HELP with Espar heaters

Thanks! The pro 2000 is the programmable. One. There should be a version that is either heat only, or heat and cool. I will try and get you the exact part #. You will use the red + in, and the white switch return to yellow wire in thermostat plug. In order to completely replace the espar thermostat you must solder two resistors in the thermostat plug. They send a run on high reading to the ECU. The new thermostat then just connects red to yellow. I will have to look the resistors up and send you a schematic scan. If the want to still have the option of h/l operation, you can use both thermostats. You simply interrupt the red wire feeding the espar thermostat by going first to the red terminal on the pro 2000 and then output from the white socket to the red-terminal 5 on the Espar thermostat. If the espar thermostat is turned up to high, then the pro will then just interrupt the power supply to the espar thermostat. So it will run in high/ off that way. If you want multi heat mode, you simply turn the pro all the way up and adjust the temp with the espar thermostat. One thermostat must always be full in or they will battle one another. Send me an email to [email protected] and I will send you the resistor schematics pro 2000 is TH2110D1009

Brian:
I have a four or five year old Espar diesel heater on my 35' sailboat. Not sure what model it is. It has worked fine until our last trip. The first day it worked fine, but the next day when I tried to use it the 15 amp breaker on my dc panel kept tripping about 10 seconds after the fan came on. What would cause this overlaoading??





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Usually it would be a car honed up glow plug, but you must have a D4A. Never seen one do that. Only the old electrical element type plugs, which the D4A does,not have. Check all battery, breaker connections, and do a voltage check before and after turning on the heater. The ecu usually would shut the heater down if something on the heater itself was bad. If it is a blue sea push button type, they sometimes get weak and go for no reason. Let me know

Brian silk said:

Usually it would be a car honed up glow plug, but you must have a D4A. Never seen one do that. Only the old electrical element type plugs, which the D4A does,not have. Check all battery, breaker connections, and do a voltage check before and after turning on the heater. The ecu usually would shut the heater down if something on the heater itself was bad. If it is a blue sea push button type, they sometimes get weak and go for no reason. Let me know

Click to expand...

Brian:
Thanks for the reply. I have since checked the model and it is a D3L I think. I believe the problem is that, according to the manual, it uses up to 270 watts of power on startup, which means I am right at the limit, if not over the limit, of the 15 amp breaker on my main DC panel. If my batteries were at all low on voltage, as they were after being at anchor for a few hours and powering the lights etc., then the amperage load will trip the breaker. I note that the internal breaker is rated at 25 amps and I will look at changing the breaker on my panel to 20 or 25 amps, assuming the wire gauge from the panel to the heater is sufficient. Does this explanation make sense?

Yes. A d3l must have a 25 a breaker. I'm sure that is it. Sorry I assumed it was a newer heater which would be a 15 amp.

Hello Brian,
May I ask you about a D3L Espar installed on a sailboat with a 12 V DC system? It was not used for several years. This fall the “blower only” setting worked, but nothing happened when the switch was set to “heat.” The glow plug was good (but was replaced); the controller fuse good, the main power harness gave 12V. Three wires led to the thermostat: a light brown, a green and a black (grounded). Neither green nor light brown were energized. Applying 12V (+) to the green did nothing, no matter what the thermostat setting; 12V to light brown started the heater. I traced the green and brown to floating ends behind the main circuit panel, with which each was continuous, respectively. The main D3L switch exhibited an empty terminal; that terminal was energized when the switch was turned to ‘Heat.” I crimped a spade terminal to the floating green end and connected it to the formerly empty switch terminal. Jumping green to light brown (around the old thermostat) now started the heater. According to an old suggestion that you had made, I bought a Honeywell Pro 1000 thermostat and connected it temporarily around the old thermostat. The heater was now controlled by the new thermostat. I removed the old thermostat, disconnected and taped the black wire, and connected the green and light brown wires to the “R” and “W” terminals of the new thermostat. Result: the heater failed to start. Rechecked glow plug (still good), controller fuse (still good) and power to the heater’s power harness (12V). Thermostat set to 90o F still energizes the light brown wire. I traced the light brown wire from thermostat to (still!) floating end and found continuity, no branches and no interruptions. (One main switch terminal bears a violet wire and exhibits 4V, if the heater switch is off, and 5 V if it is on.)
Questions: 1) Why did the heater stop working when I replaced the old thermostat with the new? All I really did that was new was to disconnect the black, ground wire from the old thermostat. But there is no terminal for ground in the Pro 1000. 2) How could the heater be controlled by the light brown wire if it doesn’t connect the thermostat with anything? I looked very carefully for a branch along the entire length of the light brown and found none.
Eric

