[Dogdude222]

I wanted to share an amazing piece of tech for those of you with Chinese diesel heaters or for those of you planning to install one. I was initially tipped off to this by ForestyForest's youtube channel and ordered one for my install.

A very, very smart gentleman named James Browning-Smith out of the UK is building silent diesel pumps. These can be mounted inside or outside and in any orientation. They are also agnostic to fuel type. You can run kerosene without fear of wearing out your pump. He builds these one at a time by hand, so keep that in mind when ordering. If they are mounted touching a hard surface, you can hear a tiny, tiny sound, but if mounted on some foam insulation, it is truly silent.

I received an early iteration and unfortunately developed a siphon which flooded my heater while parked. He has a new design with an anti-siphon solenoid shutoff, though.

Though the pump itself is incredible, the after purchase support from James is the best reason to buy one. His knowledge of these heaters is absolutely encyclopedic. He responds to emails almost instantly. I have probably exchanged almost 80 emails with him, mostly because of my own ineptitude. With his recommended settings, I am seeing 3 ppm of CO with a meter directly next to the tailpipe. I would bet that less than 0.01% of Espars are running that clean.

Anyway, give some business to a very smart guy/small manufacturer if you have one of these heaters.

You can reach James at: [email protected]

A photo of my install and the pump:

 

[Van Gogh]

I wanted to share an amazing piece of tech for those of you with Chinese diesel heaters or for those of you planning to install one. I was initially tipped off to this by ForestyForest's youtube channel and ordered one for my install.

A very, very smart gentleman named James Browning-Smith out of the UK is building silent diesel pumps. These can be mounted inside or outside and in any orientation. They are also agnostic to fuel type. You can run kerosene without fear of wearing out your pump. He builds these one at a time by hand, so keep that in mind when ordering. If they are mounted touching a hard surface, you can hear a tiny, tiny sound, but if mounted on some foam insulation, it is truly silent.

I received an early iteration and unfortunately developed a siphon which flooded my heater while parked. He has a new design with an anti-siphon solenoid shutoff, though.

Though the pump itself is incredible, the after purchase support from James is the best reason to buy one. His knowledge of these heaters is absolutely encyclopedic. He responds to emails almost instantly. I have probably exchanged almost 80 emails with him, mostly because of my own ineptitude. With his recommended settings, I am seeing 3 ppm of CO with a meter directly next to the tailpipe. I would bet that less than 0.01% of Espars are running that clean.

Anyway, give some business to a very smart guy/small manufacturer if you have one of these heaters.

You can reach James at: [email protected]

A photo of my install and the pump:
View attachment 164145

Interesting. Isn't most of the noise the fan? And don't you still need a fan if you want any real throw or hot air circulation?

I definitely don't like how loud the webasto is, but mostly on the outside. It's noisy inside but white noise doesn't bother me much. Outside though it's terrible. And I really don't want to mess with a silencer, which I've heard can interfere with how clean it burns. I set mine to high altitude the day I installed it and have no plans to ever change it back, but the exhaust still stinks pretty bad, so I bet this heater is running much cleaner. Do the exhaust fumes from this one still stink pretty bad?

I mainly feel bad for my family members in tents beside the van in the evenings and mornings. Makes me tend to park farther away or hesitate to run the heater. At night I have a feathered friends snowbunting, which on an 11" hybrid twin xl mattress is more than enough to be cozy even in the 30's.

I'd be pretty nervous having any kind of fuel inside the van though. Kerosene or deisel/gas lines. I like all of that underneath near metal chassis. The fuel line for my webasto goes through the metal floor and straight into the unit. Maybe 0.5" is actually inside the van. A wood box with long sections of plastic fuel lines, a pump, and a fire-based heater all together in the van just seems dangerous. I'm probably just being overly cautious though, and I don't mean to criticize your heat setup. I'm jealous of the silence!

Cheers.

 

[Dogdude222]

Interesting. Isn't most of the noise the fan? And don't you still need a fan if you want any real throw or hot air
circulation?

