DA42 Cabin Heat

Any DA42 related topics.

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Stephen1536
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DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by Stephen1536 »

Our company recently purchased a 2006 DA42 and we have been having some issues with the cabin heat. There is very little, if any, heat coming through the front floor ducts. There is plenty of heat coming out of the rear foot cubbies. The system was looked at by our MX shop and they said everything checked out fine. They said its not the most efficient design. Has anyone else had this issue? Possible solutions?
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hkavasch
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by hkavasch »

I can only confirm... "it is not the most efficient design"...
besides low heating power there is also a problem with lots of cold air coming in (canopy, head lights, switches for head lights...)
We tried to improve sealings in order to have less cold air coming in... very little success...

Interested to hear if anyone found a solution... we have given up...
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ememic99
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by ememic99 »

I was quite surprised with that but unfortunately I don't see how it can be improved. I purchased DA42 last summer and haven't noticed that until winter :) My previous aircraft (Socata TB20) was perfectly sealed and heating was more than sufficient - at -20 degrees OAT it was still worm enough to wear only shirt. In DA42 few days ago at -14 OAT I had to put on jacket. And yes, there's lot of flow coming from overhead lights and switches although they seem to be sealed with silicon.
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by GLDAS »

If your plane is an NG, be aware that there is a service bulletin which improves the airflow to the cabin heater heat exchanger. The TDi planes should have decent heat - I flew one in January a bit in 0*F weather, and it was comfortable - not tee-shirt comfortable, but sweater-comfortable.

Tracking down the sources of cold air intrusion should also help a bunch.
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robert63
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by robert63 »

The DA42's I've used before were converted from Thielert to AE and built in 2006 or 2008. Both had very poor heating even with the improvements of the service bulletin already mentioned. Our model is an original DA42NG built in 2013 and has good heating even at outside temperatures of -25 degrees. You just need something for your shoulder - we usually squeeze a jacket between shoulder and canopy if the temperatures are very low.
We asked Diamond technicians why there is such a difference between converted and original NG's but they didn't have an explanation.
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by ememic99 »

robert63 wrote:We asked Diamond technicians why there is such a difference between converted and original NG's but they didn't have an explanation.
It's below expectations - simply it's cold.
GLDAS wrote:The TDi planes should have decent heat
That's not the case with mine.
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robert63
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by robert63 »

In March 2012 I even sent an email to the CEO of Diamond complaining about the heating. His information was that there is a SB which completely solves the problem and that this SB is also applied to all newly built planes at this time. For the DA42V1 delivered after AERO2012 there is an even better solution he said.

I also complained about cold air coming in from leaks around the overhead cabin lights he said that this could be fixed in any maintenance facility.

The SB was then applied to the two DA42's that I frequently chartered this time, but the improvement was just marginal.

It's probably just something very little that causes this problem.

I sometimes felt quite miserable freezing my ass off in 18.000 feet, breathing oxygen from a pipe and seeing nothing.
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by CFIDave »

FYI, DA42-VI heating performance is OK, but not great. As most people know, defrost out the upper vents comes off the left engine, and floor heat comes off of the right engine heat exchanger.

Almost too much heat comes out of the rear footwells, but heat for front seat occupants is barely adequate when it's below -20C outside. At night in the winter flying up high, we've been forced to use defrost (from the left engine) to supplement the floor heat in front.

One positive aspect of DA42 heat is that unlike almost all other twins, we're not dependent on a separate Janitrol gasoline-fueled heater in the nose -- so at least we always have some heat. I recently flew to KTEB in a Beech Baron BE58 with an inoperative heater and the flight was not pleasant.
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Colin
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by Colin »

"separate Janitrol gasoline-fueled heater in the nose"

I went and looked at a Beech Twin Bonanza (no, not a Baron) with a friend. The guy selling it was showing us around the plane and when he got to eh nose compartment said, "I'll never turn that heater on. I lost two friends to fires in their planes that started with that heater. If it starts there's nothing to do but get on the ground, and those two were airline pilots and couldn't get it on the ground fast enough."

I don't like those heaters even though I will never have one.
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Re: DA42 Cabin Heat

Post by ememic99 »

robert63 wrote:I sometimes felt quite miserable freezing my ass off in 18.000 feet, breathing oxygen from a pipe and seeing nothing.
Maybe turboprop would be solution :) for all three problems.
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