Bert, Thank you for the helpful notes. At present I have two engines using twin flue twin burner system - the K-28 and the NGG-16. I guess in the future I might be looking at the K-37, depending on how I get on with the ones I now have. I eliminated C-21 from my wish list at present - seemed like too much trouble. What I said is that the double burner design is fundamentally flawed. This does not mean that it will not operate in ideal conditions, of course it will, however the reliability is low. Only a very inexperienced engineer could come up with the concept of two independent burners. If one of these burners stays lit with a probability say 80% two will work with a probability 64%. This is not the end of the story because when one goes out and the other still functions, this is not necessarily evident to the operator and unburned gas continues to be released potentially creating dangerous concentrations. If I were issuing licences to these engines I would probably ban them - so I guess it is good that I am not. Obviously, I strive to provide ideal conditions for my engines to operate and I will also do the same for both K-28 and NGG-16. However, being an engineer myself I am just not terribly impressed with the concept used. The 80% probability of the flame going out used above may seem exaggerated but in general I think it is not. I am used to my Roundhouse engines on which I often turn gas down to such a minimum that sometimes I have to turn it up again to improve operation (steam generation). Secondly, I often operate on roofs of buildings - this means wind - and pretty often the wind is so strong that gas operation using either of my modern Roundhouse engines is simply not possible - the burners go out almost instantly irrespective of setting (interestingly, Aster meths fired engines keep running with no problems, contrary to popular belief that gas is more robust to wind than meths). I agree with you that dirty gas, gas tank and delivery and most importantly gas jets will increase the problem rate and keeping an eye on them should help - this is the case with all live steamers of course. But the issue is somewhat more pronounced in the case of the twin flue twin burner design (2F2B), in addition to the potential risk of uncontrolled gas release involved. In short, in my opinion, this 2F2B is not an elegant solution and I am looking forward to someone coming up with an elegant cure. Best wishes from Tokyo, Zubi (Zbigniew)
Bert & Edmunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Zbigniew. I think I can say with confidence that the burners on Accucraft double flue models are, with the exception of the two C-21s which Dave bailey had about 2 years ago, very reliable. I have attended to a number of engines which allegedly had burner problems. IE they would not steam, one burner goes out etc etc. Not one needed any work to it!!. The problems were one jet blocked (also C-16 which has the burner hanging unprotected in most cases when the engine is not being run and suffers from this problem also. To solve problem fit caps to the burners when they are not in the flame tubes. Problem 2) dirty gas. Some superstore gas is so poor it burns with a sooty flame even on ceramic burners with large jets. buy good quality gas. The best we have tested here in Europe is "Primus". Problem 3) the gas tank was filled last. The tank is very large on the C-21 and the K-27. The C-16 is not small, soon after filling the gas, the fire is lit and liquid gas flows to the burners and takes a little dirt with it resulting in a blocked jet. Fill the gas tank FIRST and allow it warm a little while filling water and oiling. Test the jets before entering them into the flame tube by lighting them and seeing if the flames are the same size at the same pressure. Problem 4) most are used to saving gas while running by turning the flame down. On a two flue engine this old hang over starves one flue. My and the two flue engines of my friends run for ca. 55 minutes with the fire burning so you can hear it and maintain 70 psi. In other words 100% of the problems we have had in Europe to my knowledge is to be found by the operator. I requested and received lots of info regarding these problems as the double flue engines were new on the market. I drew up a list of solutions and posted these on this site and gave copies to the manufacturer Dave Bailey also provided the information about the 2 C-16's he had at that time. These 2 are the only cases I have heard about where the fire tubes are different on the same engine type. The next such engine where I need to do more than clean a blocked jet will be the first. I have seen jets which have been opened out etc, and it was never the owner who did it?? I would be interested to know which model you have and which problems you have with it for my list. I am sure the cure will not require surgery, at least not on the engine. Bert in Austria Europe. [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ SSLiveSteam mailing list Send messages: [email protected] Cancel subscription: http://postfix.45mm.com/mailman/listinfo/sslivesteam Rules: http://www.45mm.com/sslivesteam_guide.html Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://postfix.45mm.com/pipermail/sslivesteam/attachments/20061130/d811fcdf/attachment.html _______________________________________________ SSLiveSteam mailing list Send messages: [email protected] Cancel subscription: http://postfix.45mm.com/mailman/listinfo/sslivesteam Rules: http://www.45mm.com/sslivesteam_guide.html