I definitely don't like how loud the webasto is, but mostly on the outside. It's noisy inside but white noise doesn't bother me much. Outside though it's terrible. And I really don't want to mess with a silencer, which I've heard can interfere with how clean it burns. I set mine to high altitude the day I installed it and have no plans to ever change it back, but the exhaust still stinks pretty bad, so I bet this heater is running much cleaner. Do the exhaust fumes from this one still stink pretty bad?

I mainly feel bad for my family members in tents beside the van in the evenings and mornings. Makes me tend to park farther away or hesitate to run the heater. At night I have a feathered friends snowbunting, which on an 11" hybrid twin xl mattress is more than enough to be cozy even in the 30's.

I'd be pretty nervous having any kind of fuel inside the van though. Kerosene or deisel/gas lines. I like all of that underneath near metal chassis. The fuel line for my webasto goes through the metal floor and straight into the unit. Maybe 0.5" is actually inside the van. A wood box with long sections of plastic fuel lines, a pump, and a fire-based heater all together in the van just seems dangerous. I'm probably just being overly cautious though, and I don't mean to criticize your heat setup. I'm jealous of the silence!

Cheers.

The pump doesn't affect how loud the heater itself is. It just doesn't make an annoying click-click-click, as the piston pumps. That being said, I am consistently amazed how quiet the heater is both inside and outside the van. Once the van is up to temp, the exhaust outside is almost inaudible. I rolled up to it tonight from a ride and briefly thought it had turned off. You can, of course, hear it when it running full bore, but it is definitely not bothersome. Once the heater comes up to speed after starting there is literally no odor, thus the unbelievably low CO readings. That being said, I think it is much easier to get diesel to run cleaner than gasoline.

With regards to the fire hazard, don't forget that diesel is significantly less flammable as a liquid than gasoline. I did feel weird about having the tank inside at first, but I have it setup with a pickup tube, not dependent on an O ring at the bottom which could leak. I may move it outside someday, but the fact remains that all parking heaters have flamethrower running inside your van. I am amazed how smart the heater is...if it senses a lack of fuel or the flame out, it shuts off immediately.

 

[Van Gogh]

The pump doesn't affect how loud the heater itself is. It just doesn't make an annoying click-click-click, as the piston pumps. That being said, I am consistently amazed how quiet the heater is both inside and outside the van. Once the van is up to temp, the exhaust outside is almost inaudible. I rolled up to it tonight from a ride and briefly thought it had turned off. You can, of course, hear it when it running full bore, but it is definitely not bothersome. Once the heater comes up to speed after starting there is literally no odor, thus the unbelievably low CO readings. That being said, I think it is much easier to get diesel to run cleaner than gasoline.

With regards to the fire hazard, don't forget that diesel is significantly less flammable as a liquid than gasoline. I did feel weird about having the tank inside at first, but I have it setup with a pickup tube, not dependent on an O ring at the bottom which could leak. I may move it outside someday, but the fact remains that all parking heaters have flamethrower running inside your van. I am amazed how smart the heater is...if it senses a lack of fuel or the flame out, it shuts off immediately.

I see what the confusion was. I missed that James is just making silent pumps. Your heater has a "Vevor" sticker on it, and I see they make diesel pumps marketed as quiet. How does the pump have any impact on the CO output? I would assume that's entirely due to the burner pulling in the right mix. What exact model are you using? Link? I may someday upgrade for lower noise.

Thanks for posting about this. It got me to buy two of the straight-through w/spring mufflers and some pipe ($31 total ebay) so I can make a temporary addon double muffler for when I'm camping with family. Someone said that was the ticket for them, so we'll see. I think I can just attach to my existing exhaust tip, which is only a short 2' run from the heater itself, then lay the extension and double muffler combo on the ground or prop it up on a rock or something. That way I can remove it when camping on my own, which is most of the time.

Cheers.

