Its cold outside lets talk Heaters, H81, H82, H83, etc.

[Isaac-1]

I own an H82, bought from GL last January, and overall it seems to work well for my shop heating needs, but I was wondering a bit about the differences between these three models and what light you might shed on their history. I know they are all very similar, and were all build by Engineered Air Systems. I know the H82 was the airforce model and came with a standard 15 amp plug, H83 was the army version, came with a military power connector, and adds a soft start kit so they can be powered by the MEP-016 family of 3KW generators, but other than these and a few trivial differences is nearly identical to the H82 (rubber vs metal fuel lines in a couple of places). The one out of this model family that I know much less about is the H81, it seems to be a bit of a different beast, still the same size, but with different bypass air inlet, controls, etc.

Also what are your thoughts on the H81, H82, H83, vs the H140?

 

[massey]

Mine was listed as an H82 on GL but it had the military connector on it so it must be an H83. Anyway I like the clean air it provides over the torpedo heater I used to use. The only issue is when it reaches the preset temp and defuels, I get a lot of "clicking" from the solenoid and most of the time it will set off the alarm (like a no flame seen from the photo cell) and I have to manually reset the unit. A minor annoyance at best.

 

[Isaac-1]

Here is the front of mine from the GL listing photo, it has not changed much since last year, just more dust on it at the moment (and the side cover plate for my MEP-002a power box). I need to make up some labels for the switch positions, in fact I was going to do that last night then found the only tape for the label maker we have at the moment is black on clear which would probably be hard to read on OD green.

Ike

p.s. not bad for under $275 including fees and taxes

 

[epitts]

Mine is an H81

My heater is a H81 model heater, had 1 hour on it when picked up. The heater does not have any external controls or themastat. The temp is preset. See attached pic, it runs great.

 

[Isaac-1]

I have been running my H82 some lately and have noticed that the main switch will not turn back to the heat position once it is turned to vent for cool down. Instead it must be turned all the way off, then back to vent, then heat. Is this normal or is it a sign my switch is acting up?

 

[Suprman]

My H-140 is the same way it has the instructions on a plate its a very specific procedure to run it. Probably for safety.

 

[abears3]

Massey,
I have the same clicking problem you are talking about. We use them to heat our greenhouses which makes it difficult to regulate the heat. I'm currently trying to fix the problem. I've changed "all" the valves, reset switch, and temp controller, and adjusted the fuel pressure with no luck. Waiting on a new thermostat to wire up externally.

If all else fails I will rewire the heater and use commercially available controllers.

 

[massey]

It seems after the first few times it cycles it will trip the alarm. After about three or four trips it seems to cycle correctly. I also set the fuel pressure as it was a bit low. I was thinking about ducting the warm air up and away from the return air but I haven't moved beyond the "thinking about it" part.

 

[abears3]

Forgot to mention I used 25ft of flex ducting on the hot side thinking it was short cutting the intake. That didn't help the cycle reset problem either. Hopefully, I should have all the parts needed to rewire the heater this weekend. I'll keep you posted with updates.

 

[155mm]

K8 relays.... (the red light of death and the reset button)... here is the back story, had heater working last year, sat it outside over last summer, pulled it in to my big shop to work out there today, and no workie. Kept getting the red light of death, meaning K8 would reset but red light would not go off and fuel psi never came up. Troubleshooting kept saying replace K8 relay.... no relays to replace with so I took it out to work on it. Could see no physical damage or burned spots. I was standing in front of another heater warming hands with relay in my hands and I heard the relay.... tic... put it back in... no workie still..... took it back out and just let it hang loose while trouble shooting... it touched the base and the fuel psi kicked up and the burner kicked on....

so the K8 relay faults on alot of these heaters may be a bad grounding issue. Just wanted to tell yall something else to try if you are having heater issues.

 

[155mm]

Ran into the same issue as before.... thinking I had found the problem, I reinstalled K8, and then the heater was up to its same tricks.... red light of death, no heat, no fuel psi. Removed K8 again, worked flawlessly when not mounted correctly. This time when I reinstalled K8, I did not mount the P2 connector in the bracket with K8.... so far so good no more red light of death. Will keep you posted on any new results.

