Villager Puffin Stove control

[Arthur Marshall]

Sometime back in the mists of time before i went off boating for two months someone on here was discussing the uncontrollable nature of Puffin stoves, because the only way you could alter the air flow was to open the ash door, and either fire fire got too hot or went out if the door was closed.  I said I'd post pictures of the control wheel I added to mine but never managed to do it before I went away and now I can't rememebr who was asking and I have never once managed to get the search function on here to find anything.  So here are the pictures, and I hope they get found by the right person...

[howardang]

32 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Sometime back in the mists of time before i went off boating for two months someone on here was discussing the uncontrollable nature of Puffin stoves, because the only way you could alter the air flow was to open the ash door, and either fire fire got too hot or went out if the door was closed.  I said I'd post pictures of the control wheel I added to mine but never managed to do it before I went away and now I can't rememebr who was asking and I have never once managed to get the search function on here to find anything.  So here are the pictures, and I hope they get found by the right person...

I have used Villager Puffin stoves on 4 different boats and all of them have had an adjustable grille to regulate air flow. They didn't look like the one you show.

This is like ours:-

 

Howard

 

Edited September 20, 2017 by howardang
insertion of photo & spelling correction.

[Arthur Marshall]

Sorry - I think (looking at the manual, which is multi-fire) that it's a Heron, not a Puffin.  It's the smallest of the multifuel stoves, and an old one at that. The original poster was having trouble with it as it kept going out overnight - the ashpan door is solid with a control handle on a sort of sliding cam, so you can tilt it open, bu there's no real way to just let enough air in to keep it ticking over overnight as it's either on full whack or going out.  There's no riddler either.  I'd amend the title if I knew how but i was just hoping the OP would spot it.

[alan_fincher]

Correct - what Arthur has pictured is the model of Heron stove that pre-dated a Puffin.  The other obvious difference is that the main door on a Heron hinges at the bottom, whereas a Puffin does so at the side.

However it seems Villager have now reused the Heron name on a more recent stove, just to confuse!

When we had one of those Herons without an air control on the ash pan door, we never had too much trouble with keeping that door open at the amount necessary for the fire we wanted, but I cam imagine the extra control allows you to be more precise with making a setting, and keeping it where you want it.

I'm surprised the fire burns evenly though, with the control being positioned right to one side.

[manxmike]

I've got a Villager Heron which must be between the two mentioned - mine has the bottom opening main door, but has two rotating air vents on the ash door. These were seized solid until Gary Spruce recently serviced the stove for me so should now provide infinitely controllable air flow (I haven't lit the fire yet so I am hoping!).

I must say from previous winters the fire is incredibly efficient - the temperature inside the boat reached 40 degrees one evening.

When Gary was servicing the stove we discovered that the tile backing had been mounted on 3mm ply about 1 inch away from the back of the stove and was now charcoal rather than ply. I have now replaced the it with Hardie Backer cement board with a minimum of 10mm air gap. It was a miracle that the boat had not gone on fire.

I was completely unaware of the problem but it's something I will want to check on future purchases.

[Arthur Marshall]

14 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

I'm surprised the fire burns evenly though, with the control being positioned right to one side.

I get it going with the ashpan door open as normal, but it simmers away quite nicely and will stay in all night with the wheel open a 3/4 turn.  Any more than that and you can control how hot you want it - it does burn pretty evenly, though more at the rear of the stove - I presume because that's where the chimney is and so the greater draught. I don't use the baffle at all as I found that it just clogs up with the gunk coming down the chimbley - I did try making one with a cutout section but it seems fine without it at all.