Dickinson Marine-Stove Feedback

[seahag]

Hi Everyone,

I don't think we always follow through and give proper thanks when we are well taken care of, and I want to mention that despite some incredible frustration on my part, and after expressing it to the people at Dickinson Marine, not only did they listen to me, but completely rectified the situation with outstanding customer care and phenomenal technical support.

I went from being covered in black soot at 3 am after getting woken up by the heater turning into a rocket and the subsequent gigantic plumes of black smoke invading the entire cabin of the boat, po'd and frustrated beyond belief, to a completely happy customer after they agreed to us returning the first unit, and installing a new one that unfortunately, did the same thing.

Very long story short, we patiently worked through the problem and with the help of Don, one of their technical support experts, I got everything squared away and the heater has been nearly flawless since.

A huge shout out to Michelle, and Don for their patience and attention to my problem, and for handling everything to our complete satisfaction. This is what so many companies today are lacking and they are a shining example of why their reputation as a quality company should endure.

[DeepFrz]

Are you going to tell us what the problem was so that others may avoid the situation?

[seahag]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Are you going to tell us what the problem was so that others may avoid the situation?

Sure. The problem with the new unit was partially in the fuel metering valve. It was set up and tested at the Dickinson factory but when I received the heater, it still overheated in a drastic way when it reached full warm-up. The fact that diesel fuel in winter Alaska is different than that used in balmy British Columbia factors in too, thus the difference in settings.

Another issue was my own interpretation of how to light and use the heater. As it turns out, there is a lot to this--you don't just turn on the oil, chuck a match into the puddle and shut the door. It's much more precisely time sensitive, and you have to pay attention to the flame after lighting the burner. It takes quite a bit of time (20 minutes approx) for the burner to actually reach operating temperature. This was my biggest error, thinking every time I had it set correctly based on what I was seeing in the first few minutes.

If you want total specifics, the steps are like this:
Turn on the fuel.
Wait about 2 minutes for enough fuel to puddle up to the correct diameter.
Light a small piece of paper and drop into the puddle.
Turn on the fan to 6 O'clock setting.
After a minute or two, turn down the fan to 4 O'clock and watch the flame. If it drops down, turn off the fan.
Then watch the flame creep up over the top of the burner ring, sort of the position you would want it to be in general.
Turn off the fuel regulator! (I was not doing this)
Watch the flame slowly dip to the lower area of the burning chamber.
Then turn on the regulator to setting 2, or in my case, 2.5
Check flame now and then to see it stays blue, or bright yellow, and above the burner ring. You don't want an orange flame.
If it is burning too high or too much, you could reduce it by either turning on the fan or turning down the fuel. I haven't had that problem, in fact it is set perfectly and the flame stays a perfect blue unless it's really windy, then it varies a bit.

Every situation is a little different, with draft characteristics of the pipe, if it has a barometric damper, weather conditions, the viscosity of the fuel, which is affected not only by the outdoor temp, but also the distance the fuel travels inside the cabin before getting to the burner, and other fuel factors, plus the way the regulator is set up. I learned a ton of stuff from them about everything from the fuel itself to filtering, the entire burning/metering system and then the exhaust stuff. Until then I had no idea how a barometric damper worked or why it was so important.

So, altogether, it was a good experience to go through. I'm glad it worked out this well, even though cleaning the whole inside (and outside) of the boat was a huge undertaking.

Anyone who needs any help with this stuff can PM me, and if it's a Dickinson Heater, call their 800 number and ask for Don. He was incredibly knowledgeable and understood my situation as if he were looking over my shoulder through the whole thing.

[DeepFrz]

Thanks for your post. It may help someone prevent the awful job of cleaning their whole boat of soot.