injecting oxygen into diesel heater at altitude (6000+ feet high).

[u/red_five_standingby]

I'm currently on a van road trip coming up on 2 months now. i've been to altitudes as high as 10k feet and, tho my vevor diesel heater (supposedly) has a altitude adjuster, i cannot get it started at between maybe 6k and 10k feet altitude (despite multiple attempts).
I am currently in Denver (at about 5280 feet altitude) and finally got it start but had to drive and rev my engine while it was starting (I'm guessing it was maybe providing extra amps from the alternator to the heater or something).
I am able to easily get it started in my hometown of Tucson at maybe 2400 feet too (without alternator/driving assistance).

I have been thinking about injecting some oxygen into the combustion chamber at the high altitudes (6000+ feet) to see if it will aid in getting this thing started. Has anyone tried this and been successful?

Thanks.

[u/jade_monkey07]

You don't need to inject oxygen per se. I've got one of those high powered mini air blowers for dusting and whatnot that are all over social media lately. You can also use a hair dryer. When it starts smoking at startup put the fan of your choice up to the intake(black paper tube with the filter removed) of the heater. you should hear it start the rumble burning sound pretty quick. At high altitude I need to keep this up till the start sequence finishes and I have the heater preset to max. Once it's burning properly I can stop with the fan. I can't run the heater lower than about 2 or 2.5 or it starts to soot up at altitude. This was a tip sent to me by vevor when my second unit wouldn't even start. Has worked well for those high alt starts even on my old unit.

[u/mountainwocky → u/jade_monkey07]

It’s like creating a small turbo for the diesel heater. Wonder how long it will be before someone creates a plug in “turbo module” for the air intake of diesel heaters.

[u/jade_monkey07 → u/mountainwocky]

Wouldn't be hard to even just put it on a spring loaded gated bypass so its not in the way on normal running. Might rig something up with my 3d printer so I can even do it from inside the van

[u/red_five_standingby → u/jade_monkey07]

That's kinda what I was thinking of doing while I layed under my van staring at my setup.

[u/kaakaokao → u/mountainwocky]

Why not have small  a 12v fan inline all the time?

[u/red_five_standingby → u/jade_monkey07]

excellent tip. i'll give it a try. thanks.

[u/jade_monkey07 → u/red_five_standingby]

Once you've had smokey starts there Will be soot built up somewhere, making it exponentially worse. If you haven't cleaned it out recently I'd pull it apart and check the burn chamber for soot build up. I just shop vac out the bigger ribbed area and the coke can sized tube that slots in there. My issue more often though is in the glow plug slot, get a little plastic bristled wire brush and shove it down where the glow plug and screen are. There's a bend at the back of that little chamber that you can't see and I find it gets clogged up and ruins the start sequence even if the burn chamber is clean. I had so much trouble with mine till I bent the brush a bit and got it past that corner. The only other thing to check is a little tiny air inlet hole that leads to the screen, I use a dental pick to make sure that hole is clear. You can check that one with just removing the cover and not taking anything else apart. Check those in reverse order from what I listed as the tiny hole and the glow plug chamber can be cleaned without much disassembly.

[u/red_five_standingby → u/jade_monkey07]

my diesel heater is fairly new, so i don't think it's necessary to take apart and clean yet. eventually i will tho. i've never done it before.

[u/Eelroots]

Shooting oxygen over a flame is not exactly safe. I won't do that in a close environment.

[u/____REDACTED_____]

I used a Vevor diesel heater for 2 winters at 9000' in Colorado. The main issue I had was the startup voltage being too low. This can happen even when your batteries are fully charged due to the poor quality wiring and connector pins used in these heaters. This would cause the fan to spin slightly slower. This was not an issue at low altitude but at high altitude it didn't have enough airflow to start reliably. What solved my issues was cutting the red +12v wire at the connector and reconnecting them with a butt splice.

[u/red_five_standingby → u/____REDACTED_____]

interesting. well, i'm still currently in denver (at 5280 feet) and usually to get it started, as i said in my post, i would have to start and rev the van engine which, i'm guessing, sent more amps to the heater to get it started. this didn't work at higher altitudes (8500+ feet). a better +12v wire connection sounds like an easy fix that i'll give a try.

[u/xgwrvewswe]

Those cheap furnaces are hairy enough without messing around with oxygen. Have you tried kerosene instead of diesel?

[u/elLarryTheDirtbag]

Absolutely love this idea. A smallish cylinder of pure O2 and ready supply of fuel anll inside a closed space with an open flame.

Kinda sounds like either a rocket that or a detonation.

[u/in_continent]

Is this an issue the Afterburner can solve? I know it has the facilities for altitude correction but last time I was looking at them it seemed like it wasn't really turn key yet, been a while though...