Help. I just got a Coleman 502 that was burning orange (and green where gen crossed the burner) so I decided to do some cleaning with vinegar & a Qtip. Now it doesn't want to light with a 1/4 turn but when opened full it is flooded and orange flames through the side and from a soggy burner plate and never produces blue tips on the burner. Boy, I really dove in over my head! It has had enough gas and time to run out the vinegar. It has a new one piece fuel cap. I took the generator back off and re-attached it facing away from the stove, pumped it up and opened the valve and a solid stream came out. Should it be a mist and not a stream? ANY HELP APPRECIATE - even to tell leave well enough alone!
Could be several things. 1. Dirty/clogged generator. Pull out needle and generator spring and clean thoroughly. Any caking at all in the tube and the generator spring will make it hard to vaporize the fuel. 2. Filler cap seal is bad, so not enough pressure is being built up. Get a new seal and replace or get a new filler cap. 3. Fuel. Make sure you are using good clean fuel. Probably should use coleman fuel on the 502. 4. The 502 will start with a partial yellow flame at first until it heats up the generator, while will then vaporize the fuel to get a blue flame. Takes no more than a minute to get to blue. Green flame probably indicates dirty fuel and/or system. Hope this helps, sam
It is OK to see a solid stream of fuel from the vaporizer when the tube is cold. Remember where this normally sits. The heat from the burner is the missing ingredient if I understand how you where checking this. I assume that you cracked main valve 1/4 turn and allowed preheat before fully opening. Cracking the main draws vapor from the tank and helps instant start & full open allows liquid. If you dump liquid into the vaporizer/generator before it heats up good you could get the symptoms mentioned. Check the outlet end(jet) of the vaporizer/generator for fouling & clean if necessary. TAKE CARE that cleaning needle is retracted inside the jet before you attempt to clean. The end of a paper clip and some solvent should do the trick. An example of fouling from 508 This caused slow start and prevented strong flame AR
Ok, I ran it without the spiraled coil and cleaning needle and it burned blue at the base of the flame. I've put it back together and used 1/3 cup from a fresh can of Coleman fuel and it doesn't sputter. I get blue flame at the base but the rest to the fire is a ring of jagged orange without any separation of individual flames. It barely reaches the bottom of the pot rest and the main valve doesn't gradually raise the flame it mostly grows at the last quarter turn before full open. It took about 5 minutes to boil 2 cups of water in a small speckled enamel pot. I haven't touched the fuel tube under the main valve going into the fount tank. I'll search this site for similar experiences.
1. Dirty/clogged generator. CLEANED it ran needle through from outside. 2. Filler cap seal. NEW CAP 3. Fuel. FRESH FUEL 4. start partial yellow... Green flame dirty fuel/system. PERHAPS It's back to functional. I'll run it a few more times and see if it fixes itself before I monkey around more unless someone knows the sure-fire answer.
Sounds to me like it could be a clogged fuel tube assembly or maybe the valve. There is an expoded view at the coleman site in case you don't have one. http://www.coleman.com/coleman/parts/ProductImage2.asp?product_id=502-700
Itchy, Thanks, I printed off the coleman.com parts pages. It's a 502-700 67 date on bottom in great shape. Tested it tonight and blue flame from 1/4 turn up to full open. I guess cleaning plus a little time with gas in the tank helped. I'll learn to give these things time before I run for help. I compared it to the pictures on the 502 kero topic. I've got that quality of flame. I'll wait to buy a back up generator before I wind some brass around it and play with kerosene. It's a heavy little sucker but sturdy.
Its nice to be able to have something sturdy enough to set a household size pot or pan on and not worry to death that it'll tip over if you look at it wrong. Use my 508(much smaller than 502)now for car camping and last year during 1wk power outage to cook for the family. On the trail I may go mini solo, but the family would have been living lean if I cooked a cup at a time. Glad you are back in "the blue", AR
Glad to hear you've got the blue flame. For me, that's one of the funnest parts about these stoves - fettle to flame... cheers, sam
Amen - I tested the 502 with a 9" diameter Revere Ware 4.5 quart pot half full. I took 12 minutes uncovered for a rolling boil. Stable the whole time. My only concern was the heat reaching that far out might melt the red plastic knob on the cleaner stem. I wrapped it loosely with tin foil to be on the safe side.
