When you open the box containing your new diesel heater, you’ll find quite a few parts. In this guide, I explain what the parts are and where they go.
In this setup guide, I use a Hcalory All In One diesel heater. This may not be the same diesel heater you have. However, all the cheap Chinese all-in-one diesel heaters have the same design, and apart from a few subtle differences, the setup will be the same.
Step 1 – Identify Components
The image below shows common components that come with a diesel heater and what they’re called
Step 2 – Identify Air Intake and Exhaust Holes
Flip your Diesel heater upside down, where you’ll find two holes and some plastic tubing.
The plastic tubing is the diesel fuel pipe, and the hole next to it is the air intake.
The other hole, furthest away from the fuel pipe, is the exhaust.
Step 3 – Connect Air Intake
Before attaching the air intake, it is worth finding some bricks or something of a similar size that you can stand the diesel heater on once the air intake and exhaust are attached. The diesel heater legs do not give enough height.
First, connect the air intake pipe to the air filter. Use the supplied jubilee clip (the adjustable metal ring) to secure the two parts together. Next, connect the other end of the air intake tube to the diesel heater air intake hole using a jubilee clip.
Step 4 – Connect Exhaust Pipe
Connect the exhaust pipe to the silencer and connect the other end of the exhaust pipe to the exhaust outlet hole of the diesel heater. Secure in place using the jubilee clips.
The exhaust pipe gets extremely hot, so it should not be near the fuel pipe or the air intake pipe.
Step 5 – Electrics
Most cheap Chinese diesel heaters are powered using the cigarette lighter in a car or van, requiring 12V and about 10 amps of power.
My Hcalory diesel heater didn’t have the car cigarette lighter plug, it only had wires, so I ended up having to buy a plug.
As I use my diesel to heat a garden log cabin, I also had to buy a mains power adapter with a car cigarette socket.
The amount of electricity that a diesel heater requires will vary between the different heater models and usage. As a rough guide my Hcalory uses most electricity when it first starts up, requiring around 10 amps. The power consumption then drops right down to about 1 amp.
Step 6 – Fuel
Buying Diesel For A Diesel Heater
The diesel heater takes normal diesel found at any filling station.
I recommend getting at least a 10-litre fuel can. I initially used a 5-litre fuel can, but, due to the high pressure that diesel comes out of the pump it was very hard to fill it up without spilling diesel.
Most filling stations require a minimum order of 5 litres of fuel.
Filling Up The Fuel Tank
When I first poured diesel into the fuel tank I only put in a small amount and the diesel heater wouldn’t work. I discovered that the fuel pipe out of the tank isn’t located at the bottom, it is raised. The amount of fuel I had poured in was below the fuel pipe, so no fuel was getting to the heater
Step 7 – First Time Turning The Diesel Heater On
The instructions that came with My Hcalory diesel heater were very poor. I had to spend quite some time trying to figure out how the controls for the heater worked.
If the instructions supplied with your diesel heater are poor, then here are some general pointers to get you going.
- Error Codes – The first few times I turned on my diesel heater it wouldn’t work, I kept getting two errors E01 and E03. I could see that the diesel wasn’t getting to the heater. The problem sorted itself out on the fourth time it started. I think the fuel pump has very little power and it just required a few times to pull the fuel from the tank to the heater.
It is possible that the error codes were related to the fact I hadn’t initially filled the fuel tank with enough diesel - Delay – When I turn on or off or change a setting on the diesel control panel there is usually a delay before the change happens.
- Ticking – The ticking sound that diesel heaters make is the fuel pump. The tick is a good indicator that the heater has turned. The pump will tick faster or slower according to the amount of heat being generated.
The ticking will happen all the time the diesel heater is running. It is one of the negatives of diesel heaters. - Hot Exhaust – Shortly after the heater has been turned on the exhaust pipe will get very hot. Make sure it’s not near anything that can be damaged or cause a fire.
- Smell – When I first ran my diesel heater there were some burning smells. They faded after about 10 minutes and have never returned
Diesel Heater Error Codes
Below are error codes that are common to most diesel heaters.
Conclusion: Setting Up A Diesel Heater
Setting up a diesel heater is a fairly straightforward process. The All In One diesel heaters, where the fuel tank and heater are as one unit are slightly easier to get going compared to the diesel heaters that have the heater and fuel tank separate.
I found the hardest part of setting up a diesel heater was understanding the controls. Which were difficult to figure out, especially as the instructions were next to useless.
