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HELP with Espar heaters

Hi Brian;
I posted last in Nov2012, the model # of my heater is 23 1738 05 D3L. At the time you recommended to change the thermostat, which I did and was working fine. A short time ago the unit stopped working and the reason was that the fuel line came off the connection at the heater.Due to a confined location, I had to dismount the unit to fix this, I also re-positioned the metering pump a little lower than it was, and after dealing with air in the fuel line, I purged it and got it started. Put it on max at the thermostat and was working for 13/14 minutes, at which time went into the shutting down routine, and finally shut down.(Don't know why). Let it cool down and tried to start it again, the blower started, the pump started, but when the pump accelerated, after a minute or so, the unit went into shut down mode again. I waited but the thing did not re-start by itself again, so I re-started it two or three more times, and the same thing happened each time.
Can you help me troubleshoot this?
 
Brian, what regular maintenance or cleaning is required on my older model D4L Espar? It has been sending out clouds of white smoke lately, and recently and increasingly frequently refuses to ignite and then shuts down. The heater came with the boat when I bought it 10 years ago, and the local Victoria dealer told me there was really no maintenance to be done - doesn't sound right.... I have no manuals, unfortunately. Help, please. Regards, Jim
 
Good day. The d4l usually smokes excessively as a result of carbon buildup below the glow plug. And or low voltage. Remove the glow plug and using a 90 degree pick scrape the carbon out. There is a little bar at the bottom of the chamber that you need to get under.. spray a little carb cleaner to rinse away carbon afterwards so you can get an idea of your progress. If this does not cure the smokiness or non ignition then you may try a new glow plug..also the d4l likes good voltage. Over time there can be a voltage loss to the glow plug through the ecu box. It is sometimes so low. 9.5 volts from incoming 12.5 that I have to use the position. Glow plug wire to trigger a relay that supplies the full input voltage to the heater. .hope this helps.by the way the little plastic cylinder near the glow plug is a pulsation dampened, not a fuel filter so do not replace it. Hope this helps
 
Hi Brian. Thanks for this. But bear in mind that you're dealing with a technically challenged dolt who doesn't know a glow-plug from a glow worm. Here's a pix of my D4L. I think the glow plug should be the thing shown on top of the unit on the right hand side, right? I assume the item in the same position on the left side is the fuel line in. Also right? Jim.
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First off, thanks to Brian for all of the information above. . .I have looked here several times for guidance over the years. Now that I have some input to offer and my own question, I have registered so I can post.


I have an older but little used D3L installed on a sailboat. In the last two seasons it developed an issue where it would not start without a few attempts. I can see the clear portion of the fuel line, and quickly figured out that it was working hard to get a prime and clear air out of the fuel line. Once it had cleared the air after a few start attempts, it would run well. It would start OK the next day, but if it sat for days/weeks it would have trouble again. I assumed that this was just due to loss of prime due to lack of use and lived with it. At the end of last season, it simply would not flow steady fuel and thus would not start. I realized at that point that i had some larger fuel supply issue and suspected the pump. When I discovered the cost of a new pump, I started looking further to be sure. I checked the screen filter at the pump, the tank pickup tube, the inline filter someone put in before the pump, but found no obstruction. I put a short length of hose on the pump and into a cup of fuel and it pulled prime and the heater ran OK. Again I suspected that the pump was weak and that it could overcome the short test hose run, but not pull from the tank. It was not until I tried to put the test fuel back into the tank through the feed line that the real issue appeared. I had drawn the test fuel out of the feed line with a large syringe. When pushing that same fuel back into the tank with the syringe, the short piece of cloth covered rubber hose connecting the feed line to the tank pickup line immediately changed color from faded grey to black before my eyes! Turns out that the few sections of rubber hose used to connect the hard suction tubing were all deteriorated to the point of being porous and thus allowing the pump to suck air. Because they are cloth wrapped, it was not obvious that the rubber underneath was deteriorated from age. A simple replacement of the hose sections and the old pump pulls prime and the heater runs like a champ!


My question for Brian is about the inline filter. As I said above, someone installed a small plastic disposable inline filter between the tank and the pump. I left that out for now mostly because the filter looked old. Should I replace it? If so, what filter do you recommend?


Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.


David
 
Hmmm. Looks like the pix didn't get through. Like I said, technically challenged. Do you have an email address that I can send the photo to?Jim.
 
