Taylors cooker and heater

[firstascent2002]

Hi guys,

I have a taylors cooker plumbed into a tank about 4 m away. I have just bought a second hand taylors heater that ideally I want to run it from the same tank. Is there a reason why I can't run both the cooker and the heater from the same tank using a t connector to split the fuel supply? Also If I do this then the heater will be about 7.5 M from the tank and the taylors guide suggests a max of 5 m. I have e mailed taylors with no reply. Any thoughts? It would be a pain to have to put in a second tank.

Second...if I do have to put in a second tank, I have a small paraffin tank but it is not pressurised. To buy the pump from taylors costs >100. I was thinking of drilling a hole in the tank a and putting in a inner tubeless tyre valve then pressurising with a bike pump (or even a halfords 12 v compressor with pressure guage). Any thoughts on wether it would work or other ideas?

Hope all your boat prep is going well.

Jamie

 

[tobble]

7.5m is probably ok, I have exactly this arrangement with probably about a 6 or 7m run (haven't measured) and there's no noticeable difference in performance between the heater at the end and the cooker which is about 3 or 4m along. only thing to remember is that if you put in the T after the filter, you'll need a second one to cpverthe heater. also, while you're about it, its very handy to have individual cut offs for the cooker and heater - I live aboard and make extra space in the summer by taking the heater down.

I have thought about adding a 12V compressor but haven't bothered on the KISS principle, and also because it's not really that much hassle to keep it pumped up! If you do have a go, let me know how you get on!

 

[Gordonmc]

A problem T-ing off from a common tank might arise if you try and run the heratewr and cooker at the same time. The fuel will go to the point of greater pressure release, sort of.
My alcohol stove runs on a pressure tank which uses a bog standard bike tyre valve in the set up you describe. It gets up to operating pressure with a few strokes of a Halfords plastic bike pump which is enough to keep the stove going for a couple of days.
An alternative would be to rob a pump off an old primus stove and braze it on. You could also put on a pressure guage... mine is very similar, probably the same, as those on foot-pumps.

 

[tobble]

Oh, another thing to remember is avoid cutting the pipes with a hacksaw; use a proper pipe cutter. This way there is no chance of getting swarf in the system which can bung things up.

Slightly confused by Gordonmc's coments; if you have a static fluid (which the paraffin effectively is) the pressure will be constant throughout. I think the discharge rate is so small in comparison to the pressure this isn't a problem in practise.

I operate exactly this system without problems...