"ray lunder" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:46:30 -0700, druid wrote:

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 01:51:36 -0800, ray lunder wrote:

Ahoy, I bought a used Dickinson Newport cabin heater and tried it out
for the first time tonight set up on the shop floor. I can't get the
fuel to vaporize. I have the stack and hat on and the tank is about 3
feet above the heater. There's nothing coming out of the overflow
nozzle.

I have one and I really love it! It's built in good ol' Burnaby, BC. The
manual is a bit hard to understand, but pretty good. Actually it's easier
than it sounds.

First, I agree that you might have the superheater upside-down. Apart from
that, this is what's supposed to happen:

First, the flame is very slow and lazy, coming directly from the fuel.
Then the flame raises into the "body" below the ring. It will stay there
for a few minutes, then there should be brief almost-white flames above
the ring. Now, with the valve on 1 (or off) and the fan on, you probably
won't get much more than this. So, at this point turn off the fan and put
the valve on 1, and the flame should slowly change from yellow in the body
to white above the ring.

Once you've gotten there, you're basically "on". I usually run at 2,
unless it's really cold, when I turn up to 3, and maybe add some fan. By
the time you get to 4 you definitely need the fan, and we're talking WARM.


As I said, try turning the superheater over...

druid
http://www.bcboatnet.org

Thanks, that's the information I'm looking for.
I called Dickinson today and he said I had everything set up
correctly, including the superheater. He had no idea why it wouldn't
vaporize. It won't get up over the burner ring until it's on 4. Even
then it's trying to establish a column of flame back down to the fuel
inlet about every 10 seconds. On five it burns above the ring
permanently but it's an orange colored flame. There's no flame in the
burner below the ring at this point. You can feel heat if you put your
hand right over the top of the stove a few inches away but it's not
spectacular by any means. On 1 it just swirls orange flames around in
the bottom of the pot. You could get more heat out of a can of sterno.
The guy said if it smokes- not enough air, if it won't go above the
ring- too much air.
I got this diesel from a Shell gas station, I don't know if it's #1,
#2, off road etc. All I can think of is to try and do a meter drip
test. Mine is a 3D so I know it's the diesel model. I was shocked to
see what these things sell for new.
Glad to hear it keeps you warm.

How long is your exhaust pipe and is it straight? You should have at least
3 feet of stack and preferably straight.
Did you clean out the fuel inlet at the bottom of the pot? You take out the
plug from the underside and use a rod.
When I start my stove (which I don't use much), I take out the superheater
altogether so I can see how much diesel is in there. When I have maybe 3/16
inch over the inlet I drop in a small piece of lit paper. If the diesel
catches I put in the superheater, close the door and wait a bit before
letting in more fuel. I think my stove pretty much needed to be run on a
high setting to burn properly and prevent coking. That's with a 4 foot
straight stack.