P.S. I wrote to James and here's some more feedback he provided this morning for anyone interested in this pump. My pump's clicking noise is mild because I located the pump near the rear of the van and I isolated it from the chassis with thick EPDM pads. I do still hear it, but it's mild, and I don't run the heater at night so it's not an issue for me.

Thank you for your inquiry.

Yes my pump can be mounted outside under the vehicle. I actually now do the same pump you saw featured in that article in a metal box version with brass barbed fittings if you wanted. It is usually reserved for boating regs (fire safety requirement) but it will be ideal for external installations too, just add £20 to either pump price. (pic attached).

Yes my pump will pump petrol without wear unlike the std pump that relies on the fuel to lubricate.

Yes my pump will work with your Webasto.

Please find further details below:

I have two pump versions.
1) The standard pump is fine for any installation that has the burner as the highest component above the pump and fuel tank.
2) The second pump version has an anti siphon valve and some extra software and drive circuitry fitted. It can be mounted above or below the burner and not suffer from a siphon or head pressure if the fuel tank is higher than the burner.

Standard Pump is £99 posted UK or £95 + pp outside of UK
Anti Siphon Pump is £129 posted UK or £125 + pp outside of UK

Lead time as of 10/12/21 is 3 weeks. Sorry for the wait, I have experienced a high demand for pumps recently.
I will be taking payment in advance to secure a pump build.

Payment method is Paypal: [email protected]

Further details and pics attached:

Just three wires to connect. Blue-Neg to same as the burner, and Green and Yellow wires connect to your pump wires any way around.

There is no standby power draw.

Works with 12v and 24v burners.

Fully compatible with the Afterburner controller.

The dial on the top is for fine tuning (or quick altitude adj) as every bodies installations are slightly different. I will mark the dial position with a white arrow for a 5Kw burner for example running on diesel to give optimum heat and lowest carbon monoxide throughout. If for example you want to burn a different fuel then the dial can be used to increase or decrease injection quantity per pulse as well as the normal adjustments of fan speed and Hz in the burner controls. I can also set up for any size burner that uses a clicking pump, so just let me know.

Unlike the standard pump, this pump can pump any fuel without increased wear from non lubricated fuels like Kerosene. This pump can happily pump Diesel, Kerosene, Petrol, Paraffin, Jet fuel, without increased wear to internal parts.

The box dimensions are 150mm including tabs (110mm without) long x 90mm wide x 55mm high. The fuel trim knobs adds 20mm to the height.

1 year warranty and full after sales technical support.

That's it. Any questions, please ask.

Check out Youtuber David McLuckie and his review and test of the pump:

and Foresty Forest's installation of the Anti Siphon Pump:

Best regards
James

 

[brío]

the fact remains that all parking heaters have flamethrower running inside your van.

Not hydronic ones. Ours is 100% outside--only hot water enters the van. I honestly am not sure I would consider combustion inside the van, although I realize it is very common.

 

[SION1771]

Glad to hear yours is great - our pumps must've been in the same shipment but mine's been stuck in customs the past week and is finally set for delivery today.

It's crazy that I paid more for the pump than I did the heater ($140), but it's still less overall than the fancy German heaters.

We opted for the pump because you can run straight kerosene with it - the stock pump requires the oils in diesel for lubrication but those oils also contribute to the pollution and stinky output. Kerosene was about the cleanest burning fuel source we could find (cleaner than gas) so I'm glad he designed this pump.

Regarding fuel inside the van, kerosene lanterns and heaters have always been a thing and still are a thing, so we're comfortable having that safely stored inside the van. It's still about the most dangerous thing we've got in our van (aside from our gas tank). Our first choice was propane but the whole propane tank thing seemed worse than kerosene.

 

[Dogdude222]

I see what the confusion was. I missed that James is just making silent pumps. Your heater has a "Vevor" sticker on it, and I see they make diesel pumps marketed as quiet. How does the pump have any impact on the CO output? I would assume that's entirely due to the burner pulling in the right mix. What exact model are you using? Link? I may someday upgrade for lower noise.

