Resnor Heater

That is an...

"Un-anticipated freak displacement of combustible air resulting in an audible pressure release".

My goodness don't I sound intelligent for once!

You'll have to excuse my thick headedness Joe, but could you give a more clear explanation to what caused the problem and how you fixed it? From what I understand you blew air thru the igniter? In the two pics where the comparison is made I see the red spark plug lookin thingy at a different attitude. Did that have anything to do with getting the igniter in a better position with the orifice?

Something not touched upon here that is significant, this is fueled by LP or liquid propane.
Unlike NG, LP is stored onsite in a tank as a liquid and needs to "Boil Off" in order to become a vapor to then supply the burners.

Several factors come into play as to how easy or difficult this "Boil Off" can happen.

1.AmbientTemp of the storage tank's location and it's contents.
2. The physical size and shape of the storage tank.

To explain further, The colder the LP is the slower the boil to vapor. Now when we want boiling LP it's easy to boil but it is proportional to the liquids top surface area in the tank, so that's were size and shape of the tank comes in. More surface area equal more boiling area. You see were this is headed...a small round tank in a freezing location can be a limiting factor.

Those big 'hot dog' shaped tanks you see out aways from a house or business are necessay in order to get enough boil at any low temp to feed enough vapor. One little heater doesn't need a huge tank but if it's a very cold and small tank it just might be a little small to get enogh vapor.


That being said, IS the heater truly fixed now or did the tank just get a bit warmer???

BTW: LP being a 'richer' fuel than NG requires different orfice jet, smaller than what is required for the NG.

CoalJockey wrote: ↑

Wed. Jan. 24, 2018 7:51 am

That is an...
"Un-anticipated freak displacement of combustible air resulting in an audible pressure release".
My goodness don't I sound intelligent for once!

I'll buy that CJ. Much better than "BOOM"

Lightning wrote: ↑

Wed. Jan. 24, 2018 8:28 am

You'll have to excuse my thick headedness Joe, but could you give a more clear explanation to what caused the problem and how you fixed it? From what I understand you blew air thru the igniter? In the two pics where the comparison is made I see the red spark plug lookin thingy at a different attitude. Did that have anything to do with getting the igniter in a better position with the orifice?

Lee, the igniter was/is a fixed position, and I didn't bend anything. Just remounted it as removed. All I did was blow air through the assy, and the calibrated orifice. Didn't see any dirt anywhere.

And Larry, I do have a couple 100 lbers located outside the garage in the freezing temps, and often wondered about the time required for the fuel to run the 20' line to the heater. But as far as the explosion is concerned, it was prevalent whether the stove was hot, cold, long time, short time, it would continually explode on re-fire. Since I blew through that pilot, I've cranked it up about 4-5 times, (even just now as I've returned home from work, a different day), and it started perfectly.
Now I need to mount a power sw to it, so I can turn it off when not in use, and re-install my good old reliable mercury sw HoneyWell thermostat. (But not tonite. Need to go out)

But the tanks did Also get warmer during all the mayhem, a TRUE TEST will come when it gets and stays cold a spell.

I'll add this link for anyone who might be curious:
https://www.propanecarbs.com/propane.html

The tanks are outside the garage, and never warm up. Unless you're talking about 33° one night, and 36° the next. But we'll see if there's any difference, when the OATS go into the single digits again. I was brave enuff to watch the sequence tonite, through the insp port, and saw the igniter light the pilot, then heard the fuel valve open, and finally another picture perfect dancing blue ladies, (?), consecutively across the burners. It was poetry in motion.

Hahahahaha paint the tanks black and put them in the sun.... you’ll have plenty of gas then🤪

I get that the propane tank varies with pressure according to its temperature but isn't there a regulator involved? When I used propane, my tank had a regulator that dropped pressure to 10 inches of water column before it came to the house. So unless it gets below -44 degrees outside, that shouldn't change.

One would hope a regulator is involved.

Probably when your appliance/s burn it faster than it can boil off you lose pressure and volume.

That’s why better systems have buried tanks... the liquid temps stay more consistent.

scalabro wrote: ↑

Wed. Jan. 24, 2018 9:00 pm

That’s why better systems have buried tanks... the liquid temps stay more consistent.

Oh lol, and here I thought it was just to keep them ugly torpedo lookin things outta view

I’ve always wanted to shoot one (20lb) with 30.06 incendiary from one my Garands 🤪

Lightning wrote: ↑

Wed. Jan. 24, 2018 8:57 pm

I get that the propane tank varies with pressure according to its temperature but isn't there a regulator involved? When I used propane, my tank had a regulator that dropped pressure to 10 inches of water column before it came to the house. So unless it gets below -44 degrees outside, that shouldn't change.

The service tech came the other day, and measured the fuel valve pressures with a fancy digital manometer, and said exactly that Lee. 10" is what it was, and he said was good. Didn't matter about that tho, cause back then when the fuel was pumped in..."BOOM" was the response. That was then, not now.
And yes, there is not only a regulator on the tanks, but some type of device that distributes fuel from one tank at a time. Forgot what its tech name is right now. It has an indicator, shaped like a nuclear fallout symbol, that has the ability to turn red or green. Has always been red, since I've owned it. But fuel "is" going through it.

That is a switchover regulator. It should allow one tank to run empty and then switch to the other. I used to have the same setup, and recently sold it to a friend for his hunting camp. I hauled 100 lb tanks to the local feed store for two years to have them refilled, that was enough for me. I ended up having the gas company set us up with a small tank and let them handle it.

Glad you got the gas heating working properly. Sometimes a good cleaning goes a long way.

Thanks Rob. I don't know how "good" the cleaning was. Just a couple blasts of compressed air was all that did it. For once in my life, I got "lucky". I'll take it.

It's called delayed ignition. If the pilot flame isn't close enough to the main burners then more gas has to come out and "reach" over to the pilot flame. When the main burners ignite there is more gas in the area to ignite and it can be loud.

David