Smelly heater

[rookeryview]

A good scientific/safe test Jen.
I'll get onto it this week and report back.

 

[Pete M]

Yep mine's more Paraffin, certainly not diesel.

 

[rookeryview]

Thanks Pete,

Looks like we are on the right track and not alone.
Is yours new?
Have you given it a thrashing?
If not, will you?-as described above It looks like it may improve with time, but we need to check this.
We are still looking for a long term history where it was bad and has now gone - anyone?

 

[vmaxkiddy]

It's exactly the same smell that comes from an oil fired central heating boiler. Heating oil is very similar to diesel, as is aviation kerosene hence the paraffin odour.
When I briefly worked for a German airline ( back in the 80's) staff used to put kerosene in their diesel Mercedes to prevent the normal diesel waxing in winter temperatures. You could tell by the exhaust smell in traffic jams who worked for an airline. No need now as modern diesel has a much lower waxing point, depending how much biofuel it has in it. No more than 1/3 of a full tank though in case you want to try it ! Kerosene doesn't have the same lubrication properties as diesel.

 

[rookeryview]

Very interesting.
Do you know how that smell gets into the air in a kitchen or Cali - I thought all combustion gases were sealed out.

 

[snowy55]

When ever it starts up no matter how old the vehicle it will always smell until the combustion chamber gets up to working temperature, after that there is always a smell of burning fuel, remember it's diesel being burnt in a tin can at no where near the efficiency of the vehicle engine and without the DPF etc so will smell different.

 

[rookeryview]

Sure, but doesn't that infer some sort of leak?

 

[snowy55]

If you have the roof is up that is not sealed. Door seals are not 100% airtight. Seal around the sliding window not 100%.

 

[rookeryview]

That is all true of course, but this smell is not diesel exhaust fumes and it comes from the internal blower vent.

 

[GrannyJen]

Let it run overnight in real situation, i.e. roof up, then go and have a cup of tea and a slice of toast with heater still running and ask yourself are you comfortable.

If

 

[WelshGas]

An electric heater can smell the first few times it is used until it has " burnt in " as the dust, paint etc: internally is carbonised and this fades with use. I agree with GrannyJen, give it a blast. These heaters are widely used in HGV's and small vessels. Problems are virtually non-existent in use.

 

[snowy55]

That is all true of course, but this smell is not diesel exhaust fumes and it comes from the internal blower vent.

Please note that the internal blower vents are directly over the exhaust underneath the Cali.

 

[rookeryview]

Thanks for all the useful details. If there's any way that burnt gas and fresh air can mix underneath and in the blower then that's not too clever.....

 

[Hotel California]

Thanks for all the useful details. If there's any way that burnt gas and fresh air can mix underneath and in the blower then that's not too clever.....

The external heater uses only air from in the verhicle , the intake is beside the right front seat.
The air goes thru the heater underneeth the verhicle and blown back in the the vent at the bottem of the b- pilar to the right near the sliding door.
If the heater should take air from underneeth the verhicle , there is something wrong , if you are not sure , have it checked by a professional!


As many stated here , it always smels a bit special in the early stages of the start up proces .
From new probaly a bit more .
Every time the heater turns on , you notice a smell if your outside the verhicle , the thing is to ventilate the verhicle in a way the wind does not blows the smell inside.
Then there is the engine pre- engineheater witch causes the same problem...

 

[daveyboydanger]

Regarding the exhaust smoke that occurs sometimes on start up I had a fun experience whilst eating my lunch in an Asda car park. I got the police knocking on the van! They were checking I was ok as they saw a parked van with exhaust smoke, they wondered whether I'd decided to end it all!

 

[Velma's Dad]

What is that smell then? And more to the point, is it dangerous?, because it certainly smells like it could be, in an enclosed space all night.

Without a shred of actual technical insight, I had assumed that the diesel oily smell is simply that the heater vapourises, rather than burns, a small fraction of the fuel before the whole unit gets properly hot and burns clean.

The health risks of that? Well I've always worked on the principle that everything is a poison, it just depends on the dose. We're exposed to the smell of diesel oil every time we fill up our Cali and cars, and it hasn't killed us yet.

 

[WelshGas]

Without a shred of actual technical insight, I had assumed that the diesel oily smell is simply that the heater vapourises, rather than burns, a small fraction of the fuel before the whole unit gets properly hot and burns clean.

The health risks of that? Well I've always worked on the principle that everything is a poison, it just depends on the dose. We're exposed to the smell of diesel oil every time we fill up our Cali and cars, and it hasn't killed us yet.

A full blown Diesel engine produces way less Carbon Monoxide than the equivalent Petrol Engine and the Diesel Parking Heater produces so little that you need very sophisticated equipment to detect any. The small people detect is unburnt diesel at the start of the ignition sequence which will disappear once the heater is upto temperature. It is no more dangerous than the fumes given off when refuelling. In California, USA, ALL the Petrol pumps are fitted with Vapour extraction systems that seal the tank outlet when refuelling but NOT the Diesel pumps.