In conjunction with VMACS, Inc., we tested the effect of CO2 adjustments on Air Top 2000 STC heaters at 6400’
Webasto Air Top 2000 STC air heaters are a great way to warm your cabin air and a reliable source of heat in cold weather conditions. Over time, maintenance is required on all heaters to clean out normal carbon build up in the heat exchanger and the burner insert assembly. This carbon accumulates as a result of imperfect combustion, which can be attributed to a low combustion temperature, bad fuel, or an improper air-fuel ratio due to higher elevation operation. Unlike modern combustion engines, the Air Top 2000 STC does not automatically compensate for a lower oxygen level in the combustion process. Instead, it requires a manual adjustment to the fuel delivery system in order to run more efficiently above 5,000’ which is verified by a CO2% reading in the exhaust gas.
This is where our testing protocol was developed in order to verify adjusting these heaters to the higher elevation did indeed help with carbon accumulation. We wanted to test heaters side-by-side, one from the factory and another that was properly adjusted to the testing elevation of 6400’. After certain runtime intervals, the heaters would be opened up and the carbon accumulation would be compared in order to see if the adjusted heater was actually operating more efficiently. Our results clearly showed that a proper adjustment on an Air Top 2000 STC did indeed make a huge difference in performance and carbon accumulation within the burner assembly insert and the heat exchanger. However, if you plan to spend a lot of time at high elevation, we strongly recommend the Evo 40 heater.
Contact Redpoint
Contact us today to schedule a professional high elevation adjustment. We can do the adjustment in person with the heater already installed or you can mail your heter and we will adjust it on our bench. We are also able to adjust European and Russian heaters. If you bring an installed Euro or Russian heater in your vehicle, we will need to temporarily install a different wire harness so we will need access to the heater.
An overview of our high elevation testing with Scott at VMACS
A live, professional high elevation adjustment on an AT 2000 STC
