www.webasto.us/am/en/am_marine_heaters.html
Our T37 came with the Dickenson Arctic heater. Learning curve for us. It must be clean, clean, clean when you first fire it up. follow the owners manual. Ours just had 'a little soot' in the area of the burner hole. My wife fired it up the first time. Started easily, looked nice and went downhill from there. (Diesel smoke is very oily for the uninitiated) More checking showed a few potential problems. We are gravity feed from the bow tank. it runs through an automotive type sediment bowl/filter then a pressure regulator. Those all needed to be cleaned. Then the 'carburetor' needed cleaned. Not really a carb, but a float bowl/needle valve regulator. After all that and several internal soot cleanings it seems to be working ok, with the exception of a slow drip at one of the copper connections between the regulator and the stove. Hard to get the copper bent sharply enough to make it all fit. I'm sure it will fit, just need to hold your mouth right when assembling.
We put a Webasto forced air diesel
heater in our other boat and like it real well. Our only sailing at this
time is in the
The Webasto is easy to install and
maintain, runs on a thermostat and is out of the way. We ran the ducting
through the lockers with outlets strategically placed where my wife’s cold feet
can always find them. Warm porcelain in the morning can be a good thing.
If the Dickenson continues to belch
out diesel soot, it's gone and a Webasto will take it's
place.
Michael Kahler S/V Liberation PH 37 October 2003
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Practical Sailor says that
the Webasto brand is one of the best heating systems. It's built by a
company in
fyi, John Hovan February 2004
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I looked at the Webasto and had someone come out and give me an estimate
to install such a system on my boat. They have two systems and the only
one that seemed like an appropriate choice for my boat was a diesel fired unit
used circulating coolant to distribute the heat to radiators located around the
boat.
After discussing the various options with the prospective installer I
decided that it was going to cost too much and require too much
maintenance.
The also offer forced air heaters but routing the ducting around the
boat would have been a chore and taken up a lot of room.
John Lewis
October 2004
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With all the talk of cabin heaters, I did some research on Webasto and Espar
units. Both of these units are considered the "Porsches" of
heaters from what I read.
Espar is one brand of diesel heater that uses forced air. List price is around $4,200 for the 5LC unit which would work in a Tayana. Below is a website to obtain the manuals on their products....They also sell hydronic units as well. Most research I read, says to stay away from hydronic units on smaller boats due to complexity and maintenance etc.
Webasto is a second brand with costs around $3,200 for their
AT 5000 unit which would work in a Tayana. Again, the below website
is not listed, but contains all their manuals.... www.techwebasto.com/blueheat_main.htm
.
Both units are made in
One issue I see with both these styles of heaters that are considered
"forced air" versus types like
I see the advantage of the forced air type of heater is the
complete lack of diesel smell. Has anyone had good luck with bulkhead
mounted heaters? I really hate the smell of diesel and would like to
have some heat while anchoring on cold nights. I froze my Christmas
ornaments off in
John Hovan s/v Celtic Dream October 2004
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Gerard,
If I was ready to buy a high end unit, I
also would choose Webasto. I think the Espar unit is simply too much
money. The Espar rep even admitted that their unit cost was somewhat
higher.
John Hovan October
2004
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Hi John,
I installed a Webasto HBW2010 hydronic
heater on our Tayana 42CC last winter after much research and it has
worked wonderfully (knock-on-wood) so far. We have many live aboard
friends here in the
Maybe it's because of Sure Marine, Inc's great customer service and
marketing in this region that Webasto appears to be the
The installation was time consuming as I re-insulated the engine
compartment with lead-lined sound suppressing foam in the
process. One of the advantages of a hydronic unit is
not having to drill large air duck holes from the unit to the air
outlets - one only needs to drill holes for the 3/4-inch coolant supply and
return lines. The coolant lines can meander through hanging lockers and
other stowage where dryness is desired and mild heat isn't a problem - however,
one must be careful to install bleeder valves at every
Yet another benefit of the hydronic system is that you can use the
engine to heat the boat via the same coolant loop with the installation of a
few valves. This same setup will allow you to preheat your engine as
well. Also, you can run the loop through your water heater.
Pictures of my installation are at http://www.floatingzoo.com/heater.
Let me know if you have any questions. Needless to say, I strongly
recommend Sure Marine, Inc. Very nice folks willing to help
and give great advice for the do-it-yourselfer. As for price, all
said and done was about $3200.
Good luck!
Michael Johnson S/V Rivendell 1981 Tayana 42CC October 2004
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Thanks John! We took our time with it. You only
need one buffer tank and one expansion tank in
most installations. The expansion tank is only filled 1/2-way and
has a filler cap much like the one on your car radiator - it's mounted at the
highest possible level to provide a good "water head" to the
circulation pump and to allow you to fill the system with coolant (we used the
propylene glycol antifreeze which is non-toxic beware of the
polyethylene glycol which is more common but very toxic).
The buffer tank is used as a "battery" of heat to
keep the Webasto from short-cycling (switching on and off too often) which
increases the maintenance intervals and decreases the unit's life. The
basic rule of thumb with hydronic systems is to have as much water in the
system as possible - Sure Marine recommends a minimum of 10 gallons, we have
about 9 in ours. I wasn't willing to put in another 5 gallon buffer tank
and it turns out our system is running just fine with no short cycles.
Also, you can use an Everhot water heater in place of a buffer tank -
this is basically a tank full of hot circulated antifreeze with a coil of
fresh tap water inside to give you cold water in and instant hot tap water out
(kind of the reverse of a Force 10 water heater which has a small coil of
coolant surrounded by tap water). We routed our coolant through an
existing Force 10 water heater so that we could use electric in the summer to
heat our water. There is a good explanation of all this here: www.suremarine.com/manuals -
although they recommend installing both which I don't think is necessary.
