SouthWind 939J24 Coolant Heaters

[sassriverrat]

Anyone have reliability issues with these? Thinking about installing one in my camper build to feed the calorifer (hot water tank with coils) as the pricing on these is much better than something like an espar....but then I don't know how reliable/maintenance intensive these are versus a newer unit.

I've seen a couple Espar Hydronic10s going off auction occasionally but the one went for big money yesterday and I'm not sure what vehicles they were originally intended for.

Thanks!

 

[snowtrac nome]

in the ak ntional guard we wound up pulling them and tossing them in a pile, we found the swingfire system to be much more reliable. You might take a look at some of the Russian combustion heaters, I have a planair air heater in one of my snow cat cabins, it is the same size as a 10530 it burns a fraction of the fuel. and is bullet proof reliable

 

[74M35A2]

Agree with above, and I don't even have one installed. I have part of one, and have only seen others for sale in parts as well. This tells me that none of them work.

 

[sassriverrat]

Agree with above, and I don't even have one installed. I have part of one, and have only seen others for sale in parts as well. This tells me that none of them work.

Interesting....that's worrisome then. I negotiated one down to $150 and it was NOS so all there, but I didn't realize that reliability was an issue. Why are these such an issue? I was planning to use one for heating a hot water tank that would, in turn, provide shower water.

 

[frank8003]

singfire burns gasoline
View attachment SwingfirePamphlet750-5.pdf

 

[sassriverrat]

I like the ideas but I'd like something that burns diesel fuel...trying to carry just one fuel.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Interesting....that's worrisome then. I negotiated one down to $150 and it was NOS so all there, but I didn't realize that reliability was an issue. Why are these such an issue? I was planning to use one for heating a hot water tank that would, in turn, provide shower water.

Maybe look into a "zodi" shower system. I got one for camping and use it for other stuff all the time! I can't say enough good about them.

 

[sassriverrat]

Maybe look into a "zodi" shower system. I got one for camping and use it for other stuff all the time! I can't say enough good about them.

Although I like the idea of the Zodi (I looked at a lot of propane options at one point), I'm trying to steer away from propane at this point because I don't have anything else that is going to use it. Further, the camper is based upon a shipping container and I'm scared to death of a leak, even with valves and such, and filling the thing with propane.

 

[sassriverrat]

Anyone have any experience with the EASI-M80 heaters?

 

[snowtrac nome]

The reason propane is used so much is its an extremely safe gas. Propane has a very narrow window that it will actually burn in. just because you can smell it doesn't mean there is a explosive hazard, as a fuel truck mechanic I work in vapor clouds all the time my big fear isn't the cloud going up because of what I do but the perimeter where the fuel air ratio is just right finding a source of ignition. Once ignited the fire ball will draw in air and everything becomes crispy real fast.

 

[sassriverrat]

propane makes a lot of sense to me if I had other stuff using it, but I've been able to build the entire camper without it thus far. The initial explosive nature doesn't particularly scare me, it's the enclosed space side of it that does. Being that my camper is built on the basis of a conex box, if I'm inside sleeping, all doors closed and the A/C running at night, I now have a non-intrinsically safe motor/blower running and O2 is being displaced, resulting in an explosive environment that's quickly oxygen deficient. It could be a nightmare rather quickly.

Secondly and as previously stated, it would be the only thing on the camper needing propane (barring maybe a grill), so I figure if I can stick with all one fuel, then when I go camping for a few weeks, especially in more remote places, only needing one fuel (diesel) is pretty convenient, especially when I can carry a few hundred spare gallons in the bed of the truck.

 

[Zoiks65]

in the ak ntional guard we wound up pulling them and tossing them in a pile, we found the swingfire system to be much more reliable. You might take a look at some of the Russian combustion heaters, I have a planair air heater in one of my snow cat cabins, it is the same size as a 10530 it burns a fraction of the fuel. and is bullet proof reliable

Any chance a guy could get his hands on one or two of those? I’m near the Fairbanks area.