cleaning the burner in a paraffin stove (an Aga)

[geordief]

I have just completed this task and now I am wondering how important it is to do it.

I mean  I know if I don't do it the stove will go out  but has anyone an idea of how much fuel I as wasting  in the weeks and months leading up to the   time I got the job done?

Basically what happens is there is a build up of coke (a carbon deposit from unburned paraffin) in the centre of the  stove (the burner) that causes the flame to burn yellower and cooler  and eventually die.

I am just wondering  what might be the highest wastage that might be occurring as the  burner soots up.
Might it be 10% ? 5o% ?

Basically I am wondering what might be the ideal  time to do this job from the point of view of being the least wasteful (I normally leave it up to 8 months or longer  between cleanings)

By the  way , could there be such a thing as a non-stick burner that might  not need to be decoked at all?
I think the one I have is probably cast iron  -or at least it doesn't look very high tech as it is probably 50 years old at this stage.

[johnrae]

Yellow flame means incomplete combustion and incomplete combustion means carbon-monoxide 

In answer to your question, I'd guess 10% efficient  (90% loss)

If you are carboning up in less than 8 months then you have a serious calibration problem on your stove.

Is your stove one where a "carburettor" drips fuel onto a red-hot plate from which it flash flames.  If so then it's dripping too much and actually cooling the plate, hence not permitting it to get red-hot and so burning yellow (ie cold).

[Philip R]

Johnrae,
The Aga in question sounds like it has a vapourising wick burner, not the other type, which I believe you are referring to.  (Like the living flame lounge type stoves)

Geordief,
Aga's generally have a six month service for the wick type appliance. (Quite high maintenance)  Sounds like you need a trained oil service man to come round and give it a service and set the stove oil regulator valve up properly. It could reduce your oil consumption dramatically.

Your problems sound numerous.  Like possible gummed up wicks, incorrect float level / fuel rate sooted up appliance, bad chimney draft, or a combination of each.

I would like to help more but I believe that oil appliances should be treated like gas appliances, and be serviced by competent people.

PhilipR

[Countrypaul]

You may also want to look at exactly what you are burning in the stove. There are additives for example that supposedly improve the combustion and reduce the sooting up - some explicitly refer to use in Agas. DOn't have an Aga so never tried them and can't comment on whether they are worthwhile or not.

Paul

[mojomal]

We have an old aga converted to oil with a Dan burner maybe 20 years ago. It took me several years to get my head around the conversion, but what I have noticed that the serviceing times have become much shorter over the last few years and due to the inner burner (carboning up) through the centre hole preventing oil getting to the burner. In my mind your not wasting fuel because your not burning it but your not getting the heat from the burner (might be completely wrong). I have been told that there are now additives in the oil which causes this problem?   We fitted a Navitron solar water panel 3 years ago and and have reduced our oil consumption by half because we only use the Aga between October and april. I service the Aga around September / October when we light the aga for the winter months (very expensive but nice luxury). In the past we might see the Aga last 12 months without service but now it might last from Autumn to spring. I am not an expert just what I have found out over the last few years.
Malc.

[geordief]

Johnrae,
The Aga in question sounds like it has a vapourising wick burner, not the other type, which I believe you are referring to.  (Like the living flame lounge type stoves)

Geordief,
Aga's generally have a six month service for the wick type appliance. (Quite high maintenance)  Sounds like you need a trained oil service man to come round and give it a service and set the stove oil regulator valve up properly. It could reduce your oil consumption dramatically.

Your problems sound numerous.  Like possible gummed up wicks, incorrect float level / fuel rate sooted up appliance, bad chimney draft, or a combination of each.

I would like to help more but I believe that oil appliances should be treated like gas appliances, and be serviced by competent people.

