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bubble diesel stove....


Dibbo

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Hi Folks, sorry to seem like an idiot, we have on our new old boat a Bubble diesel stove, it's not a corner one, but normal square jobby. It has a back boiler with 2 rads off. We have no paperwork for this heater. It has a rotating knob thats marked 1-10 type of thing and a little knob on a rod next door to it, mounted on the rear top right hand side of the stove, I've turned the fuel on to low, lit the puddle, got a yellow flame, but as soon as you shut the door it goes out, but if you dont shut the door then the boat fills with smoke. The glass is not in 1 piece,but 4 panels. Is there a knack?, am I totally wrong? is it buggered? any help welcome..................

Ta.

Dibbo

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Hi Folks, sorry to seem like an idiot, we have on our new old boat a Bubble diesel stove, it's not a corner one, but normal square jobby. It has a back boiler with 2 rads off. We have no paperwork for this heater. It has a rotating knob thats marked 1-10 type of thing and a little knob on a rod next door to it, mounted on the rear top right hand side of the stove, I've turned the fuel on to low, lit the puddle, got a yellow flame, but as soon as you shut the door it goes out, but if you dont shut the door then the boat fills with smoke. The glass is not in 1 piece,but 4 panels. Is there a knack?, am I totally wrong? is it buggered? any help welcome..................

Ta.

Dibbo

 

Leave the door open a little longer, the pot needs to heat up a bit first, about a minuet should do it.

 

If the boat fills with smoke check your chimney/

 

 

The stoves sometimes need setting up. The knob on the rod is just a reset device. Where the rotating knob stem goes in to the regulator there's a small slotted screw, when the fire's up and running you can adjust this screw to get a nice Blue flame, the screw is basically a flow valve for the diesel.

 

 

Edited by Julynian
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Hi Folks, sorry to seem like an idiot, we have on our new old boat a Bubble diesel stove, it's not a corner one, but normal square jobby. It has a back boiler with 2 rads off. We have no paperwork for this heater. It has a rotating knob thats marked 1-10 type of thing and a little knob on a rod next door to it, mounted on the rear top right hand side of the stove, I've turned the fuel on to low, lit the puddle, got a yellow flame, but as soon as you shut the door it goes out, but if you dont shut the door then the boat fills with smoke. The glass is not in 1 piece,but 4 panels. Is there a knack?, am I totally wrong? is it buggered? any help welcome..................

Ta.

Dibbo

 

No its not buggered there is a knack to it and someone with one of those will be along soon. Meantime save up for a solid fuel squirrell stove or similar you are going to need one. :D

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There is a bit of a knack, as mrsmelly says. A couple of observations. You talk about a puddle. It sounds as though you have allowed too much diesel to accumulate. It will then burn very smokily until the surplus fuel has burnt off.

 

Have you tried using a small amount of meths and lighting this? This will raise the temperature and the diesel will burn better in the initial stages. (NB it shouldn't be necessary to use meths. A bit of a firelighter or even a twist of paper is all that's needed when you've become familiar with its idiosyncrasies.)

 

I wouldn't start fiddling with the adjusting screws, at least not until you've tried everything else first. It's very easy to get this wrong.

 

It's not clear from your description whether all the fuel has been burnt before the flame goes out. If this is the case, then you've got to look elsewhere for the solution. A blocked filter is a likely culprit.

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Rather than me trying to tell you how I would do things (I have a Kabola boiler which is similar but not the same as your Bubble stove), I suggest you have a look at Harworth Heating's website here. This link will take you to their sales section with pictures of various Bubble stoves which may help you to identify yours. Then use my next link to go here and select the manual for your stove (which hopefully is there!). If your stove is not listed because it's an older model or something I would still read the manual for one that most closely matches as the working principle of all of them is more or less the same.

 

As others have said it doesn't sound as though you're getting the burner pot hot enough or perhaps there is a blockage in the flue or you haven't got the right chimney/flue terminal on the top. Are you using a dollop of meths or a bit of fire lighter to start it? This is how it is done with the Kabola.

 

If the manual on the website is helpful you can then download and print it for future reference!

 

If not, I would give Harworth a ring - I found them very helpful even though I have never bought anything from them!

