or heat the domestic hot water,
or preheat your engine. Running hot water hose takes up less storage
space than forced air ducting, also. Sounds pretty good! You can even
pump fresh air into the boat if you run a duct to one of the heat exchanger
blower units. Now that your all set to buy hot water don't forget, it
takes much longer to install, it will cost more after you add all the
lovely features I mentioned and there are more things to go wrong in
a hot water system. You could have a water leak in the fittings, a blower
unit could stop blowing, a water pump could fail, you could have an
air bubble in the system, etc. With forced air you have the heater and
some duct and the duct is easy to trouble shoot, either its crushed
or not. Of course both systems have fuel pumps, fuel systems and power
feeds.
What size heater should I buy? Sizing
is very important for heaters, particularly forced air heaters. If you
buy too small of a heater it will cry its heart out working for you
and die young. If you buy too large of a heater it will soot and choke
to death. And yes, sometimes you can't fit a boat perfectly because
the BTU needs of the boat do not perfectly fit the BTU output of the
heater. So, what do you do? Pick the heater that most closely represents
your needs. I recommend running the heater on high at least once a month
for 30 minutes. You can trick a heater into high by turning the thermostat
way up and opening the ports (windows)on your boat. In my opinion your
heater should run in high at least 30 percent of the time. A heater
that is stuck in low will soot up. Part of owning a heater is treating
it properly and particularly in the spring and fall keep an ear out
for being stuck in low, and then crank it up once in awhile.
Hot water heaters need to be larger in terms
of BTU's than forced air for a given boat for a couple of reasons. One
is all those extra things you may be doing mentioned in the options
above and because a forced air heater dumps all of its output into the
boat. A hot water system returns many of its BTU's to the broiler in
the form of warm water.
What makes for a good installation? 1.
Get the exhaust overboard as soon as possible. 2. Don't put any more
bends in the exhaust or ducting than absolutely necessary. 3. Read the
directions. 4. Read the directions again. 5. Make sure your fuel metering
pump is pointed upwards. 6. Make sure you use large gauge wire that
you are sure is larger than you think you need on the heater. 7. Read
the directions again. 8. The supplemental instructions for boat installs
take precedence over the manufacturers instructions. 9. Put a outlet
in as soon as possible. 10. Read the directions again and install accordingly.
Trouble shooting a heater is usually simple.
I had one customer once who left me an earful about his new heater not
working. I immediately went to his boat to discover his fuel tank was
empty. So, a good thing to check is fuel, both do you have any and is
it getting to the heater. A simple check it to pull the fuel line off
of the bottom of the heater and turn the heater on. Put your hand on
the fuel pump and after a short test period the pump should start to
pump and you can feel it. Now remember that hose you pulled off, it
should be squirting like a squirt gun, not a fire hose and not a dribble.
Next, put a volt meter on the main power feed, do you have any power?
If yes, how much power? When you turn the heater on with the meter attached
look at the voltage and see if it drops off big time. You could have
too small of wire or your battery could need replaced or charged up.
Remember 12 volts is not a full battery. 12.8 volts is full up. Another
possibility is the glow plug is worn out or less likely but possible
the ceramic igniter needs replaced.
