More on Pansy cabin heater

2nd_apprentice

2nd_apprentice

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Did the fire cement thing and stuff. Pansy now fitted and running. Even though I had expected difficulties with lighting it and followed the advice given it's an absolute pig to start Must've taken me two hours until I got the damn thing going. Blow torch, meths and petrol useless. Did the preheating bit and used very little but still. Perhaps this "smokeless solid fuel" isn't that good after all? Looks more like briquettes so probably different burning characteristics to charcoal?

Unfortunately I can't say I'm too satisfied with the results. Over the last 20 hours I managed to get between three to four degrees centigrade higher than outside temperatures. Hardly impressive!
Anything I ought to check or is this to be expected on a 30ft boat?
 
I get the feeling that it's not drawing properly. Discovered that it went out in spite of being filled up. Just smouldering instead of proper fire.
 
I had the same problem with mine, come to find out the elbow from the heater to the chimney was partially choked, the deposit in the elbow was rock hard so took a bit of shifting.

It happens quite often on mine, so i now have a stainless flexy chimney coming off the elbow which makes it easy to remove for cleaning the elbow.
 
For starting it, get a bag of barbie "self-lighting" charcoal. It has a chemical impregnated in it - could be parafin or a parafin jelly. The point is that, with a few of these briquettes near the bottom front, a single match will ignite them & if the draw is good (it has to be) the whole lot will get started easily.

You should be able to test the draw by lighting a bit of newspaper in it. Roll the paper loosley lengthwise & tie in a simple half hitch before using.
 
Yes, I too suspect the elbow. Hmm piece of string with a hanky tied to it or is there a better way? Haven't got any appropriately sized pipe cleaners!

Self igniting coal sounds interesting too, remember that from church but I doubt they'd let me have some. More shopping.
 
Use lumpwood charcoal rather than briquettes. A firelighter will get it started. It certainly doesn't need to be blazing.
My boat's 26ft and is cosy in half an hour.
Good luck.
PS My heater is a Bengco but not a lot different.
 
"Use lumpwood charcoal rather than briquettes"

This is the only way to go - and don't over fill it. One handful at a time. I pre-pack mine in paper grocers bags so I reduce the amount of dust when loading. Find pre-heating the flu with blow torch helps.
 
You need to heat the flue to get it to draw:

33othxv.jpg
 
I do not appear to have expressed my self very well. I was refering to the charcoal lumps supplied for easy starting barbies. They act like firelighters - so you don't need firelighters per se. I use them, with normal charcoal lumps, for my boat barbie, just a few under the normal charcoal to get it lit quickly and without the fumes that firelighters generate. Also cheaper & easier to store than firelighters.
 
If the elbow is choked as bad as mine was, the only way i could clear it was to take the chimney off and get something sharp an strong into it to scrape/grind it out, I attacked mine from the top and from inside the heater. it really did take some shifting.
 
Not sure how big a space you're trying to heat, but we were able to get a VW camper T-shirt warm in winter with one of these. Absolutely chucked out the heat, indeed with a good breeze creating a venturi effect across the chimney top the whole thing would glow a dull red, using charcoal. I think the respondents above must be correct that the chimney is not drawing properly. Good luck.
 
Difficult to say but something around twice the VW camper volume, perhaps more. My old electric radiator was rated at 2000W and certainly up to the job. The new one only puts out 1500W and takes much longer and won't heat the boat up as well. Cheaper to run though. The Newport Dickinson charcoal heater is said to produce up to 8000BTU @ full throttle which converts to ~2500W. So the Pansy should be fine I reckon.

Suspect number one seems to be clogged elbow. I'll report the results.
 
Try different fuels and work out which is best for your set-up. It might be a combination.
I have a similar solid fuel stove. Best results are from lumpwood charcoal. Briquettes are not bad, but work best as damper on top of lumpwood. Sourcing charcoal at this time of year is a big problem. I made the mistake of buying two 7kg bags of solid fuel from a garden centre, parked next to chimneas. I didn't bother reading the bags until I got to the boat... the briquettes seem to be made up of a high proportion of plant material and charcoal dust. They also need a special chimney to get going.
I was on the boat over the weekend and these things were barely putting out heat. Once going, though they kept in all night.
Peat is a brilliant fuel for the stove. Unfortunately the downside is a lot of tar.
 
Went through the flue with a wire brush on the flexible dremel extension. That took care of that in no time. While this definitely helped I still can't light the Pansy properly. Obviously I need to get some charcoal instead of briquettes but couldn't find any. If only I hadn't bought 20 Kg of this smokeless fuel stuff...
 
I used to have a charcoal heater (homemade) and experimented with those smokeless solid fuel bricks, it wouldn't burn them at all just as you found.

So I bet you will have no difficulty at all once you get some proper charcoal, the only problem being where to find it in January.... I used to have to remember to buy a few bags at the end of the BBQ season.



Chris
 
lit mine in the garden yesterday to test prior to fitting. Had B&Q BBQ lumpwood. One handful and a gas torch set it alght in seconds. Put the lid on and it burned for about an hour prior to me putting a big handfull in. The fire then burned for about 4 hours and although outside the thing got very hot. Maybe its your fuel ?
Can you advise ona though deck flange?
 
Every working day for the last ten winters I've used a German stove to heat my workshop. Its more or less exactly the same as your Pansy, except bigger - really just a oil-drum with a lid and two vent holes near the top rim, one hole and one called a 'turbo' ie a tube down to the bottom to suck airright in to where the combustion takes place.

It won't burn anything properly until the flue is hot enough to draw - so I start it off each morning with kindling and torn-up cardboard just to get enough naked flame to heat the flue (and of course the drum itself).

Once its going a bit, I chuck in bigger bits of wood to get it really roaring, progressively closing the vents. When everything is nice and hot, I can chuck in anything (exept painted or treated wood which I don't like), including real coal or coal briquettes (just compressed coad-dust really).

Before leaving each evening, I fill it up with a few more wood offcuts or some coal, wait until these heat up, then close off the vents - the stove then ticks over all night and is usually still warm in the morning.

Moral: get your cabin-heater and flu nice and hot before introducing coal or coal products.
 
FWIW; Comment on burning wood vs coal products (based on use of solid fuel domestic stoves).

Wood will burn with only air from above, it doesn't need draught from below and can sit on a thick bed of ash or solid plate base. Coal/ anthracite etc do not, they must have draught from below and need to be raddled and sit on a grating with air supply to the base of the fire.
 
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