Try unplugging the thermostat plug at the heater.Large white plug. Make up two jumpers with female ends. Connect one to the black wire and connect it to the black with white stripe. Now connect. The red to yellow. It should start now.to shut off. Disconnect the second jumped. Leave the first in place until the heater finishes it's cooldown.if this works,it means that the switch is not closing contact between the. Black and black with white stripe. If this does not work, then there is a pdoble
With the heater.

Hi Brain,
I have an Aritronic L D5 and it seems to be locked. Installed is the Mini Controler.
Is there any possiblity to unlock the unit by the Mini Controler. If not how can I make it? What do I need? I´m really in troubl with this problem.
Thank you in advance.
Kindest regards
Rainer

You can jump between pins 9 and 11 if the silver aluminum control box,on the black plug, and then turn on the heater at the mini. That will unlock it. Pin sockets are mapped out on the side of the ecu and plug sockets ‎

Best Regards
Brian Silk
Avalon Bay Marine
1806 Boatlift Lane
Vancouver BC
V6H 3Y2
604-312-9566
avalonbaymarine.com


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Hi Brain,
I have an Aritronic L B5 and it seems to be locked. Installed is the Mini Controler.
Is there any possiblity to unlock the unit by the Mini Controler. If not how can I make it? What do I need? I´m really in troubl with this problem.
Thank you in advance.
Kindest regards
Rainer
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Hi Brain,
thank you for your quick reply. Unfortunately there is no cable on 9 or 11 on that plug. Look at the circuit print from the plug connections.
Thank you so much for your help.
Regards
Rainer

Hello I have a d2 with the digi controller and I can't get it to work as a thermostat, I can get it to come on and go off and everything but it won't cycle on it's own with the temperature setting I'm not 100% sure it's wired correctly either I was a little unsure with the information I found on the internet there seemed to be some conflicting answers

I'm sorry I read right over airtronic. I was thinking d5lc. Sorry for any hassle that caused. The only way to do it is with a digi-controller. Or one of the newer fancy ones. Their model #s escape me. Or a dealer with diagnostic tools. Thanks engineers!

Hi Brain,
Thank you for your help. It was great to have someone like you.
To solve my problem I ordered the controler with display to reset the unit. Hopefully it works.
Thanks again
Rainer

Brian silk said:

Try unplugging the thermostat plug at the heater.Large white plug. Make up two jumpers with female ends. Connect one to the black wire and connect it to the black with white stripe. Now connect. The red to yellow. It should start now.to shut off. Disconnect the second jumped. Leave the first in place until the heater finishes it's cooldown.if this works,it means that the switch is not closing contact between the. Black and black with white stripe. If this does not work, then there is a pdoble
With the heater.

Click to expand...

Brian,
Is the d3l one of the Espars that needs resetting, like, "5 strikes and you're out?" When I was working with it, sometimes it would begin to come on (the blower would start) and I would turn it off again because I had my answer and didn't want to wait for its full starting cycle. But it occurs to me that the control unit might have considered these interruptions to have been starting attempts. For the sake of all the participants in the forum perhaps I should ask, "Would you please list the Espar models that require resetting?"
Thank you very much for all your help,
Eric

The D3l(PN 25 1640) that has three plugs in to the bottom of the ecu does not lock out. - The D3l(PN 25 1738) that has two plugs in the bottom of the ecu does lock out. But can be unlocked like the models decribed further on. All models after this that end in "LC" also lock out, but can be unlocked by jumping pins 9 and 11 in the black ECU plug and then turning the unit on- this will also bring up the hidden diagnostic codes displayed by the Green LED if there is an existing fault condition other than overheat, too many overheats, safety time exceeded, or too many failed start attemps. All models after this have internal control units - they are models that end in LC Compact- they lock out also, but need special controls or fault tetrieval devices to unlock them, as do the newest models-The Airtronic 2, 4, and 5.

