Made in Russia but based in Canada, Planar Heaters are a great addition to any recreational vehicle, especially if you plan on living in it during the cold weather months. Two years ago, when we drove up to Alaska with a truck bed camper we endured some pretty cold nights. Pretty cold is an understatement. Nighttime temps would drop and we’d have issues with the unit’s stock heater. We would wake up to our dog’s water bowl frozen solid. After upgrading our living arrangements to a 41 foot race trailer with a 14 foot garage, we decided we didn’t want to endure freezing nights. We wanted to live like normal people do; warm when we go to bed and warm when we wake up.
Tyson began his research and didn’t stop until he found what he thought would be the best product for our needs. The Planar Diesel 8DM-12 retails for nearly $1000 but we thought overtime we could easily make up for this cost. While it still needs battery power and fuel to run, it’s much more efficient then the stock heater which burns through both battery juice and propane. Diesel provides higher BTU’s than propane making it a more efficient fuel system alone. The stock heater consists of two separate heaters (one in bedroom and one in kitchen) where as the Planar is one heater, using less battery power but putting out more heat.
If you have patience and enough courage to drill holes in your RV, installing the Planar heater is definitely something you can do yourself. If you have both of those traits and happen to be an extreme perfectionist, it may take you 5 or 6 days to complete. With enough trips to the hardware store and measuring and pre-measuring, you will successfully install a Planar Diesel Air Heater in your unit.
Choosing to install the Planar heater ourselves, we could also place the vents exactly where we wanted them… or as exact as our layout would allow for. Keep in mind, you have to network the ducting to your vents and you want to make this as easy for yourself as you can. We mounted the heater in the generator compartment, which sits behind the front jacks. This is a very convenient spot as we can easily access the heater from outside the camper and didn’t have to run the ducting too far or cut too many holes to get inside the bedroom. Obviously every unit is different so you may have to do some searching to find this conveniently located spot!
When looking for a proper spot to mount the heater, keep these things in mind:
– Heater must be mounted 2 inches away from any surface on the intake side
– Heater must be mounted completely level and flat
– You must be able to drill through mounting surface to release the air intake and exhaust outside of the unit
– You must be able to access your battery source
– You have to have enough room to fit your ducting and run ducting to appropriate location
– Along with ducting, you will have a thermostat to run inside to a convenient place
The installation instructions provided were pretty straight forward, however, keep in mind that Planar is a Russian company so you may have to re-read them a few times to really understand what you’re supposed to be doing. When it came time to actually run the heater, that’s when I got really confused with the instructions. There is definitely a little bit of a learning curve when familiarizing yourself with the instructions. Have patience.
Overall, once committed to the fact that we were going to have to drill holes in our RV, the install wasn’t really that bad. We have used the heater extensively and are extremely impressed with the heat output that it generates. The thermostat takes a little getting used to as it is only in Celsius and has three buttons with no text. As soon as you acquaint yourself with operating procedures, you will be very happy to have this heater with you on your adventures. It will keep you warm and go about doing so in an efficient way. Be sure to check out our videos detailing the install, sound, and review!
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*This is a basic review based on our experience with the Planar 8DM-12 Heater. You should follow and adhere to the directions provided to you by Planar Heaters.
