Specifications

REVISION LEVEL A - 12/09/13

EXAMPLES / CAUSES OF CARBONING

Carbon is a term used to classify debris in the burner chamber. What

you may visually see may not be carbon but still needs to be addressed

properly to resolve the root cause of the issue. This is just a guide to the

more common things you may encounter.

1. AIR FUEL MIXTURE

a. If the air fuel mixture is off it can cause a black soot in the burner chamber

and can also be identied by looking though the heater exhaust port.

i. Improper angle of fuel pump

ii. Wrong fuel pump used

iii. Fuel pump out of calibration, perform fuel quantity test found on page 18.

iv. Low spots or restriction of intake tube or exhaust tube

v. Debris ingested into the combustion air intake fan impeller

vi. Improper length or too many bends of intake and exhaust tube

Combined maximum of 6.5’ and 270° of bends

2. NON-FUEL RELATED BUILDUP

a. If all the steps have been covered under the section outlining code 52

and the chamber is clean looking the issue may be in the fuel or

chemicals ingested by the intake tube.

i. If the heater intake tube is in a location to pick up road debris like

water and salt it can build up in the burner matting.

ii. Additives are OK to use but if the concentration is in excess of the

manufactures recommendations, it can build up in the burner matting.

iii. Oil related products like ATF or used oil will cause premature chamber

failure.

This practice will not be tolerated by the heater. If oil must be used it is

recommended to operate your Espar heater from a separate fuel source.

3. SHORT CYCLING OF HEATER

If the heater is allowed to short cycle it may cause a build-up of Creosote.

Minimum runtime on a heater should be 15 minutes.

a. Sizing of the heater is important: If it is sized too large or cycled off at

too low of a coolant temperature could lead to premature burner

chamber failures.

b. Electrical connection issues: If the signal wire is sporadic, it will turn

the heater on and off.

c. Abrupt loss of main power: Can cause burner chamber failure due to

loss of its cool down cycle – never use the Master Disconnect Switch to

cut heater power.

Figure 15

Figure 16

Figure 17

Examples / Causes of Carboning