5 Reasons Why We Chose the Chinese Diesel Heater
Staying warm is a key component to living comfortably in a van in the winter. Originally, we installed a Webasto AT 2000 STC, thinking it would be a reliable option with the added simplicity that it burns gasoline from our vehicle’s fuel tank. We were less than thrilled with this heater. The first winter traveling in the van we had lots of issues with this heater not running reliably due to being above 5000ft elevation for extended periods of time. We go into more detail in our Webasto Gas Heater Review Post.
After last winter, we decided to add a secondary heater that is more reliable. Our intention is that we will use it while at high elevations where the Webasto performs poorly. Then we will also have a backup heater so if one stops working we have another to keep the van warm.
The secondary heater we decided to go with is a diesel heater that is very similar to the Webasto but MUCH cheaper. These diesel heaters are available in several different configurations on Amazon and are commonly referred to as Chinese Diesel Heaters (CDH for short) as they are mostly manufactured in China and sold on Amazon. In this post, we cover the 5 key reasons we chose this heater.
The heater comes as a “ready to go” kit complete with a 10L (2.6 gallon) tank. While you can use the kit as is, we did make some modifications. We got feedback from friends and on forums that the 10L tank typically lasts 2-3 days in sub-freezing temperatures. We didn’t want to worry about getting fuel that often so we opted to install a 19L (5 gallon) tank instead. This did add considerable complication and cost to the installation but we’re happy with how it worked out. If you want to add a larger tank too check out this downloadable spreadsheet with a list of all the components we used.
1. Cost and availability
The Chinese diesel heaters are very cheap compared to the Espar, or Webasto alternatives, about $150 vs $1500. When we purchased the Webasto we felt that we were paying more for a superior product but unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In our research, the Chinese diesel heaters have pretty solid reviews on Amazon. The most common complaint is the lack of installation instructions and a poorly written user manual. Fortunately, experience with the Webasto heater and a wealth of information online for the CDH makes up for this.
With the benefit of Amazon Prime, shipping you can also have a heater delivered to almost anywhere in the country in 2-3 days. In contrast, the Webasto heater is only available through specific dealers and a few overseas websites which makes for much longer shipping times.
2. Elevation Adjustments
If you’ve followed along with previous posts or our Instagram account you’ll know that our main issue with the Webasto came from an incorrect fuel/air mixture above 5000ft of elevation and no way to adjust it to to work correctly.
The Chinese diesel heaters are completely adjustable. The digital controller comes with the heater can adjust the fuel pump rate and also the RPM of the fan motor. By adjusting these two values the fuel/mixture can be tuned for whatever our current elevation is.
You can check out the post below to learn more about adjusting your CDH for various elevations.
3. Fuel Type
With our original Webasto heater, we were stuck using gasoline which was great for simplicity because our van also runs on gasoline. Unfortunately, gasoline heaters are prone to build up carbon when running at higher elevations. Diesel heaters have less of a tendency to build up carbon because they burn cleaner by nature. In more extreme cases (10,000ft or more elevation), you can use kerosene instead of diesel which burns even cleaner.
4. Availability of replacement parts
Replacement parts for our Webasto heater are fairly expensive ($150+ for just the burner assembly) and can be hard to find. We’ve had intermittent luck finding parts online but it’s not an official source/reseller. The official way to get replacement parts is through a Webasto dealer. In our experience, the dealers don’t carry much stock so they often have to special order components which can take 1-2 weeks.
In the case of the Chinese heaters, there are plenty of replacement parts on Amazon. On top of that, you could just purchase an entirely new heater and installation kit for about $150 and have it in 2 days with Prime shipping.
5. Online Info and Resources
There isn’t any official info or documents from the manufacturer of the CDH but the online community more than makes up for this. Our go-to source for info is the “Chinese Diesel Vehicle Air Heaters – Troubleshooting & Parts Sales” Facebook group with 57,000 members. There’s a lot of existing info in the Documents section of the group and many members are great about answering questions. If you spend some time looking on YouTube there are lots of video tutorials also.