We’ve got something a little bit different to talk about. It’s not a new laser machine, it’s the VEVOR 12V 8KW Diesel heater.
Now what happened was that Vevor approached us to see if we would like to feature one of their products on our channel and we could choose anything we liked up to a value of $200.
At this point, winter was coming to an end but we were still freezing our butts off in the garage when using our laser machines. And as we spend a bit of time out in the garage playing we thought it would be a good idea to go with a heater and this is the one we chose.
NOTE: For this review the heater is not set up where we will have it eventually. We are in the process of setting up the garage and planning where to put our laser machines etc. Once that is done we will place the heater in the best spot.
Now bear in mind that we had no idea how this would work so we were thinking we would just be able to pour in some diesel, turn it on and away it would go.
But no, that wasn’t to be, BUT it did end up being doable for us. So if we can do it so can you, although we did get a bit of help with some of it as we weren’t too sure how to connect it to a power source…but more on that later.
Now this heater is designed for use in tents, caravans, cars, trucks, rooftop tents and small workshops and garages. As long you as you can vent the exhaust outside, or pipe the heating duct into the area to be heated, you are good to go.
BUYING LINKS
WATCH THE REVIEW VIDEO
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
Here’s what came in the box along with the heater.
- A heater duct pipe
- An exhaust pipe
- An air vent
- A silencer
- An intake pipe
- An air filter
- And various clamps, screws, bolts and clips to help put it all together.
- We also received a remote control.
- And of course, a manual.
PUTTING THE HEATER TOGETHER
Putting it together is pretty easy. You just attach the intake pipe to the bottom of the heater, and they’ve conveniently included an opening on the side to get the screwdriver in.
We didn’t realise this at first so after a bit of cussing while trying to screw up the nuts and bolts from beneath, we spotted the side opening. After that everything came together easily.
You also attach the exhaust pipe to the bottom of the heater. This pipe does get really hot…ask me how I know…so it does need to be bent in a way to prevent it from touching whatever surface you might put this on, but more on this a little further on.
Then you attach the muffler. This will help reduce the noise of the heater.
The air filter also needs to be attached. Again pretty simple to do, so no issues there. It just goes on with the clamp that’s included with the heater.
The last step was to attach the heater duct pipe. This easily went on with one of the large clamps and then the air vent was attached to the end.
The pipe is not terribly long so you may need to purchase a longer one depending on where you are going to be using this.
ATTACHING THE HEATER TO THE WOOD
So with the assembly done, it was time to move the heater out into the garage.
And at this point we needed to raise the heater up from the surface to provide enough space under the heater for the pipes to sit .
I’ve already mentioned that the exhaust pipe gets mighty hot so we didn’t want it to burn the surface of where we have the heater sitting.
So we got a piece of 2 x 4 from the local hardware and since we had gotten Paula’s brother up to help with the technical stuff we thought we may as well make use of him to help cut the wood and attach the heater to it. Although we could have done this part ourselves, just saying. We have all the necessary wood cutting tools and saw stools.
And by the way, the screws come with the heater so you don’t have to go rummaging around in your toolbox to look for some.
CONNECTING THE POWER SUPPLY
The next thing we needed to do was connect the heater to a power source and hence why we needed Paula’s brother as he had a 12 volt battery, which he kindly lent to us so we could get the heater working.
He stripped the wire and curled them around to attach them to the battery. He suggested that we get some crimping rings (I think that’s what they are called) to finish off those wires a little better.
And this is the battery we are working with. You need at least a 15 amp battery.
And the last thing we needed to do is pour in the diesel.
We also ended up removing the heater duct pipe as it wasn’t really necessary for where we placed the heater and just got in the way.
STARTING THE MACHINE
Now we are ready to go. We can turn on the machine and it will pretty much start heating up without you having to press any other buttons, but there are various settings that you will want to play with to get it right for you.
Now bear in mind, that there are multiple versions of this machine in different sizes and with different specifications and we went with the vertical option without bluetooth.
I’m not sure why we opted for no bluetooth as it’s only about a $10 difference if you want to get the bluetooth version as opposed to the regular version.
So the controller we have is for the non-bluetooth model but the options are pretty much the same on both models and instructions are provided for both in the manual.
CHANGING SETTINGS
Below are the various steps to changing the various functions on the machine. To see these steps in action watch the video above.
