"DSK" wrote in message
.. .
Tamaroak wrote:
What's the cruiser's opinion on these furnaces? I'm thinking of
installing their air 5000 and wonder how hard they are to put in and how
reliable they are. Are they noisy?


Don't know about the air furnaces but the hydronic (silly word, but that's
what they call it) heaters are great. They are very quiet IMHO- mostly you
hear the ticking of the fuel dosing pump which sounds about like a small
clock running at variable speeds. If there is any other sound going on,
you can't hear it. The fan & pump are almost silent, you can hear them if
you open the engine room access door & listen carefully. When it fires at
max you can hear a whooshing noise in the exhaust but that's mostly when
it is coming up to temp.

The biggest issue is that the things are tricky to install properly. Our
boat did not really have a good place to install it and I did not realize
this until already started on the job.

As for reliability, we have only had ours for two years but have had no
trouble. Open the fuel valve, push the button, and 10 minutes later the
radiators are HOT. I wanted specifically to heat up our head compartment
and it can be made into a sauna on the coldest nights.

fair skies- Doug King

I have an Airtop 3500 in a J/32 and it has had a few problems with
reliability. The installation is critical, especially the routing of air
intake hose. The plastic housing on the furnace is not very well-attached,
and if there is stress on the intake hose it can distort. This caused the
fan motor to be stalled on mine, which blew out the motor for a few hundred
$$ repair bill.

I can send a complete description of my installation by private mail if
desired, and there are a couple of photos on my J/32 web site:
www.sailj32.com

Don