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Camper Van Diesel Heater Overview - The Chinese Diesel Heater
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May 3, 2025
Today Nick at Van Builder HQ is discussing how he installed a Chinese Diesel Heater in his Fort Transit Camper Van. Watch and enjoy the Campervan Diesel Heater Overview. Visit https://www.vanbuilderhq.com to learn more. Diesel Heater Link: https://www.amazon.com/SUPERFASTRACING-Diesel-Heater-Thermostat-Trailer/dp/B07KMPH5GN Interested in buying a van? Check out https://www.odysseycustomvans.com Support Van Builder HQ on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vanbuilderhq
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0:00
[Music]
0:05
hey guys nick island here we're back
0:06
with another video today and this one
0:09
we're going to go over
0:10
the diesel heater
0:12
so
0:13
we're in the ford transit
0:14
camper van here
0:17
and
0:18
if you watched in a previous video we
0:21
went over the electrical system kind of
0:22
how that's set up in this van what we're
0:24
going to do today is go over the diesel
0:26
heater so behind this box which is
0:30
basically the bench seat for the van
0:33
we've created a
0:36
little wall here to where if you take
0:37
three bolts out
0:39
you can open this up and then take this
0:41
out
0:44
and then this allows you access to do
0:47
maintenance on the diesel heater if you
0:48
needed to so what was fun about this is
0:52
this is the first one of the first vans
0:54
that i built and
0:56
i wanted to just test out the diesel
0:59
heater i've heard that these more
1:01
inexpensive chinese diesel heaters
1:03
worked really well and some people have
1:04
had really good results and they've
1:06
lasted them quite a long time
1:09
and they're
1:10
essentially kind of a knock off of the s
1:13
bar or basto diesel or gasoline fired
1:17
heaters and just to give you an example
1:20
the wabasto or s bar
1:23
those are they range from either sixteen
1:26
hundred
1:27
to two thousand to twenty five hundred
1:29
dollars
1:30
and this one right here i think cost me
1:33
like a hundred and forty dollars
1:36
so
1:36
there's a significant difference that
1:39
difference comes in
1:41
obviously quality the components stuff
1:44
like that
1:45
for example
1:47
you know this one would not be designed
1:49
to be mounted underneath the vehicle or
1:52
like in any type of place where it's
1:53
going to see moisture or anything like
1:55
that
1:57
so it's definitely going to have to be
1:58
inside these are typically designed to
2:00
be mounted
2:01
inside with a flange i'll show you in a
2:03
second where all the stuff happens
2:06
outside for safety purposes but
2:09
there are some pre-heaters that are kind
2:12
of like the same concept that are
2:14
mounted underneath the vehicle some are
2:16
to preheat like mercedes sprinters
2:18
diesel versions they pre-heat the engine
2:21
so it can be started in very very cold
2:23
temperatures
2:26
but kind of going on tangent there let's
2:27
get back to this so i bought this one in
2:30
amazon
2:31
and i have a full video of this complete
2:34
installation start to finish if you guys
2:37
want to watch that this one's just going
2:38
to do basic overview of
2:41
uh what it is what it does
2:44
where it's located in the van and then
2:46
how it functions
2:48
so if i zoom out
2:51
you can see
2:52
this is where
2:53
the
2:54
heater is located
2:56
and for anyone that doesn't know what
2:58
this thing does
3:00
is it essentially has a line right here
3:03
that is connected to a
3:05
diesel tank it could be connected to the
3:08
vehicle's fuel tank so if it's a
3:11
like a sprinter diesel
3:13
you can take the diesel tank
3:15
and then you can run it off of that this
3:18
van is
3:20
gasoline so
3:22
it can run off of that
3:24
and for example when we start putting
3:27
this van together
3:28
we're going to do a gasoline fired
3:30
heater that is plumbed and plumbed into
3:34
the tank so
3:36
you never have to worry about an
3:38
external tank being filled or topped off
3:40
it's much much safer
3:43
so get back over
3:44
here the way this works
3:47
fuel comes in this line
3:50
and then inside here let's unscrew this
4:00
inside here
4:03
take the cover off
4:07
inside here you have a chamber
4:09
and what this what happens with this
4:11
chamber is think of it like as a mini
4:13
jet engine
4:15
it's kind of how that works so what
4:17
happens is there's a glow plug or a way
4:20
that ignites the fuel depending on gas
4:22
or diesel
4:24
and then there's a fuel pump
4:27
and what this will do is inside this
4:29
chamber
4:30
it will drip
4:32
a certain amount of fuel gas or diesel
4:36
and then when it drips it it's ignited
