The heater was removed last week, and we gave this a thorough clean and decoke. The heater after three years of service since it's original installation wasn't in that bad condition, but if left any carbon build up could result in problems in its efficiency. We contacted our original supplier who hadn't had any problems with having to supply a new glow pin and recommended we test said glow pin on a car battery independent of the heater to test if this was indeed the problem. On contact the pin worked as it should do so therefore we were now left thinking the ECU had gone faulty or hoping in vain that the glow pin socket had worked loose from the ECU and was not making good contact. Before doing anything else we recommissioned the heater on Moonshine to see if re-establishing a good contact would solve the problem, and thankfully it did. We can only think this is yet something else that has a tendency to vibrate loose with the movement of the boat whilst at sea or in choppy conditions. We decided once the heater was working properly once again to spend the night on the New Junction having our first BBQ of the year. It was nice being able to wake up the following morning in a toasty warm boat.
Have to admit I had not heard of the MV Airo. Had to look them up!
ReplyDeleteThey seem quite expensive when compared to the Webasto and Ebbersplutter units. Are they any better?
The firm we got it from are agents for all the main makes of air heater. We originally had a 3.5kw Eberspacher but this had gone faulty and we couldn't justify the expense of a repair and the possible continuing problems of these heaters having to be plugged into a diagnostic tool to reset. We did want a Mikuni like what we fitted to our previous two boats, however the agent told us that this was old technology and that we could have this new 5kw heater for the same money...I think they have gone up in price since we purchased it and to all intents and purposes it is a Webasto Airtop 5kw heater. We liked the fact that you don't need any diagnostic tools to unlock or reset the heater and most of the spares are considerably cheaper than it's rivals and that was it's main selling point for us. We think but we are not 100% sure that the MV stands for Mikuni Vehicle heating.
DeleteWe like the simplicity of our Webasto. It is getting on now and was fitted when the boat was new so 14 years ago. As far as we are aware the work Liam did to it this winter is the first it has ever had. The state if the burner cartridge and amount of coke in there would lead us to believe this was the case!
ReplyDeleteIt is working like a dream again now. In fact coupled with the new ducting and lagging it gets the cabin far too hot whereas before we always thought it a bit marginal for the boat.