Kerosene pressure stove, what makes it go out?

[skylark]

I have a Butterfly 2412 kerosene pressure stove with a roarer burner, using mineral spirits.  It burns well, but occasionally will pop and the flame goes out, and some vapor comes out of the stove.

I am wondering if I am doing something wrong?  Too much pressure, not enough??? 

[CharlieJ]

Hard to say. I just simply replaced the roarer on my stove with an adjustable Primus burner. Just did the same on a friends stove I'm working on for him.

[skylark]

Its not like there are a lot of controls on this thing.  Open valve, shut valve, air pump.  It should be simple.

[CharlieJ]

Really hard to make it simmer though. Wide open is good, down low is tough.Look anything like this?

[skylark]

Yes, that is it

[skylark]

I suspect fuel level too high (too much kerosene in tank) and not enough pressure.

[CharlieJ]

probably a very good guess. GOT to leave some air space.

[mikeroddy]

I have the same stove. While I've grown to really like it, it certainly had a learning curve when I first began using it. I think this was more about learning to use a kerosene stove in general, rather than our particular Butterfly model.

I experienced similar problems to what you've described. I now use a Mr. Funnel fuel filter to filter all fuel before using it in the stove. (Usually mineral spirits.) I've had better results with the stove since then. It's hard to know whether improved performance is just coincidental... but I think the filter has helped. It's made to separate out water, dirt, and debris.

My girlfriend and I use the stove every day, usually several times per day. We've worked through a couple of different problems but have come to a happier agreement with the stove lately. I have not found pressure to be a culprit. Let us know how things go.

[skylark]

I tried tightening the burner on to the tank, it was hand tight.  I thought maybe it was slowly leaking pressure.  But after about 10 minutes the stove popped, flared up and then went out.  I tried it several times with the same results.

My current theory is bad fuel, but I used mineral spirits direct from the can, through a coleman filter funnel.  Maybe the funnel had some contaminants in it.

[skylark]

I have a theory why the stove was popping and flaming out: cold fuel.  My uninsulated garage was at about freezing temperatures.

I was able to successfully run the stove without a flameout by running it at low pressure (about 10 pumps after preheating with alcohol).  I waited about 15 minutes at low flame until the bottom of the tank no longer felt cold, then gave it 20 pumps, which brought it to a moderate-high flame.  I think that the burner was not hot enough to properly preheat mineral spirits at 32F under high pressure.  But after the tank and fuel warmed up, I was able to raise the pressure and get a bigger flame with no flameout.

I also reduced the amount of fuel in the stove to less than one cup, to allow the fuel to warm up more quickly.

As usual, the resolution to the problem is to head south.

[CharlieJ]

 ;D ;D

[CaptainGraham]

I have the same Butterfly 2412 kerosene pressure stove in my sea swing stove.
When I started sometimes I would get a flare up.
The issue was the kerosene was not turning to gas and coming out of the burner as liquid.

This can happen for 2 reasons
1.  Over filling the fuel tank.
2.  Not getting the burner and tube to the burner really hot.

I heat up the burner twice with alcohol before using the Kerosene.
Once I started to do this I have had no problems.

The Kerosene I use is the local hardware store for kerosene heaters.

PS I also have a 2 burner alcohol stove and I do the same thing to heat it up.

Before I heated up the burner 2 times

[CapnK]

Welcome aboard, CaptainGraham! :)

I've seen or read - forget which lol - of a couple who actually use a small butane torch as a way  to preheat the fuel spigot.

[Phantom Jim]

The Hiscocks preferred mineral spirits, as I think Charlie does as well

[CharlieJ]

The Hiscocks preferred mineral spirits, as I think Charlie does as well

And has for years. For a long time, the only kerosene to be found was low grade, yellow poop. I switched to 100% mineral spirits in the 70's in a stove I had in my cabin while the boat was building. Later moved it aboard. Lately I have seen high grade kerosene for sale in some places, but the mineral spirits still burn cleaner, and with less odor

[rorik]

I've also noticed on mine that if I don't preheat the burner hot enough that kero will stick to the inside of the nozzle, partially blocking it. A simple prick will fix that in a few seconds.
If you can't make or find them anywhere else, I know James Baldwin does/did sell them.
He also has some nice preheat wicks.

http://atomvoyages.com/articles/improvement-projects/126-atomstove.html