First of all, the pump has a knob on it which allows you to fine tune the speed. Second, having a chinese heater and James' guidance allows one to go into advanced settings and set the exact Hz of the pump and fan speed at max and min settings. In reality, the chinese heaters are far more tunable than anything from Espar or Webasto. Also, I ended up sooting up and effectively destroying my first heater from the siphon and an exhaust obstruction debacle (totally my fault). But 150 bucks later, I have a brand new heater. They are so cheap, I plan to keep an extra one on hand. If I did that with a 1200 dollar Espar, I'd be beside myself.

 

[Van Gogh]

First of all, the pump has a knob on it which allows you to fine tune the speed. Second, having a chinese heater and James' guidance allows one to go into advanced settings and set the exact Hz of the pump and fan speed at max and min settings. In reality, the chinese heaters are far more tunable than anything from Espar or Webasto. Also, I ended up sooting up and effectively destroying my first heater from the siphon and an exhaust obstruction debacle (totally my fault). But 150 bucks later, I have a brand new heater. They are so cheap, I plan to keep an extra one on hand. If I did that with a 1200 dollar Espar, I'd be beside myself.

Makes sense. I got webasto from a site in Russia that has come through for a lot of people. Not sure if it's a knock-off, but everything appears to be identical to the higher priced units. I paid $600. Good to know the $150 units and this pump can work well together. But it sounds like webasto or chinese diesel heater are still noisey from the fan and exhaust even with this pump. I just was reading too fast and thought it was a silent heater. My bad. Thanks though. I may want to end that clicking sound someday.

Cheers.

 

[Dogdude222]

Makes sense. I got webasto from a site in Russia that has come through for a lot of people. Not sure if it's a knock-off, but everything appears to be identical to the higher priced units. I paid $600. Good to know the $150 units and this pump can work well together. But it sounds like webasto or chinese diesel heater are still noisey from the fan and exhaust even with this pump. I just was reading too fast and thought it was a silent heater. My bad. Thanks though. I may want to end that clicking sound someday.

Cheers.

The main appeal of the webasto for me would be the ability to run off the van's tank with gasoline. I just read so many horror stories, which combined with the price made it a non-starter for me.

I personally find my heater to be very very quiet. When running on full inside, there is a fan sound, but it is very mild in nature. Once up to temp, the heater is whisper quiet inside and out. We used to have an R pod with a propane heater, and that thing was loud.

 

[Dogdude222]

Not hydronic ones. Ours is 100% outside--only hot water enters the van. I honestly am not sure I would consider combustion inside the van, although I realize it is very common.

Fair point.

 

[Van Gogh]

The main appeal of the webasto for me would be the ability to run off the van's tank with gasoline. I just read so many horror stories, which combined with the price made it a non-starter for me.

I personally find my heater to be very very quiet. When running on full inside, there is a fan sound, but it is very mild in nature. Once up to temp, the heater is whisper quiet inside and out. We used to have an R pod with a propane heater, and that thing was loud.

I wish any of the ones I've seen where wisper quiet on max. Webastos definitely aren't. But yeah the gas tank integration is fantastic. I think most people don't realize you need to run the heater once a month for 5-10 minutes even in the summer. If you do that they work great. Mine has worked without issue. Short exhaust pipe also helps.

Cheers.

 

[joelmusicman]

FarOutRide mentions a hack for the clicking issue... A "Quick Fist" for $15 on Amazon IIRC. I bought it last year and it's still in a cubby in my van waiting to be installed. I should get off my lazy bum lol.

 

[Dogdude222]

FarOutRide mentions a hack for the clicking issue... A "Quick Fist" for $15 on Amazon IIRC. I bought it last year and it's still in a cubby in my van waiting to be installed. I should get off my lazy bum lol.


View attachment 164222

I have used one of these and it isn't even in the same realm of noise reduction.