Kerosene cabin heater stinking/burning eyes help appreciated

[Dave9111]

The specs for that heater say it needs at *least* 1.1 meters/36.5 inches of exhaust pipe...

If you don't have enough, the chimney will not draft.. and you will end up with fumes in the cabin. Sound familiar?

I have a 33 ft sailboat and there is no place I could mount that heater and have 1.1 meters of chimney.

Check it out.
Taylors 079K

[hpeer]

Guys
It used to work fine.
Now he has a problem.
What changed?

[danielamartindm]

I'd really worry about carbon monoxide in a closed-up cabin with a kerosene heater. I know leaving a port open partially defeats the purpose of the heater, but......

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Is this an unvented heater, exhausting into the cabin? Bad joss if so!

Jim

Amen. Don't do it! Cleanest burning kerosene stove in the world still puts out plenty of deadly CO, plus water vapor and assorted nasty combustion products. Just not suitable for use in an enclosed space like a boat, even with the hatch open! Buy something which vents the combustion products to the outside. There are some good discussions on here of the various choices for that.

[hpeer]

FOR CHRIST SAKES ITS A VENTED HEATER.

[Fuegomar]

Originally Posted by sailor_ed

...and retire the Taylor AND the Espar.

If so please forward the beloved remains, care of SV/LAGNIAPPE Shalimar Yacht Basin 100 Old Ferry Road Shalimar Florida 32579

[Fuegomar]

Originally Posted by danielamartindm

I'd really worry about carbon monoxide in a closed-up cabin with a kerosene heater. I know leaving a port open partially defeats the purpose of the heater, but......

LAGNIAPPE has two monoxoide detectors both at sleeping bunk level. Sometimes I'll place a carbon monoxide detector above the Taylor's stove during lighting. The carbon monoxide level typically increas quickly with alcohol preheating and rarely with a slow burn of kerosene even though it's an unvented stove. While lighting the cabin heater I'll often place my hand at the very top of the chimney before it exits the cabin. When this region of the chimney becomes uncomfortable to touch It's safe to open the kerosene burner of the heater with extra assurance that it is properly venting. If I have a low flame on the stove burning more than 20 or 30 minutes I'll definitely open a port window. However, with the cabin heater I am safe not to do so and the carbon monoxide detectors have yet to register a build up even with all windows and hatch closed

[um saudade]

The Primus 207b is both simple and complicated at the same time. If it burns correctly, it is certainly simple. If it gives issues, it can be a bear to figure out especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with the things.

The OP states it used to work fine so let’s go with that premise. If the flue is not drawing correctly the burner will eventually stink up the boat. If the burner is not operating efficiently and the flue is not drawing correctly, it will stink up the boat faster.

Two properly working burners on my galley stove will do a fair amount of cooking and coffee with negligible change in the CO level in the boat and this is on a cold morning with minimum ventilation. If a burner is not burning with a bright blue flame and has any yellow in the flame, the burner is putting out both CO and unburned hydrocarbons and is not burning correctly.

Sailor_ed makes a good point. A little leak at the base can be an issue as is a control valve that does not turn off tightly or a stem packing that weeps. You usually notice these things when the priming alcohol does not burn clean as it is combining with the unburned kerosene that had dripped down during the off time.

I suspect the flue is the biggest issue, it is just not drafting as well as it did in the past. Easy to soot everything up with these burners so I would pull the flue apart and clean, even run a gun cleaning rod and wire brush through the flue if you can’t easily take it off down to clean. It is not easy to remove carbon. Carbon is an element and very stable, solvents don’t touch the carbon but may help loosen it, if there are some other compounds in the deposit. But if it is pure carbon it has to be mechanically removed or burned out to ash.

To the OP, I have to ask: Why did you have to clean the burner three times in a week? Even with the worst of fuel the burner will not carbon up internally that quickly. What do you call cleaning? I never clean my burners mechanically and seldom clean at all. If, over a long period of time the burner needs much more alcohol to preheat, I take the burner back to the shop, put it on my burner jig and burn the built up carbon from the inside of the burner with the acetylene torch on the outside and a gentle flow of air on the inside to make it burn better and push the ash out the top.

I have restored burners for others that were totally plugged with carbon using this technique. The only bad burners that could not be returned to good service were burners that were so mechanically damaged that it was not worth the machine work to restore them.

One trick that is not intuitive on these burners is the jet or nipple. If carbon is built up in the nipple and the vaporized kerosene does not come out of the jet evenly, the burner will not be able to mix enough air with the fuel and you will get a yellow flame coming from one small part of the outer cap. This is not from a nipple to big but a nipple that is partially plugged and sending to much fuel to that side of the cap. The nipples should be about .009” and perfectly symmetrical.

As to fuel, I use K-1 from a local fuel distributor at a cost of about 3 bucks a gallon. Jet A (JP-4) works fine too. Cheap tequila works to preheat if you run out of alcohol.

[hpeer]

Great post, thanks.

[CaptJamesCook]

make sure you are using K1 kerosene and not K2
K1 is the only one rated for burning indoors.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by hpeer

FOR CHRIST SAKES ITS A VENTED HEATER.

Well, if it is so damn well vented, why is he getting combustion products stinking up his cabin? A functioning vent or chimney should remove all of those from the living space, should it not?

And no need to be rude when responding to a post...

Jim

[hpeer]

Jim

Not at all trying to be rude and sorry if it came across that way.

BUT the whole point of the thread is he has an unusuall problem, his vented heater is not working right. It used to, it does for others, it does not for him now, why?

Talking about unvented heaters is not helpful.

From my point of view I was being respectful of his question.

Sorry for any missunxerstanding.