espar heater question

The ones I have used, you use the up and down buttons to set the temp that it maintains. After that, as long as it's on, it automatically starts and stops as needed. There should be a button to turn it off and on though, as you don't need it when the truck is running. If there's no on/off it may be some kind that is set up to stop as soon as the truck is running. I know some APUs have that feature, and will automatically stop as soon as the truck ignition is turned to on.

Actually, now that I think of it more, the wavy lines button is prolly the off/on. Try setting a temp really high with the up/down buttons and see if it kicks on. If not, hit the wavy lines button and see if it kicks on then. If it still doesn't, see if at least the fans work.

 

No on/off button on the small controller with just the dial. Just turn it up, If the trucks has been running with the heat on it might be to warm in the bunk for the heater to kick on. It does take a few minutes for it to cycle on. If it doesnt come on after a little while and it is cold in the bunk, lift hte bed and look for a fuse some place in the harness or check to make sure that the positive and negative from the harness are hooked to the batery. It can be left on with the truck running , wont hurt it.

 

some of the new ones are wiried in to key in acc. only that is how my 08 pete is set up so only works when key turned to acc. when turned to run won't start

 

I have the same one in my truck and its the wind looking button. It should glow red when pressed and the up and down buttons adjust the temp

 

there is no sticker on the cabinet bunk side near where the drivers head would be?

It does take a few minutes for the heat to really kick in. Once you do turn it on though you should be able to feel some kind of air from its vent.

 

Driver, you said it's a new unit? Read the Manual!

 

I have a cascadia with parksmart system which has an auxillary bunk heater.There are 2 round control knobs.The left ones controls the fan and the right one controls the heat.The right knob has a button in the middle that you push in to start the heater when truck is shut off.

 

It sounds like you have a D4 unit. Cascadia's have the Airtronic D2 or D4 or the Hydronic E5 which keeps the engine coolant warm too. The Airtronic mounts under the bunk and the Hydronic mounts under the cab. They even make D4 models that work in conjunction with a Tripac if you have that APU. My last truck had that model.

The wind looking button which is heat rising is the on/off button. You press it and the same symbol should show up on the screen verifying the unit is on. These heaters have an igniter glow plug. The diesel has to fire and the unit warms up about 5 minutes before the fan will even kick on so you don't notice it other than the wind looking icon on the screen. Shut down is just the opposite. The fan will continue to blow until the unit cools down.

Up/Down arrows adjusts the temperature. The fan icon is the blower speed.

They have about 30 different different heater unit models depending on what truck you have. They make 5 different control units/thermostats depending on what model you have.

One is a plain ol' dial
One has a rocker switch and a dial
One has 3 buttons, a dial, a red and green LED
One has 4 buttons and a little screen like you describe
Then there is the one with the 7-day timer which is 5 buttons and a screen.

I've had them all!

You can go to espar.com and they have instructions how to use each unit. Like DotY said you probably have the operators manual in the glovebox.

 

Mine had the on/off button and a led read out with up/down button. Turn the truck off, hit the on/off, set the temp and off it go's. Worked like a charm and I always wondered why every company did not have them in their trucks. btw: I think it also had a low battery cutoff built in.

 

I don't recall ever once being in a truck with an Espar that worked consistently the way you'd think it's supposed to work, whereas I've been in several trucks that had APU's that did exactly what they were supposed to do, consistently for months on end. So I'm naturally way in favor of a good APU over these Espar pieces of junk.

The most common Espar problem I've had is the thing doesn't come on when the outside temp gets below a certain level. I had one that didn't come on if it was below 50 outside! Drivers were telling me my fuel was getting too viscous for the unit to operate, so I needed to put in some fuel additive. Ha! Additive when it's 45 outside?!

So here's my latest Espar glitch. The unit turns on fine every time and it does an admirable job of quickly heating the cab (without giving anyone outside the impression I'm running a wood stove in here), but... it turns off after like, maybe 45 minutes to an hour, then, even though I've got it set to the max heat, it doesn't come back on - even after the cab starts getting real cold again.

I run the western 7 and it's just early October right now, so no big deal. But come December when that thing stops after an hour, I don't plan to be waking up shivering and restarting it manually all night. Nope, if it's below 30 I'll run the big heater instead!