Hi all, I live on a boat and use a Taylors paraffin cabin heater which, whilst not really a stove, uses the Optimus adjustable silent burner. The problem I have is that it seems to eat burner caps! After about 50 hours running they crack between the holes and crumble! As I sit here in the depths of an english winter with a cold east wind blowing I'm on my third burner cap this winter! Anybody got any ideas on how I can stop or at least slow down this happening? All help gratefully received!
Good Morning, When you say your heater uses Optimus silent burner caps, do you mean the two piece set, one inner cap and one outer cap? As you didn't mention the inner cap, if you're not using one, that may be your problem. Otherwise, I've not heard of such happening before. I've got a few stoves, that are very old, which use the inner/outer silent caps, and they are still in fine nick. If you are using both caps, then I have no idea what might be causing your problem. Is your Taylor heater still in production, and if so, have you contacted the company, detailing your problem? Best of luck, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc Mark
Is it the brass or steel caps? I have only seen this once to burn between the holes. I don't know what caused it realy. I have a few thoughts but. We know here that these can (what we call) under burn this is the flame will stop between the inner and outer caps. The outer cap will get red hot and start to melt holes in it. It will sound like a jet taking off. You will know this when it hapens by the noise it makes. If it is this turn out the flame asap and light again with a match at the outer cap. If this is not happening I would think your stove is burning too lean. Several problems could cause this. The inner cap and outer cap is not matching . The hole in the jet may be too small (may be for a different size stove). Being an adjustable burner is the neadle (pricker ) adjusted correctly? You should get about a half of a turn on your knob. Your caps may be for a smaller style burner and not for the burner you have. you can contact me by clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this mesage if you have more problems.
Hi Guys. Thanks for your help. Fault seems to be that the flame is indeed "under burning" between the two caps to a certain extent. It uses the two piece 55/155 adjustable burner. I get almost 3/4 of a turn from off to pricking. With the tank pressurised to the red line on the guage, which equates to 20 psi, the little blue cones of flame seem to start just at the edge of the outer cap. I had been using a tilley torch to pre heat before lighting and simply turning the heater to on as the torch flickered down, which may, I think, have led to burning inside rather than outside the burner cap. I have two different types of inner for this burner as well, one "solid" around the top edge, and the other with a series of holes. Which should i be using? I think I will maybe buy a matched inner and outer from our friends at Base Camp, and start again making sure I light the heater with a match! Thanks again for your help Ian
tritonofnor Ian Use your tilley pre heat torch . I know it could get messy if you use metho in the pre heat bowl in waves. But let your torch burn right down take it away and blow it out. Put a lighted match at the outer cap and turn your knob on. This will stop the under burn. One thing that may be helping the under burn to happen is If the preheat flame is too high it will be taking a lot of oxygen from around the burner. I feel this could be contributing to your problem. The caps will cause it as well. I can not say what is the best inner cap to use with your outer cap. Because you will just have to keep swaping the inner cap with outer caps until you get a set that does not underburn. The inner cap with the 3 x3 holes in the top is the newer type and the solid one with no holes is an older style. Both works as good as the other I think. Good luck and you know now where we are. Please let us know how you get on.
Well I've got the new matched pair of caps from the wonderful guys at Base Camp, (who help me keep all my Tilleys going - I'm a lampie at heart! [confession]), and the under burning has been stopped! I'm using Handi Alberts lighting method - heat, wait, light with a match, and all seems ok - BUT - the outer cap is still glowing bright red... do I have another cap that's waiting to crack up? should the cap glow or should the "jets" of blue flame be burning far enough away from the cap for it not to be bright red? Sorry for all the questions, but I need reliable heat without treating burner caps as consumables! Thanks again in advance! Ian
That metod of lighting with a match after the preheating has gone out is not my idea. It origiginaly came from the owner of this site Ross, as far as I can recal. Your outer cap will get red but should not be bright enough to damage any thing. I think the brass caps are the best for constant use. The steel ones will rust and will keep flaking off. Try it now and see how long it last. I think you have no problems with it. Apart from what you have done the next step will be to change your complete burner. But don't let it uner burn
