Fire on board

[Killick69]

Last night we had a fire on board. We are lucky that no damage was done and no-one was injured, but it could easily have. It seems the burner turned on the threads towards the tank and metho escaped at the far end (close to the tank). When the fire burned out, we found the tank empty. Prior to the fire I would have put the level at about quarter full. The burner is at home now and will be stripped ASAP. Any suggestions on rebuilding will be much appreciated.

Cheers ,John

[storm petrel]

The beauty of metho is that water mixes with it and enough will put it out. If it is an inclosed space you can also starve it of oxygen, ie snuff it out with your fire blanket.

[Dolphin]

What needs rebuilding John, the boat or the stove?

[Killick69]

No, only stove needs to be rebuilt. Boat is unharmed. I have stripped the stove and interestingly there are no seals (washers) between any of the threaded components. Will try to get an exploded drawing and check. The wicks are about 10 mm shorter than the metal strips that hold them and the last 10 mm of the wicks are worn (scraggy). There is a place in Victoria that sells wicks, so I will probably get new wicks, as don't want to do this job again for a few years.
Cheers, John

[Killick69]

Update on metho burner.
I made contact with the manufacturer, a company in Seven Hills in Sydney. Company is called Maxco industries (phone 9620 7055). Their web site will be up again in a few weeks (www.maxcoindustries.com). Gent at Maxco told me (from pics I sent to him) that my burner is model M2M and is about 15 years old. All joints are metal to metal (i.e. no seals/o-rings/PTFE tape). He said the wicks are made of fibreglass and last indefinitely, as they are only there to slow the flow of metho to the burners (also filtering of dirt and some cooling function). He said they wicks should be as long as the metal strips they sit around, but if a liitle shorter that is OK. I have almost completed the cleaning of my stove,then will need to reassemble and test it before refitting on the boat.
John

[Killick69]

Latest update on metho stove. The guy from Maxco said there are no seals/o-rings. Just assemble metal to metal. Upon closer examination I found that each burner has a fibre o-ring. Needless to say, the old o-rings were shot. This was the cause of the metho leak. I extracted the o-rings from their recesses and bought some new ones from local bearing supplier. Burner is now re-installed and works like a dream.
Cheers, John

[Tales]

John,

The metal to metal is a taper and designed to seal without any washer/seal on the flat area.

I suspect the washers you have fitted will deteoriate like the old ones and leak again eventually.

I have the same stove and had these joints apart when I fitted new burners. With no washers they don't leak.

Cheers,

Tom