Refleks heater - a cautionary tale

[koukouvagia]

Just a word of warning.  Refleks stoves are not as foolproof as I thought.  My experience yesterday may have been a freak occurrence, but it’s worth mentioning.

After lighting the Refleks for the first time in months, all seemed fine.  Nice blue flame. Everything as normal.

I went out of the boat for five minutes and when I came back the fire was roaring furiously and it was clearly over-fueled.  This has occasionally happened before when I’d stupidly lit the fire with a pool of diesel in the bottom of the burner, but never suddenly when the fire seemed to be running perfectly normally.

I shut off the fuel, but it took far longer than usual to extinguish.  In the meantime I noticed that hot diesel was dripping from the scraper hole!  After things had cooled down I investigated and quickly found the reason.

The trip lever had become dislodged because the spindle which supports it had drifted to one side and the whole structure was trapped.  This meant that the float safety mechanism was no longer functioning and diesel, in effect, was being fed directly into the burner.

I can’t explain how this happened, but it may have occurred when I set the trip mechanism before lighting the fire.  On reflection, I do remember that the lever seemed stiffer than usual before it clicked into position and again, with hindsight, the trip mechanism had become unduly sensitive recently.

 

[Phoenix_V]

They are quite frightening when overfuelled, we did that once trying to relight too soon, but at least you have tested the stove surround as being adequately fireproof

[mrsmelly]

Good post. This is what the forum benefits from ?

[Nightwatch]

We had a similar type of heater in our house many moons ago. Diesel drip fed. Unbeknown to us the flame has extinguished and the diesel continued to flow. Being novices we relit the heater and in no time we had a ranging fire. The stove was shaking and we feared the chimney would ignite. After about twenty minutes or more, and on the brink of calling the fire brigade the fire started to reduce and eventually go out. Bloody frightening.

We didn’t employ that means of heating anymore. As far as I could see, safety devices were nonexistent.

 

On our first boat we had a small oil heater, quite possibly a Reflecks, but the name doesn’t ring any bells. Ours had a very nice brass cover. Remembering our experience years before, we didn’t use it.

[matty40s]

Only once have I had to set a fire extinguisher off on a boat, it was one of these that caused it.

Not only did the above happen, but there was also a hidden hole in the bottom of the burner plate, opened up when it was cleaned out, so when the stove went whoomph, it also started flaming around the base!!

[Ex Brummie]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I recall your posts when you were having trouble with it earlier and you had altered the float control valve height and dismantled it several times. These are basically simple items and if the simple things are done right, then they are perfectly safe. 

Do you have a remote acting fire valve fitted? This is an important safety feature and installed correctly would have stopped your fire.  Most D.I.Y. fitters gloss over this part of the installation instructions as they don't know what it is, and if they do, decide it is too troublesome to bother with.

[mrsmelly]

2 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

We had a similar type of heater in our house many moons ago. Diesel drip fed. Unbeknown to us the flame has extinguished and the diesel continued to flow. Being novices we relit the heater and in no time we had a ranging fire. The stove was shaking and we feared the chimney would ignite. After about twenty minutes or more, and on the brink of calling the fire brigade the fire started to reduce and eventually go out. Bloody frightening.

We didn’t employ that means of heating anymore. As far as I could see, safety devices were nonexistent.

 

On our first boat we had a small oil heater, quite possibly a Reflecks, but the name doesn’t ring any bells. Ours had a very nice brass cover. Remembering our experience years before, we didn’t use it.

When I owned the caff at Lower Heyford a narrowboat called Switched off turned up for repair. Ir was a silly all electric gas free nonsense boat and it had a diesel heater. The heater had been leaking unbeknown to the owner for some time and diesel had prermeated some of the floor and run steadily along and through floor bearers etc and soaked up from the bottom of some hull liner panels. The damage was so significant and of course diesel smell so prevelant that the entire back threequarters of the boat was in some way effected so the boat was refloored and refitted entirely below the gunwhales at a cost of may thousands. I actualy passed the boat moored on the K and A in 2018 looking very sorry for itself.

[pete.i]

If the dislodging of that pin can cause a fire hazard surely something to prevent it dislodging would have been a good idea at the manufacturing level. A small split pin though on both sides or a spring clip in a groove to hold it in place. Seems a highly dangerous piece of kit for the sake of retaining device of some sort. 

[Ex Brummie]

26 minutes ago, pete.i said:

If the dislodging of that pin can cause a fire hazard surely something to prevent it dislodging would have been a good idea at the manufacturing level. A small split pin though on both sides or a spring clip in a groove to hold it in place. Seems a highly dangerous piece of kit for the sake of retaining device of some sort. 

I think you can see a groove on the end shown which would take a locking washer. Also, if any stiffness is encountered on the trip lever, then it should be investigated. These valves are very well made and reliable, but if dismantled by inexperienced personnel, then any thing can happen. This is not a part that would normally need any attention, but was dismantled by the OP when trying to rectify a totally different problem.

[peterboat]

1 hour ago, Ex Brummie said:

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I recall your posts when you were having trouble with it earlier and you had altered the float control valve height and dismantled it several times. These are basically simple items and if the simple things are done right, then they are perfectly safe. 

Do you have a remote acting fire valve fitted? This is an important safety feature and installed correctly would have stopped your fire.  Most D.I.Y. fitters gloss over this part of the installation instructions as they don't know what it is, and if they do, decide it is too troublesome to bother with.

Is it not a BSS fail if you don't? I have one and also had one at the cottage when we had the Rayburn 

[Phoenix_V]

2 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

 

Do you have a remote acting fire valve fitted? This is an important safety feature and installed correctly would have stopped your fire. 

We had one of those, it still got exceedingly hot before things calmed down, not a problem as long as the suround is OK