pinkoi

OOoh who makes that one? I have been looking at the chilli penguin ones but been put off a bit by the price...

As I understand it, as told to us by a working boat woman, it's ok to rename a boat but the following procedure is to be followed to avoid the bad luck. 1. Get the boat out of the water. 2. Make some sort of model of the boat out of wood or paper with it's name written on it. 3. Sink the afore mentioned model. 4. Put the boat back in with it's new name. Superstitious lot

Have just been doing a bit of research on the same subject and are on the brink of going with Collidge & Partners. Good to hear others have a reasonable opinion of them. Although in the end we decided against insuring contents with anyone as quite frankly we don't own much of value aside from a couple of items which are better covered in a separate policy anyway. The boat itself is the thing we can't afford to replace and can't live without! I think the addition of 10k of contents added about £120 to the policy for the year as we had a quote with and without. Hope this helps

The more I hear about this consultation the more it sounds like its being made up as they go along.... I have participated, partiallyso I can't complain that I didn't try and make my voice heard when CRT ignore people's views. (cynic) WRT mooring on none designated visitor mooring sites, aside from the fact that anyone that draws more than 2 ft has very little chance. On the Oxford some areas that were not visitor mooring sites "the rough" that are being made into no mooring sites. These sites are used a lot. I need to re read the consultation but I wonder how many other rough unrestricted sites are going to be lost to no mooring - that's going to put more pressure onto the designated visitor moorings.

Finally some good news - seems the fuel set has made its way through the line and the diesel flow has improved throughout the day while I have been at work. Flame size is back to normal given the setting it is on and the smoke is gone too. So it looks like running the fuel set through may have helped dislodge/dissolve any scunge in the line and or regulator and it just took a while for it to run through. Hopefully it stays running ok and is an indicator that it's not a mechanical issue with the regulator. Thanks all for your help and taking the time to write such detailed explanations. Helen

I also noticed this morning that we are back to smokey chimney again I wonder if we have some water laying in the fuel line or have water in the regulator. Perhaps more fuel set required to be added to the header tank. The flame on the stove had improved this morning compared to when I went to bed, remaining on the same setting so perhaps it's starting to clear through and burning off the water. Thanks all for your continued suggestions.

Yep that's all correct. Not quite stripped down the regulator, just had the plate off the top to check diesel level and if we could see any evidence of sludge which we couldn't. Also disconnected the bottom pipe from the regulator to monitor the drip rate going out to the burner. In the 20 mins we let it drip free for the rate slowed slightly on the same setting but the slowing down was not as great once we added a few dros of fuel set into the regulator. At no point did the fuel level in the regulator drop so it looks like the supply could keep up with the demand. Also this was a brand new regulator fitted back in may. I will check your other suggestions including the tank breathers etc over the next few days. If it does start to look like the regulator is at fault I will get in touch with lockgate who fitted it as its essentially brand new. I really appreciate all the help and suggestions. Will let you know how I goes.... I'm hoping things will improve as the dose of fuel set gets through he line... Helen

Nick, We haven't had probs with this before I guess it could be a contributing factor if there are other probs - we use a lift pump to bring diesel up into a header tank that is about 6 feet higher than the fuel entry point on the stove. The tank is about 15 feet from the stove. Thanks

Oh it was all going so well.... After a few days running we managed to get the chimney back to running without smoke (that was before the fuel set treatment arrived) however in the past 48 hrs the diesel flow to the stove dwindled until we could only just get it to burn with the regulator turned up to max. So to bits we took the thing again and checked the pipe between the regulator and the burner again. Found a few tiny transparent rubbery globules in the pipe but nothing substantial. Checked the drip rate on the regulator by allowing it drip freely in to a container for about 20 mins but it seems after a short while the drip rate slows down. Added a couple of drips of our newly acquired fuel set into the regulator with the diesel and about 5 mil into our header tank with about 5l of diesel. Drip rate on the regulator seems much improved and doesn't seem to reduce so much over 20mins. Put it all back together. Light the stove. Runs beautifully at the expected power for the setting it was on for about 30 mins at which point flame starts to dwindle and the whole thing needs to be turned up well beyond the usual point for the size of flame. It's turned up to 3 now and we have a nice blue small flame that we would get at the LF setting usually. At whits end now. Current hypothesis as there must be something occulding the diesel line further up although regulator diesel level is correct or there is some scunge in the regulator. If the latter is the case I guess it will get dissolved and the newly treated diesel flows through, if we can get enough diesel through it before it gets the hump and goes out again Anyone got any other ideas (throw it out and get a squirrel is already being considered)? Thanks

