Portable Diesel Heater for Camping and Overlanding — 12V & Shore Power

Most portable diesel heaters lock you to 12V. This one switches between 12V DC and 110V/230V AC with a lever on the back panel — no adapter brick, no inverter, no generator. One heater covers your vehicle, your campsite, and your workshop.

Two models. The Apollo-P1 puts out 2.5KW (8,500 BTU) for vans, small tents and truck cabs. The Apollo-P2 puts out 5KW (16,000 BTU) for RVs, caravans, large wall tents and workshops. Both carry a 5-litre integrated fuel tank and run on diesel or kerosene down to -40°F (-40°C).

12V DC and 110V/230V AC — Switched Inside the Heater, Not Bolted On Outside

Almost every "110V diesel heater" or "electric diesel heater" sold on Amazon, eBay or Walmart is a 12V heater with a transformer brick in the box. You plug the brick into the wall, the brick feeds the heater 12V, and the heater never knows the difference.

That brick is the part that fails first. It is the cheapest component in the kit, it sits on the ground in the weather, and when it dies your AC option dies with it.

The Apollo-P1 and Apollo-P2 handle both supplies internally. A Change Power Supply lever on the back panel selects DC or AC; the AC inlet and the 12V plug sit side by side on the same panel. There is nothing external to lose, trip over, or replace.

• Boondocking or driving: run it off your vehicle or house battery on 12V DC.
• Hookup site, garage or workshop: flip the lever and plug into 110 volt or 230V AC.
• No modification either way — same heater, same controller, same ducting.

Order the AC voltage that matches your region: 110V for North America, 230V for Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Every unit includes 12V DC regardless of which AC version you pick. If you have seen these sold as a portable parking heater in Europe or Australia, that is the same product category under a different name.

Apollo-P1 vs Apollo-P2: Which Size You Need

The P1 handles about 150 sq ft; the P2 handles about 300 sq ft. Same fuel, same wiring, same controller, same installation — the difference is heat output and footprint.

	Apollo-P1	Apollo-P2
Heat output	2.5KW / 8,500 BTU	5KW / 16,000 BTU
Heated area	Up to 150 sq ft	Up to 300 sq ft
Dimensions	13.4" × 13" × 8.7" (34 × 33 × 22 cm)	16.5" × 13.8" × 9.4" (42 × 35 × 24 cm)
Weight	29 lbs (13 kg)	35 lbs (16 kg)
Fuel tank capacity	5 litres (1.3 gal)	5 litres (1.3 gal)
Runtime, ULTRA LOW	About 37 hours	About 35 hours
Runtime, BOOST	8–11 hours	8–11 hours
Power supply	12V DC + 110V or 230V AC, switched internally
Fuel	Diesel or kerosene
Cold-start rating	-40°F (-40°C)
Altitude limit	11,483 ft (3,500 m)
Best for	Vans, rooftop tents, small tents, truck cabs	RVs, caravans, wall tents, cabins, workshops

If you are choosing between them, size on the space you actually heat, not the space you own. A 5KW unit in a small van spends the night cycling on and off, which burns more fuel and wakes you up more often than a 2.5KW unit holding steady.

Up to 37 Hours of Heat on One 5-Litre Tank

Runtime is where an integrated tank earns its price. Both models run five output stages, and the bottom stage is designed for overnight holding rather than fast warm-up.

On ULTRA LOW, the Apollo-P1 runs about 37 hours on one 5-litre fill and the Apollo-P2 about 35 hours. On BOOST, with both burning flat out to bring a cold space up fast, expect 8 to 11 hours.

In practice you use BOOST for twenty minutes when you arrive, then drop to a low stage and leave it. A single tank covers a long weekend of overnight heating without refuelling.

Compare that to a 1 lb propane canister, which gives you roughly 4 to 6 hours on a small tent heater and puts about a pint of water vapour into your space per hour. Diesel gives you dry heat and a fill you can buy at any fuel pump.

What's Inside: Why This Costs More Than a $200 Diesel Heater

Budget diesel heaters last two or three seasons. A properly installed Apollo runs for years. The difference is not branding — it is four specific parts.

Pressed iron housing, not plastic. Cheap all-in-one heaters use a plastic shell that goes brittle below freezing and warps where it meets the heat exchanger. The Apollo case is pressed iron, so rain, snow and washboard roads do not crack it.

Kyocera ceramic glow pin. Cold starts are what kill cheap heaters in their first winter. The Kyocera pin is rated to 1,100°C within 60 seconds and lights reliably at -40°F (-40°C). Generic pins drift out of resistance spec and start failing to light after a few dozen cycles.

Stainless steel exhaust muffler, built in. Most portable units leave the muffler as an optional accessory, or skip it. The Apollo has one inside the case, plumbed to the burner with flexible stainless pipe.

