Velit high altitude furnace install

[MsNomer]

I'm suspecting your blow out was not a solution. I recall that with Webasto, cleaning the mesh provided only brief relief—the particles are too fine even for washing and the mesh must be replaced. Given that VeLit has changed the innards, mesh would have to come from VeLit.

I’m really curious to see what VeLit says, and whether the muffler is an issue. IIRC, the Webasto exhaust pipe is smaller diameter than the VeLit, and the VeLit has to be trying to push more air. If we were to add a muffler, I would look for one that fits the Espar M4, and only with VeLit’s blessing.

Our repair parts come today. Replacing the ECU should be trivial, but the filter will be a pain. Given that the unit is finally working well—except for the occasional cutoff caused by the faulty ECU—we are loathe to mess with it.

Our use appears to be different from yours so far. Even up high, we have not needed heat in the evening. 15 minutes in the morning is enough to give us 70°+ until the sun takes over. In winter, it would be quite unusual for us to be at high altitude.

[hbn7hj]

Thanks for your comments. Agree the blow out is temporary. When I take it apart I will replace the burner assembly.

It had started turning off when it reached temperature. Thanks for the info on that.

On the road now. Will get into it when I get back.

[MsNomer]

I'm still confident we will get these kinks worked out and be warm at altitude.

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

Any updates?
I just bought a Velit furnace at the black friday $65 off sale and hope to not regret it.

[hbn7hj]

Mine did not work properly at 10,000 ft. The good news is even running massively rich and creating a lot of carbon the burner was clear. The heat exchanger choked up.

I am supposed to run the fuel pump for one minute, measure the fuel output, and give that number to Velit. They will then figure out what is needed to fix it. Probably send me a properly programmed ECU.

I didn’t get that instruction till after the RV was stored up against a wall in such a way I don’t have access to do that. I will move it and comply around the middle of December.

The difficult part of a high altitude design is keeping the burner clear. Somehow it did that even with a massively rich mixture. Will let you know what changes they make.

I haven’t heard from anyone that has run it as hard as I did at 10,000ft. Others have run it at 10,000ft for a day or two and been successful.

My definition of working is running for a month at 10,000ft. That is still in the future for me. Will post when they make the changes and post again when it meets my definition of success.

They did send me two replacement burners and I installed one even though the original looked to still be in working order. I have not run it since, even at low altitude. Will use it at low altitude over Christmas. That is the present status.

I have purchased an exhaust gas analyzer and an oxygen sensor to help me and them get it working properly. Will let you know.

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

Thanks for the update! Really appreciate you sticking with it and 'blazing the trail' with this at high altitude for the rest of us.

[MsNomer]

Ours is chugging along nicely. It ran fine at 14,130 feet on Mt. Evans, now Mt. Blue Sky. It ran fine at lower power levels when we got below 8,000. Now that we are down to ~1,000ft for the winter, we routinely run it on the lowest power level and overnight on the thermostat mode.

This week, MrNomer is planning to lengthen the exhaust to get the end out from under the van. He used the same length as the Webasto, neglecting to consider that the Webasto had a muffler which the VeLit doesn’t have. This will give us a chance to inspect for carbon at least close to the chamber. I'm not anticipating that we will see much.

[hbn7hj]

I sent the fuel flow data to Velit. (23 ml in one minute)

They promptly answered and said fuel flow was within spec. They have a new firmware upgrade currently being tested in Colorado. When that is done they will send me a new ECU. I will run it at Quartzsite (879ft) in a couple of weeks and give you the results of the exhaust gas analyzer with the old software. No clue when I’ll get the upgrade.