Ok to let kero heater burn out on it's own?

[jcwit]

Sounds like you might have had old kerosene. That WILL make a bad smell. We have enough Amish around here with a high usage of kerosene that its alway fresh even in late summer. Here its sold at the pump just like gasoline.

Also it might need a new wick. Should burn with blue flame inside glass with NO visiable flame above glass.

 

[Audi Junkie]

It def wasn't blue, not even either. Maybe I'll try a trim.

 

[jcwit]

I'll bet, but of course can't tell for sure as I'm not there but I'll bet thats why you're getting the smell. What brand of heater is it? Its not the real old style from back in the '50's and earlier is it?

 

[duaneb9729]

of course it could have just burned the oxygen out of the room.

Let me give an example of a service call i went on last week, the chimney was back drafting so bad there was frost on the flu piping on a boiler, the lady thought it felt damp in her house, the thirty dollar co detector was aprox five feet from the boiler.

This not to discount any ones 28 years of success, it works for you and in your home, but every ones house is different.

Better doors and windows, better insulation, less air infiltration makes using a heater like this, , , well it increases the possibility of creating CO.

As a Heating contractor for more than 28 years and having started my career three years before that, I have seen many instances where furnaces and boilers have been bad and the co detector didnt go off.

My co detector for testing heating systems cost around $400.00

Is it wise to trust your life to $30.00 to $70.00 CO detector?
If that makes you sleep better at night great, but its not a substitute for having heating equipment checked every year or two

I cant recall if its in the uniform mech code, or in our states amendments, it doesnt allow for vent less heaters in homes.

I would venture to say that inspectors see tons more odd [censored] than i ever will, no matter how long I remain a heating contractor.

Just to be honest, in the middle eighties for a couple of winters I used a kero fueled heater in my basement, it sooted up the room smelled and was in the end too big of a pain to keep using.

 

[Gary Allan]

I used it for a couple of winters in our over the garage apartment when Joyce and I lived in the back. A small .8 gallon unit. Turned the hot air system to 50 upon leaving and turned it back up to 70F when returning. I'd then lite the unit and it was located at the cold air return. The heater never came on again over the night as the small heater was enough to maintain the temp in the small apartment, but would take forever to raise it 20F.

It burned out every night. No lousy odor if I was tidy enough with the filling. It had a drop in separate tank. I never had any old kero around to sour.

This was somewhat different with a larger unit in a much larger setting. That managed to have over an 8 hour supply if you kept the flame too low. There shutting it off to refuel appeared to produce most of the soot/odor. There it appeared that fuel storage quality had an impact. The tars formed on the wick when you burned it out were harder to manage and didn't clear themselves with the next usage cycle.

I haven't used one for over 20 years.

 

[jcwit]

Originally Posted By: duaneb9729


Just to be honest, in the middle eighties for a couple of winters I used a kero fueled heater in my basement, it sooted up the room smelled and was in the end too big of a pain to keep using.


There had to be a reson as to why yours smoked and smelled. Bad Kerosene, bad wick, wick not adjusted right something was wrong.

With that said, I do not burn the heater at night no more than I would burn a wood burner at night. And I will admit that I live in an older house, in fact it the one I was raised in and my mother was raised in. Its been in the family since 1880, so its not sealed up as tightly as new homes.

Seriously I doubt one needing a $400 dollar co2 tester thats made for furnace inspection to check for co2 in a room, not anywhere near the same thing.

 

[LS2JSTS]

Originally Posted By: duaneb9729
of course it could have just burned the oxygen out of the room.

Let me give an example of a service call i went on last week, the chimney was back drafting so bad there was frost on the flu piping on a boiler, the lady thought it felt damp in her house, the thirty dollar co detector was aprox five feet from the boiler.

This not to discount any ones 28 years of success, it works for you and in your home, but every ones house is different.

Better doors and windows, better insulation, less air infiltration makes using a heater like this, , , well it increases the possibility of creating CO.

As a Heating contractor for more than 28 years and having started my career three years before that, I have seen many instances where furnaces and boilers have been bad and the co detector didnt go off.

My co detector for testing heating systems cost around $400.00

Is it wise to trust your life to $30.00 to $70.00 CO detector?
If that makes you sleep better at night great, but its not a substitute for having heating equipment checked every year or two

I cant recall if its in the uniform mech code, or in our states amendments, it doesnt allow for vent less heaters in homes.

I would venture to say that inspectors see tons more odd [censored] than i ever will, no matter how long I remain a heating contractor.

Just to be honest, in the middle eighties for a couple of winters I used a kero fueled heater in my basement, it sooted up the room smelled and was in the end too big of a pain to keep using.



I lived for 8 years in what could be considered a very tight home. It was a post and beam with SIP panels. Of course it also had air/air interchangers with heat extraction for air quality issues. But I heated that 1600 sq ft with a measly 18,000 btu kerosun for three years....man was that cheap winter living.

 

[duaneb9729]

I am sure it was, I would like that type of home or one build out of insulated concrete forums.

 

[duaneb9729]

I think you might have missed the part about my co detector is used as a tool in my work, and the price of it has to with the accuratecy of the tool, and that one purchased from a home center couldnt be as accurate.

