How do I light a Taylor's heater?

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MYStargazer

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How do I light a Taylor\'s heater?

Never done this before. It's a Model 079D, gravity fed with diesel. There seems to be some sort of piezo-electric plunger-knob, but it doesn't make any sort of spark...
 
Re: How do I light a Taylor\'s heater?

VERY CAREFULLY!

Seriously, tho' is there a strong "click" when the igniter is pushed? Has a connector slipped off?

Taylor's parafin stoves need to be pre-heated before the fuel will vapourise. I suspect the diesel is the same. Look for the manual on Google.

You may find a shight in knining armour here in a minute.
 
Re: How do I light a Taylor\'s heater?

That ould pate is very right. If you wish to do this twice, RTFM!

Taylor's Stoves - and their big brothers, the Heaters - are what separates the men from the boys, in cruising sailing terms......

Be careful! Be very careful....

Heee, hee!

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: How do I light a Taylor\'s heater?

I think the device you are referring to is connected to the thermocouple in the back of the burner pot, and is not an ignition device, but allows the diesel to enter the burner pot when it is hot enough.

The 079D has to be pre-heated with meths, injected from a plastic bottle
that comes with the stove. Lighting the meths is the worst part - if you've put too much in, then the flame can ignite with a fair old bang, once in our case blowing out the sight glass in the front of the burner! Not for the faint hearted.....

Try and get hold of the manual, whatever you do before attempting to light the thing - there is a correct sequence to follow, involving everything from the cap on the tank (if yours is gravity fed) to pushing the thermocouple button to regulating the flow. Get it right and they are great, and kick out plenty of lovely dry heat.

They do need regular cleaning to run right, and the optional "Charlie Noble" H shaped chimney is well worth having - the standard chimney blows back dreadfully in strong winds (at least on ours).

From memory Chillington Marine handled them in the UK - don't know if they still exist. If you get stuck pm me as I think we,ve still got our manual somewhere.

We used ours a lot at the beginning and ends of the season, and once lit our crews loved the thing, but many were terrified of the lighting
procedure - in a world of push button ignition devices they really are rather agricultural!
 
Re: How do I light a Taylor\'s heater?

To light:

Turn on diesel tap at tank.
Open brass door look down there you will see a brass "hexaganal knob" unscrew that put it down.
THEN: route1 fast lighting:

Useing a plastic squeezy bottle pour about two table spoons of alcohol in.

Light a blow lamp,heat the burner pot underneith for about 60 seconds then point the blow lamp in the hole while standing a bit to the side,when it goes "whoomph"offer the brass screw knob to the hole slowly if your to quick the alcohol will go out to slow it will bern so fast it my go out,you have to balence the air its getting

Once the alcohols burning replace the screw knob,wait untill the burner posts glowing

THEN Press the blue button and open the brass fuel folw screw let the diesel "run" through the site glass for a second or two then close the screw and let go of the blue button

When the flames seem to have died down a bit open the fule control screw untill you see a drip about every 2 seconds.

Once you have a steady flam regulate the drip feed to heat as you wish!!

Route2

Add the alcohol offer a lit match or lighter to the hole,normaly it will blow the match or lighter out

Apply match or lighter to the underside of the burnerpot then when hot put the match to the whole,If you have a female with you let them do it as its the fastest way to remove hair!

If it dosent go "whooof" you may get a "blow lamp" like flame from the hole,if so this normaly goes "Pooof" when the air alcohol vapor is right and out!!

If so heat burner pot again and again offer the match lighter to the hole and then get the knob back on while keeping the alcohol burning:

Best is the blow lamp method!!
 
Re: How do I light a Taylor\'s heater?

We use one of these all the time. Our procedure is:

0) Chimney cap off of course.
1) Raise the cabin air pressure slightly. Turn stern to the wind or open the forehatch and put the wash boards in if head to wind. This creates a slight updraft up the chimney - just until it heats up and convection takes over.
2) Diesel supply on. It wont flow yet because of the thermocouple safety valve ("piezo-electric plunger-knob,").
3) Take off the brass hexagonal nut at the front of the base of the heater and keep it handy.
4) Put 30-40ml of meths in through this hole (we use a syringe).
5) Light this meths with a taper. This can be tricky, gently warming it (a candle for 10 seconds or a blow torch for two seconds) helps. If you get it too hot it flashes back when you light it.
6) Once the meths is lit it will start to burn in the base of the heater and as it warms up (10-30secs) you can gradually replace the brass nut without the meths going out.
7) As the meths heats the thing up, press in the thermocouple overide button and you should see diesel dripping through the drip chamber on the inlet line. The diesel will flow to the now hot burner and take over from the meths.
8) Let go the thermocouple and check that the diesel is still flowing. 2 drips per second gives a good hot stove.
9) Keep a good eye on the diesel drip rate, it changes as the pipes warm up, byt is very stable after an 30 minutes or so.

Final point: if there is no air in the drip chamber you cant see the drips, so crack open the fuel line and let some air in.

Hope that makes sense - it does become easy. I would think you can probably do it all with a gas blowtorch and no meths - so other peoples methods may be preferable for you. The breakthrough for us was step 1, they are difficult to light if there's a down draft through the heater.

Jon
 
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