Installing Eberspächer heater. What has to be considered?

[Th!nkJB67]

Hi from Germany.

Sorry for not able to write in norwegian...

Last weekend I bought my 'new' Th!nk from 2011 with Li-Ion battery and A/C.
The heater is out of order and I want to replace the original with an Eberspächer
Hydronic 2 B5S because you can use E85 (ethanol) with it.

What about the old heater and the electric connection to it.
I don´t want to blow any fuses on PCU or somewhere else...
What has to be considered?

Thank you

[Elmo]

. . .  because you can use E85 (ethanol) with it.

Hi.
Sorry I dont have an answer to your question, but I do have a qustion to your E85 statement.

I have had a lot of PSA-classics (Saxo+P106) electric which comes original with 5Kw hydronic webasto heater.

I tried E85 on one of those ones - to be  more environment friendly.
It hardly heats at all using E85 comparred to ordinary unleaded petrol, so I changed back immediately.

[elektrolux]

I changed to a Diesel heater on my P106 and use Diesel on my current transport, a Buddy M9. Cheeper fuel, and better heating is a win win situasjon in my head.

Regarding the connection og the original hot water heater, it has a interesting function. It will short its power innput if it overheats blowing the circuits fuse.

I am not sure what type signal controls the heater, but you should be able to use this signal to control your new heater.

[Th!nkJB67]

@ Elmo: The Eberspächer is designed for using E85, but only the B5S or E4S and you need other fuel-hoses that can resist ethanol. Don`t know what about Webasto...
@ Elektrolux: I don´t want to implement the electric lines with the original ones in the car. The Eberspächer has its own control panel I will use. It´s more comfortable.
Diesel is no option, as Elmo said is E85 more environment friendly...

I am a lttle bit scary of deinstalling the old heater from the electric lines. There will be no feedback and possibly the PCU or something else interpret that as an error...

[worry]

There's a 12V signal to the heater, enabling it. The heatknob needs to be on the red, and fan speed above zero.
High voltage to the heater is directly from the battery, through 20A fuses inside PCU. The two outlets (heater and AC) are equal.
I think it's best to disconnect the original heater completely. But you need the plug on the PCU to maintain continuity in the safety circuit. The easy way is to pull out the HV cables from the plug, and put the plug back to the PCU. Add some sealer to the holes in the plug. Alternatively cut the wires some cm from the plug and make sure they can't short to anything.
We have a dieselheater in our Think, and it's controlled only by the Webasto controller. Works great. But often too much heat, since it's 5kW. The dieselheaters don't like going on low power.
You should add an additional watervolume to the system, or else the heater will cycle a lot.

[Th!nkJB67]

@ worry:
Yes, the safety circuit is what I am afraid of.
When I unplug the heater only at the heater itself and seal the plugs/wires and let the wires in place,
will this let the safety circuit untouched?

In a german forum I`ve read that a 12V- fuse number 46 7,5A allways will blow when unplug the HV wire from the PCU...

The Eberspächer work with 3 power modes: little 2,3KW, big 5KW, power 5,5KW...
Little should be enough for driving, power for the first minutes after start to get warm inside early...

[worry]

I don't know anything about that fuse. Have unplugged HV connector at PCU several times on the cars I have worked on. Car is switched off, of course. Never experienced that problem. But several heaters were out of order. So a burner heater is the solution. :-)
I'm not sure I understand "unplug at the heater itself". But as I wrote; you may cut or unplug the HV wires anywhere between PCU and heater. Remove plug from PCU first.  I have tested myself, no problem. But again; be sure the wire ends don't short to anything. There's up to 400VDC there!
If you unplug at the PCU and look inside the plug, you see the two small safety cirquit connectors in the middle. They are part of a long series cirquit that needs to be connected. PCU front lid, both HV connectors and the crash switch is in it, as I remember.

[Th!nkJB67]

@ worry:

Thank you. Now I know what to do...
<I'm not sure I understand "unplug at the heater itself">
There is only one plug going into the heater, the HV wires goes directly in it.
I first thought the HV wires have a plug too at the heater itself.
Now I´ve seen a better picture of the heater...

I summarize:
Heater deinstallation should be no problem, but the HV plug must remain into the PCU for the safety circuit.