I will try the drill bit the next time it needs cleaning, just to be sure. Stove has a lovely blue flame at the moment set at Low Flame, and a nice clear stove window too - in the bit I managed to get clean from the last foul up. So I'm not too concerned about the burning at the moment (much improved from when I posted the SOS). The concern now is the chimney output. We always associated a smokey exhaust with a mucky burn and orange flames but it really isn't burning badly hence why I think there is probably something in the previous suggestion that it might be steam caused by watery diesel. Also the dribbles of tar down the outside of the chimney. I can't say I'd noticed a difference in the fuel throughput being proportionate to the diesel level in the tank until it's just about to run out but it stands to reason - every setup is different. We get a perfect blue flame even on the low flame setting, it's just a much smaller flame. The higher up you turn it the bigger the flame gets until you end up with a blue flame with very light orange tips. If we don't get any joy with treating the fuel in the effort to stop it going out in the rain we may well try on of those bird cowls - as long as the local farmer doesn't mistake it for a crow and get his shotgun out of course!

Yes we are pretty sure it wasn't bug, it wasn't nearly mucky enough.. This is reassuring - we have just ordered a 250ml bottle of fuel set, this should be enough to treat our tank at just over double strength when full (about 360 litre tank) to see if that cures all ills if it works we will get a bigger bottle and treat at every fill. I suppose this is just how it is going to be with the increased bio content. I think I have a pdf of the manual for the refleks actually and was aware of the smaller holes - I wonder if the russboy tablets are able to unblock these tiny holes - When we cleaned the stove out the other day I used a small wire brush on a stick which I scrubbed around the bottom wall of the burner pot with unblocking these holes in mind. Perhaps I need a more exacting approach in cleaning those. Thanks for reminding me of this. We used to have probs with the stove blowing out, but it turned out we had the Low Flame setting calibrated too low but as you mentioned now we do have problems with the rain putting it out which we didn't have before, although I suppose if there is water in the diesel it would take less sky water to put it out. Inside the burner the flame is beautiful and the heat it produces is back up to normal so I think the diesel flow and airflow are OK at least. I love the bird cowl on the smokey joe site, but I wonder does that actually stop the rain getting in? Either way I think we will try the fuel treatment first so we aren't trying to burn wet diesel first before we change the physical setup - which did work OK for many years. Thanks for your ideas.

Just been reading up about fuel set - it sounds like it is worth a try hopefully it is that simple Now to find somewhere nearby that stocks it Thanks all for your comments and advice - hopefully we can start to get rid of the slightly manky smokey smell that seems to be lingering, soon!

You are a wise owl as your icon suggests!! There was a fair old amount of scunge in that pipe. Onces it was cleared through the fuel throughput was much better again. However we still can't get it to burn cleanly, it looks beautiful inside the stove, glowing cage, blue flame with very slight orange tips and loads of heat but there is whitish smoke mixed in with the usual wobbly heat that comes out the chimney. In the past there was never any smoke at all from the chineny it was just transparent. Am I correct in thinking that the smoke suggests incomplete combustion? We are starting to suspect that we do have a problem with the fuel quality. Talked to another local boater who uses diesel from the same source and in the last 6 months, for the first time ever he has started finding water in his diesel feed water trap - apparently that wasn't ever anything found before over the course of many years. Alas he doesn't have a diesel stove. I'm guessing impurities or higher water content in the fuel could cause the incomplete conbusion? We haven't noticed our engine having any probs with being more smokey than usual and this uses the same fuel from the same tank. Thanks for all your responses and woud be grateful if you have anymore ideas.

