Velit Gasoline Heater Vanlife Review

The following feedback is directed to Velit. I will update it after I review the Bluetooth thermostat:

• Differentiate: It's quite clear that this product is derived from the expired Espar patents similar to the many diesel heater clones. I understand Velit has done a lot of research and product development to enhance this design by improving the combustion chamber etc. However, I feel Velit needs to further this approach and differentiate itself more so it is very clear to potential customers.
  • For the next version of the heater don't make it look like a clone (even though it's not); at the very least redesign the plastic case (make sure to consider easier access for maintenance).
  • There are diesel heaters available on Amazon for $100. Your website should make it very clear what the value add of this product is since it costs over $600 more.
• Heater controls: The main ways a customer is going to interact with your product are via the controls on the thermostat or in the app. Make these experiences as enjoyable as possible and visually appealing while still blending in. You made great progress on this with the new thermostat by improving the dial/button interface and making it black.
• Error codes: I understand that providing error codes might be necessary on a small screen, however please also provide short descriptions especially for the common ones such as ignition failure. This will reduce the time customers need to reference the user manual (which they might not have with them) for error codes.
• Reduce air bubbles: If there is anything you can do to help prevent air bubbles in the design of the heater, fuel line, etc. it would drastically improve the reliability of this product.
• Separate temperature sensor: By combining the thermostat and controls in a single unit, it sometimes restricts the placement to non-preferred locations (you don't want temperature sensor near path of where hot air blows). If the temperature sensor was separate from the control case or there was an option for a separate secondary temperature sensor (which when plugged in is used instead of the sensor in the control case), it would allow for ideal placement of both the controls and the temperature sensor.
• Website: Your website is a primary location where your customers will go to learn about your products to inform their purchasing decisions.
  • The only indication that there is more than a single photo are the right/left arrows. Add thumbnails underneath, as most sites do on their product pages.
  • Consider adding direct comparisons to Espar, Webasto, and other knockoff heaters and show why your product is great.
  • Add a few more product photos at different angles.
  • Add photos of it installed in a few vehicles.
  • The app photos on the heater page are for your air conditioner not the heater.
• Heater parts: When looking for replacement parts on your air heaters category page it looks as if only the fuel pump is available for purchase. At minimum, update this thumbnail to represent multiple parts. Having parts available to order is important and something customers value.
  • When on the parts product page there are 23 different options listed; only 3 contain photos and none contain a description or any specifications. For the ones that do have photos, the photos are not directly linked to the items so you have to guess and infer which you might be looking at.
  • The Bluetooth thermostat is listed at $125, which is more than an entire cheap diesel heater knockoff on Amazon. If possible, consider lowering the prices on parts and plan on making your income on main products.
  • Move shipping and air fees to separate page.
• Product manual: There could be a lot of improvements to the manual (I'm not going to go into most of these here). It is your job to ensure customers have the information they need to reliably install your product correctly. If a customer unintentionally installs it incorrectly, they will usually conclude your product is bad or faulty not that they didn't understand one of the steps. This could result in negative reviews which prevent others from purchasing your product all because someone didn't understand part of the install. The install guide should be written to help the process go as smoothly as possible. It should break things down into easy-to-follow steps, while also providing enough clarity to answer advanced questions for non-typical installs.
  • The manual on the website and the manual that came with my product are both listed as version 1.3, however they are different.
  • Portions of the current manual seem to be a copied or heavily inspired directly out of Espar or other diesel heater manuals (example) and the diagrams don't even match the appearance of Velit parts.
  • The website still offers version 1.3 of the manual which is the same version I used in spring of 2024 but the current manual features the new thermostat.
• Customer engagement: Monitor and engage in your Facebook group and on other social platforms. When I first got my heater, Velit had an employee monitoring and engaging in the Facebook group, but that no longer seems to be the case.
• Clearer specs:
  • Cooling capacity is listed as 14000BTU, which I believe should say heating capacity.
  • The URL of the page contains 17000btu which I believe should be 14000btu.
  • Specs list volts and watts, but not amps. Amps is important for determining both fuse and wire size.
  • Doesn't list lengths of included items: fuel line, exhaust pipe, intake hose, outlet hose, fuel pickup, power cable, fuel pump cable, thermostat cable.
  • Unclear if Bluetooth can be disabled.
  • No listed service agreement for the app or firmware updates.
  • Add metric equivalents.
• Maintenance: It's inevitable that long-term owners of your products will need to perform maintenance at some point, sometimes even while on the road. Please consider this in your product designs. Adding easy disconnects near the heater for wires (power, fuel pump, and thermostat) would be helpful. A maintenance guide or video could be useful in supporting these customers.
• Install templates: Sometimes the most difficult part of the install is figuring out exactly where to install it and how to route the fuel line to that location. Providing install templates and guides for common locations in popular camper vans (Sprinter, Transit, ProMaster) would be a huge benefit for your customers. I made my own install template using CAD files from Ford which I then printed on a transparency sheet.
• Exhaust pipe: I painted my exhaust black using high temp primer and paint (2000°F). I think a lot of people would be interested in a black exhaust option. There are also chemical processes to accomplish this, however I do not know how economical these are or how they hold up to heat.
• Current stock: It's unclear if you have stock available or not. I can add the item to my cart and continue to checkout with no warning, however under the description on the product page it says the item is "backordered" for the US and "special order" for Canada and UK.
• Product name: It's unclear what the official product name is. As you produce future models it can become confusing when people are referring to a generic Velit heater instead of the specific model. This is also the case with the heater's thermostat (original vs Bluetooth).
  • Velit Gasoline Air Heater
  • Velit 4000P Gasoline Air Heater
  • GAS400012V
• Location: Where are you located? Your about page says you design and test your products in Seattle, WA, but your contact page and marketing emails list an address in Spokane, WA.