Brian, you're a saint! Followed your instructions to the letter, and the furnace works better than it ever has. Many thanks for being such a valuable and accessible resource.

Jim.
 
henrytk92 said:
Hi Brian, I understand you are the expert on these heaters and I could use some help. I have an Espar/Airtronic D2 heater in my boat. I seem to be having the opposite issue from most folks, mine won't shut down. I can manually turn the heater on and it cycles and fires up no problem but the temperature settings don't seem to work. I wasn't able to find much information on where the temperature sensor would be so presumed it was in the thermostat/control unit. The local boatyard in Nanaimo thought the same so they replaced the control unit but the issue is still the same. It fires up, heats up but won't turn itself off again. Where is the temperature sensor located? How do I check it for correct operation? Thanks. Henry
Click to expand...


I have the exact same issue, D2 with digi-controler. Unit come on when i press on button but will run non stop even is remperature is set anthe lowest level? Could any one help
 
Has it been like this from day 1? I would suspect that it is not connected correctly. If the red and yellow wire are connected without a sensor connected then the heater will run on full blast. Check all connections between controller and heater y harness. Check that wiring is colour to colour from digi to heater and that there are no loose or corroded connections. If all is connected properly as per schematics of the digi-controller then I would replace the thermostat. Are you near a service dealer? I have never ever seen the heater ecu go wonky and display this symptom. It is always a wiring or thermostat issue. You can find the manual easily at the espar of Michigan website. Much better that the Espar website
 
Brian,

I just started looking at the forum yesterday after buying a vessel with a D 5 L. It will fire up at high fan speed, then reduce to the normal speed, but once it turns off, will not restart no mater what I do with the thermostat, unless do an off and back on. If it is fact like the thermostat, can I get a replacement from you? Or is there a mobile service person that I could contact on the South Surrey area, or would travel?
 
Hello Brian, I am really glad I found this thread. I purchase a bomb squad training box truck about 6 months ago and it came with a Eberspaecher Esslingen (I think referred to as Espar now). The truck is a 2001 and the heater model is a B5L C. I got it fired up and it works very well but it has a very strong burning gasoline smell when it is in use. I called a technician at Espar and they said that should not happen and couldn't really give me any things to trouble shoot. Any ideas? Thanks.

-Ryman
 
To all the posters looking for solutions for their Espar heaters, whatever the vintage may be, I saw something today that may change the way you perceive this issue. I too was searching for a solution for my D5LC, which had been running but now things have changed. After a lengthy phone call with Brian, including suggestions, I decided to take my D5LC on a road trip. What happened after that approaches something between Disneyland and open heart surgery. Watching Brian disassemble, manhandle and diagnose my unit was beyond what I thought was possible. Finally the fault revealed itself and we have a plan. I would highly/strongly/aggressively suggest to any do-it-yourselfer to bite the bullet and ship it, deliver it, get a friend to take it, whatever, you will never be happy until you have the master's touch, I guarantee it. OK, so maybe the Doctor's touch. What I am trying to tell you, is tis guy is the Espar whisperer. No ****. You too will believe it if you see it, like I did. Don't waste your time on the phone, or his, believe me folks, this is the real deal. Greg
 
Unfortunately Greg that is not an option for me. I am on a cross country road trip for 4 weeks and need this thing to work ASAP. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I really deal with diesel mostly, but if it was diesel and it smelled like diesel I would suspect a dirty atomizing screen causing difficult ignition and incomplete burning of thecfuel. This would usually be accompanied by visual smoke out the exhaust. Do the smell dissipate shortly after the initial ignition sequence? It should ignite very quickly and cleanly at the 60 second Mark when the fuel pump starts. Also not a bad idea to check the fuel filter in the suction side of the pump. Remove spigot and shine flashlight into the orifice and look for shiny stainless mesh. If it is dirty it can be pried out from the outside edge of the plastic seating flange. And back flushed. Do not touch the output end of the pump!!!! Also lower voltage could cause the glow plug to not heat up as much making harder starts. Gregs d5lc had 11.7 volts at the heater and starts great. Anything Lower than 11.3 or so may cause problems. This is measured at the pos negative plug on the bottom of the control box. Silver 4" square ecu on the harness. If the relay beside the ecu is clicking on and off then your voltage is probably good as it is cutting high voltage on and off. Measure this voltage when the unit is turned on and glow plug is drawing current.

Is the smell in the hot air delivered or outside from the exhaust?
 