 

Richard

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As an experienced Bubble 1 user the likely cause of your symptoms is lack of servicing ie decokeing the bowl, not only in the bottom of the bowl, feel under the rim and around the drip feed for the fuel then poke out all the air holes. I run about a teaspoon of fuel into the bowl the ignite it with an acorn size peice of fire lighter and shut the door. I know not everybody is a fan but the last two winters it has been brilliant running for three months 24/7 without needing any attention

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As an experienced Bubble 1 user the likely cause of your symptoms is lack of servicing ie decokeing the bowl, not only in the bottom of the bowl, feel under the rim and around the drip feed for the fuel then poke out all the air holes. I run about a teaspoon of fuel into the bowl the ignite it with an acorn size peice of fire lighter and shut the door. I know not everybody is a fan but the last two winters it has been brilliant running for three months 24/7 without needing any attention

 

We've never had a problem with ours either (corner bubble stove). We do give it a really good clean out about every 2 weeks when in full time use, other than that it's fine.

 

I cut up fire lighters into sugar cube sizes and keep them in an air tight container.

 

Here's the procedure for lighting, to be honest Lynn likes lighting it so knows better than me, but I have consulted her for conformation laugh.gif

 

When lighting just drop the lit cube in the small puddle of diesel created when turning the 1 to 6 numbered knob to 6 to create the puddle about the size of a digestive biscuit. When it ignites it burns Yellow, replace the catalyst and inner ring. You then turn the dial to 1 or low, we then close the door to just ajar leaving an air gap for the flame to grow and warm the pot, after about a minuet you should be able to close and seal the door completely. The flames will start to swirl up to the holes at the top of the pot eventually small yellow and Blue flames will begin to appear from these holes, usually around 3 minutes into lighting. Once the flames are flowing through the holes you can turn the dial back up to what level you normally use, 5 in our case. The flames should now start turning Blue and the catalyst starts to glow Red. Happy days

 

 

 

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We've never had a problem with ours either (corner bubble stove). We do give it a really good clean out about every 2 weeks when in full time use, other than that it's fine.

 

I cut up fire lighters into sugar cube sizes and keep them in an air tight container.

 

Here's the procedure for lighting, to be honest Lynn likes lighting it so knows better than me, but I have consulted her for conformation laugh.gif

 

When lighting just drop the lit cube in the small puddle of diesel created when turning the 1 to 6 numbered knob to 6 to create the puddle about the size of a digestive biscuit. When it ignites it burns Yellow, replace the catalyst and inner ring. You then turn the dial to 1 or low, we then close the door to just ajar leaving an air gap for the flame to grow and warm the pot, after about a minuet you should be able to close and seal the door completely. The flames will start to swirl up to the holes at the top of the pot eventually small yellow and Blue flames will begin to appear from these holes, usually around 3 minutes into lighting. Once the flames are flowing through the holes you can turn the dial back up to what level you normally use, 5 in our case. The flames should now start turning Blue and the catalyst starts to glow Red. Happy days

 

 

 

OK, lots to read and do. I've checked the flue and it seems to be clear, but unlike our old solid fuel stove, there seems to be a plate bolted over what would be the flue outlet. Now i would think this is something to do with the back boiler, and the smoke goes round this and up the chimney. The chimney has a stack and witches hat on and all seems ok.

is the re set handle supposed to be a little loose and rattley?Pull it up and it drops down again.

So, clean it all out, and go from there? Filter?, where's that? there is a wick type attachment at the front below the door level, that pulls out, but only has a bent bit of wire there,should there be a wick of some sort? if this is the source of ignition then it must lite from the side rather than from the middle?

I will have a butchers at the Harworth web site,only my dongle is just low on my bytes at the moment.

 

Any more thoughts welcome...................

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OK, lots to read and do. I've checked the flue and it seems to be clear, but unlike our old solid fuel stove, there seems to be a plate bolted over what would be the flue outlet. Now i would think this is something to do with the back boiler, and the smoke goes round this and up the chimney. The chimney has a stack and witches hat on and all seems ok.

is the re set handle supposed to be a little loose and rattley?Pull it up and it drops down again.

So, clean it all out, and go from there? Filter?, where's that? there is a wick type attachment at the front below the door level, that pulls out, but only has a bent bit of wire there,should there be a wick of some sort? if this is the source of ignition then it must lite from the side rather than from the middle?

I will have a butchers at the Harworth web site,only my dongle is just low on my bytes at the moment.

 

Any more thoughts welcome...................

 

Yeah the knob is exactly as you describe, it connects to a lever at the bottom.

There should be a filter on the diesel feed to the boiler.

Not sure about this wick thing you describe. There is a brass pin that the diesel flows into the pot from, you can swivel it around and move it partially in and out, it does this to remove carbon from the fuel feed.

If you're getting a puddle of diesel then don't worry about the filter yet. Remember you have to turn the dial on full to create the puddle of diesel it should come out quite quick 10 seconds say. Get a nice puddle and ignite, the chimney should extract the smoke, have a quick look when you first light it.

