Servicing Flavel Vanessa

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Has anyone here serviced the burners on a Flavel Vanessa cooker?

My burners are producing a yellowish flame and cover the saucepans/kettle in soot and I want to stop that happening.

I was just wondering what I should be looking to clean. I have a set of small jet files for cleaning the jets but am not too sure about where they are.

I'm quite sure it can be fixed up, I just need a little knowledge before I attempt the job.

Would a faulty regulator produce these symptoms? The fitted one came with the boat and I have no idea how old it is.
 
I would not go poking the jets about, but check there is no obstruction to the air flow

If you don't know how old the regulator is replacing it could be a sensible thing to do, but I doubt if it's your problem
It is recommended that they are renewed every 10 years. ( and hoses every 5)

Using the correct gas for the appliance? It should state on a plate whether its for butane or propane ( or both) and at what pressure
 
I had a Flavel Vanessa on my boat about 20 years ago and this is delving into the dim and distant parts of my memory bank but I "think" you can adjust the air to gas mix by adjusting sliding collars near the gas jets. I know I was happy with mine running on both butane or propane and mixed stuff.

N.B. The grill burner fell apart after about three years and had to be replaced so if you find a spare grab it.
 
Hi Vic,

It's running on Butane. I understand it can run on both Butane or Propane as long as the correct regulator is used (I do have the correct one).

With regard to the jets, I was only intending to remove any dirt/corrosion rather than alter the jet size at all as I know it's pretty critical.

EDIT: TQA, I have also heard that they can be adjusted. I had a look last time I was onboard but couldn't find anything that wanted to come apart or move. There did seem to be some corrosion inside the burner assembly though so maybe this is creating a restriction.
Sadly it will be approximately a month till I can get onboard again as I'm at work for the forseable future.
 
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If it's like my old cooker the jets are actually just behind the taps, i.e. nowhere near the burners. There's a sort of spring clip round the tube in the same area that can be rotated to adjust the air/gas mix.
 
alahol2 said:
If it's like my old cooker the jets are actually just behind the taps, i.e. nowhere near the burners. There's a sort of spring clip round the tube in the same area that can be rotated to adjust the air/gas mix.
Click to expand...

Dats it ! It may push in or out rather than turn though.

Think of a bunsen burner on side. Doh they turned maybe it turns. Anyway the adjustemnt is near the gas jet which blows into the burners.
 
Memory doesn't really extend to my old Vanessa, I'm afraid, but I believe that all burners have a secondary aeration arrangement. This is what commonly causes mixture problems as the burner is set aith a small gap under it to allow ingress of air. When cleaning the cooker, grease is carried into this gap until it bloxks and the flame becomes yellow and sooty, often with the flame standing off from the burner - it ignites at the distance where the air/gas ratio is correct. In extreme cases, the burner will fail to light all the way round.

To fix it, you need to remove the burner and clean all the faces before reassembling. If you PM me with an email address, I can send you a pdf of the Vanessa User guide.

Rob.
 
We had a Vanessa for years on our last boat but I understood that they never had flame-failure devices and are not considered safe on boats these days. If I am right, you should consider replacing the cooker, if not, please ignore.
 
Safety issues appart.....

Take the burners apart and the cast 'tubes', wire brush all the rust off all the parts.
Re-assemble and I bet most of your yellow flame will vanish.
 
Thanks for all the input guys, I've PM'd Rob for the user guide which I can hopefully couple with other ideas here and see how I get on.
The only thing is that it's going to be a while till I can get onboard again :-(
 
Alpha22 said:
Safety issues appart.....

Take the burners apart and the cast 'tubes', wire brush all the rust off all the parts.
Re-assemble and I bet most of your yellow flame will vanish.
Click to expand...

Yellow flame means insufficient air in the mix usually cause by rust somewhere in the burners. As stated above, thorough cleaning is the answer using a wire brush. I would be concerned if there was no flame failure device though. The flame can easily blow out and fill your boat with gas waiting for a spark.
 
The only problem with the Vanessa Cookers are that some spares are no longer available, like the grill grids - speak to SOCAL in Southampton.
 
When we bought our boat it had a Vanessa cooker fitted. The whole gas system looked in poor condition, and I got a local gas engineer to quote for a new system.

When he came to do the quote his first question was , are you keeping the Vanessa? When I said no I was replacing it, he then said that he wouldn't have done any work at all if the Vanessa was staying.
 
Leighb said:
When we bought our boat it had a Vanessa cooker fitted. The whole gas system looked in poor condition, and I got a local gas engineer to quote for a new system.

When he came to do the quote his first question was , are you keeping the Vanessa? When I said no I was replacing it, he then said that he wouldn't have done any work at all if the Vanessa was staying.
Click to expand...

Just had the same said to me, burners were rusty, and beyond repair.
 
johnalison said:
We had a Vanessa for years on our last boat but I understood that they never had flame-failure devices and are not considered safe on boats these days. If I am right, you should consider replacing the cooker, if not, please ignore.
Click to expand...

You are right - they don't have flame-failure cutoff. We have just replaced ours for that reason, not to mention the fact that one of the burner knobs was so stiff we couldn't turn it on and the spring on the oven door was banjaxed so it wouldn't stay shut :D
 
the older cast iron burners can normally be cleaned of rust and other debris with careful use of small bottle brush in the venturi and undersized drill bit in the burner cap holes.
if it is the newer pressed steel burner try removing it and blowing it out with an air line and then adjust the aeration sleeve when you refit it, if there is bad rust damage to the pressed steel burner then you will have to bin it.
also as said already if you can upgrade to one with flame failure then do so.
 
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