4:39
by the glow plug
4:41
or the igniter
4:43
that creates an explosion
4:45
and then the explosion obviously creates
4:48
heat
4:50
so
4:52
that's how it works
4:53
so you have this mini explosion that's
4:55
going to happen and it actually almost
4:57
sounds like a jet engine when it's
4:58
starting up and then so once that
5:01
chamber has that drip and it's igniting
5:03
and burning
5:05
this chamber is going to heat up
5:07
and then this
5:08
fan over here is going to blow air
5:11
across
5:12
this chamber right here
5:14
and then these fins
5:16
and it's going to pick up that heat it's
5:18
going to come out through this vent
5:21
around here
5:22
and then come out
5:23
this vent
5:25
and so it's extremely hot when it comes
5:27
out so we want to make sure that
5:29
you know this is not touching anything
5:31
it's not touching any battery wires or
5:32
anything like that it does come with
5:34
these little collars to where you can
5:36
reroute additional vents if you wanted
5:39
to for example i used to have
5:41
a vent coming around here
5:43
and coming out here but i
5:46
when i put this whole entire inverter
5:48
system in i needed a way for
5:50
air to kind of breathe
5:52
in this battery box and move around so
5:55
this got the hose got deleted that was
5:58
here
5:59
so that this system could go in and
6:01
you're probably asking yourself
6:02
well you know we got fire gas there's an
6:05
explosion it's like you know how how do
6:07
you not smell the fumes and exhaust in
6:10
here like how does that work
6:12
so the reason that this is safe to use
6:14
inside is because
6:17
we're only taking in air from inside the
6:20
van
6:21
right here is the air vent to the garage
6:24
area
6:25
and then there's an opening back there
6:27
so air is going to come down
6:29
and through convection it's going to
6:30
come down
6:32
come through here
6:34
cool air from the van is going to come
6:37
through this vent it's going to feed
6:39
this
6:40
blow air over this and then go back in
6:42
so
6:43
this unit is it's closed
6:45
to the outside so that's why there's no
6:48
air from outside coming in the van or
6:50
exhaust from this unit coming in the van
6:53
it's completely sealed by a plate at the
6:55
bottom
6:56
so i'm gonna go underneath the van and
6:59
it'll make much more sense how that's
7:01
taking place as you guys can see
7:03
this is
7:05
the diesel heater
7:07
so this is the bottom plate that comes
7:09
with the unit i
7:12
sanded it down and repainted it with the
7:14
rust preventative again just to make
7:16
sure because
7:18
this is outside
7:23
it comes with all these fittings that
7:25
you can use
7:26
and so i found a hole right here in the
7:29
chassis
7:30
and that is allow me to feed my fuel
7:34
line
7:35
down here
7:37
and into this hose
7:40
that goes into the unit
7:43
so think of this side this is the intake
7:46
side we're in taking fuel
7:48
and then this is the air filter
7:51
and so this brings in fresh air
7:53
only for the combustion chamber not
7:56
the van it's completely separate
7:59
so this is air
8:02
and fuel
8:03
the spark is in the combustion chamber
8:05
and that's how we get our flame to start
8:07
heating the fan
8:09
once that combustion has taken place
8:11
this line right here is the exhaust
8:14
so the exhaust comes through here
8:17
into this little tiny muffler
8:19
and then out this tip
8:21
and you want to
8:23
make sure that you have good clearance
8:25
i wanted like a low profile look
8:28
and i monitored and measured the
8:29
temperature and everything and
8:32
there's so much surface area on this
8:34
exhaust pipe
8:37
that when it's really cold outside it's
8:39
like 30 degrees or 40. this it cools
8:42
that exhaust down really
8:44
nice so that by the time it gets out of
8:46
this exhaust there's it's there's no way
8:49
it's going to melt this plastic
8:51
and it's really not that
8:53
close you can see it's probably a hand
8:55
another hand probably two hand widths
8:58
apart but this is where the exhaust
8:59
comes out
9:01
and
9:02
typically you would want this maybe on
9:04
the opposite side of the vehicle where
9:06
you don't have a sliding door
9:09
but
9:10
i've never got any smells or anything
9:12
like that in the vehicle in fact if we
9:15
go to the back
9:18
we go to the back of the van
9:21
you guys will see
9:23
that
9:24
this is where
9:26
the diesel tank is and you're saying
9:28
nick
9:29
you have a diesel tank inside your van
9:32
can't you smell that you know isn't that
9:34
dangerous
9:36
so the two answers i have for you is
9:38
this vent in here does not it
9:41
i've never smelled diesel fuel this tank
9:44
is very
9:45
it's sealed up very well
9:47
number two
9:49
diesel is very stable which means it
