Wallas 1300 Heater Installation

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scoutrk

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Subject: Wallas 1300 Heater Installation

I just bought a Wallas 1300 kerosene heater and I am pondering where to install it? I think it will fit in the storage space underneath the galley surface area. I don't have an alcohol stove in the galley, I cook on a propane camping stove. Has anyone had any experience with this heater?
 
I've installed 2 1300 wallas heaters in 2 different cruisers. Check out Snoopy-C album where it is installed right behind the alcohol stove.
wallas3.jpg
 
I did an installation this winter of the 1300. Works really well. Might be slightly underpowered for winter boating in the northwest but it works and is trouble free. One suggestion I would make is if you put it under the galley, take out the sink first. That will save a lot of pain and frustration. You can do the complete install that way standing up, rather than laying down, looking up and contorted. Also, get the furnace as absolutely high on the wall as you can, so the black recycle fuel tube has gravity fall to the tank. I didn't quite make it so had to buy the alternate, larger tank. It is lower. And you won't believe what they charge for those tanks. I am also surprised how much good kerosene costs. Usually $10 a gallon for clean heat or something similar. I have found a petroleum products distributor here in salem that has 5 gallon buckets for $26 so I will be buying it there from now on. After doing the install, in retrospect I kind of like Diggers' install as well, or even better. I think that would move the air better than mine with the ducting hose.
 
NOW you tell me, remove the sink. God I wish I would have thought of that, it would have saved my back being screwed up for a week or more! :?

You might check out my installation on Dora~Jean, a CD25, see my photo album. I really like the location of mine, it doesn't take up any room that I would have used. I routed the output ducting in between the stove and sink, turned out to be a perfect fit. So far it runs flawlessly, ran it every morning and evening while on the San Francisco Delta trip last week, sometimes for hours (hey, it was COOL for us SoCal people...be nice).

My install photos are located here (forgot how to make a hyperlink):
http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?...ame=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php
 
PLEASE do not put diesel in your Wallas 1300! It burns 1-K kerosene very well, diesel, not at all well. Another point: diesel #1 and kerosene are NOT the same thing.

Thanks.


Doug at Scan Marine
 
I'm in the process of installing a Wallas 1300 in our 23 Venture. We do a lot of winter boating in addition to trips up the coast to places even damper and cooler than Puget Sound. I decided our aging bones deserve a little more warmth.

I've been thinking about this project for months. I always imagined a heater hidden behind the table when it's folded down, because that's a space that really doesn't get used for anything and it's a good spot for dispersing heat throughout the cabin. The problem is clearance. I made a wooden mock-up of a Wallas 1300, Then, with a lot of clamping, taping and shimming, I moved it around while putting the table up and down, and sliding the passenger seat forward and back. It took me a long time to convince myself it would work. I bit the bullet at the Boat Show sale, and there's no turning back now!
Wallas_1300_Install_DSC06155.jpg

It really looks like it's going to work. Here are more pictures.
Wallas 1300 Installation
 
Oh, very interesting to see a "new" location! All the annotated photos of your mockups and thought process are great. I stow things in that area that I wouldn't want to give up having to hand there, so I would probably install one under galley cabinet (outboard), but it's great to have another option shown. Very cool :thup

(That said, I haven't even made my mind which heater/type/fuel to install yet, so... who knows what I'll end up doing.)
 
Today I cut a hole in the floor for the fuel lines. The tank will sit in the storage area below the floor. Another tight fit to worry about. (I'll post some more photos eventually - the funny looking pipe thingy in the picture is a experimental model of a fuel line holder assembly gadget gizmo.) Because the stove is mounted relatively low in the boat (which is a good thing for efficiency of heat distribution), there is not room below it for the standard small upright fuel tank. It's important that the fuel return line runs continuously downhill from the heater to the tank, so I'm having to use the larger, horizontal tank. I'm more upset about the loss of storage space from the tank than from the heater. . . . So I'm starting on another project - a hatch in the V-berth. It's all fun.
 
We added one to our 19 this winter as well and it is working out very well. There are pics in our album of where we installed it and here is a recent response so some questions about it.