Hi, thanks for you response - the cleaning tabs used help clean the inside of the burner, rather than the fuel. We have steered clear of adding preventive fuel treatments because of our lack of knowledge about how this could effect the stove... So I don't think it could be the cleaning tabs although I'm not sure how they work - made of pixie dust or something! Nick, I have heard of people using heating oil, don't think its really an option for us in terms of sourcing it and having another tank added to the boat to keep it in. Sounds like it probably would be of a more reliable quality. We get our diesel from a local yard, we know at least one other boat who uses the diesel from there in there heating so need to grill them to see if they are having problems. Probably could get the supplier changed if it turns out to be crap quality. I'll keep you mind if it's going anywhere near the skip Thanks We do have a catalyser in ours, lockgate even supplied us with a new one when we had the recent refit. The old one ended up in about 3 bits in the end. We haven't touched anything with the regulator at all, there shouldn't be any reason the high flame setting has changed and would be reluctant to change that in case it was blocked. We are starting to think the current problem may stem from a blockage in the regulator or between the regulator and the burner. Although quite how any scum managed to get through the 2 filters before that point is beyond me. Thanks

Hi, Apologies if this has been asked before, I have done a quick search of the forums first. Have any refleks stove users had problems since the bio diesel content in the red diesel has gone up? We had our refleks stove stripped down in the summer and had a new inner sleeve (back boiler and burner pot) put in and a new regulator. During the last couple of years we have had increasing problems with the fuel line getting blocked, cleaning the fuel filters (although they never appear to be visibly particularly dirty) regularly and all sorts of grunge getting into the regulator. We use the russboy tablets in the stove to keep it clean inside. Since the refit of it we have had 6 months of decent running out of it however we now have problems with a sticky tar running down the outside and sometimes inside of the chimney, it won't run very hot, goes out if we have a lot of rain and the gunge that now builds up inside is sticky rather than the fine powder that we used to have. We can smell the burning tar stuff in the cabin most of the time. We don't have any evidence of bug in the diesel. Have had the entire thing to bits today, cleaned it out, cleaned the chimney and cleaned the filters and it's still doing the same. 2 questions - Has anyone had this happen before or noticed the same problems in the last couple of years? Has anyone still got a well behaved refleks running on red diesel? We have been big advocates of diesel stoves over the years but are seriously thinking of ripping it out and chucking it away and getting a squirrel. Thanks

According to one person who spoke to CRT to suggest they came and shut the stop gate ASAP - they didn't know anything about it! Of course we will be receiving a box of chocolates from the residents of Thrupp for helping to keep their carpets dry H

Bridge 220 Oxford Canal 0700 23/11/2012 looking towards Shipton weir lock Canal flooding over the towpath after the stop gate was shut at 0230 the previous night. Water flowing over the stop gate as well as over the towpath into the already flooded adjoining field. Indeed that was one hell of an evening... Picture as of this morning. EA reports river levels have dropped slightly but there was a lot of rain last night that hasn't made it to us yet.

I found this, only to realise that after trying to post about 5 times that all my attempted turned up at once... Oops ((

Yep - we do this too 1/4 of a sterilising tablet when we refill the tank seems to keep it away and doesn't seem to effect the operation of the chemicals in the holding tank

I have been reading about this having just brought a second hand eyepad 1. From what i have read It sounds like the device is capable of supporting the update but it has been decided it won't be released. Bit rubbish but after some people's reports of iOS6 I think it might be a lucky escape. I updated the eyephone 4s and it seems fine and lots if people I know who have them haven't had issues either...

We have had this happen too using clean water for the flush and the thetford pink stuff too. We found that thetford sell something in a small bottle with a turquoise lid which is designed for cleaning your flush tank. It takes 24 hours to work though and you have to then empty the cleaner stuff away. It seemed to work and atleast made the flush water smell less

What about a steel hulled boat with a wooden roof? Probably a good job Rowan is a unisex name I have only ever heard boats referred to as she.

Hi, We have a wooden topped boat of exactly the same age as yours. Rowan has a single bit of canvass (no seams) which is painted over with 4 coats of red oxide primer with a small amount of yacht varnish mixed in to water proof it... It's fairly sturdy canvas, the sort of weight you would find on a tent. So far that method has worked a treat with only minor repairs to holes in canvass. Regular painting every 2 years or so and keep an eye out for and remove bird turds as they crack the paint if left in situ. Also try not to store anything on the roof that holds moisture against the roof Hope this helps Helen

No you didn't slow us at all! - Rowan is dog slow, she only has a prop the size of a tuppence! We only grated the bottom once on the way up but we are not deep draughted (2ft 3ish) compared to a working boat so I can imagine it was a pain I think we were through by 4pm, by which time there were a few more coming down. See you if you catch up again - we are just short of Nuneaton now and are are not early risers. H