Altitude compensation. The controller adjusts the fuel-to-air ratio as you climb, up to 11,483 ft (3,500 m). Without it, a heater tuned at sea level runs rich in the mountains, sooting up the heat exchanger and eventually shutting down on a flame fault.

We have built diesel heaters since 2003 and have sold them under the VVKB name since 2016. If a part ever needs replacing, we stock it — see the diesel heater replacement parts range.

Where You Can Use It

The burner sits outside your space. Only warm, dry air travels through the duct into it, so combustion gases never touch the air you breathe. That single design point is what makes this workable in places a propane heater is not.

The photo above is a customer install on a caravan. Note the two ducts: one feeds warm air in, the second pulls cabin air back to the heater. Running a return duct instead of drawing outside air means you reheat air that is already warm, which cuts fuel burn on cold nights. Note also the steel cable and padlock — worth doing on any heater that lives outside the vehicle.

Diesel Heater for Vans and Truck Campers

Set the unit on the ground or on a slide-out tray and route the warm air duct through a floor vent or side panel. Your interior air never mixes with exhaust. For a van under 150 sq ft the Apollo-P1 is usually the right call.

Diesel Heater for RVs and Caravans

On a hookup site, run it on 110V or 230V AC and keep your propane for cooking. Off the hookup, flip to 12V. You are not carrying a generator either way, and you are not draining the house bank to run a resistive heater.

Portable Diesel Heater for Camping, Tents and Base Camp

The Apollo-P2 brings a large wall tent from freezing to comfortable in around ten minutes, then holds it overnight on a low stage. The heater stays outside the tent; only the duct comes in through a stove jack or vent port. This is the setup ice fishers and elk camps run.

For cold-weather camping the integrated tank is the whole point. There is no separate jerry can to level, no fuel line running across the campsite, and nothing to re-plumb when you move. You lift it out, set it down, connect one duct, and it runs. That is also why a portable diesel heater beats a fixed unit for anyone who camps out of more than one vehicle.

Portable Cabin Heater for Off-Grid Cabins and Yurts

If your cabin has no grid power and no propane delivery, a portable diesel heater is often the only practical option. Diesel stores for months without degrading, it is available anywhere, and a 5-litre tank at a low stage covers more than a day.

The same applies to a yurt or a canvas-walled structure: the heater sits outside on the ground, the duct comes in under the wall, and the exhaust vents to open air. Keep the unit under cover from direct snow load and give it clear space around the intake.

Diesel Heater for Overlanding

On an overlanding route, diesel is the fuel you can find when nothing else is stocked — and you are already carrying it for the vehicle. One fuel, one supply, no propane swaps in countries where the fittings do not match yours.

The pressed iron case matters more here than anywhere else. A plastic-shelled heater strapped to a rear carrier does not survive a season of corrugations.

Diesel Heater for Workshops, Garages and Job Sites

A 5KW unit will not heat a whole shop building — for a two-car garage you want a fixed 30,000 BTU-plus furnace. What the Apollo-P2 does well is heat a work zone: a bench, a bay, a welfare unit, or a site cabin where you need warm air for eight hours and no permanent installation.

On a job site the AC option matters. Plug into site power during the day, switch to 12V from a vehicle when the power goes off at night.

Where You Should Not Use It

Two places, and we would rather lose the sale than have you find out the hard way.

Not inside a boat cabin. The exhaust system on a portable unit is not sealed to the standard a closed cabin needs. If you are heating a boat, buy the marine diesel heater instead — it is a fixed-mount unit with a sealed exhaust path designed for that job.

Not inside your living space. The heater body always sits outside — outside the tent, outside the van, outside the room. Only the warm air duct comes in. Anyone selling you an "indoor diesel heater" that lives in the room with you is selling you a carbon monoxide risk. Run a CO alarm regardless of what you heat with.

Not as a whole-house furnace. People do search for a diesel heater for home use, and off-grid it can genuinely be the right answer for one room or a cabin. But 16,000 BTU will not heat a house. If you are trying to warm a whole building, you need a fixed furnace sized for it, not a portable unit.

Setup Takes Under an Hour

Everything you need ships in the box: warm air duct, exhaust pipe, fuel line, wired remote, mounting hardware and the AC lead. No mechanic, no fabrication.

1. Position the heater outside your van, RV, cabin or tent, on level ground with clear space around the air intake.
2. Route the warm air duct through a vent, floor port or stove jack into your space. Add a second duct as a return if your setup allows it.
3. Route the exhaust pipe away from every opening — doors, windows, roof vents. Downwind if you have a choice.
4. Connect power: 12V DC from the vehicle, or flip the Change Power Supply lever and plug into AC.
5. Fill the 5-litre tank with diesel or kerosene and mount the wired remote inside, within reach of your bunk.

