Cheap Chinese Diesel Heater, Hot Tent & RV Heating Option: Initial Setup & Thoughts

I picked up a cheap Chicom heater online through Vevor.com. Similar units can be purchased through Amazon and elsewhere. This unit is a 5KW unit, which is in the mid-range of the units available. (2-3KW, 5KW, and 8KW units are available.). This unit I think is supposed to be in the 17k BTU range for output.

The unit contains the heater core, which is a Chinese knockoff of the German Webasco heaters for RV’s. It contains a fuel pump, fuse holder, wiring harness, front panel controller, and fuel tank included inside the sheet metal case. I created a wooden stand to keep the unit off the ground in case of wet or snowy ground conditions, and to facilitate enough room for routing the inlet and exhaust hoses underneath the unit.

The manual that comes with it is junk. There are several YouTube videos out there by folks that just do these heaters all the time…they go into greater detail on layouts, routing for RV installations, error code descriptions, gotchas during setup, etc.

This unit was in the $130 range. They range from like $115 up through $200, depending on the size, options, vendor, and what site you bought it from. Some options don’t include the enclosure. Some only include the enclosure but not the guts. This one was an all-in-one. Read the descriptions carefully to know what you’re getting.

I had some initial issues powering up the unit, which ended up being my fault as I tried to use a wire harness I already had to connect the terminal lugs to an SAE connector, which mated another cable that went from SAE to a 12V auto style plug. I’ll probably buy one from Amazon, so I can run this unit off my Jackery or GoalZero power banks instead of the huge honking lead acid battery I used in this video. The wires that came with the unit just went to bare ends that you could terminate however you want. There are spare parts online, including controllers, exhaust & intake hoses, quieter fuel pumps, and other components. If you’re using this on an RV setup, you may want to research others’ layouts and setups first. In my case, I wanted to try this as an all-night heater option for hot tenting, as wood stoves only roar for a few hours until they need to be filled back up. A heater like this could easily last all night on less than a gallon of fuel.

The nice thing about this style of heater is the combustion occurs separate from the air stream that enters the tent. The unit draws in fresh air and passes it through a heat exchanger to provide clean dry heated air for the cabin while the combustion exhaust gasses are kept separate and vent to the outside, minimizing buildup of exhaust gasses or condensation inside the living quarters.

This is definitely not a backpacker friendly heating option, but it would be a nice overnighter option for multiple days of use at a basecamp setup.

Sales Links:
https://www.vevor.com/search?type=product&q=diesel+heater
https://www.vevor.com/products/vevor-diesel-air-heater-parking-heater-12v-5kw-truck-heater-lcd-remote-control?_pos=27&_sid=c6845ee77&_ss=r
https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Parking-Control-Heating-Motorhomes/dp/B08RHSJ9P1/ref=sr_1_19?crid=DUYZSTQ67K3Q&dchild=1&keywords=5kw+diesel+heater&qid=1635740233&sprefix=5KW+%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-19

Expert links on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/johnmck1147

Error codes on control panel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QlvhMD_pQM
As always, thanks for watching.

Видео Cheap Chinese Diesel Heater, Hot Tent & RV Heating Option: Initial Setup & Thoughts канала Mikeycat Outdoors