Better, Diesel-Fired Liquid Heater for 2011-2012 Leaf

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Oilpan4

Well-known member
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Jan 9, 2019
Messages
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Winter on the 2011 and 2012 kills range, using the heater kills it even more.
I'm luck that I have at 2014 battery with all 12 bars so I'm not suffering too bad.

I had seen these before on the diesel truck forums but didn't know if they had been used on the nissan leaf.
Then I found this:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26390&p=545676#p545676

Paulsp looks like he is enjoying his diesel fuel fired air heater.

I was considering one of these or the diesel fuel burning coolant heater. One of the german made Eberspacher brand ones, not the cheap chinese knock offs. I don't want to fire bomb my own car, I actually like this car.

I mainly want the defroster to just be blasting heat. But that doing that in the leaf kills range bad.

I think the Eberspacher has a circulation pump built into it. I could plumb the coolant heater into the coolant loop and run it with the electrical heater. Hopefully the electric heater would barely draw any power.

If I use the air heater and stick it in back like paulsp did I just don't know if it will do much for defrosting.

What do you think?
Leave the coolant loop alone and just use the air heater or plumb it in?
 
That post was specifically about the diesel fired air heater.
I am leaning towards using the diesel fired coolant heater, which it doesn't appear that anyone on here has tried to install. I would like to use the diesel fired coolant heater unless someone know of a good reason not to.
Then if I know the coolant heater won't work for some reason, abandon that idea and copy paulsp to the letter and call it a day.
So should I have just did a thread hyjack and started asking about coolant heaters on an air heater post?
Seems kind of like a jerk move.
 
That post was specifically about the diesel fired air heater.
I am leaning towards using the diesel fired coolant heater, which it doesn't appear that anyone on here has tried to install. I would like to use the diesel fired coolant heater unless someone know of a good reason not to.
Then if I know the coolant heater won't work for some reason, abandon that idea and copy paulsp to the letter and call it a day.
So should I have just did a thread hyjack and started asking about coolant heaters on an air heater post?
Seems kind of like a jerk move.
 
Using the existing coolant loops does sound like a good idea if it would work. The current heater must have some sort of thermostatic control so if an exterior heater was added that should reduce the electrical load.

A couple of questions though....

1) isn't the coolant used for the heater on the 11/12 models looped through the motor and charger as well? I was into Leaf's back then and have no knowledge about the 11/12 versions but I thought there was one coolant loop that combined the heater and the motor/charger so that the heater could use the heat output from the motor and charger. If that's the case, it might not be a good idea to heat the coolant too high since that coolant is being used to control the temperature of the motor charger. I guess if the temperature was set to the same level as the heater raises it to then there should be no problem.

2) is the plumbing accessible enough to make this work out? As long as no metal has to get cut to route coolant lines it sounds doable.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
That is the status quo here. combine a dozen topics into one thread then do a tour...

Not true. The "status quo" as you mistakenly call it, is to let people start multiple topics on the same subject, ask them if maybe that isn't the best move, and then be unable to locate all of the topics again in the future. Few topics actually get moved or combined.
 
goldbrick said:
Using the existing coolant loops does sound like a good idea if it would work. The current heater must have some sort of thermostatic control so if an exterior heater was added that should reduce the electrical load.

A couple of questions though....

1) isn't the coolant used for the heater on the 11/12 models looped through the motor and charger as well? I was into Leaf's back then and have no knowledge about the 11/12 versions but I thought there was one coolant loop that combined the heater and the motor/charger so that the heater could use the heat output from the motor and charger. If that's the case, it might not be a good idea to heat the coolant too high since that coolant is being used to control the temperature of the motor charger. I guess if the temperature was set to the same level as the heater raises it to then there should be no problem.

2) is the plumbing accessible enough to make this work out? As long as no metal has to get cut to route coolant lines it sounds doable.

The coolant loop for cabin heat is separate from the loops for cooling the onboard charger, motor, and inverter.
 
LeftieBiker said:
How about a slight but helpful title change? "Better, Diesel-Fired Liquid Heater for 2011-2012 Leaf"?

