Diesel Wall Tent Heater

[Serengeti Charters]

Any recommendations? Figuring out what is better, diesel or wood...if went wood would go with the wilderness 5 for our 16'x20' wall tent. But have a few buddies with diesel heaters for their wall tents and they swear by them. Any recommendations would be amazing, going to be a present to someone!

Thanks
David

[Moosetalker]

Some research I recently did.

https://www.portablespaceheater.ca/

https://www.stevestonmarine.com/boat.../cabin-heaters

https://www.ruralenergy.com/outdoor-...table-heaters/

Currently I have an old Cabin type heater 2'W X 5'L X 3'H very heavy 150lbs+ approx 10,000-40,000 btu heats my12x16 wall tent well have used to -15C

[calgarychef]

I’ve got a wood stove in the yurt, it works well at any temperature. Nice dry heat and we can cut wood anywhere and don’t have to worry about running out. The downside is things freeze when the fire goes out, like when you’re hunting all day.

[Serengeti Charters]

also, for a 16'x20' wall tent how many btu are we thinking? See some are 12,00btu, 30,000btu and 50,000btu We don't need it hot in the tent, just nice n luke warm if that makes sense and take the bite out of the cold.

[alpineguy]

Here is a calculator for heating a tent. Looks like you would need 50K BTU minimum but that's only if the weather is decent.

https://www.cliftonparkrental.com/ap...Size_Guide.pdf

I like wood but hunt with horses so diesel and propane heaters are not an option. Diesel heaters gives consistent temperatures as has been stated above.

Good Luck

[Ice Fishing Maniac]

We have a Prospector diesel heater for our 16x20 Deluxe Wall tent-love the heater. Its probably on the big size for a heater for our tent size. The Expedition model might be a better choice unless you are going to be doing alot of winter camping-then go with the Prospector model.

A bit warm at times and sometimes has even been shut off completely as outside temps warmed up to be like +10 overnight that it was too hot in the tent. I think over the past 10 years we have only turned up the dial setting from 1 to 2 once as it was like -18C during a hunting trip in the middle of the trip.

Its nice to come back to camp and have a warm tent with consistent heat temps.

I have a great wood stove (built out of thick steel-was a new piece of yellow jacket pipeline pipe) and heats up tent quickly and holds the heat-used initially in my 14x16 tent in the mountains sledding in Kakwa. -30C at times overnight and we were in t-shirts in the tent. Just sucked for the person with the worst sleeping bag in the morning and having to start the fire again.

The guys sleeping the closest to the stove hated it when our hunting party increased by a couple guys and the ROOKIES had to be by the stove. We used it for 1 year in our new 16x20 tent then got the diesel heater.

Inconvenience is now packing diesel jerry cans to camp but we only tub trailer in about 4 miles from the trucks to camp.

[Serengeti Charters]

Buddy said we need a battery for diesel heater? Not for deluxe wall tents diesel heater though no? One we purchased

[nimrod]

I just ordered my diesel heater for my cargo trailer , thats what i use, has a flip up bed so my quad fits in the cargo trailer when in the back country, i also have a rechargeable battery in the cargo trailer ,

[CBintheNorth]

Originally Posted by Serengeti Charters

Buddy said we need a battery for diesel heater? Not for deluxe wall tents diesel heater though no? One we purchased

2 totally different heaters, so yes.
The prospector style is just an open drip.
Consider it more like a wood stove that sheds heat through its walls and chimney. It does not require battery power as it doesn't do anything other than burn diesel.
If hauling a car battery is not a option, it is a better choice.

The other style is just like a forced air furnace. It uses a pressure pump to force fuel through an injector and burn it in a chamber, with one fan forcing air around that chamber and out to a duct (inside air), while another fan pulls exhaust from within the the burn chamber and exhausts it to another port which goes outside.
Those fans and pump run off 12v power.
Much more efficient, but you'll need a big battery.