9:52
takes a lot of heat
9:54
in order to ignite it that's why you
9:56
have this thing called a glow plug
9:59
in here
10:00
and that glow plug it takes a while for
10:03
that to actually
10:04
heat the chamber up
10:06
and to ignite the the fuel
10:09
so when you turn it on you actually have
10:11
to wait a while until that gets hot
10:13
enough
10:14
to ignite the fuel even though fuel is
10:16
being pumped in there so all in all this
10:18
is a
10:20
it's a very efficient system for for
10:22
heating the van there's two models that
10:24
you can buy
10:25
one is a two thousand kilowatt version
10:27
and then one is like a five thousand
10:29
kilowatt version obviously the higher
10:31
number the bigger unit puts out more
10:33
heat and
10:35
for any van depending on
10:37
where you want to go like a low roof
10:39
like this van 2000 kilowatt is plenty
10:42
very much overkill
10:44
uh bigger van high roof you know you
10:46
could probably do with 5000 watt
10:47
especially if you're doing cold winter
10:49
camping you're up in like washington or
10:52
you know canada or something like that
10:54
and then the last thing we have
10:56
is
10:57
the control for this
11:01
and
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this is the
11:06
this is the controller
11:08
for
11:08
the diesel heater it's kind of funny
11:10
because it's let's see here
11:12
there you go
11:14
it's not the fanciest controller but
11:16
basically when you turn this on
11:19
it's going to tell you you know what the
11:21
internal temperature of the room is
11:23
what you have the heater set for and
11:25
then down here
11:27
this shows your operation it shows you
11:29
if the fan is turning if you got flow if
11:32
the
11:33
glow plug is on and as well as if the
11:36
fuel pump is on
11:39
and what many people will tell you is
11:42
the fuel pump is loud
11:44
i mean it sounds like
11:47
it sounds like somebody thumping on the
11:48
floor
11:49
and that's going to be on the whole
11:51
entire time
11:53
you are
11:54
using this so what a lot of people like
11:56
to do is mount the fuel pump externally
11:59
underneath the vehicle
12:01
and that kind of gets rid of
12:03
a little bit of the interior noise and
12:05
they they do have they call them silent
12:07
fuel pumps but those are not coming from
12:11
the manufacturer those are kind of like
12:12
a tweaked one that somebody made and
12:14
then another one
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you might find on some other channels on
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youtube
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is like an ultra quiet system that uses
12:22
a different type of method to pump the
12:23
fuel however
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it's kind of up to you to dial in the
12:27
air fuel ratios
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and that gets in a whole mess of things
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normally
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customers are looking for a
12:35
easy solution to
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set it forget it it turns on it turns
12:39
off
12:40
if i go to different altitude the system
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will compensate for it that's why those
12:45
systems cost upward to 2500 dollars
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basically
12:51
for the same type of
12:53
system is because it has all those
12:55
components and circuitry and testing
12:58
to enable it to
13:00
change its air fuel ratio needs as you
13:03
go up and down in altitude
13:07
but if you're just a weekender you're
13:09
going to a campground
13:10
park or something like that you're not
13:12
too far from home
13:13
you just want to have some fun these are
13:15
a great way to go i've been using this
13:16
for about a year i've had no problems
13:18
i'll tell you one thing
13:22
being in a bed in a van and then waking
13:25
up it's chilly and you turn on that
13:27
diesel heater and that whole van is
13:29
warmed up by the time you get out of bed
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it's the best feeling on the planet or
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it's one of them so
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i hope this was a fun overview of
13:38
the diesel heater what it does how it
13:40
operates this is the same thing for a
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gasoline-fired one as well but yeah hope
13:45
this video was
13:46
helpful to you and i will see you guys
13:49
in the next video
13:51
[Music]
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