[Public-List] Re Cubic Mini / heaters

[aldworthfamily]

Very interesting, thanks.I'll read up on this these.GregSent from my Bell Samsung device over Canada's largest network.
-------- Original message --------From: Kurt R via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> Date: 2019-12-01  21:29  (GMT-05:00) To: Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> Cc: Kurt R <sailnsc at gmail.com> Subject: [Public-List] Re Cubic Mini / heaters Hello all -I've been living aboard 15 years or so, and used a Cubic Mini for the last3 years on both my A30 and on an Islander 36. For a wood stove, it is afine product. It is cute, engineered, built, and priced well, but it is ahungry little beast with a small stomach, and it doesn't mind making amess. It'll rust in a skinny minute, and most wood produces a ton of ashyou'll have to scoop out every 3 or so full-chamber burns.My experience has shown me that the best bang-for-buck and time of burnfuel is provided by the compressed sawdust 'logs' you can buy at TractorSupply for $3-4 per 6 pack, which makes 12 full-chamber fires. Use a saw tonotch the bricks deeply in their middle, and snap them in half to make thema perfect size for the stove. You'll get ~2 hours of burn from one of them,and best of all, they produce almost no ash and little in the way of thegunk which bogs up the flue. You MUST keep them dry - if/when any watergets on them, they expand like something from a fable.OK, that said, I've found a much better alternative in what is known as a"Chinese Diesel Air Heater". Six or so + years ago they were only made byone (I think German) company and cost near a grand (in $US), plus shipping.Thensome Russians cloned the things, and you could get one of those clonesfor just $600 from eBay. Just a couple years ago the Chinese got into thegame, and now you can pick them up from eBay or Amazon for as low as about$115. That's what I did about a month ago, and this thing is the beesknees. No ashes, *lots* of dry heat, little fuel usage, low DC currentdraw, needs not much more space than the Cubic. There is a Facebook groupof about 28K members where you can ask questions, get "support", research,see mods, etc etc. You can also check them out on any one of many YouTubevideos, just search the name. Quick stats for my 2-5KW unit: it uses mostamps at startup, I've read 8-10 amps, but only for/under 10 minutes, thendrops to 1-2 amps/hour. Fuel burn is along the lines of 0.2 liters per houror less. It is loud at startup until the glow plug has things going nicely,then it throttles back to being just fan noise, and metronome-ish clicksmade by the fuel pump.The 10 liter tank (or 2.6 gal) supplied with theheater should give you ~50 hours of burn, and is about the same size as 4.5full-sized sawdust bricks (providing ~18 hours of burn). You can plumb itoff of your main diesel tank if you'd like. For right now, I've justremoved the Cubic and stuffed the diesel heater exhaust tube up into thestove stack, packing around it with aluminum foil 'stuffing' and finishedwith aluminum foil tape to seal it up. I have placed my CO detector justunder that area, gotten no alerts as yet.Hope that helps_______________________________________________These businesses support your Association:http://www.alberg30.org/store/A30supporters.htmlPlease support them._______________________________________________Public-List mailing listPublic-List at lists.alberg30.orghttp://lists.alberg30.org/listinfo.cgi/public-list-alberg30.org