 

[jcwit]

Originally Posted By: duaneb9729
I think you might have missed the part about my co detector is used as a tool in my work, and the price of it has to with the accuratecy of the tool, and that one purchased from a home center couldnt be as accurate.


Correct, but you implied one shouldn't trust his life to one made for homeowners. Boy would the lawyers like to get ahold of this.

 

[duaneb9729]

No i wouldnt trust my life or my families life to one, with out other preventive measures

 

[jcwit]

Well now you're not impling but making a statement.

Or stating an opinion, such as it is.

 

[Vizzy]

Sure an electric furnace is much safer BUT some folks can simply NOT afford to pay a huge power bill these days..

If you live in a home built BEFORE energy efficiency became the rage in the late 80's you will be fine with the Kerosene heaters as long as they are properly maintained, used with fresh K1 Kerosene, and you don't use them when you go to sleep.

We always made sure to trim the wick properly as well....a clean, properly trimmed and adjusted wick made this type of heater really tough to beat in terms of warmth and cost.

Yeah back in the early to mid 80s at least in SE PA they used to sell K1 at a seperate pump across from the gas pumps .

 

[duaneb9729]

any vented furnace is much safer, how many homes built before the eighties have had new windows and siding and insulation added, vs ones left alone?

Its more than money thats at risk here.

but I am glad it works well for you.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: duaneb9729
any vented furnace is much safer, how many homes built before the eighties have had new windows and siding and insulation added, vs ones left alone?

Its more than money thats at risk here.

but I am glad it works well for you.


Points taken ...and surely factored into the mix of considerations by those engaging in the practice. Vented combustion heating is pathetically inefficient ..but it's a requirement for breathing healthy air.

I don't think anyone here is unaware of the potential risks and they're not engaging in risky behavior in ignorance.

..but many will come to know that there are limits to "doing it right". I'm not going to install titanium panels in the roof of my home or car in case there's the possibility of meteor showers, nor am I going to 2nd and 3rd guess every little item of potential risk when I take a step outside my door.

Life is managed risk and what's essential to some are prohibitively expensive to others. How much has alleged required safety cost us in our automobiles? How much longer can we manage to maintain the pace of increasing costs in that direction where the modality of transportation is priced out of viability due to fewer and fewer affording it??


There was some documentary on a family that died from CO poisoning over a couple of weeks. The levels in their house were fine when the forensic post death analysis was going on. They checked the heater. It appeared to work fine and they rejected it as a source. It was only after second check of sufficient duration where the chimney was found to be fouled by bird nesting material. Everyone was out in fresh air for 8-10 hours a day with progressively severe symptoms, while at night they were slowly adding more and more CO to their blood stream.

I think a $30 detector would have caught that.

 

[duaneb9729]

you can currently buy a furnace that is 95% to 96% efficient from a number of manufacturers.

what i am suggesting is not to just trust the detector but also have the heating unit serviced by a pro.

"Life is managed risk and what's essential to some are prohibitively expensive to others. How much has alleged required safety cost us in our automobiles? How much longer can we manage to maintain the pace of increasing costs in that direction where the modality of transportation is priced out of viability due to fewer and fewer affording it??"

I agree with this statement, Gary, but the blanket statements such as i have been doing it for years in my home, are dangerous and shouldnt be applied across the board in this situation.

The risks are too great imho. Like any other chance one takes in life common sense has to be applied, and the better educated one is on the subject, the better one can make the best decision for their situation

 

[duaneb9729]

I am sorry for harping guys, safety with heating systems are important to me. Its not only what I do for a living, it is also my passion.

I get so much useful information from this site, and in my quest to give back, well I hope I havent offended anyone.

 

[jcwit]

No offence taken here. I appreciated your input and thoughts. I can understand your passion regarding this subject and fully understand where you're coming from.

For me They have worked fine, but then I am careful on how we use them.

I do get very short with my wording when trying to express myself, but I guess thats just me.

Hey the Best to you Guy and may others take your knowledge here to heart and apply common sense to their heating needs.

 

[duaneb9729]

Thank you for not taking offense, I also get short with my wording.

 

[Gary Allan]

I'm sure you haven't offended anyone. But one must understand that there are going to be many ideals that can't be managed by many.

I do understand your need to give the best advice, but what you're attempting to prevent is disaster out of ignorance. I think you've accomplished that. Many will do things out of informed practicality or necessity and not out of ignorance.

You have to adhere to these ideal tenets since it's assured that you'll run into idiocy sooner or later. Hence you, and just about every other sector or interest (from food service to chainsaws), attempts to engineer out the pitfalls that can befall many. We should also note that there was life and it did manage before this preventive culture overtook us to the point where no one can do anything that's not UL approved ..and UL (insert testing or regulating agency/council of choice) is always going to seek some "improvement" ..whether it's warranted or not. Billions of society wide costs to seek perfection that's never going to be attainable.


I jumped out my high pressure limit switch until I figured a out how to adjust it. My pop-valve and my radiator vent valves more that adequately allowed me to manage this "informed risk" in defeating the safety.

Would I recommend anyone else to do it without my knowledge of controls and safety devices? Nope.