parraffin

[micknkaz]

My wife and I are just in the process of buying our first narrow boat.A boater friend at work suggested running the diesel heating stove on parraffin because it is cheaper and cleaner and more efficient than diesel.Can a kabola diesel burner burn parraffin without the need of modification, and is parraffin easily available? Or would you suggest taking out the diesel heater and replacing it with a solid wood stove, or can the kabola be modified to burn solid fuel?

[Alec Gatherer]

Buying paraffin is easy enough but expensive if you go to hardware stores etc. I buy it in "bulk" (25litres) by visiting a lubricant supplier near me and getting him to fill my 25ltr drum - it's not much more than half the price of these 4 or 5 litre plastic conatiners.

Not qualified to respond to your other points, sorry.

[Yoda]

If you mix paraffin and diesel, you will get an explosion on ignition.

[drunkensailor]

I was going to buy a Kabola when I bought my boat, but with the red diesel situation I went for a woodburner. I'm glad I did.

The woodburner is easily the best thing I ever bought for my boat. Afaik there's no chance of a conversion, but you could remove your Kabola, flog it on ebay, buy one of these and probably still be up on the deal.

[Maverick]

Buying paraffin is easy enough but expensive if you go to hardware stores etc. I buy it in "bulk" (25litres) by visiting a lubricant supplier near me and getting him to fill my 25ltr drum - it's not much more than half the price of these 4 or 5 litre plastic conatiners.

Not qualified to respond to your other points, sorry.

 

Its probably easier to find parifin than it is a hardware store these days. Most have been put out of business by the B&Qs and Wickes etc of this World. Hard to imagine we ever coped without these major DIY stores now.

 

Our local little hardware store used to sell parifin and all sorts (long gone now) It even stocked the latest single vinyl records back in the 60s. God am I really that old

[ChrisPy]

if you can tap into your local airport, try Jet Fuel (Jet A1). It is a paraffin fuel.

 

it's not very good in 777s but it'll probably run your heater OK.

 

 

 

 

................. PS: 'government' health warning - I've never actually tested it out

Edited February 23, 2008 by chris polley

[Timleech]

If you mix paraffin and diesel, you will get an explosion on ignition.

 

 

????

[ChrisPy]

????

Model 'diesel' (actually compression ignition) engines run on a mix of diesel, paraffin and ether.

 

All diesel engines rely on an explosion on ignition resulting from compression. That's one of the reasons why diesel engines are more heavily built than petrol engines.

 

I don't understand why there would be an explosion when ignited by a flame or spark at atmospheric pressure though.

[Timleech]

Model 'diesel' (actually compression ignition) engines run on a mix of diesel, paraffin and ether.

 

All diesel engines rely on an explosion on ignition resulting from compression. That's one of the reasons why diesel engines are more heavily built than petrol engines.

 

I don't understand why there would be an explosion when ignited by a flame or spark at atmospheric pressure though.

 

Nor do I, hence my query. Diesel and paraffin are very closely related, in fact a friend in the oil business tells me that they are now much closer than they once were. Mixing them I would expect to create something less likely to explode than paraffin on its own.

 

Tim

[Alec Gatherer]

Yeah, I thought that.

There have been more than a few threads on here complaining that they can't get explosion on ignition!

[Yoda]

Model 'diesel' (actually compression ignition) engines run on a mix of diesel, paraffin and ether.

 

All diesel engines rely on an explosion on ignition resulting from compression. That's one of the reasons why diesel engines are more heavily built than petrol engines.

 

I don't understand why there would be an explosion when ignited by a flame or spark at atmospheric pressure though.

 

I accidently mixed some and ignited it accidently. The result was very interesting as I extingushed myself. Normally the diesel will just burn but the mix had got hot enough to ignite the paraffin spontainiously. You would normally have to spray the paraffin or heat it to get it to ignite.

