Snip "I am looking for opinions and observations about the Dickinson
Antarctic
Diesel Heater. This heater puts out 6400 btu on low and 16500 btu on high.
It
uses a low voltage fan to augment heat circulation. A coil is available to
heat hot water."

Response:  We have a Fab-All 170 manufactured by Sig-Marine unit installed
in the saloon on our DeFever 44.  Same church, different pew.  These guys
are located in British Columbia but recently sold the heater product line to
Force 10, also in BC.  The product info quotes 6,000/17,000 BTU output.

"Is this unit relatively trouble free?"

Response:  Yes, very trouble free.  I asked Sure Marine, the local Puget
Sound vendor of diesel heaters (Dickinson etc), about the procedure for
lighting and maintaining them and they told me the technology peaked in 1945
and hasn't changed since.  You just need to clean them every now and then
and you've got heat.  I clean ours about once a month but we are living
aboard and, in the PNW, we run it two or so hours each morning and another
four or five hours at night.  We don't leave it on when we are gone nor when
sleeping.

"Does it smell like fuel all the time or not at all?"

Response:  Nope, mine doesn't.  Sometime when we are getting hit by 25 knot
winds from the right direction we get a bit of a smell but, 99% of the time
it is nice, warm heat.

"Is downdrafting a problem without a barometric damper?"

Response:  Yes, you want a damper of some type, lots will depend on the
mounting location and the length of flue above the deck.

"The caps available are the mushroom style or H style, which is better?"

Response:  I have the H style and mine is mounted on top of about 4 feet of
flue above the deck.  There is another 4 feet of pipe between the heater and
the top of the cabin for a total of 8 feet of flue. The mushroom type seems
to be used on surface (i.e. deck level) installations while the H style is
atop a flue pipe.

"I wonder if the coil might feed enough hot water with a circulating pump to
heat a single zone forward?"

Response:  Can't comment on this, we don't have a heating coil.  I think the
coil is really intended to only heating water for consumption, not a heat
zone.

The heaters are great but be aware they take a little effort to light them,
we take about 45 minutes to an hour to really start pumping out heat and
they are pretty well limited to one space on your boat.  Ours will get the
saloon area well above 75 degrees F in a couple of hours but will do
virtually nothing for the forward or aft staterooms.  We do not have an
auxilliary fan for the heater but do have a number of fans throughout the
boat and we use these to move the heated air from the overhead.

These type of heaters are simple, reliable, easy to install and much less
expensive when compared to diesel forced air or oil fired hot water systems.
The down side is that (a) they take longer to heat up an area, (b) are
pretty much limited to one cabin on your boat and (c) take a bit of
experience to light them.  I would have been happier if the boat had come
with an Espar heater...but you can't have everything when buying used boats.

Steven Williford
M/V Cloud Nine
DeFever 44
Oak Harbor, WA

When I had my ESPAR and lived aboard in Rhode Island for 5 winters, I
had the same problem keeping it clean, and then I got an idea.  Since I
was going to be "iced in" all winter, I had the ship's tank filled with
K1 and my problems went away.

Your mileage may vary...

                               Regards.....

Phil Rosch
Old Harbor Consulting
M/V "Curmudgeon" Marine Trader 44 TC
Currently Moored in Marathon, Vaca Key, FL

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't
do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away
from
the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover." - Mark Twain