Relationship between Webasto, Wind tunnel & Fender melting

baz

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Jun 19, 2009
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Fluid Motion Model
C-24 C
Subject: Relationship between Webasto, Wind tunnel & Fender melting

So this past week I had the opportunity to try/test out our Webasto forced air heating system fueled by diesel.

1) It's was easy to start and configure the heat setting (my grandkids also found the controller interesting and liked pressing the top button to get the two side red LEDs to light up :lol: ).

2) When the heater is running there's a constant noise/pulse as if a pump is energizing to push diesel fuel into the combustion chamber presumably. The noise/pulse occurs every 2 seconds or so with it being sometimes around 5 secs in between. It's not too noisy but for me is a bit annoying for sleeping.

3) The heating vents (in my case, one at the base of the helm station and the other on aft of starboard side in forward saloon. The helm position vent is closest to the furnace and as such forces air out at a much higher velocity than the one in the forward saloon. It also is hotter air. The forward saloon vent emits a gentle breeze of warm air. The noise from these vents is acceptable.

4) I happen to goto the cockpit with the Webasto in full operation and heard this weird noise. At first I thought it was some noise from the Marina's dockside device or from another boat. I jumped out of the cockpit to follow/find the sound source. By golly it was coming from our Webasto exhaust port about 18" above the water line. It sounded like a super-sonic wind tunnel without the shock wave sound :lol: and the exhaust was VERY hot. Placing a fender in front of this port will be very bad for the fender and would likely melt it in a hurry.

5) I had the Webasto running all night this past week one day and it seemed to provide heat to the forward saloon per 1st Mate's report, although she did say more heat would have been better. 😱

6) The main cabin gets heated up very quickly and I would like to close or partially close the helm station's heat vent to force more of the heated air to the forward saloon, but it cannot be. The forward saloon's vent can be swiveled and/or closed.

Apart from the constant noise/pulse from the furnace I'm reasonably happy with the Webasto unit.
 
The noise is from the pump which pulses to send fuel to the furnace.

It might be possible to mount the pump box on flexible mounts to quiet it down. On my R-27 the pump is under the entry step inside the door.

Webasto has a specific mounting spec for the pump box, so refer to the Webasto installation manual.
 
You just haven't used it enough yet. Like most things with use it will become "white noise" if used enough. The exhaust will certainly melt bumpers or nylon lines if they are directly in front of it for any period of time.

In our C-Dory I mounted the pump near the heating unit under a galley cabinet. In that location on that small boat it was quite audible. I remounted it on rubber mounts and insulated it which helped a bit but not substantially. On the R25 I mounted the pump in the starboard lazarette and it is not audible over the fan noise. I have to go into the head or the cockpit to hear if it is pumping.

The Webasto and the insulated cabin on the Ranger raise cold nights from tolerable to downright pleasant 😀
 
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