I have an Espar heater. my fuel system consists of a lift pump which feeds a pressure regulator and then to the espar metering pump. My problem is that the lift pump is defunct. I pulled it out to replace it, but there are no legible numbers on it. Do you have any idea what pump or specs of a pump I should replace it with?

I assume it is defunct because it keeps running when the heater is enabled. Could it possibly be the pressure regulator?

There are no detectable fuel leaks.

Thanks, John
 
Hi Brian - D4L 12 volt, no screen model.
Not igniting, white smoke belching everywhere, flooding the plug and the drain pipe and its getting colder at night just to make things easier.
New glow plug and a new spare, 13.2v at connection, fuses arent the issue, getting its fuel, will spin up fuel inside 20 seconds, fan is instant, plug heats and glows but no ignition. Just a ton of white smoke.

The last three times at sea prior to her quitting on me, it would belch white smoke but that would disappear once she would heat and ignite.

Any ideas?

Cheers,


Kyle
 
Hi Brian,

I have a D4L installed on my boat. Was running 100% OK. Now occasionally stops running, 2 or 3 times a day. Reset by turning on/off works OK but of course, don't want to have to do that. How should I proceed.I have spares the PO left on boat, a glow plug and thermal switch.

Art
s/v Kindred Spirits
 
asnacht said:
Hi Brian,

I have a D4L installed on my boat. Was running 100% OK. Now occasionally stops running, 2 or 3 times a day. Reset by turning on/off works OK but of course, don't want to have to do that. How should I proceed.I have spares the PO left on boat, a glow plug and thermal switch.

Art
s/v Kindred Spirits
Click to expand...

Hello art, sorry for the delay. Busy for me at this time of year.

Other than the basic voltage test while glow plug is on, fuel filter check. I would bypass the thermostat-unplug the white 6
pin plag that connects the thermostat to the heater. Make up two jumpers-one goes from brown to grey or mauve-this makes heater run in high- then attach the other one to red and yellow. This will start furnace- if it stays runningthen it is the thermostat
-if it still shuts down then Check the connection of the yellow wire wher it goes into the control box. the glow plug should cut out by about 1 min and 15 seconds, If it dies not cut out until close to three minutes then it may be that the flame sensor is not cutting out the glow plug fast enough and it times out at three minutes. not sure whether it tries to start or is just dead. Sometimes the control box just cuts out on startup-some component that is packing it in. if it is the control box then the furnace goes in the dumpster-at about $700 not worth it
 
Brian silk said:
I really deal with diesel mostly, but if it was diesel and it smelled like diesel I would suspect a dirty atomizing screen causing difficult ignition and incomplete burning of thecfuel. This would usually be accompanied by visual smoke out the exhaust. Do the smell dissipate shortly after the initial ignition sequence? It should ignite very quickly and cleanly at the 60 second Mark when the fuel pump starts. Also not a bad idea to check the fuel filter in the suction side of the pump. Remove spigot and shine flashlight into the orifice and look for shiny stainless mesh. If it is dirty it can be pried out from the outside edge of the plastic seating flange. And back flushed. Do not touch the output end of the pump!!!! Also lower voltage could cause the glow plug to not heat up as much making harder starts. Gregs d5lc had 11.7 volts at the heater and starts great. Anything Lower than 11.3 or so may cause problems. This is measured at the pos negative plug on the bottom of the control box. Silver 4" square ecu on the harness. If the relay beside the ecu is clicking on and off then your voltage is probably good as it is cutting high voltage on and off. Measure this voltage when the unit is turned on and glow plug is drawing current.

Is the smell in the hot air delivered or outside from the exhaust?
Click to expand...


Hello Brian,

The gasoline smell I was smelling while the heater was running has gone away. I guess it just needed to run a few more times to clean itself out. The heater was running great for about a week. Then I drove the camper and brought the gas tank down below 1/4 which is the lowest level the generator/heater can draw gas from the tank so I filled it back up. Then I tried to run the heater and it would start up but it wasn't getting fuel so it would just blow ambient air and then go into a low state after the glow plug timed out. I figured I needed to run the heater a few more times to get fuel to the heater because maybe the fuel settled back down into the tank or something like that. After turning the heater on and off about 5 times for about 4-5 minutes each time the next time I turning it on the fan didn't do it's normal high speed kick on. It seemed to only turn on to like 10-15% of it's normal running speed. It also never would change it would just stay at that speed and it didn't seem like the fuel pump kicked on or anything. To me if seems like a fail safe got triggered. So then I pulled the fuse thinking I would reset it but the same thing happened when I restored power. Then I unplugged all the components and plugged them back in hoping to discharge a capacitor or something but when I tried it again the same thing happened. This was now almost a week ago and I am getting the same result. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

-Ryman
 
Hi Brian,

Thanks for your help before. From looking at the manual it seems like it is in ventilation mode. Does that sound like it might be the issue. How can I get it out of ventilation mode? Thanks.
 