ETA also check the lower vent flap is loose and movable, It might be only the corner stove that has these though, but you can't miss it if you have one.

Edited by Julynian
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OK, lots to read and do. I've checked the flue and it seems to be clear, but unlike our old solid fuel stove, there seems to be a plate bolted over what would be the flue outlet. Now i would think this is something to do with the back boiler, and the smoke goes round this and up the chimney. The chimney has a stack and witches hat on and all seems ok.

is the re set handle supposed to be a little loose and rattley?Pull it up and it drops down again.

So, clean it all out, and go from there? Filter?, where's that? there is a wick type attachment at the front below the door level, that pulls out, but only has a bent bit of wire there,should there be a wick of some sort? if this is the source of ignition then it must lite from the side rather than from the middle?

I will have a butchers at the Harworth web site,only my dongle is just low on my bytes at the moment.

 

Any more thoughts welcome...................

 

Yeah the knob is exactly as you describe, it connects to a lever at the bottom.

There should be a filter on the diesel feed to the boiler.

Not sure about this wick thing you describe. There is a brass pin that the diesel flows into the pot from, you can swivel it around and move it partially in and out, it does this to remove carbon from the fuel feed.

If you're getting a puddle of diesel then don't worry about the filter yet. Remember you have to turn the dial on full to create the puddle of diesel it should come out quite quick 10 seconds say. Get a nice puddle and ignite, the chimney should extract the smoke, have a quick look when you first light it.

ETA also check the lower vent flap is loose and movable, It might be only the corner stove that has these though, but you can't miss it if you have one.

 

 

Ok, cleaned it all out, reasembled and allowed a little puddle to form, threw in a firelighter ( small cube size) and away it went, stood the smoke for a few mins, flame nice and reasonably good,smoke did come out of chimney, tho it did seem more was in the saloon, pushed door to, still going, closed door, out it went................ reopened door, lit it again, went through it all, to the point of closing door, out it went. Now to me its not an air tight seal so why does it go out? think it'll have to go in the bin at this rate and save up for a webasto and a solid fuel stove. Does anyone know an engineer type in the Midlands............................

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Ok, cleaned it all out, reasembled and allowed a little puddle to form, threw in a firelighter ( small cube size) and away it went, stood the smoke for a few mins, flame nice and reasonably good,smoke did come out of chimney, tho it did seem more was in the saloon, pushed door to, still going, closed door, out it went................ reopened door, lit it again, went through it all, to the point of closing door, out it went. Now to me its not an air tight seal so why does it go out? think it'll have to go in the bin at this rate and save up for a webasto and a solid fuel stove. Does anyone know an engineer type in the Midlands............................

 

I think there is still something wrong with the draw from the flue - these pot burner stoves are so simple really. Did you check all the little holes in the pot sides were clear when you cleaned it - there are lots of them and they're difficult to see if blocked with carbon.

 

Have you tried ringing Harworth? I know they're in Doncaster which is a bit North of the Midlands but they might be able to recommend someone nearer to you.

 

Richard

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I think there is still something wrong with the draw from the flue - these pot burner stoves are so simple really. Did you check all the little holes in the pot sides were clear when you cleaned it - there are lots of them and they're difficult to see if blocked with carbon.

 

Have you tried ringing Harworth? I know they're in Doncaster which is a bit North of the Midlands but they might be able to recommend someone nearer to you.

 

Richard

 

Me too, or if there's a lower inlet vent like on our corner bubble and it's stuck shut.

 

 

 

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Me too, or if there's a lower inlet vent like on our corner bubble and it's stuck shut.

Hi,

 

I have a Kabola Old Dutch, this has a round flap at the back which is finely balanced with an adjustable nut, presumably to allow sufficient air for clean combustion to enter. Have you checked this?.

 

Happy Boating

 

Leo.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Did you have any luck Dibbo? I'm still struggling with my Bubble too. Ours doesn't go out but keeps burning yellow and never settling to blue. Have experimented with keeping the door open, different amounts of fuel and have cleaned it as well I can, but still yellow.

 

I've checked our chimney and there doesn't appear to be any blockages, although as you said there seems to be a plate bolted over what would be the flue outlet, and so not sure how to check for blockages here as is inaccessible either from the stove or via chimney flue.

 

What I can offer you is to find the serial number from the back (should be white label) and if you call Harworth they will tell you which type of bubble it is and so you can download the appropriate manual.

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Did you have any luck Dibbo? I'm still struggling with my Bubble too. Ours doesn't go out but keeps burning yellow and never settling to blue. Have experimented with keeping the door open, different amounts of fuel and have cleaned it as well I can, but still yellow.

