dumper diving

[pepa]

I have been looking everywhere for a kerosene heater to convert to veggie oil and even ran a classified add in the paper with no results. I pulled into the recycle center (dumpsters) yesterday and there it was. The attendant at the sight is a friend of mine and told me that the owner of the oil heater that dropped it off said that it worked fine; he just didn't need it anymore. Needless to say when I left, the heater went with me. If the burner is too small for my boiler project, I will install it in my shop instead of the wood burner I have now.

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some days it pays good to be the garbage man. pepa.

[stephent]

Clean the vavle assembly good before lighting.

After a year or two sitting, they gunk up a bit and get sticky.

Good hual.

Keep a filter inline.

Those old (?) gravity flow oil heaters were usually rather foolproof--until it was -10F outside and the last load of heating oil had a bit of moisture in it and froze in the line coming into the house.....I've been there..

A valve really close to the burner/stove won't hurt either if it starts running too hot, as a long line from the barrel with the valve there will allow quite a bit of burning for a while longer.

If you look at the tag on the heater, it should tell btu input/output..

Nice looking stove--again--you had good luck with "recycling"-- reusing--and a bit of scrounging up what you want/need.

Keep us posted as to how it works out.

[pepa]

thanks for the advice Stephend, pepa

[kitno455]

excellent. looks identical to the one in my garage. it used to run 3/4 of the house. the only differences i see are that yours has some kind of thermometer on the front, and the motor controller on mine is down on top of the fuel bowl, with a speed knob sticking up over the top. same ugly brown color

it is an excellent piece of equipment. keep the bowl clean, and scrape, then use a shopvac inside the burner every once in awhile. dont try to light it when its hot, and just when you start to feel comfortable, TURN IT DOWN. on the higher settings, it will go from comfortable to blazing hot in under 10 minutes.

watch out for the flat metal ring in the outer lip of the burner, the rivet in the end breaks easily, then the whole piece gets cockeyed in the hole.

when firing it up, run it with the motor off and the door shut for a few minutes, then slowly increase the fan speed over the next 20 minutes. if you dont let the firebox get hot, you'll blow the flame out every time.

i love mine. certainly not as efficient as a modern kerosene injector unit, but hammer and pliers simple.

allan

[pepa]

thanks Allan, good advice and instructions. pepa

[electrondady1]

i've got one in my garage too!

if yours has been laying around i recomend you clean the carburator and filter before you set it all up .

water gets in there and when the temperature drops down to below freezing it will clog up and stop working just when you really need it.

mine has a four gallon fuel tank on the back.

it's hard to find stove oil around here now so i just use diesel.

[pepa]

thanks for the advice electrondady, from the looks of the threads on the fittings it has not been disconnected to long and there was no dust, dirt or water on the heater. i believe it was recently unhooked but will clean and check everything before using, thanks again pepa.

[ghurd]

What does the motor do?  A blower for heated air?

Grandama's didn't have that. Or any electric stuff.

G-

[kitno455]

the motor serves two functions. it pulls air down thru 4 ~4 inch pipes thru the firebox, then out the vents at the bottom front. a small part of that air is instead diverted to turn upwards and come out a couple hundred or so small holes inside the burner. each one of those turns into a beautiful blue flame once the box gets hot. a tower in the center and a diverter ring around the outside help get a good swirl going. after a few hundred hours of runtime, there is very little buildup inside the burner, maybe 1/4 inch in the bottom after scraping? without the motor, this thing smokes like crazy.

allan