Flame outs on a Dickinson Newport heater

[ChrisE]

I've just installed a Newport heater and have found that it runs wonderfully well, belting out loads of heat until we put the sails up when the flame gets blown out filling the cabin with vapourised diesel, through the atmospheric damper, which is not ideal.

The manual says that I should turn up the assist fan to stop this effect, which seems sensible to me and I intend to do this. Does the team have any experience of this particular problem and am I doing the right kind of thing?

TIA

Chris

 

[bruce]

what did dickinson say to do about it?, they have a web site...

 

[ChrisE]

The web siter refers you to the manual which also suggests increasing the stack size. I'm loath to do this because it would get in the way of the genoa sheets. I'd like other people's experiences in case I'm missing a trick.

 

[Mirelle]

Loads of experience...but with a Perkins

Sorry, cannot remember if Rival 38 is centre cockpit?

Assuming not,

1. Have you got a cockpit spray hood (what the Cousins call a dodger)?

If so, fold it down when sailing with the stove lit; it creates a low pressure area in the cabin so tends to suck smoke down the flue.

2. What sort of smoke hood do you have on your flue?

Either what the Cousins call a schooner head (flue pipe joins a pipe that crosses the coachroof and ends either side of the coachroof) or the H type is probably the best; both depend on the venturi principle.

Try different types

3. Does it matter which tack you are on? If there is a difference, the downwash of air off the mainsail is accounting for the difference.

Move the stove!

 

[FWB]

I sometimes have this problem with my Sigmar heater. A solution is to fit a balanced flue. ie. run the inlet air from the deck.

 

[ChrisE]

Re: Loads of experience...but with a Perkins

Thanks for the tips. As you suggest it is back pressure that is causing the problem, so upping the assist fan should help, pro tem and we'll have to think about how to overcome this in the long term.

Take your point about the sprayhood, but we'll have to find another way of overcoming its effect as we're off to colder climes and the thought of a long passage with no sprayhood protection makes my old bones creek at the thought!

 

[Trevethan]

As others suggest its purely to do with wind sippiling down the sail and blowing down the chimney.

We sometimes get the same thing in very windy days and we get an eddy over the sail cover.

What sort of cap do you have? We've found the H type to be the best performer.

The fan is the easy answer.

The hard answer is to relocate the stack to some where less effected by the sails.

Cheers,

Nick

 

[ChrisE]

Nick,
Thanks for the advice. I'm going to look into an H type stack.
Chris

 

[Mirelle]

I second Nick's recommendation; we have one (on a solid fuel stove, but same difference).

Because the end area is four times the cross sectional area of the flue, the venturi effect is quite marked.

It is quite an easy job for a stainless steel fabricator to make one.

The theoretically ideal location for the flue to exit the deck is in way of the mast, so that it lies in the slot, a low pressure area, when close hauled. I find this works very well for us.

 

[RivalRedwing]

Chris,

At a slight tangent - why did you choose the Newport over, say, a Taylors diesel stove - I'm in the market for a diesel stove and cannot make up my mind one way or the other.

Cheers

 

[ChrisE]

I went for a Newport as a result of asking the same question as you, it was the one that got most votes. The choice was confirmed when I looked at the Dickinson's website. I was impressed by the fact that they had been making them for over 70 years and that their main audience appears to be Grand Banks commercial fishermen. I reckoned that if was good enough for them with thier harsh conditions it was good enough for me.

 

[FWB]

Take a look at the Sigmar range also.
I still think the best answer to Chris' problem is to fit a balanced flue.

 

[Trevethan]

I had the sme choice and the Dickinsons won -- great heat output, nice and compact, safe and best of all a glass door so you can see the flame.

We got ours through Go2marine in teh U.S. much cheaper than going through UK importer, even with postage, duty and VAT rolled in.

My one criticism is that it doesn't do well running on low. That seems to cause significant coking. Its easy to clear.. two mins with a wire brush and the wet-dry vac, but when burning on a quarter power or more there is no problem whatsoever.

This might be due to our installation. our fuel tank isn't quite high enough to develop the gravity drop so we augment that with a low pressure pump when the tank ffalls below about 1/4 full. (also great way to prime the fuel line without getting a mouthful of diesel!)

Hope helps,

Nick