 

I've checked our chimney and there doesn't appear to be any blockages, although as you said there seems to be a plate bolted over what would be the flue outlet, and so not sure how to check for blockages here as is inaccessible either from the stove or via chimney flue.

 

What I can offer you is to find the serial number from the back (should be white label) and if you call Harworth they will tell you which type of bubble it is and so you can download the appropriate manual.

Much the same, no blue flasme, it's started leaking from fittings, the water pratically boils up to 1st rad then no further,all other rads are cold. The stove has to be on lowest setting, with me still restricting the diesel flow with fuel cut off. With so much wrong we feel gerting someone in will only add to the cost of what we know we're goiung to have to do.

We had a mate ( plumber/gas engineer type person) and hesays the whole system is suspect so we're going to change it to a webasto at rear for easy heating and a log burner/multi fuel in the saloon.

Just not impressed as it makes as much mess as the solid fuel, so it's going......anyone want to buy a bubble stove????

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i had the kabola old english in the boat for a few years

 

used to light it with methylated spirit,about 2-3 mm in the pot.ONLY WHEN THE POT WAS STONE COLD

 

allow it to preheat the pot for a minute or two,then turn on the diesel,hot and clean start everytime.

 

trouble was,it burnt with a blue flame,just like a gas hob ring,i do prefer seeing a real fire....

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Dibbo,

 

Sorry i do not speak from years of canal experience.

 

I would urge you not to give up on this one. i have used diesel fired heater/ burners in some very trying conditions. Once you get used to them they are great, very good output for little input. Even if you get a new multi fuel, they still take time to master.

 

Just keep on it, it is not cold yet you have a good month to bleed the rads and learn the systems. Once you know your own boat systems then it makes life a lot better for years to come.

 

:rolleyes:LOL , if you do want to sell, drop me a line i might be tempted, but i don't have my boat yet. Hmm garage heater me thinks.

 

cheers

 

Smudge

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  • 3 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

How efficient to run is the corner bubble oil stove ? Because looking at the last link to the manual shows a cost of 5p per hour with diesel at 20p litre so should it be about 20p - 25p per hour to run,

A silly question is it possible to convert a oil stove to a solid fuel burner once all the tank and feeder pipe as been removed if the oil stove did not prove efficient to run.

Edited by lesrollins
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A bubble won't convert to a solid fuel stove, and very dangerous to do it the other way around. Sell the stove and buy another one.

 

I've been running a diesel bubble stove for a long while and had little problems, but didn't check carefully any running costs.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

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At the moment it seems that you are getting fuel but no air in or flue gasses op the chimney. When you have sorted that make sure you have a good fuel filter system and it will keep you warm for all winter.

 

Much the same, no blue flasme, it's started leaking from fittings, the water pratically boils up to 1st rad then no further,all other rads are cold. The stove has to be on lowest setting, with me still restricting the diesel flow with fuel cut off. With so much wrong we feel gerting someone in will only add to the cost of what we know we're goiung to have to do.

We had a mate ( plumber/gas engineer type person) and hesays the whole system is suspect so we're going to change it to a webasto at rear for easy heating and a log burner/multi fuel in the saloon.

Just not impressed as it makes as much mess as the solid fuel, so it's going......anyone want to buy a bubble stove????

Leaks are simple to cure or all our engines wouldn't run. hot water rises as it is lighter than cold probably an air block or your pipes are poorly sited. do you have a water pump on the central heating or are you relying on gravity?

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We have a bubble. I do not think it is possible to convert. No grate, no dampers. Etc.

Last night we compared our recent heating and power costs with friends who also moor in a marina for winter. They have a solid fuel stoce with back boiler and no mains electric. We hace Bubble, Eberspacher and mains elec. we seemed to have slightly less overall costs.

For 1 month, dec to Jan we used about £85 of diesel and £20 elec for all heating and lighting and a little on microwave. Main cooking is gas. We could be more frugal to reduce cost if necessary. Oh and Tv, computers abd ipod/phone charging on elec as well

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  • 3 months later...

We found diesel heating to be very pricey during the winter months. We're on a 60ft boat so lots of space to heat, but it was eating easy £120 a month+ when it was really chilly...

 

We've also got a 60ft and we would put in between 75 and 100 litres of diesel a month. We found that it was worth the half hour drive each way to Wheaton Aston to get our diesel from him - as that way we were spending around £70 per month.

 

Personally we find the diesel stove very easy to light and much more convenient - no messing with ash or having to stoke it up first thing in the morning. In previous colder winters we have lit the stove in November and turned it off in March.

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