We will be working with the controller in the picture below.
CHANGING FROM CELSIUS TO FAHRENHEIT
The heater has two modes AUTO and MANUAL and when you turn it on it defaults to the AUTO mode and in this mode, you can change the temperature from celsius to fahrenheit or vice versa by pressing and holding the UP key for 3 seconds.
SETTING THE TEMPERATURE
You can also set the temperature in AUTO Mode by pressing the UP or DOWN buttons.
CHANGING FROM AUTO TO MANUAL
To change from AUTO to MANUAL mode you press the the ON/OFF key for 3 seconds.
SETTING THE TIME
You can set the time by pressing and holding the DOWN button.
Then you press the ON/OFF button to change the hours and then use the UP or DOWN arrows to get the hour you want. Then you press and hold the ON/OFF button again to change the seconds.
Then you just need to press the ON/OFF button to return to the main screen.
CHANGING THE POWER SETTING
In Manual mode, you can also change the power setting which ranges from 1 to 10. To do this, you just press the UP or DOWN buttons.
SETTING THE TIMER – Watch the video above
The heater has a timer that you can set it so that it turns on at a particular time and turns off after a set amount of time.
To do this, you press and hold the DOWN button and this puts you into the programming mode.
On the first screen we see the current time which we don’t want to change.
So we can press the UP arrow to move onto the next screen.
And here is where we set the start time for the heater. In other words, when we want the heater to turn on, for example I want mine to turn on at 12:35.
To change this time I press the ON/OFF button for a couple of seconds until the first two digits start flashing.
I don’t want to change that so I am going to press and hold the ON/OFF button again until the last two digits start flashing and then I can use the UP and DOWN arrows to change the time to 35 and then I press and hold to lock that in.
Then we go to the next screen by pressing the UP button and here is where you can set the length of time you want the heater to run. To change it just press and hold the ON/OFF button until the numbers flash and then use the UP and DOWN arrows to make your changes and then press and hold the ON/OFF button again to lock that in.
To get to the next screen, we press the UP button and here is where you turn the timer on.
Mine is already set to ON here but yours is probably set to OFF so to change it just press and hold the ON/OFF button again and then use the UP arrow to turn to ON.
And then press and hold the ON/OFF button to lock it in.
Then do a quick press of the ON/OFF button to get out of programming mode.
Now you just need to turn off the machine and it will start at the time you set.
CONCLUSION
Let’s start will with the build quality. It seems pretty solid and sturdy. I’ve purchased a few products from VEVOR in the past and so far everything has been well built and has a solid feel to it. My vacuum sealer is one of my favourite purchases from VEVOR and it is built like a tank.
Installation was easy. The manual covered the installation process pretty well and we had no issues with attaching all of the pipes and clamps. As we have already mentioned we did get some help as we weren’t sure about the technical stuff such as attaching the heater to the battery, but otherwise it is super easy to put together. About the only tough bit was bending the exhaust pipe, it’s quite strong.
The amount of heat it generates is amazing. It can get super hot. You can’t hold your hands in front of it for too long as it gets scalding hot on the highest temperatures.
The control panel is easy to read and changing the settings is easy when you know how. The manual is not great especially for the changing of settings on the control panel. The English translation could be better.
It does emit some sound. It can start out quite loud but then settles down to more of a white noise. We could easily talk to each other quite close to the heater without having to raise our voices.
It does have a ticking noise at times which may be annoying for some. If you have the heater situated outside and the hot air ducted in, you probably won’t hear any of the noise but if your heater is on the inside then you’re going to hear it and the ticking may be annoying. From what I’ve found this is not uncommon for diesel heaters and there are a number of videos around providing tips for how to deaden the sound. Simply search on YouTube.
The exhaust pipe is a bit exposed and it gets extremely hot so you may want to insulate it in something and make sure it is well away from kids and pets…. and yourself.
I like the idea of the clips on the sides making it super easy to remove the top to access the inside of the machine if needed. This made it real easy to check what was going on when we got an error message on the control board and the machine turned off. In that situation, we didn’t have enough fuel.
Remember to remove the fuel cap before attempting to remove the cover.
All in all however, I love this heater and I’m now quite looking forward to next winter. The amount of heat it emits is amazing and I know it will keep us warm when we are out in the garage laser engraving through the winter months.
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