They may suck at extremely cold temps. I think they are great but I will never be whee it is 35 degrees below zero. And another situation is that I enjoy flying but will never be in a situation where I have to fly.

Propane sucks for the reasons already listed. I have been using this all in one parking heater. Runs off diesel and 12V. At startup when the glow plug is on it draws just over 2 amps. When running wide open it pulls less than an amp once the fire is lit and its just the fan. 8KW is roughly 28k BTU of hot DRY clean air. At -20F I had 170 deg° air at the end of the 4' long scat tube. It will burn under a gallon a day running all day long on high so you get multiple preheats before you have to fill it. I had the heater on last week while I was plowing the snow from around the plane. In just under 2 hrs the oil temp when I hit the master showed 145°.

The fire is contained inside the heat chamber and all you get is nice clean air going out the tube. Tossing the hose in the baggage door and stuffing a coat around it to seal it up and the cabin is thawed out and toasty in no time.

I use these in my enclosed trailer, plane, boat and cabin. for 150 bucks shipped it is tough to beat.

I tried a battery operated torpedo style like the Ryobi above but if you place a duct on it, it will not stay lit.

The red dragon units are not available.

I bought a diesel heater like the one above and used a wagon with a battery and some scat tubing... Works well!!!

Great thread, always worth the reread!

akavidflyer wrote:Propane sucks for the reasons already listed. I have been using this all in one parking heater. Runs off diesel and 12V. At startup when the glow plug is on it draws just over 2 amps. When running wide open it pulls less than an amp once the fire is lit and its just the fan. 8KW is roughly 28k BTU of hot DRY clean air. At -20F I had 170 deg° air at the end of the 4' long scat tube. It will burn under a gallon a day running all day long on high so you get multiple preheats before you have to fill it. I had the heater on last week while I was plowing the snow from around the plane. In just under 2 hrs the oil temp when I hit the master showed 145°.

The fire is contained inside the heat chamber and all you get is nice clean air going out the tube. Tossing the hose in the baggage door and stuffing a coat around it to seal it up and the cabin is thawed out and toasty in no time.

I use these in my enclosed trailer, plane, boat and cabin. for 150 bucks shipped it is tough to beat.

heater 1.jpg

[attachment=0]heater 2.jpg

Where did you get that diesel heater?

SloRoam wrote:I tried a battery operated torpedo style like the Ryobi above but if you place a duct on it, it will not stay lit.

The red dragon units are not available.

I bought a diesel heater like the one above and used a wagon with a battery and some scat tubing... Works well!!!

I purchased a Ryobi, had a similar experience with it initially but found that if you lengthen the ducting it prevents the "overheat" condition and it's worked fine ever since.

Mapleflt wrote:

SloRoam wrote:I tried a battery operated torpedo style like the Ryobi above but if you place a duct on it, it will not stay lit.

The red dragon units are not available.

I bought a diesel heater like the one above and used a wagon with a battery and some scat tubing... Works well!!!

I purchased a Ryobi, had a similar experience with it initially but found that if you lengthen the ducting it prevents the "overheat" condition and it's worked fine ever since.

Nice Setup! Have you tried deicing fabric wings with this?

"Nice Setup! Have you tried deicing fabric wings with this?"

Thanks, it took a bit of trial & error to figure it all out, the larger volume tank replacing the smaller volume camping style canister was a necessary "mod" as well.

As for de-icing a fabric wing with it absolutely not; the idea has never even crossed my mind, nor would I suggest anyone give it a try In all honesty my sense is that other than a hanger the only other really viable option for a fabric airplane would be covers, wings and tail plane at the very least.

Akpilotom wrote:

akavidflyer wrote:Propane sucks for the reasons already listed. I have been using this all in one parking heater. Runs off diesel and 12V. At startup when the glow plug is on it draws just over 2 amps. When running wide open it pulls less than an amp once the fire is lit and its just the fan. 8KW is roughly 28k BTU of hot DRY clean air. At -20F I had 170 deg° air at the end of the 4' long scat tube. It will burn under a gallon a day running all day long on high so you get multiple preheats before you have to fill it. I had the heater on last week while I was plowing the snow from around the plane. In just under 2 hrs the oil temp when I hit the master showed 145°.

The fire is contained inside the heat chamber and all you get is nice clean air going out the tube. Tossing the hose in the baggage door and stuffing a coat around it to seal it up and the cabin is thawed out and toasty in no time.

I use these in my enclosed trailer, plane, boat and cabin. for 150 bucks shipped it is tough to beat.

heater 1.jpg

[attachment=0]heater 2.jpg

Where did you get that diesel heater?

Ebay. Just search 8kw all in one parking heater. Yes I have used it to thaw out the wings on the pacer as well many times. I wont use a red dragon to do it because of the condensation issues with propane, this gives nice dry heat.

Thanks for the heads up on the parking heater. It might come in handy if the furnace in my house quits on a cold blizzardy day and the repairman is unable to get here to fix it.

