Diesel heater safety

[sailboy21]

In a thread here I read a post about leaving your Dickinson heater on to keep your boat dry. That is a very common practice here in Alaska, as are candles (gasp). Dickinson heaters are gravity fed, and seem to provide a good service life. But, I don't have one, instead my boat is equipped with a Force 10 pressurized diesel heater. I would not consider leaving this on while away, but I do have some questions about what would happen if:

Pressure drops too low
Flame goes out
Burner clogs

Anyone have experience with these heaters? I've only used it a handful of times, but never overnight or in a seaway.

[sailingdog]

Leaving heaters on unattended sounds rather risky to me... YMMV.

[KeelHaulin]

I have a Force-10 Diesel version also. Never used it; it needs a new tank. What pressure do you run yours at? I'm considering converting it over to LPG; how much does it smell like burning Diesel in your cabin when you run it?

[sailboy21]

It runs ok around 20psi, but no more. Seems to burn fine as low as 5psi, but wont light. It is a real pain to preheat. As for smell.. put some mineral spirits in with the oil and it doesn't smell bad. Might run better on kerosene, but thats another fuel on board.

Yeah, leaving diesel heaters running scares me, but everyone does it here. Probably no worse that a fan driven electric heater and all the notoriously poor AC systems around... At least the city started to issue $500 fines and notices to boats with substandard shore power.

[barklie]

I have a Dickinson Chesapeake heater on a boat I just bought. No manual available, and Dickinson says they no longer have one. Does anyone have a manual or a reliable resource where i could find one?