PhilipR

PhilipR
thanks .Yes you're right.Would you believe it is the devil's own  job to get  an Aga man out here (Ireland)  and as a result I have been doing the "servicing" for the past 20 years or so myself.
I will give it another go then -do you think I should try to get a trained oil service man who wasn't actually  trained to service Agas themselves as that would seem to widen the field?  (like I said all the so called Aga men  in this area have given us the cold shoulder over the years- they say they will come but never do)

[Ivan]

In the UK, the removal of sulphur from the fuel oil (ie making it 'low sulphur fuel') seems to have caused major problems for wick-burning appliances - they soot up much more quickly. Maybe the same in Ireland?

[Mike N.]

When they removed the sulphur from the oil, our Aga started sooting up every 4 months or so which was a pain as every one was another Sunday morning out of my life. (The date was determined by when the temperature gauge started to fall - don't be tempted to adjust the thermostat to compensate. The only time we ever adjusted the thermostat was when we topped up the insulation in the kitchen loft and it started to run hot.

When we last filled the tank I bought a bottle of additive which I strongly suspected to be snake oil but have been pleasantly surprised that it does appear to have doubled the service interval.

The other good thing I did was to download a DIY service manual from the internet for about £30 I think. I then set about doing all the major jobs like checking and adjusting float levels and flow rates. Not a difficult job for anybody who ever owned a British bike, and possibly even those who haven't. I'm sure it has saved me time and oil, not to mention a fortune in Aga engineers (who don't like you watching them show you just how easy it is to do yourself. ) Last year I replaced the leaking boiler - just a lump of cast iron bolted to another lump of cast iron with big nuts and bolts - hence the benefit of an upbringing with British bikes.)

Mike

[bram]

sorry for diversing a tad from original question but you all seem to be aga owners, have any of you considered fitting a pressure jet conversion or electric conversion. We have an aga that was fitted new around 96/97 when oil was a lot cheaper (and in all honesty we were probably not really thinking green) and we also had regular power cuts lasting a day or two. The aga luxury is now getting silly with the price of oil, so its either got to go or become a lot more frugal on fuel, have had a little look at the conversions mentioned but haven't heard of anyone whos gone down this route. Oh if the electric route we do have PV. Any ideas or suggestions.
Sorry again for hijacking thread a bit.
bram

[merkland]

My first experience of an Aga cooker was a number of years prior to the age of ten. Have now lived with one for over sixty years, first one was solid fuel but installed a new one fuelled by oil in 1972. Our Aga is viewed as an essential not a luxury, it does all the cooking and produces an abundance of hot water besides keeping the kitchen warm in winter. I was persuaded to install solar water heating over thirty years ago, which preheats the water going to the Aga, and that has saved us five gallons of oil a week. We have in the past put  the Aga off for the summer months but eventually decided that convenience outweighed the discomfort of a slightly overwarm kitchen on a hot summers day( that is on the rare occasions that we actually get a decent summers day!).
Aga appear to have decided that their future is with electricity but personally I do not think that is the best fuel for an Aga irrespective of how clever they make their control system.
I contacted Aga to ask them if they had any plans to produce an Aga fueled by wood pellets but they did not think my query merited a reply.
Having looked at various wood pellet stoves/boilers it seems to me that such a system could be developed to fuel an Aga reasonably easily but Aga in their wisdom do not appear to agree.
We shall continue to enjoy the benefits of having an Aga as long as we can afford the fuel and that it is still available.

merkland.

[Ivan]

If you want a cheap option - check out my waste oil conversion for my rayburn (in the liquid fuels section of the website). It still needs some fine -tuning, but it works well, very clean and pretty efficient. If you're good with your hands, you might be able to modify a standard pressure jet burner as used in oil boilers. It's mostly a case of resitting the components.

[bram]

not too concerned about initial cost more long term really, the burner aperture is slightly small for normal burner but you can get some adapted for the job and they are also supposed to be able to burn veg oil. Although i don't have a cheap supply so that's fairly pointless. could do with some figures really to see how much less oil a pressure jet burner would consume. Still wondering if elecy would be best route