Review of 175,000 BTU Kerosene Forced Air Heater with Thermostat

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $449.99
Sale Price: $388.30
Today's Bonus: 14% Off

I purchased this product as an upgrade from the 70,000 BTU unit and has worked great for what i use it for. Thermostat regulates the temperature well. One thing I did want to point out is the fuel tank, which holds 13 gallons. I purchased 5 gallons of K1 Kerosene from a local store which cost me $38.00 and only brought the tank up to just over a third full. Heater burned through the the 5 gallons between 4-5 hours of use so something to think about. I'll probably consider burning diesel as an alternative. Overall a great heater but note the fuel consumption and the large space you will need to use this.

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I purchased this brand new, assembled it, and fired it up in twenty minutes. I've owned torpedo heaters without the thermostat but since this model has one, it can turn on and off to maintain the desired ambient temperature. On about the fifth start up, I heard the ignition kick on but also heard the sound of a dying motor. The fan motor had seized. I tried troubleshooting it through the manual but this kind of problem wasn't listed. So, I took this matter into my own hands. I opened the top shell and tried to spin the fan. It was very resistant but after a few turns it eventually spun free. I fired it back up and it worked for a little bit and then repeated the incident. I dug deeper: removing the air filter and air filter housing. After removing the housing, the fan would spin free again. Turns out the rotor which pumps the air is slightly too wide for the housing. If you seen the rotors, they're made of graphite (just like the graphite used in mechanical pencils but instead of a small stick it's a huge disc with four small wedges emplaced in groves). As the rotor spins the wedges slide in groves displacing the volume but at the same time are wearing down. As the rotor wears down, the graphite shavings can either get pumped into the filter or build up between the rotor and housing. The buildup caused the jamming of the fan motor. My solution was to sand the rotor faces with 800 grit so it would have enough room to allow shavings to make their way out somewhere else.

So far this fix has kept the heater going but I'm wary as to the longevity of this unit. I've already researched online and there are some heater supply stores which sell replacement rotors for around $35. Surely there is a more efficient design to pump air into the tank. All is needed is a constant 5-10 PSI while the heater runs. Essentially, if one were to design a small supercharger, that could compensate the graphite rotor and prolong the heater life without troubling the fuel supply.