Little Buddy or Diesel Heater

[lhoffm4]

The biggest pro of a Esbar or Esbar copy heater is both the intake and exhaust are routed outside. This means you can seal and insulate. Also I know most versions of the Esbar heater will run on gasoline as well, this was actually their first designed fuel source. They were later fueled with diesel for the trucking industry. You can also run them off of kerosene, which is a good idea to do periodically as the kerosene burns hotter and cleaner than diesel and will de-coke the combustion chamber.

I have heard of/read about folks calling the diesel fuel - gasoline, but figured it was a generic term used by Europeans. I don't believe the heaters will run on RUG because of glow plugs and "sciency" stuff like flash points and combustion process. I have heard of Kerosene being used, bio-diesel made from vegetable oil and other mixed diesel variants, but also warnings about possible damage to the dosing pumps when using other fuels.

 

[Ob1]

I have heard of/read about folks calling the diesel fuel - gasoline, but figured it was a generic term used by Europeans. I don't believe the heaters will run on RUG because of glow plugs and "sciency" stuff like flash points and combustion process. I have heard of Kerosene being used, bio-diesel made from vegetable oil and other mixed diesel variants, but also warnings about possible damage to the dosing pumps when using other fuels.

We used ours Espar Hydronic on BIO diesel and diesel for many hours in blizzard condition. It worked flawlessly. Kevin of @Lifestyle Overland posted a video on a knockout Chinese diesel (air) heater last week. They cost a fraction of the cost, but then again, I will not install it under the car and run it all night. He ran it on the ground away from the car.

 

[DRAX]

I have heard of/read about folks calling the diesel fuel - gasoline, but figured it was a generic term used by Europeans. I don't believe the heaters will run on RUG because of glow plugs and "sciency" stuff like flash points and combustion process. I have heard of Kerosene being used, bio-diesel made from vegetable oil and other mixed diesel variants, but also warnings about possible damage to the dosing pumps when using other fuels.

Europeans call gas "petrol". You definitely cannot run gasoline in a diesel heater, the gas and diesel versions are quite different in their implementations. Kerosene is a fuel oil that will burn cleaner and also avoids gelling problems in cold weather whereas normal #2 diesel tends to be a bit sooty and will gel in cold weather unless properly treated. In those conditions I would just run kerosene and then not worry about it. The biggest risk with kerosene is dosing pump wear because kerosene is a pretty "dry" fuel that will result in increased wear on the pump. The fuel could be treated with a lubricity additive to help prevent wear issues, though.