Diesel Heater Plumbing Safety Advice Please

G’day NP.com.au Team,

Hoping for some safety advice please on a wacky plumbing project idea of sharing our portable ‘Kimberley Campers/Webasto’ diesel heater unit between rigs.

Puchased the heater a few years ago for snow trips in the ute and has been fantastic simply plugged into a 12v anderson extension with Kimberley supplied heat proof piping (approximately 2.5m) just roughly shoved up under the tucker trucks tarpaulin.

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Currently adding the finishing touches to a light cargo trailer chassis up rebuild with two roof top tents atop and a third room planned within the cargo hold once emptied on site.

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Working backwards from the top down have so far used PVC sprinkler pipe valves inside the RTT’s for heat/flow regulation.

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Knocked up a PVC manifold somewhat of a mockup with a third valve for the cargo heated room area below.

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Safety question is:

Although I have not used blue glue as fittings were all as tight as believed light air pressure needed, it has only just occured to me of PVC sprinkler pipe heat ratings etc..

There is plans to still retain the 2.5m of heat proof originally supplied pipe outside to the unit and simply connect up to the PVC manifold inside.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated good folks!

EDIT: From past usage found it appeared IIRC wouldn’t burn a kiddies hand even at direct connection oulet tested. Just unsure if PVC warmed could stink some nasty stuff off if heated to say 40C estimated connection area onwards?



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MB, you are working with UPVC pipe. From what I can glean the max temps are related more from a liquid temp V pressure V pipe distortion perspective and these start at around the 54 - 80 degC depending on the media. Using the pipe to carry warm air at 40deg c seems to suggest to me you should be OK. The UPVC is an insulator, so the pipe itself won't get that hot, so your heat should end up mostly from the nozzle distribution. UPVC does not ignite until around 840DegF, and then it gives off a range of nasties.

I would ensure you have slip joint supports to some degree in your pipe support as it will grow in length. I don't think the glue would be affected by the warm air either. I would ensure you have the flexi hose between the heater and the upvc pipe to take away any thermal shock at the pipe start point. Your nose or sense of smell is many times more sensitive than the best electronic detectors, so if you crank it up and it does not emit an odour, all good. if it does emit an odour, it may be residual residue from the manufacturing process within the inside of the pipe - simply run it for a 'while' to blow this out - you may get nothing. If you get any odour, assess if its detrimental - headache, watery eyes etc - but I doubt it to honest. PVC - flexible ducts are used in HVAC systems, and their molecular chains are a lot less contained that UPVC - unplasticised PVC. I cannot find anything specific about using UPVC in this application, so maybe trial it first is the best caution moving forward.

Thanks very much Phil mate, really appreciate your time and effort spent helping here!


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