180Marty wrote:Thanks for the heads up on the parking heater. It might come in handy if the furnace in my house quits on a cold blizzardy day and the repairman is unable to get here to fix it.

I just bought something similar. I plan to mount it on a small cart, power it from the 1KW Yamaha generator (which is running anyway to power my Reiff system) and use it while doing the pre-flight to heat the interior.

Instead of a battery I plan to use a 12-volt, junk-box computer power supply. Good also for working on the snowmobile in my otherwise un-heated garage. Just have to make a small hole in the garage door for the exhaust.

NunavutPA-12 wrote:

180Marty wrote:Thanks for the heads up on the parking heater. It might come in handy if the furnace in my house quits on a cold blizzardy day and the repairman is unable to get here to fix it.

I just bought something similar. I plan to mount it on a small cart, power it from the 1KW Yamaha generator (which is running anyway to power my Reiff system) and use it while doing the pre-flight to heat the interior.

Instead of a battery I plan to use a 12-volt, junk-box computer power supply. Good also for working on the snowmobile in my otherwise un-heated garage. Just have to make a small hole in the garage door for the exhaust.

works awesome to preheat the interior. Nice hot dry air! put a splitter on it and it will heat the engine and interior at the same time.

akavidflyer said:

Ebay. Just search 8kw all in one parking heater.

Okay, I looked at a few of these on ebay and have a question. They are 12 volt powered so what is the purpose of the muffler and exhaust pipe?

tcj wrote:akavidflyer said:

Ebay. Just search 8kw all in one parking heater.

Okay, I looked at a few of these on ebay and have a question. They are 12 volt powered so what is the purpose of the muffler and exhaust pipe?

Twelve volts powers the glow plug, fan and fuel pump. The heat comes from burning diesel fuel. So you need an exhaust pipe.

NunavutPA-12 wrote:

tcj wrote:akavidflyer said:

Ebay. Just search 8kw all in one parking heater.

Okay, I looked at a few of these on ebay and have a question. They are 12 volt powered so what is the purpose of the muffler and exhaust pipe?

Twelve volts powers the glow plug, fan and fuel pump. The heat comes from burning diesel fuel. So you need an exhaust pipe.

Oh, that makes sense. Thank you Nunavut.

NunavutPA-12 wrote:

tcj wrote:akavidflyer said:

Ebay. Just search 8kw all in one parking heater.

Okay, I looked at a few of these on ebay and have a question. They are 12 volt powered so what is the purpose of the muffler and exhaust pipe?

Twelve volts powers the glow plug, fan and fuel pump. The heat comes from burning diesel fuel. So you need an exhaust pipe.

I don't bother with the muffler, it really doesn't do much. One pipe is for the fresh air intake for the burner, one for the exhaust. Flame is in a sealed chamber unlike the propane water makers / space heater types. If you loose 12v power in the red dragon you just get a flame that will melt the trunk hose and quite possibly start a fire (have that tee shirt). The "parking heater" will shut down with low voltage and not burn up anything. Did I mention the hot, dry, fume free air that these put out?

Akavidflyer; you are a genius,

"works awesome to preheat the interior. Nice hot dry air! put a splitter on it and it will heat the engine and interior at the same time."

This will help to dissipate even more heat and thereby further reduce the possibility of an "overheat" shutdown, I thank you kind sir.

Man this site is fantastic, the collective wisdom is nothing short of amazing.

I have not had any of 4 heaters I use ever hit an over heat situation (knock on wood). I did put a 10' chunk of scat hose on mine so I can run the trunk up into the wing to thaw it out when needed so the heat output is slightly less if its really cold outside, but the air is still 170+ at the end of the 10' run at -5 ambient if I have the heater on full burn. With the remote you can control the heat output pretty darn good. It just speeds up or slows down the fuel pump to control the output.

akavidflyer wrote:I have not had any of 4 heaters I use ever hit an over heat situation (knock on wood). I did put a 10' chunk of scat hose on mine so I can run the trunk up into the wing to thaw it out when needed so the heat output is slightly less if its really cold outside, but the air is still 170+ at the end of the 10' run at -5 ambient if I have the heater on full burn. With the remote you can control the heat output pretty darn good. It just speeds up or slows down the fuel pump to control the output.

The "overheat" is an issue with the forced heat tube style propane heaters - see the Ryobi post.

I'm about to place an order for a Diesel heater like AKAVIDFLYER's unit. It looks like it has been three years since the initial post / recommendation. Does anyone have any long-term reviews on these diesels and brands yet? Are there any brands that withstand the test of time? Has anyone needed parts or are they durable as delivered from a vendor like Vevor? I see reviews kind of all over the place - but mostly people using them as shop heaters, not aircraft engine heaters.

Consensus in most groups is to stay away from the Vevor ones. Mostly due to the controllers not being tunable.