 

[155mm]

Its that time of year for the heaters to come out of hiding and get started so our wives still love us at the end of the day because we are not camped out in our chairs in front of the tv.

The easiest fixes to try out on these H81 H82 heaters that I have found from the fault of the red light of death. Dismount the K8 relay from its hiding spot behind the control panel (4 phillips skrews)


Remove the 2 skrews that mount the P2 connectors to the mounting bracket. The plug has J2 printed on it. Some plastic ties may need to be cut to give enough wire to work with and let the assy hang down.


Reconnect the P2 (J2) plug and let the whole assembly hang down in the return air area. Make sure, when reconnecting the plug, that they go together square with each other and are snug when screwed together.


Another problem may be that the resistor in the K8 gets hot when it shouldn't, so another fix would be to remove the single screw on the back of the relay and remove the cover.




This is the tripped position. The center contact is touching the front contact.
You can cycle this yourself and watch it work by pushing the light button on the front, it will trip to the buzzer/red light postition, then push the top reset button.


A correctly functioning K8 should look like this, this is normal operating position with no light or buzzer. What you are looking at is the metal contact between the 2 other contacts under the red reset button.
The center contact is not touching either contact when the heater is powered up.

 

[escobar420]

I tried the steps shown above but it seems as if the relay wont reset and fuel wont come up to pressure.

is there anything else I can try?

would it be possible to use another relay from a boiler furnace?

 

[escobar420]

I forgot to mention also the alarm doesn't sound any more I just get the red light.

 

[Hard Head]

How much fuel does an H83 burn an hour? We are not allowed to use any fueled heaters inside our warehouse ( I was using 4 75k torpedoes) so I have to duct heat in. The smell of Kerosene is no so great to wear around either!

 

[Isaac-1]

Here go some short answers:

The relay controller is a custom version of an off the shelf model, so you may be able to get a workable substitute, but it will take a little investigation as the off the shelf model is made in a few variations (I forget exactly what, but something like different voltages and if it is continuous or non-continuous ignition). You can find the base part number in the parts manual and google it.

Fuel burn rate is about 1 gal per hour at full operation, but they do have an thermostat of sorts (you have to adjust set points with a screw driver) that is preset to turn off the burner when the inlet air is about 75 degrees. Also these should not be left unsupervised where there may be any chance of fire as they can overheat and ignite combustibles in even of a power failure during operation.

They are diesel with electric blower, pump, ignitor, etc. power draw is about 15 amps at 120V, they are ducted heaters so the main box is designed to sit outside, there is an exhaust pipe that is stored in one of the compartments that extends about 7 ft about ground level, and the air is then ducted using 15 inch flex ducts from and back to the structure to be heated. There is also a small adjustable bypass air inlet that allows the mixing of fresh air. Note these require a start up process not just flip switch and get heat, you first have to flip the purge switch on for a couple of seconds, turn main switch to fan only, let it come up to speed, then turn to heat.

 

[155mm]

escobar,

I had to put one relay in the freezer over night, then put it in the heater and it worked. It is also the relay that came from the 'red headed step child' heater, so it was our guinea pig. We were so fed up with it not working, we didnt care if it never worked again. We drilled holes in the case and moved the relay trips by hand, we moved the magnetic switch by hand, still no fire. We 'warmed' it up with another H82 heater, like warmed sitting by the heat exchanger in the duct, no work. Put it in the freezer over night, plugged it in to the J2 plug while still frozen, with a jumper wire grounded relay case to bare spot of metal on heater and the stupid thing works to this day.

 

[Another Ahab]

Put it in the freezer over night, plugged it in to the J2 plug while still frozen, with a jumper wire grounded relay case to bare spot of metal on heater and the stupid thing works to this day.

I tell you, sometimes electrical workings seem almost like wizardry to me:

- How would freezing the relay kick-start its functioning!?

 

[Isaac-1]

If I were to guess the relay points had welded themselves together and the metal contracting when they were frozen snapped them apart.

 

[escobar420]

what about something like this

[h=1]White-Rodgers 668-415 Kwik-Sensor Cad Cell Relay Oil Burner Control 2 or 3-Wire 45-Second Timer[/h]
http://www.combustiondepot.com/prod...il-burner-control-2-or-3-wire-45-second-timer

THIS LINK NO LONER WORKS!