Yellow flames

westhinder

westhinder

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Our Plastimo gas cooker has developed quite long yellow tips to its flames, resulting in sooty bottoms to pots and pans. Probably not unconnected to the fact that I have not serviced the cooker since we bought the boat 6 years ago.
I have tried to remove the hobs to have a look, but i do not have the correct size Allen key to remove the retaining screw.
If I succeed in removing the hobs, what would be the next steps?
 
westhinder said:
Our Plastimo gas cooker has developed quite long yellow tips to its flames, resulting in sooty bottoms to pots and pans. Probably not unconnected to the fact that I have not serviced the cooker since we bought the boat 6 years ago.
I have tried to remove the hobs to have a look, but i do not have the correct size Allen key to remove the retaining screw.
If I succeed in removing the hobs, what would be the next steps?
Click to expand...

Replacing them! yellow if it's clean means bloked air vents. I would have it looked at by a professional.
 
If poking the burners clear produces a healthy and hot blue flame, job done and no need to rush off paying someone ( and having the cooker out of commission for X time ).

It should go without saying carbon monoxide alarms are essential, very good Kidde ones are around £20 from amazon.
 
Find a way to remove them! I prised mine off, and now they are removable by hand, and it's quite amazing how much deposit you can remove on a regular basis. BSS passed with flying colours...
 
Seajet said:
If poking the burners clear produces a healthy and hot blue flame, job done and no need to rush off paying someone ( and having the cooker out of commission for X time ).

It should go without saying carbon monoxide alarms are essential, very good Kidde ones are around £20 from amazon.
Click to expand...

Plus one on both counts. If your cleaning gets the flame nice and blue then why involve an expensive professional? This is an issue that we should all be aware of watching out for. But should be able to resolve ourselves.
 
Ours burnt yellow for years - putting a needle into the screwable nozzle under the two detachable ring parts (on ENO cooker) solved the problem for a day or two then increasingly yellow again. The detachable bits on top were both rusty and a bit bashed.

We got a CO monitor almost immediately and it never actually went off but it wasn't til this year that I found a site supplying the right spare parts and by replacing all the bits of that ring it's just worked properly and blue for the last two weeks.
 
pcatterall said:
Plus one on both counts. If your cleaning gets the flame nice and blue then why involve an expensive professional? This is an issue that we should all be aware of watching out for. But should be able to resolve ourselves.
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Thanks, seriously; that's the first in a very long time someone on YBW has appreciated and thanked me for a tiny simple bit of advice hopefully given, instead of being pounced upon by ' I know better because I'm an accountant who once brushed by an engineer ' or ' the word ' guage ' is not PC, - all gas systems are equal, and some less equal than others are allowed to explode as is their right ! :)
 
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'Yellow flames' means incomplete combustion which means CERTAINLY carbon monoxide. That kills yotties each year, and it very nearly got me a few years ago..... a Taylors wall mounted paraffin heater with a rusted/crumbling burner, a very cold night, and a buttoned-up cabin. I even had a CO alarm device. In my 'fuddled state I didn't immediately understand its purpose.
 
So as a seriously military trained and experienced bod the bloody great BLEEEPING SHOUTING ALARM didn't give you a clue ?

I am NOT taking the pee here ( well maybe a bit but we know each other slightly ) - was it a modern, say Kidde alarm ? ?

The only time mine has gone off causing us to vacate to the cockpit and open all the hatches pronto was when I was cooking sausages - yes with a sometimes yellow flame from some of the burners at the time, later sorted as described earlier,

I just thought it didn't like my choice of fat Linconshire sausages, but I did decide to sort out the burners to keep it quiet, just in case it might be right and the CO kept me quiet.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I hope I get that grub screw out as soon as possible.
Re the CO- warning, I always cook with at least the companionway hatch open, and so far this season the heater running as well, which takes all its air supply from outside the boat. So I think I was not in any danger, but I agree that this needs sorting out.
 
Seajet said:
So as a seriously military trained and experienced bod the bloody great BLEEEPING SHOUTING ALARM didn't give you a clue ?
Click to expand...

It did give me a clue.

I was already only semi-conscious and it was the strident persistence of the darned thing ( for which I continue to thank Sarabande, who put it there ) that finally got through to me.

Think on that.....
 
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