In all honesty, I think the weight difference would be nil on a week-long hunt, as you would likely burn 2 jerry cans of fuel more in the open drip style, due to the inefficiency.
One of the big differences I think you'll notice is smell.
While the newer open-drip style are better than the old, you still wind up with a tent that smells like diesel over time.
With the forced air style, there is zero smell inside, allowing your tent to retain and exude its natural aroma of campfire and farts.
As it should.

[aragor764]

As reference i ran my diesel heater for 2 nights and still had 60% battery left according to my charger, It is a size 24 deep cycle battery so not that big. Also had 1/4 tank left.

[CBintheNorth]

An update on the diesel heater efficiency project...

For a proof of concept I tried running a 1" steel exhaust flex hose through a piece of 3" aluminum flex pipe and drawing intake air through the 3", over the exhaust, in an effort to cool the exhaust while preheating the intake air. This itself, actually worked surprisingly well, but wasn't very compact, and was quite fragile (prone to crushing if stepped on).

I took the same concept and expanded a bit.
I made a copper pipe exchanger which splits from a single 1" copper pipe, to (4) 1/2" copper pipes to further boost efficiency, then back to 1" copper.

A few things to note:

1) The first time I made the exchanger, I soldered the joints. The exhaust of this heater reaches 570°F, and solder typically melts @ 450°F. I didn't realize the exhaust was that hot until I saw a drip of solder hit the bench while I was testing.
A lick of JB Weld Extreme Heat over the first few solder joints seems to be holding up. After the first return bend the exhaust was cool enough that melting solder wasn't an issue.
I definitely didn't want an exhaust leak in the exchanger as the intake air would be passing directly over any leaks.

2) The heater self-regulates diesel consumption based on its burner chamber temperature. According to the built-in digital thermometer, the range it maintains internally appears to be 405°F to 435°F. (Display is in Celsius)
Not really important, and I only mention that because the description in my pictures mentions "High temp @ highest setting". That temp was taken right before the heater cut back the fuel.


When first testing the heater without the exchanger connected, discharge air temperature on highest setting was 270°F, with an intake temperature (ambient) of 73°F, and an exhaust temperature of 570°F.
Again, horribly inefficient.

With the unit again on the highest setting, and the exchanger completed and connected, the results were much, much different.
Intake air temperature (ambient) was 66.7°F
Intake air into the heater after running through the exchanger box had nearly doubled in temperature, and was now at 132.3°F going into the heater. A substantial gain.

Discharge air obviously saw substantial gains as well, and climbed from its original 270°F, to a very balmy 361.8°F.
The best part for me, as I was concerned about fires and melting fabrics, was the exhaust temperature which plummeted to well below 100°F.
Not horribly inefficient anymore...

Out of curiosity, I ran it on the lowest setting to see how much change there would be. Surprisingly, the temperatures didn't change a whole lot, but the blower fan obviously cut way back.

On the lowest setting the inlet air was being preheated to 120.7°F, and discharge air was still up there at 327.4°F.
Unfortunately I did not record the discharge temps on low without the exchanger connected to compare.

I made two modifications to the heater itself:

1) I cut a round section of the housing out of the back so I could slide the 3.5" intake tube over the air inlet snuggly.

2) I mounted some 3/4" square tube to the bottom for stability in transport. These will stay on permanently and I used two corresponding pieces on the exchanger to secure the heater to the exchanger.

Other Things...

This project likely doesn't make financial sense to most people. The copper itself cost me around $120. If I didn't have access to the the tools and materials that I do, this project would have easily cost triple what the heater did.
I wanted this heater and needed something that was going to eliminate the exhaust from becoming a fire hazard, and a way to make the unit more efficient to save fuel, and especially to conserve battery power.
With the new exchanger I think this will be able to run at a much lower setting most of the time and just sip fuel.

This unit might be really handy this spring, as I can see wood stoves being nixed with the dry conditions.
Overnight stays on the ice is where I think it's really going to shine.

Once I do some in-field use I'll post up consumption rates and overall performance.

[CBintheNorth]

More Pics.