Diesel heater suggestion

[Nevwild]

Don't think Vevor actually makes anything. They just brand and market lots of generic Chinese stuff. Some of it is decent and some sucks ass. I've had a couple that were decent. My policy is to buy two whole units. If one has problems I swap them and fix the problem one whenever I get around to it.

Also, marketing them as 8kw is bullshit. These are clones of well made German machines that were either 2kw (which are physically smaller) or 5kw. Actually pushing them to 8kw would be far exceeding the design parameters of the much higher quality German machines that they are copies of. My suspicion is that the 8kw claim is just an outright lie.

Your suspicion is correct based off of my understanding. With that said I got a 8kw Hcalory and I have zero complaints.

 

[fishnhunt404]

+1 on the Hcalory line. I’ve been very pleased with mine.

hjow do you have it hooked up? im currently trying to make a diesel heater setup. ive seen people use the expensive power stations but im thinking of some type of battery with a cheaper solar panel for charging it during the day.

 

[fishnhunt404]

The engineering on these is well established to the point to where the patents have expired, and Chinese factories are able to build to the original German specifications for pennies on the dollar. This is why you’re able to get such a good deal with something like Vevor or Hcalory. At this point, I don’t see any value in getting a system that is more expensive than $200 or $300. Unless of course, you wanna get one of those fancy gasoline heaters instead of a diesel heater. With that said, this design was originally set up to work with diesel, and the gasoline variants tend to be less reliable, especially at elevation.

I have rabbit holed on this pretty far, built out a van that uses one, and run maintenance on it as need be. I depend on it for warmth in my van at least 20 to 40 nights a year both skiing and hunting. I wouldn’t get anything more expensive than an Hcalory as I’m not convinced that I would get any extra value from anything more expensive.

how would one make a cheap setup i. e diesel heater , battery and potentially a solar panel with alligator clips to charge the battery during the day.?

 

[Titan]

You can definitely just go straight to a 12v battery (lithium is much easier to lug around). And you can charge with solar without issue.

The worst thing you can do is go straight to some 120v source that can be immediately shut down, like a generator. If the generator runs out of gas and the heater looses power it can cause damage. Having a battery helps avoid that.