Bunk heaters

I was having some trouble with my Espar not lighting or turning off a lot. I took the guys suggestion (earlier in this thread if I'm not mistaken) that said turn it all the way up and let it run awhile to burn off the carbon. Now it works great. I turn it all the way up sometimes when I go take a shower. That was great advice.

 

I do that part for sure. So far it's been enough. I do it when I've been home for a few days and it's cold as Alaska in my truck. Fire it up for an hour and everything in there is all toasty.

 

I've always wondered why they don't filter the intake air on bunk heaters. They always get dirty and fouled sensors from dust and lint even when they are installed under the bunk.
It seems like making a small enclosure with a cheap furnace filter to filter the intake air would help alot.

 

The cheap China one I bought (not for my truck, for a camper project) came with one. It's not much but is a little inline plastic muffler looking thing with some filter media in it. It pops apart so you can change it out.

 

at least for me they have always needed to be serviced before dust build up was a big issue.

 

Just to clarify, your tragic fire had absolutely nothing to do with a bunk heater, Chinese or otherwise?

 

Why would you buy Chinese crap? Avoid them for the fact they’re communist. For the fact they harvest human organs. Avoid them for what they’ve done to Hong Kong. Avoid them for their censorship and social credit score. Avoid them for their crack down on christians. On and on. Don’t support that BS.

And the old you get what you pay for is true. Watch any YouTube video comparing an Espar and a Chinese knockoff. The espar is far superior from the wiring, to shielding, to the metal used. There is no comparison. If your some millennial camper van idiot buy the Chinese one. If you’re a professional who cares about anything buy the Espar. Not to mention all the videos from guys who tried a Chinese POS first only to buy a real heater later on.

If you can’t tell I am partial to Epsar!

 

A few thoughts on the Espar from experience

I would suggest if you want minimal maintenance, skip over the Espar D2 and spend a few dollars more on the D4. It's the larger unit and sips fuel while working minimally to easily heat any size sleeper. I put one in a 68" sleeper in a Western Star 4900 with window curtains in 2014. By the time I hit a Moose and wrote off the truck in Nov 2020 I had never changed the fuel screen or run kerosene through it to burn out the deposits. You will find occasions where it works so minimally that it will just shut off. Or seemingly. Sometimes I'd shut it off and re-start but I also found if I left it long enough it would fire up again by itself.

I've had a D2 that wound routinely begin to white smoke and fail with error codes. I used to take a camper plastic quart jug of kerosene and run a fuel line into it from the pump. After a few attempts the D2 would fire up. The kerosene burns hotter and gets rid of the deposits that are causing the errors in the controller, the white smoke and the failures. I found, however, that the intense heat would melt the fuel screen. Essentially welding it to the inside of the casing by the feed. I had one in this state when I sold a truck and had extreme difficulty trouble removing it and when I finally did get it replaced, the unit never worked again.

Also, I wound avoid the little dial controller. The next option up is the LCD screen and you can get error codes from it. After that is the LCD with timer and it's really the easiest to work with but quite expensive. The mid level controller will provide you with information essential to understanding what's happening with your Espar.

 

Correct, but, trucks burn all the time, for lots of reasons. And my point.... they burn FAST. so why risk it?