As for Hydronics. Anything with "Hydronic in the name will "lock out" after 5 failed start sequences, or overheats. The D9W hydronic can be unlocked by jumping positive to the pump run terminal (socket C4 in round plug) for a second or two, same for the D10W up to model 25 2081, after that the Hydronic m models need a special control, timer or fault device. They have a square harness plug. Any of the new MII hydronics 8,10, or 12 arethe same. Any of the Hydronic 16-35 models need special controls as well. Hpe that helps- a bit confusing I realize.

As far a s the smaller Hydronics go - the D4W Hydronic, and D5W Hydronic lock out as well- they both need to be unlocked with special control or fault device.

Brian silk said:

The D3l(PN 25 1640) that has three plugs in to the bottom of the ecu does not lock out. - The D3l(PN 25 1738) that has two plugs in the bottom of the ecu does lock out. But can be unlocked like the models decribed further on. All models after this that end in "LC" also lock out, but can be unlocked by jumping pins 9 and 11 in the black ECU plug and then turning the unit on- this will also bring up the hidden diagnostic codes displayed by the Green LED if there is an existing fault condition other than overheat, too many overheats, safety time exceeded, or too many failed start attemps. All models after this have internal control units - they are models that end in LC Compact- they lock out also, but need special controls or fault tetrieval devices to unlock them, as do the newest models-The Airtronic 2, 4, and 5.

As for Hydronics. Anything with "Hydronic in the name will "lock out" after 5 failed start sequences, or overheats. The D9W hydronic can be unlocked by jumping positive to the pump run terminal (socket C4 in round plug) for a second or two, same for the D10W up to model 25 2081, after that the Hydronic m models need a special control, timer or fault device. They have a square harness plug. Any of the new MII hydronics 8,10, or 12 arethe same. Any of the Hydronic 16-35 models need special controls as well. Hpe that helps- a bit confusing I realize.

As far as the smaller Hydronics go - the D4W Hydronic, and D5W Hydronic lock out as well- they both need to be unlocked with special control or fault device.

Click to expand...

(Reference my Oct 6, 2014 post regarding the d3l, also) Brian, your message was very careful and very helpful. Although the manual that came with my boat describes the 1738, the ECU has three plugs in the bottom, so the heater is the 1640 (not resettable). My problem turned out the be a bad thermostat that also had been miswired. What looked like the outgoing signal wire led nowhere and was without function; what looked like the ground wire was the outgoing signal. This became clear when I traced the yellow wire back from the heater. When I connected the yellow wire to the white terminal of the Pro 1000, the heater started. I will rewire the thermostat with red and white wires in order to prevent such confusion in the future.
Eric

Jacobson said:

(Reference my Oct 6, 2014 post regarding the d3l, also) Brian, your message was very careful and very helpful. Although the manual that came with my boat describes the 1738, the ECU has three plugs in the bottom, so the heater is the 1640 (not resettable). My problem turned out the be a bad thermostat that also had been miswired. What looked like the outgoing signal wire led nowhere and was without function; what looked like the ground wire was the outgoing signal. This became clear when I traced the yellow wire back from the heater. When I connected the yellow wire to the white terminal of the Pro 1000, the heater started. I will rewire the thermostat with red and white wires in order to prevent such confusion in the future.
Eric

Click to expand...

Ooops! I mean with red and yellow. E.

Brian,

Thank you for your participation in this forum, and sharing your valuable experience. I just bought a boat with a D12L that was overhauled in 2003 with a new Ignition Spark generator, glow plug, burner bearing, and fuel screen, and over heat switch. The previous owner said it worked for a few months and quit again. Could you offer some suggestions on how to begin to trouble shoot this after sitting for 10 years?