Sorry for the delay. Get a paperclip and jump pins 9 and 11 in the black plug on the bottom of the ecu.. do this with everything plugged in . With jumper in place turn on heater. This unlocks the heater of it locks out. Worth trying.. if that does not do it then it could be a bad or corroded connections in the thermostat plug. If you have wires in sockets 3 and 4 in the thermostat then that should and look make the green led flash a diagnostic code. Long and short dashes repeated every 8 seconds. Yours is and b5lc correct? The led flash is only if you have a "room thermostat" square black with rocker switch and dial with small to large dashes and and terminal strip with 7 terminals. See how that goes. Ifor you try to run a d5lc without the thermostat sensor wires connected it runs on fan only very slow, sounds like yours.
 
Brian silk said:
Sorry for the delay. Get a paperclip and jump pins 9 and 11 in the black plug on the bottom of the ecu.. do this with everything plugged in . With jumper in place turn on heater. This unlocks the heater of it locks out. Worth trying.. if that does not do it then it could be a bad or corroded connections in the thermostat plug. If you have wires in sockets 3 and 4 in the thermostat then that should and look make the green led flash a diagnostic code. Long and short dashes repeated every 8 seconds. Yours is and b5lc correct? The led flash is only if you have a "room thermostat" square black with rocker switch and dial with small to large dashes and and terminal strip with 7 terminals. See how that goes. Ifor you try to run a d5lc without the thermostat sensor wires connected it runs on fan only very slow, sounds like yours.
Click to expand...

Hi Brian,

Thank you very much for that tip. I put a jumper between pin 9 and 11. When I turned it ON nothing happened then with the switch in the ON position I pulled out the jumper and it started right up. Now the issue is the burner will not ignite. Which was my initial problem to begin with before I got locked out. I do have the small square black thermostat with the rocker switch and potentiometer dial. In my manual under the troubleshooting page it says connect a switch between pins 4 and 6 on the 7 terminal PCB on the thermostat to show the green LED diagnostic codes. I connected a switch but the green LED never illuminated. Anyways the fan kicked on to high speed like it usually does and then it started running the fuel pump. I saw fuel go through the line so it definitely has fuel but it never ignited the fuel. I wonder if it is so saturated with fuel it can't ignite? Now I have run the unit 6 or 7 times without the burner igniting. Is there a way to drain the fuel out of the unit? If I pull the gas line off the little gas inlet nipple under the unit will the fuel drain? If it is cold outside (35°F) does the burner have a hard time igniting? I do have a B5LC by the way. Thanks again for all the help.

Cheers,
-Ryman Wiemann
 
OK. Does it show how to change the atomizing screen in the manual? If it does change that... check glow plug for damage to coil.. fuel filter that's about it. 4 and six is the same as 9 and 11
 
OK. Does it show how to change the atomizing screen in the manual? If it does change that... check glow plug for damage to coil.. fuel filter that's about it. 4 and six is the same as 9 and 11
Click to expand...

Brian,

I have the manual and the parts list. I looked through the parts list and did not see an atomizing screen. I did see a part called a plug strainer that looks like a thimble that the glow plug sits in. Is this what you are talking about? Also I might not be able to get new parts for this heater it is 15+ years old. Can that screen be cleaned? Thanks.

-Ryman
 
sorry for the delay. Plug strainer is the atomizing screen. As far as draining the fuel, if your exhaust is going straight out the bottom of the heater it should drain a good portion out, but maybe just remove the glow plug . between the open glow plug and the intake and exhaust, it should evaporate in a coupe of hours at the most. Worst case is it will send flames out the exhaust. My old volkswagen in my teens would blow a 3ft flame out the wheel well after flooding. I like diesel better!. The screen could be cleaned, but it may not come out in one piece, the diesel ones cement themselves in. You can still get the screen as it is the same as the newer models.it is 20 1707 06 01 00
 
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