Edited February 23, 2008 by Yoda

[ChrisPy]

I accidently mixed some and ignited it accidently. The result was very interesting as I extingushed myself. Normally the diesel will just burn but the mix had got hot enough to ignite the paraffin spontainiously. You would normally have to spray the paraffin or heat it to get it to ignite.

ah .... so it burned (like petrol), it didn't explode (like compressed diesel/oxygen).

 

all becomes clear.

[carlt]

Our local little hardware store used to sell parifin and all sorts (long gone now) It even stocked the latest single vinyl records back in the 60s. God am I really that old

The post office in Silverstone used to sell paraffin. You had to take your own container and it was one of the old "sight-glass" type dispensers.

 

They switched to 4l butts a few years ago...tragic!

[micknkaz]

Thanks for all the help and hints and tips.I think for safety sake I will take out the kabola and fit a wood burner.Probably a morso squirrel

[clarriegrundydog]

Get a wood stove. You can pick up wood for free everywhere so are very cheap to run and a damn sight prettier to look at!

You can also buy a coal burning kit for your wood stoves as well so you can use both types of fuel.

[Hairy-Neil]

I remember the 2 delivery trucks that used to call round the houses hawking paraffin when I was a kid. The one my father used, was I recall, an ex WD bowswer on an old Austin K4 chassis, adapted with a hand pump and metering gauge on the rear. It also carried a large chrome bell mounted on the windscreen pillar to tell of his aproach, operated by the driver with a string.... This one sold Aladdin Pink. The other dealer selling Esso Blue used a much more up to date Ford Transit vehicle though with similar dispensing arrangements. B&Q have a lot to answer for....

 

I seem to recall there being signs forbidding its sale after dark.

[Alec Gatherer]

Get a wood stove. You can pick up wood for free everywhere so are very cheap to run and a damn sight prettier to look at!

You can also buy a coal burning kit for your wood stoves as well so you can use both types of fuel.

Also wood is easier to spell than paraffin.

Anyone remember that old chestnut "what's got four bums and keeps you warm"?

[Big Steve]

Also wood is easier to spell than paraffin.

Anyone remember that old chestnut "what's got four bums and keeps you warm"?

 

I don't , but would it be Esso Blue, bum, bum, bum, bum?

 

Funnily enough I'm just removing a wood burner from my boat and replacing it with a bubble oil stove. I got fed up with logs and kindling sprouting from every orifice. Not to mention the dust. Perhaps I'll live to regret it.

 

If you're wondering what the hell I'm doing on the computer at 3 o'clock in the morning, it's so windy I cant sleep for the noise, and in a 400 year old house with walls 2' thick. According to Sky weather there is no wind!

[mikes]

The post office in Silverstone used to sell paraffin. You had to take your own container and it was one of the old "sight-glass" type dispensers.

 

They switched to 4l butts a few years ago...tragic!

 

 

Back in the 60s my first Saturday job was helping the delivery man for the local hardware store (Stoney Stratford at the time) doing the paraffin round . This involved delivering door to door; people would leave their 1 gallon paraffin cans on the door step with the money and we would fill them from a large tank in the bank of a old van.

 

Used to go home stinking of paraffin and had one particular set of clothes that I just wore for that job. When I finished doing that I went to work for a shed builder, so swapped the smell of paraffin for creosote

 

Mike

[Orca]

I was going to buy a Kabola when I bought my boat, but with the red diesel situation I went for a woodburner. I'm glad I did.

The woodburner is easily the best thing I ever bought for my boat. Afaik there's no chance of a conversion, but you could remove your Kabola, flog it on ebay, buy one of these and probably still be up on the deal.

 

I bought one of these and will be fitting it next month. I fired it up in the back garden of the cottage I rent currently and it was superb!! Can't wait to get it installed. I went direct to the Windysmithy workshop in Devon and collected it - he was a really decent chap and the workmanship of the stoves is impeccable!! If you decide on a wood stove, then these come highly recommended..