Thanks,
-DC

Hi Brian,
I hope you can help with this problem as it appears to be a simple one. We have a D7W hydronic system on our 41 foot sailboat. The boiler is working fine, but one of the two heat exchangers has an issue. Each heater has a control switch, a rocker type switch. When I flip the switch to either High or Low, the fan comes on for a few seconds and then quits. Switch to "High" the fan runs high for a few seconds, switch to "Low" it runs low for a few seconds.
Is the switch defective or maybe wired improperly? I've tried changing the wire positions on the switch terminals and even bypassing the switch entirely, no go.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Tim

Hello, and thanks for the soft fuzzies.

First of all, does it do anything when turned on? If it does then the glow plug should go on right away, and then the fuel pump at 16 seconds. It shoul;d then light slowly and smoke for about 20 seconds and then have a stable flame and combustion sound. The glow plug should cut out at 1:15 seconds. If the glow plug comes on, but no fuel pump, check the overheat breaker by the glow plug-rubber boot with button underneath. If it does not click, then it is not popped. check wityh a test light on the fuel pump power leads after 16 seconds- the light should flash. If it does and the fuel pump does not pump, then hit the pump soundly with a screwdriver handle- it is a solenoid and may be stuck with gummy fuel. If the heater turns on and just runs the fan, then the flame sensor may be done. Let me know what happens when you turn it on

Easy peasey- the computer fan pc board is gone- just replace the fan. The symptoms are exactly right for a bad pc bd. About 65 buck here in Vancouver

Thanks Brian, if I can't find a fan here in Seattle I'll get back to you via Avalon.
Ti

Brian,
I tried to start the D12L. It seems everything works, Fan, fuel pump, but the Glow Spark Plug is burned out...(no continuity or glow) Can you offer assistance getting a replacement or two?
PN: 25-1431-01-0003

Thanks,
-DC

I dont know where you are, but you can go to the Espar.com website and hit the dealers tab. I can still get them from Espar in Toronto, so should not be a problem to get one from any dealer listed. But the bigger dealers would be a better bet. Marine or truck dealer.

Thanks Brian,

I dug around the boat, and the previous owner had a spare. I got the unit started, it puts out a tremendous amount of heat. It took 45 degree (7C) and heated it up to 190F (87C). The problem is the duct work in the boat is too restrictive, and the unit shut down on over heat I think. After it cooled, I reset it, and removed the ducting to see if it will run again... but now it trips the breaker as soon as it tries to start the fuel pump. The pump is fine... the unit starts, preheats, then pops the breaker. any ideas what might make it pop the breaker?

The overheat breaker (.4amp) is on top of the heater beside the glow plug. Is that the one that is popping? If it is and with no ducting attached then the breaker has gone weak, or there is a dust bunny on the overheat sensor, blocking airflow over the sensor. Remove the square box on the hot end, held on by a knurled nut, and remove the overheat sensor-two phillips screws to remove the retaining cover. check on and around wher the sensor sits. there is an inner shell where dust can build up. If it is clean hang the sensor outside the case and start the heater. If the breaker still pops, then it is the breaker itself. The sensor should be an open circuit between the two sides. In 18 years of servicing Espars, I have replaced only one sensor , but many, many overheat breakers. I have never seen the breaker pop just as the pump starts, but always a first. The overheat breaker is still available, at least Espar Canada on Toronto has a bunch of them. If you remove the breaker make sure you make note of wich wire goes where, as I could not tell you. Send me an email to [email protected] I can send you a pdf manual that includes a really good troubleshooting flowchart.

If the other breaker is popping (on the faceplate-25 amp), then it is being overloaded, is weak, or has loose connections on the back causing heat buildup due to high resistance. Or, the glow plug is staying on for way more than it needs to be. It should cut out at about 1 min. 15sec.

I got the unit running again, the .4 amp breaker was tripped, which in turn made the 25A breaker trip. Once I reset the overheat breaker, then the unit would start again, but the main breaker has been exercised too many times and now it trips halfway through the start up. I jumped it out for a test and the unit ran fine. I’d like to replace both of these, I think they are too sensitive.