Do it.
Since I would like my install to be specific to the 2011 and 2012, focusing on the coolant heat loop.

If there is an "add a coolant heater to a 2011-2012 leaf" post I was unable to find it. My bad.
Remember I'm new, so I'm not going to remember a post from a few years ago like the old timers.

I have already determined that for me to upgrade to a 2013 or newer leaf would cost at least $3,000.
Because there are few to no leafs for sale here, the ones that are for sale almost always have battery degradation so I would have to have one shipped in from a cooler climate, like i did with my 2011, then my resale market here for the leaf sucks.
And I believe that this mod will be superior to the newer heat pump cars, you know, great hest with almost 0 loss in range.

So I got no problem spending $700 to $800 on a heater.
 
Your idea seems to be a good one. I'm not certain that it would cause a problem if posted in the other topic, but making it more clear removes any objection I had. You can edit your first post to change the title, I think. If not I'll do it later.
 
I think the first order of business is do an experiment to see if the coolant loop can take an additional source of heat added to it. A proof of concept test before I spend the $.

My expectation is that I turn on the diesel coolant heater when the cars normal heater is turned on, both heating apparatus come on, warm up the coolant loop, then the diesel heater stays going and the 380v DC heater drops off and the diesel heater provides all the heat.

Over the years I created multiple 240v based hot water heater element based coolant heaters. I would plumb these into the ICE coolant system. I would start the vehicle to get the coolant flowing then energize the hot water heater element. A 5,500w hot water heater element added before the heater core would almost instantly start thawing ice off the windshield when plugged in.
The first ones were really crude just a 2,800w element and screw together galvanized pipe bits and brass hose barbs. The latest generation used welded 316 stainless steel tube, stainless hose barbs and a 5,500w folded over element. ThE first one was made back about 2006, the all stainless welded version started in 2010.
Since I know I have 1 or 2 of these heaters in my junk collection I would plumb 1 into the leafs coolant loop just to see what happens.

The 2011, 2012 and later sport leaf heater unit appears to contain the heating element and the temperature transducers together in the same unit. So I would want coolant to flow through the diesel fired heater or 240v AC electric test heater before it goes to the leafs existing battery powered heater.
 
I see no reason why it wouldn't work. The Leaf should have some sort of thermostatic control.

How do you plan on testing it? Heating up the coolant going into the heater and seeing if the Leaf's heater stops heating and at what temperature it does so? If coolant starts boiling then you know that it doesn't have a thermostat.

I guess if it didn't have a thermostatic control, you could make some sort of high power relay that shuts off the heater when the diesel heater is on.

I've used those diesel preheaters before on several vehicles. They do a great job at heating engine blocks and even providing heat while the vehicle is shut off. You may be able to get a 5 or 6kW heater for $1,000 new. Maybe even less if it's used.
 
I'm kind of cheap so I will be looking to buy the diesel coolant heater this summer when no one wants them. Hopefully find a slightly used one.

As long as it passes the 240v AC hot water heater element proof of concept test.

Plumbing in the 240v AC hot water heater element just to see what will happen should tell me everything I need to know.

I don't think I want to several the connection between the DC-DC converter and the leafs original heating element, I'm sure it will throw some kind of fault.

If I can get the leaf to blow out oppressive heat with only a little power going to the leafs heating element I will consider it a success.
 
Lookie what I found. Searching for something else.

Should I have brought this 2012 topic back to life?

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=10001&p=227745

But it doesn't look like they got very far.
 
With the way this is looking I'm thinking about just skipping the proof of concept test and just getting the diesel heater and diving in.
The sooner the better.
 
I found a range extending heater mod that confirms how I was thinking the heater works.
The mod ties in to the wiring harness and parallels a resistor with the existing thermal resistor to make the sensor read that the coolant in the heater is hotter than it really is.

So the leaf has 2 set points, it has a max coolant temperature set point and the other is the cabin air set point. It hits either one of those and ramps the power tone heater down.
Then I think you can also limit heater power by turning the temperature down to 60F and driving the car in eco mode.
 
Not a coolant heater but air heater.. removeable in 1hrs work

http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26390&start=30
 
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