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Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good?
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IronBenderII
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:38 pm    Post subject: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

Hi all. I'm still working on my TDI conversion (too many projects!). I'm replacing coolant lines right now and am looking at my DA 6 heater. It's never worked (or I just don't know how to use it) so I end up carrying a propane heater for cold trips (total PITA). I want a heater at some point (I want to camp while it is very cold and be comfortable inside). I've read that these heaters will drain my battery pretty quickly if used while the van isn't running (my primary use case).

I'm planning on having a bitchen battery bank in my van. Is this thing worth fixing or should I just go with a Propex and remove this heater while I have things apart?

Thanks in advance.

Jack
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MarkWard
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:09 am    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

You have it, I would put the effort into understanding how it should work and then see what it takes $ and time. Not sure what part support is there for it. We have an Espar that we installed. Did not have an original to work with.
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Jeffrey Lee
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:48 am    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

To be clear, the auxiliary heater is not intended for continuous heat while parked, but only for short warm-up periods.

From the Owners Manual:
“To avoid draining the battery, do not run the heater repeatedly when the engine is not running.”

While driving, the heater can be run continuously, but when parked the built-in timer will turn the heater off after ten minutes. These heaters are meant to warm up the cabin only until the normal engine/coolant heater begins to supply heat.

They are somewhat rare, and perhaps valuable, and will increase the resale value of your van, but may not be of much use to you depending on your camping style.

Here are some more ways to stay warm while winter camping:
http://campwestfalia.com/winter-van-camping/
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IronBenderII
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:46 am    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

Thanks for the replies guys. I saw the same thing about draining the battery, that's what my concern is.

Everything looks in great shape and I'm sure I can get past the 10 minute timer (that may have already been done since I have a thermostat that is installed). I guess I can get it working and see how the battery impact is. Maybe I can play with different motors/different ways to draw the air and see if there is anything more battery friendly.

We intend to live in this van at some point, and we're not going to shy away from cold places. But my wife gets chilly whenever the temperature dips below 85 so happy wife = happy life. I need to make sure the van is warm!

Oh, and thanks for sharing the link Jeffrey, cool site!
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'82 Diesel Westfalia with an 1Z TDI, Peloquin, GW 1.5" lift springs, 27" BFG ATs

'75 Bronco with 408 stroker, 40" MTRs, ARB/Dana 60 front/rear, all home built.

And my kid has a really cool baja bug Smile
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Microbusdeluxe Premium Member
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 11:15 am    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

Don't know about the diesel heater, but the petrol heater (B2) used by VW, Eberspacher, works quite well and can definitely run for hours at a time. We have it hooked up to a good deep cycle battery and have never had a problem. YMMV.
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IronBenderII
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 12:04 pm    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

Microbusdeluxe wrote:
Don't know about the diesel heater, but the petrol heater (B2) used by VW, Eberspacher, works quite well and can definitely run for hours at a time. We have it hooked up to a good deep cycle battery and have never had a problem. YMMV.


That's what I was hoping to hear!! I'm going to run a really nice battery system and I intend to have it controlled by Arduino or Raspberry Pi so I can monitor battery voltage and shut things down (by criticality) as the voltage drops. I'll see if I can get this thing to work... I think the propex heaters are like $750, that will pay for a lot of batteries Smile.
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'75 Bronco with 408 stroker, 40" MTRs, ARB/Dana 60 front/rear, all home built.

And my kid has a really cool baja bug Smile
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Microbusdeluxe Premium Member
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 3:47 pm    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

I forgot to add that we also run a truck fridge off of the same battery that does the Eberspacher, so I really don't see a problem with battery drain.
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'81 Westy sold
'89 hightop Westy Joker syncro 16" now with Bostig!
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IronBenderII
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 10:39 am    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

Microbusdeluxe wrote:
I forgot to add that we also run a truck fridge off of the same battery that does the Eberspacher, so I really don't see a problem with battery drain.


Excellent news! Thanks for sharing!
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'82 Diesel Westfalia with an 1Z TDI, Peloquin, GW 1.5" lift springs, 27" BFG ATs

'75 Bronco with 408 stroker, 40" MTRs, ARB/Dana 60 front/rear, all home built.

And my kid has a really cool baja bug Smile
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jkallo
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 11:59 am    Post subject: Re: Diesel Aux heater (DA 6) any good? Reply with quote

I also have a DA6 and have never used it. I have a charger wired into my aux battery so that when I'm on shore power I could theoretically run it for a long period of time without draining the batt. But if I am on shore power I can also run a $15 ceramic heater that easily keeps the bus toasty down into the mid 20s.

From what I understand, it'll drain a normal battery without the charger in 3-4 10 min cycles.

I have always been leery of actually firing mine up without dismantling it and making sure there are no errant mouse nests etc in it. Seems like lots of opportunity there to start a fire.
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