Kenyon Butane stove - fault caused fire on my boat

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Overdraught

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After a somewhat scary incident involving the Kenyon Kiss butane stove on my Sea Ray, I need to either replace it, or buy new parts. Can't seem to find anyone on the Net in UK that does parts...can you help?

For those interested, here's the details:

Cooking up a culinary treat on the single hob and the canister ran out. Plenty of spares so put a new one in. Lit it and it fired straight away with a bit of a flame up. The hob then went out but the fire carried on, beneath the hob, directly from the canister. Switched it off, but it carried on flaming.

Fire blanket and powder extinguisher later and all ok(even rescued supper!) but very scary. Can't figure out if dodgy canister, stove or user so not wanting to take the risk of putting stove back in...plus the plastic bits have melted!

Have considered alternatives including electric but think this could be very expensive. Gas seems to be very commonly used and it hasn't put me off totally.

Suggestions welcome and if you know anywhere that sells them, please let me know

Thanks
 
in a boat, having the canister adjacent to the cooker is not good - I assume this is a small picnic stove with a screw in top that pierces the cylinder, so has to remain connected untill cylinder is used up. sometimes they dont seal and you get the problems you experienced. Much better to get the slightly larger one that screws into a self sealing top, so at the end of each day you can remove the cooker top from the cylinder - much less chance of the problems you experienced.
 
The stove is the standard unit fitted to the boat, as oppose to a separate picnic stove (have one of those also). The canister is in a compartment that is supposed to self seal, with only one way the gas can be fitted.

Think its a proven unit, so hoping my problems were a one off.

The canister is only supposed to engage when the cooker is switched on,via the main switch. When this switch was turned off, in theory, the gas flow should have halted...this didn't happen
 
not having a lot of luck are you?

glad no lasting (physical) damage.......

I had exactly the same from a new canister that wasn't seated correctly but releasing the cartridge did reseal it and flame ceased - sounds like yours burnt long enough to melt the plastic seal before being released?

some units definitely seal better than others, and some cartridges appear to the casual user to be better made than others too.

Are you down and out at the weekend at all?
 
Hi Duncan, yes, its been a year of ups and downs (thankfully more ups than downs!) but all good character building stuff!

Hoping to be down at weekend, although we'll stay (very) local. Am quite enjoying the harbour with little traffic and no limit. Will probably stay in Poole Haven again.

I think I'll replace the whole stove as I'm a bit concerned about other bits that look ok but might be damaged. Will rely on the camping stove (on deck!)

Maybe see you down there?
 
Did you resolve this?

I have had a similarly scary experience this weekend (Aug 09) when changing a butane cannister on my 2003 SeaRay 275. This resulted into a fire that could have had very serious consequences.

Worse still either the fire blew off the vent pipe at the back of the stove (or it wasn't correctly assembled!) resulting in the butane draining behind the sink/stove unit where it was not visible but still burning (rather than draining out the boat). Having extinguished the fire in the stove I was aware that the counter top was getting hotter. The challenge being there was no direct access to the fire! The solution was to fully empty a powder extinguisher into the pipe access inside the cupboard under the sink. Thankfully we were on the quayside and the family were able to get off the boat quickly.

I have found that a similar incident has happened on another SeaRay and have been told that a seal kit is available but I would not trust the unit unless it was proffesionally serviced. Does know if Kenyon are still trading ? and/or have UK repair agents; their web site is a bit random and drops into search engines.

My only other advice to anyone is remove the selophane from any extinguisher as soon as you buy it..........................................
 
Adam

When we bought our Sea Ray 315 from MMUK a few years ago, which has the same cooker as yours, the Surveyor we employed picked up what he thought was a slight gas leak / ill fitting canister and recommended further investigation. The unit was only a year or so old and hardly used. The guys at MMUK took a look at it and replaced the whole unit with a brand new one as part of the purchase arrangement. Poss Kenyon had an issue with a batch of these things? The new unit has been working fine (touch wood etc) ever since.

I think MMUK had to get the new unit from the USA, I'm not aware of any outlet for them in the UK (a friend of mine was looking for one a few weeks ago and couldn't find a UK supplier)

Best of luck sorting it, if you find a UK agent for Kenyon please let us know on here.

Thanks

Mike
 
This sounds like the same stove we have. I've noticed it is easy to not fully locate the cannister when you put a new one in. When installing it you need to make sure the cut-out in the rim of the cannister is correctly positioned and the cannister is lined up with the seat it is pushed onto when the 'on' lever is engaged. Once you're aware of it it's fine, just have to double check rather than swop the cannister in a hurry. I've also noticed a lot of sharp edges on ours, bit tricky changing cans when it's hot!
 
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