We looked all the options and I finally talked to a local installer who is a friend and he recommended the 1300 for our use. He had installed many over the years and the feedback from owners he knows was very good unless they put one in too large a boat or a boat that was small but hard to ventilate. We had neither of those issues with the C-dory.

The installation options were better, the noise was lowest which is important because we can't get very far from it on such a small boat, and the fuel/power draw was minimal. We wanted to be able to run it overnight as needed in the cold months but mainly eves and morns as you would use it. The way our boat is setup, we actually use it to heat the small cabin of the 19 and the entire canvas enclosed cockpit and it still drives us out of there with the heat output. The single speed, on-off nature of it is actually nice because there is nothing to fiddle with and the heat is easy to balance with the center window which we like to have open anyway, and another cracked window of choice. It uses so little fuel and power 0.13 l/h,0.4 A that we don't turn it off and on, instead, we leave it on more, and just use the windows to moderate if necessary. It has run flawlessly so far for about 30 hours for us and I would install the same again at this point.



20140301_114345_resized.jpg
 
Nice job. It looks like a super efficient layout. That's about as clean and direct an installation as you could have! Glad the heater is working for you.

We just returned from the first real test of our 1300, - an Olympia to Petersburg Inside Passage round trip. I have to say it was just great. Made my wife very happy. (Me too.)

I agree completely about the simplicity of operation with the one speed fan and the on or off only controls. And you're right, it really burns very little fuel. We ran ours a lot. It was on every day for at least an hour or so, and sometimes much longer. I had figured on buying more fuel along the way, but actually came home with some left from my original load of about 4 gallons. (We did burn another gallon in our Wallas cook-top stove, too, and that obviously also provided some heat.) We didn't face any really cold weather, but it was typically in the low to mid 40's at night, and high 50's to low 60's in the day. The current draw is small enough that I didn't worry about just flipping the switch on before I got out of bed in the morning. I monitored the battery voltage closely before (and after) starting the heater the first few mornings after a night at anchor, but quickly realized that wasn't necessary.
 
Glad to see some additions to this thread, as "decide on heating plan" is on my list. I have a workable arrangement with a Coleman Blackcat, but it's only temporary, and just meant to carry me along until I have enough boat time in to make a better choice.

The 1300 is one of my four contenders, so I'm always on the lookout for input on it, especially on our specific boats. I did hear from Wallas that they are going to be discontinuing it, so I may decide to get one sooner rather than later even if I don't install it immediately. They did say this won't be right away, so no mad rush (and if you are interested in one, do check with them as my info may be incorrect, may have changed, etc.) I don't know if they will be coming out with a newer small/simple stove - I didn't get the feeling they would, but don't know for sure.

Meanwhile, glad to read more about the 1300 :thup

NORO LIM: Did you ever notice any kerosene (or fuel type) odor while using the stove? I know propane smell (of which there is very little) won't bother me, but it's one concern on a kero or diesel stove (on the other hand, there are some big advantages to using kero, so it's still on my list).

Sunbeam
 
Sunbeam":1a99mz0a said:
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NORO LIM: Did you ever notice any kerosene (or fuel type) odor while using the stove? I know propane smell (of which there is very little) won't bother me, but it's one concern on a kero or diesel stove (on the other hand, there are some big advantages to using kero, so it's still on my list).

Sunbeam
Click to expand...

ANY odor? Not really. I suppose a little once in a while - right at startup, if the wind is right I may get a whiff from the exhaust? I may not have the most finely tuned olfactory system on the planet, but it is a zero issue for me. My wife smells better than I do (no need to clarify the syntax - it's true either way), and she has never complained ( - here clarity is definitely called for - she's never complained about the fuel's smell).

I have used Klean Heat exclusively for 8 years in both the stove and now the heater. Scan Marine says they cannot recommend Klean Heat as a substitute for Kerosene - not because they think there is anything wrong with it, but because the makers of Klean Heat will not disclose what's in it. Scan does say that they know of other customers like me who have had good luck with Klean Heat. (I have never had a single problem with either of my Wallas products.) Just using the nose-to-the-jug test, I find Klean Heat less offensive than K-1. It's certainly not what I would call "odorless" in it's liquid state, but it does seem to burn without much smell at all.

