Janitrol heater

[hharney]

How many incidents have been caused by the combustion heater? I have not ever heard that using these is a danger. I agree that having one of these units on fire producing heat while flying across the country could look and seem like a hazard. But these are proven appliances and with proper maintenance and use will be fine. There are a large amount of GA aircraft that have these units and you just don't hear about planes falling out of the sky. I did a quick search on the FAA site and only found 2 incidents and one of them didn't say anything about the heater. If there are more incidents that I am not finding here please pass them on to this thread.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?e...22X02072&key=1

[Paul462]

Yeah, you're right - there probably aren't that many crashes caused by combustion heater malfunctions. Maybe it's the psychological aversion to the scenario - drifting peacefully off to sleep under the influence of carbon monoxide somehow doesn't seem as bad.

Of course, electric heaters risk electrical fire, and muff heaters risk carbon monoxide poisoning (although a good digital read-out carbon monoxide meter with alarm would mitigate that risk). I wonder how these three heater options compare in terms of crashes per 100,000 hours flown? Maybe combustion heaters are actually safer than muff-type heaters?

[rmorris]

Sorry, but I just don't understand the thinking by Cessna engineers, nor why no one has made a modification through field approval or STC to remedy it.

The reason a combustion heater is necessary on most twins is simple - the engines are out hanging under the wings, so very inefficient to try and pipe that excess heat through an exhanger into the cabin. Our engines are not out under the wings- we have one right in front of us - just a like a single engine design.

On single engine airplances it is a simple process to set-up a heat exchanger type system, no extra fuel or flame needed, to get heat into the cabin. You still have to have proper carbon monoxide detectors and sound exhaust system checks done under any system. Why not just heat the Skymaster the way a single engine plane does it?

Has anyone ever tried to use a mod that gets nice engine heat into the cabin and eliminates the combustion heater?
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Washington Dispensaries

[hharney]

The normal aspirated Skymaster has the heat exchanger feature. Only the Turbo and the P models use the combustion heater.

[rmorris]

Originally Posted by hharney

The normal aspirated Skymaster has the heat exchanger feature. Only the Turbo and the P models use the combustion heater.

I'm ?? guessing ?? it has to do with trying to heat exchange at flight levels, but what about lower? Seems that the turbo should be able to be set-up with a heat exhanger and then switch over to combustion if for some reason you get high and exchanger doesn't function.

Anyone out there ever tried to set up a turbo or p with heat exchanger type heat in lieu or in addition to the combustion model?
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Puma

[JeffAxel]

Originally Posted by rmorris

I'm ?? guessing ?? it has to do with trying to heat exchange at flight levels, but what about lower? Seems that the turbo should be able to be set-up with a heat exhanger and then switch over to combustion if for some reason you get high and exchanger doesn't function.

Anyone out there ever tried to set up a turbo or p with heat exchanger type heat in lieu or in addition to the combustion model?

never tried this, but the P210 uses heat off the exhaust thru a heat exchanger. Worked fine down to -30 or so in my experience. Simple and lightweight. I wonder why Cessna didn't change to this on the later models?? The C&D heater works well though.

[Kim Geyer]

The T337H has a heat exchanger and only uses the heat from 2 cylinders. I guess it works good because the pilots don't whine about being cold.
Kim