I have a couple more questions if you don’t mind…

1.) The manual talks about a full and half heat setting. My unit has an updated airtronic Thermostat (the one with the on/off rocker and red/green LED, rotary temp.)
This thermostat doesn't seem to support half heat as it is only three wire. Could I install another switch to toggle between half and full heat? If yes, what wires get connected or lifted?

2.) I got the unit running on the bench, and it seems to run fine. How important is the flexible intake hose to be in place? Mine got crushed…
3.) The duct work seems to be too restrictive in the boat, causing the unit to overheat. In fact the duct work stated smoking it was so hot. The manual shows an optional temp reducer, is this still available?
The main duct leaving the unit is at least 5-6” round and then branches off multiple times. The inlet is pretty short, 4-5 feet 3” up sized to 4”
4.) Is it acceptable to have the exhaust take a square 90° turn into the stack pipe? Although it has been this way for a while, this seems restrictive to me.

I’m trying to determine what is different, the heater has been running in the boat since the early 90’s, and recently it is acting up.

-DC

Hello Brian, I just signed up for this forum and I'm hoping you can help me. I have a D8LC installed on a 2004 Beneteau 50 I recently purchased & I believe the Espar was installed new in 2004 or 2005.

When I first turned it on there was no power at the rocker/dial thermostat & I located the disconnected 12v power source near the heater... and all worked perfectly.
I left it on for several hours and was all fine before I departed but the next day although the (red/green) lights were still on at the thermostat there was no sign of life in the heater.
I have absolutely no idea what happened while I was away and I'm hoping it could be something simple being that was working perfectly for quite some time.
cording to Espar tech support you can jump the yellow and red wire on the heater near the control unit to reset it.
But was also speaking to a service center in Rhode Island and they said don't do it !
i'm in northern New Jersey and I'm not aware of any nearby authorized dealers/service centers.

Would appreciate any advice you can throw my way.

(FYI.... This heater was installed in 04/05 but do not believe it saw any service after that first year at all until I purchased it. Boat had spent 90% of its life in the Caribbean. When the heater was laid up was sprayed with anti-rust and disconnected at the power source.) That was essentially how I found it several weeks ago. I ran it for several hours until a burned off all that spray... smoked quite a bit from it's shell but not at all from the exhaust.


Marc

Good day. Red. To yellow is just the start connection, not the unlock. It locks out due to 5 failed starts, or 5 overheats. Take off the thermostat cover. Left side. Twist key in slot on bottom of thermostat. If there are wires in terminal 4 and 6, then you jump between those two terminals and then turn on the heater. This will unlock it. If there is a different problem, this may bring up a flash code on the green light. If you get a flash code email me and i will send you the flash code sheet. If nothing happens, then check the glow plug under the square covet in top of heater. Remove white and brown wires and check for continuity between the threaded stud, and the flat disc. If open circuit then glow plug is problem. The only other thing you can check is wiring connections and voltage at the heater. If voltage is below 10.5 it will just be dead. Loose connection would be the major cause.

If the thermostat only has three wires. In it then it us modified to run on high only and you will have to unlock it at the ECU BOX in the square box on top of the heater. You need to unclipped the box - pry tongue on top. Now on big plug on bottom jump 9 and 11 sockets( yellow wire to black w/ white stripe. If you do not get a flash code, or it is still dead, then it needs to go to a dealer.
Jumping red to yellow would only mimic the thermostat turning on the heater if it was a three wire thermostat. This would only troubleshoot a bad three wire thermostat.

Hello again Brian... thank you so much for responding.
I'm having a lot of difficulty trying to figure out how the silver ECM comes out. (Or as you say un-clips)
I have the cover off found one screw on the side of the box towards the glow plug but cannot see another screw on the opposite side. I have extremely limited visibility because of its installation method. I have a feeling there may be something behind a relay that is there.
i'm going to try to attach photos please have a look and tell me what you think.