By the way, this is a GREAT manual with diagrams and everything - be sure to
check it out no matter what heater you install, it's very interesting!
The exhaust system runs out the starboard side of our boat just under
the toe rail and directly above the rub rail. It is as far aft and
as high up as I was able to install it considering our boat has a
center cockpit and that I wanted to keep the unit in the engine compartment yet
stay within the maximum recommended 10 foot exhaust run. The outlet is
about 10 feet forward of the stern in an area that doesn't (I should say
hasn't-yet) submerge when heeling as far over as I feel comfortable.
When off shore or in extreme weather, I would definitely put a rubber plug in
the outlet and pull the fuse so that the unit cannot switch on with the exhaust
plugged. We have sailed in the
Michael & Sara Johnson October 2004
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Michael,
I guess I made the right choice. What you have to say about the Webasto water system is so far the same as what I have experienced. The whole heating system is being shipped this week. Any "Tips" on installing would be helpful.
We have a T-55 and I hope the HBW2010 will be sufficient for our boat also. We are installing the Furnace in the aft lazarette. We also have 6 radiator heaters throughout the boat. 120 ft of tubing, and we are not plumbing through the engine. The whole package ran $5,100.00 so far.
It will be nice to be able to spend time on the boat during the winter
which has been so long and cold these past few years.
Gerard Dragon Dance
October 2004
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Hi Gerard,
I think the best resource for me during our
installation was Sure Marine, Inc. Specifically, their 44 page
DBW2010 installation manual which has excellent diagrams and good points for
installations on sailboats: www.suremarine.com/manuals.
I stuck to the "rules" in this manual as closely as I could and so
far have been very happy.
The only big rule I broke was the fuel line routing. I did not use
a separate pickup but instead tapped into the main pickup immediately
after our Racor filter using a T-fitting and one-way spring-ball check-valve on
both the engine side and Webasto side of the Tee. These check-valves
in the fuel line prevent air from being sucked in from the Webasto when the
engine is running with Webasto off and visa-versa when the Webasto is
running with engine off. This has worked very well - we have tested
running both scenarios including running both heater and engine under full
power with no problems.
Michael & Sara Johnson October 2004
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We have a similar setup on a Cal 44 down at Shilshole marina in
A Sure Marine rep (Emerald Harbor Marine) installed the system for
us in the port lazarette with a short exhaust run aft to just under the
cap rail. We have an expansion tank, a buffer tank, and an Everhot
tank. We installed a T-switch in the Webasto fluid lines to create a
"winter" loop and a "summer" loop. The
winter loop cycles through the entire boat including the buffer and Everhot tanks.
The summer loop cycles only through the Everhot tank (for summer-time hot
galley water & hot showers when we're on the hook and don't need to heat
the boat ---- decadence). We installed a second T-switch in our
domestic water system so that we can choose between the standard water
heater water (when on shore power or when we've motored for a while and have
created plenty of hot water) and the Webasto/Everhot system. These two T
switches give us lots of options when deciding how we want to heat the boat
and/or create hot water.
Bill Ashby S/V Rhythm 1984
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My husband and I just finished installing a Webasto hydronic system in
our T-55, We did everything ourselves. It took us 170
hours from start to finish. We did have to create a piece of furniture to
house one of the radiator heaters, and we did have to do other minor carpentry
work here and there. Running the tubes was easy, a 1 ˝ inch hole
saw was used all over. Installing the furnace and exhaust pipes was the hardest
part.
Yesterday we crossed our fingers and fired it up for the 1st time. It
was fabulous. The hot water heaters (fan radiators) give off such a dry and
even heat. We were surprised at how fast the boat went from 52deg. to 68deg. So
far all systems have worked perfectly, and the people at the Webasto tech
department were so unusually helpful. Especially Rich who at
some times would spend 1 hour on the phone with us per call.
The whole system including extra electrical and plumbing parts came to $5,350.00 which included 6 radiators.
We definitely would recommend this system to anyone who is looking for
a dry and efficient heating system. The whole project was fun and easy thanks
to Rich - 800-821-0207, Rich@navstore.com
Lisa and Gerard T-55 Dragon
Dance January 2005
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We have a Webasto on our 'other' boat. We like it real well.
We've had it for 5 years. We come down from
Mount it where it is accessible. They are not maintenance
free. The first year we had friends come on board and cycle it every
couple weeks. The igniter carboned up and had to be replaced. After
that we have just let it sit idle while we were gone. Shut it off and
walk away. Went 2 seasons and had to replace the igniter and burner plate.
Two more seasons and I just did a rebuild, $260. The burner was extremely
carboned up. I will clean the cabin out and salvage the igniter.
Rebuilding is extremely easy and does not require a workshop. One torx wrench, Philips and a 10mm socket.
We got ours from Sure Marine in
We have the 3500 forced air on a 33' boat. I think that is about
maxed out. We are looking at the hot water model for our Tayana.
The air ducts take up a lot of space and give up a lot of heat to whatever
lockers they run through.
Good luck, Michael Kahler S/V Liberation T37PH January 2005
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My husband and I installed a hot water Webasto heater on our boat this winter. It is wonderful and heats our 55-footer easily. It is an even heat and we have been staying on the boat in all sorts of cold weather and it is so cool.
It burns up our stored fuel and we add fresh and are happy about turning over the fuel. We also bought from Sure Marine and were very happy with them. They walked us through the whole install and had such patience. Rich, the person we dealt with, was great.
I did have an Espar forced air heater on a previous 37-foot Hunter and
it was not "even" heat as the hot water system. At least that is what
I found.
Lisa (Sensi?) T-55 April 2005
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