My $600 cabin heater turned out to be a beast in the cold

Bought a diesel heater for my off grid place near Talkeetna last fall. First night hit 20 below and it kept the place at 65 without a hitch. I ran it for 5 nights straight on one tank of fuel, maybe 40 bucks worth. But the install took me two full afternoons because the exhaust routing was way trickier than the video showed. Anyone else ever deal with a heater that works great but stinks like diesel when the wind blows a certain way?

2 comments

2 Comments

henrygrant4d ago

That smell is something else, isnt it. I've got a similar setup and the first time the wind shifted I thought something was on fire. Spent a whole afternoon checking every fitting and gasket, convinced I had a leak somewhere. Turned out it was just the exhaust blowing back across the intake for like ten minutes until the breeze died. Now I've got a piece of plywood rigged up as a wind break, works fine but looks like a junk sculpture. And yeah, the install time, the video makes it look like a thirty minute job but I was laying on my back with a socket wrench for hours. Still, that thing at 20 below, you can't beat it.

charles_chen933d ago

Man that wind shift gets everyone. I ended up extending my exhaust pipe another two feet and angling it downwind of the intake, fixed the smell completely. Also wrapped the exhaust pipe in that fiberglass tape from the auto parts store, cuts down on the heat radiating back into the diesel line if the routing is close. Saves you from looking at a plywood contraption every time you pull up.