Senses of smell vary widely. I'd recommend finding a boat with a 1300 and taking it out for a test heat.
 
Hello Sunbeam,
I put a 1300 in several years ago. I mounted it under sink on the cabinet wall not the hull wall. Fuel tank directly below so no sags in return line. The exhaust/intake is high enough to allow bend. I put in a metal heat shield as well as the fiberglass sheath to insulate the plethora of wires, cables, hoses, etc that run above the exhaust.
I have never had an issue wih it. It only has one setting, on or off. Too cold, layer up, too hot, open window. This single setting may make the unit inherently less complex (more reliable?) than the stoves with variable controls. I only start the heater when it can run for 30 minutes before being shut off, and the fan runs for several minutes cool down phase after shutting off. This may help keep the burn pot clean. I usually start the heater with engines running but I have started it on the trailer on below freezing days. I used kerosene the first year but then acquired several bottles of klean heat and have used that since. No problem with the now years old fuel which is stored in a cool, dark, place. Couple pics in my album.
Slight smell when first lit but this is outside the boat and only noticable if wind direction is toward boat and windows or doors open.
Regards,
Mark
 
Mark,

Thanks, excellent info! Sounds like you installed yours about how/where I would do mine.

Reading about the features of the more sophisticated Wallases, they do sound like great units, but... I question whether I need one of them, wonderful or not. I'm used to heating with a wood stove, so with the fire cranking if you get too hot... move away or open the door :D Sounds like I could just keep those habits with the 1300.

The one thing I could see the "better" Wallases having the advantage in would be running a duct to the v-berth. I don't like it warm for sleeping, so that's not a factor, but I can imagine where i might be nice for circulating air/heat and drying things out up there. But..... I have fans.

So all in all, and since I don't always boat in a heating climate, the 1300 is sounding really appealing. And the "real world" info for our boats is great.

On my "plus" list for the Wallas is being able to, essentially, stockpile heat. With propane, I would be limited to only the amount of fuel I could carry in tanks in the dedicated locker (which, even if I modify the locker is only probably two 10# tanks at best), and it's not always that easy to refill propane tanks underway. With the Wallas, if I were doing a long/cold trip (say the Inside Passage or similar), I could "stock up" on extra gallons of Kleen Heat for that one time and carry them aboard. Likewise when not actively using the heater, I would only have to carry the small, "built in" tank and not give up my port lazarette (which I always had earmarked for a future propane locker, but which now of course I've started using for all manner of things and would really miss).

Course like anything on a boat, it's always a matter of balancing the inevitable compromises - sure glad it's fun :D
 
The simplicity of the Wallas 1300 is great..... however it is too small for a CD 25 and probably marginal in the 22 if you boat in the cool Northwest in the shoulder seasons. I have a Wallas 1800 installed under the galley in my 25. If I didn't also have the Wallas 95 heater/cooker I would not have enough heat for some of the late fall/winter boating I do. The 1800 will raise the the cabin about 5-10 degrees C/8-16F above the outside temp. If I was choosing a heater today I'd pick the Wallas 2400 cause it runs on good old diesel and would have enough output for the cool northwest. I like the ducting available on the other models as well. It allows you to direct the heat to where you most want it. My 1800 has worked without problem for about 5 years now.
 
Oh sure, bring up all my "second thought" concerns and back them with real-world experience :amgry

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Seriously, I have thought of those things, and I appreciate your specific experience and thoughts. Thanks :thup

It's hard to know how much I will boat when needing "more" heat. There are lots of times I want "some," because I like to go places in shoulder season when it is less crowded, but how often will I want more than that? Don't know at this point. I guess one could say then better buy the bigger heater 'cause you can always turn it down, but I like to keep it simple if possible, and too, the 1300 takes up a lot less space. I'm just thinking that the volume to heat on a 25 must be considerably more than a 22. Not that the "floor plan" of the main cabin is that much bigger, but there is so much more headroom, and that must really increase the volume (plus the opportunity for heat to go up above the sitting spaces).

Guess there is no way to know for sure, and no one right choice, but each person's input is really useful, so thanks for taking the time.

Sunbeam
 
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