Exhaust routing is the one step worth slowing down for. If you need a longer run or a replacement, the diesel heater exhaust pipe is sold separately.

Certifications You Can Check Yourself

Most listings in this category say "CE certified" and stop there. Here is what actually applies to this heater, with numbers you can look up.

• ECE R122 type approval, E24*122R00/06*0054*00 — the Apollo-V1 burner unit inside this heater carries E-mark type approval for heating systems, issued by NSAI (Ireland). Searchable in the UNECE approval database.
• ECE R10 type approval, E24*10R06/02*4825*00 — electromagnetic compatibility, same burner unit, same issuing authority.
• FCC — applies across our diesel air heater line.

To be precise about what that first line means: the E-mark approvals were issued for the Apollo-V1 burner, which is the combustion unit built into the P1 and P2. We are not going to claim the whole portable assembly carries its own type approval, because it does not. You can read our full certification documentation, including certificate numbers and how to verify each one.

What Comes in the Box

• Apollo-P1 or Apollo-P2 heater with 5-litre integrated fuel tank
• Warm air duct and outlet vent
• Exhaust pipe with stainless muffler already fitted internally
• Fuel line and fittings
• Wired remote controller
• AC power lead for your region (110V or 230V)
• Mounting hardware and installation manual

Not sure which model fits your space, or whether your setup will work? Email us the dimensions and we will tell you straight — including if the answer is that you need something else. Ask us before you order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this need a separate 110V adapter like other portable diesel heaters?

No. The AC power supply is built into the heater. A lever on the back panel marked Change Power Supply switches between 12V DC and AC, and the AC inlet is on the same panel. Most competing "110V diesel heater" kits include an external transformer brick instead, which is a separate box to store, weatherproof and eventually replace.

Is a diesel heater cheaper to run than propane?

Yes, by a wide margin. At a low output stage these units burn roughly 0.1 to 0.15 litres per hour, so an overnight run costs well under a dollar of diesel. A 1 lb propane canister runs 4 to 6 hours and costs several dollars. Diesel also gives you dry heat — propane releases about a pint of water vapour per hour, which ends up as condensation on your windows and bedding.

Is a diesel heater safe to use indoors?

The heater itself is never indoors. It sits outside your van, tent, cabin or room, and only warm air travels in through the duct. Combustion air is drawn from outside and exhaust is vented outside, so the two air paths never mix. That is the opposite of a propane space heater, which burns fuel in the same air you are breathing. Fit a CO alarm in your sleeping space anyway.

Can I use this in a boat cabin?

No — use a fixed-mount unit instead. A portable heater's exhaust connections are not sealed to the standard a closed boat cabin requires, and a CO leak in that environment is not something to gamble on. Our 12V marine diesel heater is built for boats with a sealed exhaust path.

How long does it run on one tank?

On the ULTRA LOW stage, about 37 hours for the Apollo-P1 and about 35 hours for the Apollo-P2 on a single 5-litre fill. On BOOST, 8 to 11 hours. Most owners run BOOST briefly to warm the space, then hold on a low stage overnight.

Can I heat a cabin, workshop or yurt with this?

Yes, within its output. The Apollo-P2 at 16,000 BTU heats about 300 sq ft — a small off-grid cabin, a yurt, a site office, or a work zone in a larger shop. It will not heat a whole insulated garage; for that you want a fixed furnace rated 30,000 BTU or more. Diesel suits off-grid use because it stores for months without degrading and you can buy it anywhere.

Does this heat water, or only air?

Air only. This is a diesel air heater — it blows warm air through a duct and has no water circuit. If you want hot water for a shower or a tap, that is a different product: see our diesel water heater.

What fuel does it take?

Standard diesel from any pump, or kerosene as an alternative. Never gasoline — diesel and gasoline heaters use different combustion systems and are not interchangeable. In deep winter, use winter-grade diesel or add an anti-gel additive so the fuel does not wax up in the tank.

Does it work at high altitude?

Up to 11,483 ft (3,500 m). The controller adjusts the fuel-to-air ratio automatically as you climb. Above 3,500 m combustion efficiency drops off and the unit becomes unreliable, so we do not rate it beyond that.

Which voltage should I order — 110V or 230V?

Pick the AC voltage for where you live: 110V for the United States and Canada, 230V for Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Both versions include 12V DC as standard, so the vehicle side is identical either way.

Can I leave it running while I sleep?

Yes, that is what the low stages are for. The controller holds a set temperature and the wired remote mounts inside within reach of your bunk, so you can adjust without getting up. Route the exhaust well away from vents and windows, and fit a CO alarm.

Do you sell spare parts for it?

Yes. Glow pins, fuel pumps, control panels, exhaust pipe, ducting and gasket kits are all stocked — see the diesel heater replacement parts range. Cheap imports are usually unrepairable because nobody stocks parts for them, which is a large part of why they get thrown away after two winters.