Fix or Replace?

 

This is a question that many of us face from time to time, and the answer is often not very straightforward.  It depends on a number of factors: can it be fixed; what’s the cost of repair versus replacement; can we live on with the fault.  We have just been through this decision making process with our Eberspacher diesel boat heater.  Why do things break down when you need them most?

 

The last couple of weeks have been cold and damp and waking up in the morning with ice on the INSIDE of the cabin windows is no fun.  Readers will be aware that we are trying to live as ‘green’ as possible, so we already faced the dilemma of whether to use our diesel heater for short periods to take the chill out of the boat.  In the scheme of things the environmental impact of our heater is fairly insignificant.  We keep the usage down to a minimum and put extra jumpers on to keep warm.  However, the heater started to run rough and was making a dull thumping sound.  Some research on the internet suggested that, at the very least, a service was needed, but there could be other problems lurking in there.

 

The heater we have fitted is an Eberspacher D5 Airtronic unit.  It retails at around £2500 - £3000, which is a significant amount of money.  Even some of the spare parts can set you back around £500 a shot.  A service kit alone costs about £80-£90.  Then I got chatting with someone along the pontoon and he had just replaced his old Eberspacher unit with a Chinese copy and he suggested I should do the same.  When I looked at the price of the copy version I realised that you could get a complete system for less than 10% of the genuine Eberspacher unit.

 

So here’s the dilemma.  Fix or replace?  Firstly, there is clearly some reason why the Chinese one is so cheap.  I believe that you often get what you pay for.  The quality of the copy heaters is nowhere near as good as the genuine article.  They also do not have a long-standing history of reliability.  Remember, these heaters are burning diesel fuel under controlled conditions.  But what happens if the controls don’t work?  I would not be happy risking a fire aboard.  Okay, so the Eberspacher one may not be ten times better, but it is certainly much better.  I also think they will last much longer in the marine environment than a cheap import.  Secondly, under what working conditions has the Chinese one been manufactured?  If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.  Finally, although our heater was installed about ten years ago it has hardly been used much and looked, at least from the outside, to be in good condition.  So with these considerations in mind I decided to try and fix our heater and ordered a service kit.

 

Thankfully removing our heater was fairly easy.  It is located in the engine room with plenty of space around it, so disconnecting the pipes, hoses and wiring was straightforward.  Nothing broke!

 

I then removed the glow plug and looked at the condition of the glow plug screen.  It was completely blocked up with carbon deposits and was stuck inside the casing.  Some persuasion with long-nosed pliers and screwdrivers was needed to remove the old screen.  The photographs below show the extent to which the screen was blocked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having removed the screen I then dismantled the unit as far as I could in order to remove as much carbon build-up as I could.  The extent to which this model of heater can be dismantled is limited.  You cannot open the combustion chamber which is disappointing so I hope I have cleaned it sufficiently for it to work.

 

Once I had cleaned it as much as I could it was then reassembled and reconnected.  So far so good.  The heater fired up and ran happily for about 30 minutes, so fingers crossed it will work fine in the morning if it’s needed.