Taylors stove - 4 legs good, 2 legs bad

[Amulet]

Owners of Taylors paraffin stoves have a tense relationship with them. At least in my hands, they require a lot of patient attention. I tolerate it to avoid a complex gas installation on a tiny boat.

Now - when I bought it the standard burners were the "four leg" variety - low thermal mass and plenty surface exposure to the preheat flame. In my learning phase I buggered up a couple of burners - damage to the valve seat by over vigorous closing etc. No obvious problem apart from expense (!) of new burners. But - the replacements are a new "two leg" variety. much more thermal mass and poor exposure to the preheat flame. (And they prefer a higher pressure and no balance jet on the input line. How annoying if you have a mixture of types on your stove.) Blakes-Lavac-Taylors advise you to preheat with a gas blowtorch instead of meths on the cup. What?!! The reason I have a Taylors stove is so that we have NO GAS on the boat. (Experts on this forum say a blowtorch has enough gas to blow up your boat.)

So now new Taylors 2 legged burners include a cute little note which basically says "THESE BURNERS DON'T WORK - BUT WE'LL SELL THEM TO YOU ANYWAY".

The exact wording is:

PREHEAT INSTRUCTIONS

Preheating by gas torch

Preheat times are considerably longer for the 2 legged burner it can be anything up to 2 minutes

The burner may also go out and will require relighting for up to 2 minutes after preheating

Preheating with spirit cup

When using metholated [sic] sprits [sic] in the preheat cup 1 full cup burnt away maybe [sic] not sufficient to preheat the burner therefore you may have to wait until the spirit cup has cooled enough to refill with metholated [sic] spirits and re light [sic] again

When ordering spare for the burner please state if you have 4 legged or 2 legged burner

-- I can make the damned things work but they are utterly ****. Two wicks in the meths cup and a massive dose on meths. But can I have the ones which actually work again?

 

[VicS]

Owners of Taylors paraffin stoves have a tense relationship with them. At least in my hands, they require a lot of patient attention. I tolerate it to avoid a complex gas installation on a tiny boat

I have a simple gas installation in my tiny boat.

A gas bottle instead of a can of kerosene.
No need to keep or use a highly flammable liquid like meths to light it .

I turn on the gas tap, click an electronic gas lighter and it' s working!

No fuss, no hassle instantly working!

 

[prv]

Get a gas stove like all sensible people

(At one point I was kind of attracted to the old-fashioned brass-bound solidity of those stoves, but the price and realising how impractical they actually are to use put me right off them.)

Pete

 

[VicS]

Get a gas stove like all sensible people

(At one point I was kind of attracted to the old-fashioned brass-bound solidity of those stoves, but the price and realising how impractical they actually are to use put me right off them.)

Pete

When you have had the odd flare up due to trying light them before they are properly warmed up it helps to put you off them.

 

[prv]

When you have had the odd flare up due to trying light them before they are properly warmed up it helps to put you off them.

Another hint is that Lin and Larry Pardey, generally luddites to a fault who won't have electricity or plumbed-in toilets on their boats, and still run cabin and nav lights exclusively on paraffin, nevertheless insist on gas for cooking.

Pete

 

[pyrojames]

I had exactly the same experience with my old Taylors. The 2 leg burners were absolutely infuriating. I sold the boat and now have gas, and despite being ardently against gas for both personal and professional reasons, I am content with my current installation.

No gas bottle locker inside the hull deck structure (dedicated on deck gas locker) and a stop cock on the gas line immediately after it passes through the deck. Hence no gas pressure below decks anytime that the cooker is not being used.

 

[Amulet]

I had exactly the same experience with my old Taylors. The 2 leg burners were absolutely infuriating. I sold the boat and now have gas, and despite being ardently against gas for both personal and professional reasons, I am content with my current installation.

No gas bottle locker inside the hull deck structure (dedicated on deck gas locker) and a stop cock on the gas line immediately after it passes through the deck. Hence no gas pressure below decks anytime that the cooker is not being used.

At least you should know how to deal with combustibles.

I had no problems as long as i had the four legged burners, and am became adept enough to avoid flare-ups after the first week or so of ownership. It is true, however, that in exchange for not blowing your boat up, you get access to several interesting ways of setting it on fire.

Trouble is that, with a tiny boat, a regulation-following gas installation is complex, space consuming and expensive. I guess there is also a perverse determination to have my way with the Taylors! I also have Aga at home - maybe says something.

 

[Egbod]

Preheating the Taylors cooker burner

There is an alternative to the gas blowlamp- just use a paraffin blowlamp. This just needs paraffin and a small amount of meths and avoids carrying gas.

 

[FWB]

I have one old style and one new style burner on my Taylors cooker.
The new style requires a longer preheat time. This is achieved by inserting a special absorbent ring into the meths cup. For some reason it burns for 6 minutes with this in and 4 minutes without it. The "cloth?" piece is available from dealers.
My lighting technique is to put a kettle on the stove during the preheat phase, wait either 4 or 6 minutes for the flame to extinguish then light as if it were gas.
It is much easier to fill the meths cup if you remove the dome and pour the meths down the exposed hole, remember to refit the dome and twist it to secure.

 

[VicS]

There is an alternative to the gas blowlamp- just use a paraffin blowlamp. This just needs paraffin and a small amount of meths and avoids carrying gas.

blowlamp anyone?

​

Pressure paraffin stoves anyone?

​

 

[Blueboatman]

The first time I saw someone use a fast-start blowtorch my eyes popped open wide. Having nongimballed (optimus) installation, I had to wrap asbestos type wick around the preheat bowl but it worked reliably.
I believe there is a Optimus model that uses low pressure paraffin for the preheat and you pressurise the main tank as it preheats? Tedious tho each time.

 

[Amulet]

I have one old style and one new style burner on my Taylors cooker.
The new style requires a longer preheat time. This is achieved by inserting a special absorbent ring into the meths cup. For some reason it burns for 6 minutes with this in and 4 minutes without it. The "cloth?" piece is available from dealers.
My lighting technique is to put a kettle on the stove during the preheat phase, wait either 4 or 6 minutes for the flame to extinguish then light as if it were gas.
It is much easier to fill the meths cup if you remove the dome and pour the meths down the exposed hole, remember to refit the dome and twist it to secure.

Yep, I use the glass fibre wicks in both kinds of burners - I actually put 2 wicks in the 2 legged. My method for the meths is to use a 20ml plastic syringe (no needle - I'm not yet desperate enough to mainline meths). I fill the syringe from the meths bottle away from the cooker, which means I only bring 20 ml of meths into the danger zone. This matters if another ring is lit or the oven roof is hot - I keel-haul crew who bring the entire meths bottle near a burning stove.

15 ml for 4 leg (5 min)
20 ml for 2 leg (6 min)
I have a kitchen timer by the stove, and, like you, light it as if it was gas when the beeper goes.

I am testing with cut up solid fuel tablets like climbers etc use instead of meths. I think it will work when I have got the correct dosage. Much less risky, but I think it might be slower than the 5-6 mins, which is already a pain in the butt.