After using my heater for the past 5 years, the wick was black and goo covered. It wouldn't burn right and smelled to high Heaven. I ordered a new wick, then decided to watch a few videos before diving in to replace the old one. I am so thankful I found this video. My old wick is now soft and white with no need to replace it. Here I thought I was being diligent in not letting it run dry of kerosene, little did I know I was letting the wick get gummed up. Thank you so much for the education. This old gal can still learn new tricks. :)
I have a old kero sun Omni 230 . With fuel prices the way they are I started to use the 230 but the wick was crusty. I figured I needed a new wick. I went on line to find a video on how to change the wick out when I found your video. It only took one dry burn to clean the wick to good condition. Thanks for sharing.
I can't believe how much better my heater is working now. By following these simple directions my heater has become much more aggressive and efficient. Thanks for taking the time.
My heater would not ignite today. Burnt the wick 2 weeks ago. Took a look the wick was nasty.. burnt it off and wow what a difference... thank you again for solid info!
everybody I know says do not let it run out of kerosene because it will burn the wick and you will have to replace it. but luckily I found this great video , now my convection heater is like new ! thank you so much.
Thanks, because I'm about to do it to one of the 2 Directors i just bought and knew something was different with the 2 materials but couldn't find the original video i heard it said on.
Hey there..I'm a little late to the party (six years late). But this just solved my lighting problems on both of my heaters..thanks for the valuable information
Works like a champ. It recoils ( slams down) if bumped like it should. A carbonized wick makes it stick preventing it from extinguishing via slamming down the wick . Thanks for your time sir!
great video as I can't understand anyone having to replace their wicks as much as some do. I acquired a "Kero Sun" from a friend which burned beautifully for 30 years and still seems to but I will do as you suggest and see my results.
Thanks man Worked good Mine was so bad I did this first then went a bit further And strip it down ( only too a few seconds) So w no fuel and the wick burned out I too a plumbing torch and hit the wick. Lit a few times.. I continued until it would not light at all Then refueled Working perfect Clean clean burning
So just let it burn until the tank is nearly dry (touching on E on the fuel gauge) then raise up the wick to it's highest and let it burn until it self-extinguishes?
How often depends on many different things so it is an as needed thing. A decent clean wick should be ready for use within five minutes of exposure to adequate fuel.
How often do you let the fuel burn down to clean the wick in a heating season, 4 months is normal heating season James. I use K-1 fuel always with about an ounce of 99-100 percent isopropanol. What do you suggest James ?? @@freakga
Liked and subscribed. I can tell you know your shit with these heaters. I'm going to do this later on today. I'm letting it burn now, till it runs out. Hope all is well with ya bro. I noticed this is 6 years old. Hope your still making vids man. Happy New Year to ya, thank you !
Try the cleaning method from the video hopefully it will help. As for changing the wick it should be relatively simple unless something is hung on something somewhere. I'd recommend you look for a parts diagram and exact instructions for the specific model you have. Then go from there. It'll be easier to disassemble once you have a good idea where everything is even the parts that are normally not visible. Silly as it may sound a hidden bolt or screw sometimes a wonky shape can keep a person frustrated and searching for answers. I hope this helps.
Thank you for making this, I believe it’s going to be very helpful. I believe you’re using a similar model as I have. I have an Alladin temp-rite 10. I noticed that the coil at the top is glowing in your video. Mine does not get up to that temp. Would that be a wick issue?
Doing this right now. I really don't mind the smell either, but the smoke is especially bad now. I mean... that wick was filthy. It's a corona 23DK, and it's been really good to me (years ago I did the wick, but I should have probably tried this first).
This is a very good video and it makes a lot of sense... I just wondered what would cause the flames to be high when I light the kerosene heater ....I turned it down, but it's still flaming up pretty high ....do you know what would cause that? .... thank you for any information
Same question as Joey Blocker below. How can u tell if ur wick is of cotton or fiberglass? Just cut a piece of ur wick strand. Then cut off the burnt portion and light it w a match. if it's cotton, then u'll just have black carbon. If Fiberglass, it'll melt into a bead?
This did help a lot! Thank you for the great demonstration. :) You said you run this heater to heat your house? I'm in Canada and our kerosene fuel cost here is obscene! I keep a few gallons on hand for that "just in case" event. It costs me $55 for 5 US gallons here. I'm willing to bet you get it for much less. Peace.
wackybatch I'm in NH and we are at -6 (-25 with Wind chill) and I use kerosene to heat our home too. We just got 18 gallons for $60. That's insane they are charging so much. Its cheaper here for me to run a convection heater day and night than it is to use the heating system in the home.
3.50 a gallon here in KY. I buy from the Amish. If you have an Amish community nearby with a general store...they should have it and sell it cheaper than any other commercial business.
Thanks for the video, very helpful. Question, Is there a limit on the number of times you can clean a wick before it needs to be replaced? How often do you / should you replace it? Thanksl
I clean ours every second tank of fuel and our wick is still working like new. The wick is a couple years old but we still use it just fine everyday in the winter. I would say as long as your getting a clean even burn and as long as you never get water on it the wick should last a very long time. Just remember this method of cleaning it and try to never touch or scrub your wick this could cause it to fray and render it useless.
I cant get the wicks on 1st heater to up high enough to lite it and from just now watching your video the 2nd heater will barely come up enough to lite it its black and I did see tar build up around it the first heater was bought on December 2 2022 and the 2nd one was bought for me December 21 2022 any suggestions please this is my only heat
You are using the $12 a gallon kerosene instead of the cheaper alternative, diesel with the isopropyl alcohol and diesel additive mixture, there must be a reason why. Have you tried the alternate method? I haven't bought one of these heaters yet and trying to learn all I can about them first. Thanks for the very helpful video.
+Patty Baker My ex brother in law tried that and it just gummed up the works and made allot of smoke and nauseating vapors. I'm using the heater to heat our house everyday this is not an emergency backup heater that is rarely used. Plus I really really hate the smell of diesel. Also we have a convenience store just down the road from us that sells Kerosene for $5 a gallon not much more than the cost of the diesel alcohol mix so for me it's not worth it. Not too mention Alcohol plays hell on rubber seals and gaskets in car engines so I imagine It cant be good for the seals in the heaters fuel tank.
freakga, I didn't know there was a cheaper way, than the hardware store, to get it. I'd be using this for only when the power goes out, since it is cheaper to heat with electric with the new energy star mini splits that are out. I called the local store, and it's $4.59/gallon here. Thanks for leading the way!
i have a stove that i cant seem to get it to glow... Its a Dyna glo lil box one like yours in the video. just this one has more a see through glass with 3 steal rinds with holes. could the wick condition being black be why this has happened? Or will a dirty wick even make it glow? thank's Ed
Edward Guise Yes a dirty black tar covered wick will cause this problem. I recommend that you take the heater outside and let it burn off just as stated in the video. If you need to you can add just enough Kerosene to the heater to wet the wick for a second burn off. After that if it is still not glowing properly then you should replace the wick.
looks like i have the same heater as you do.I have Aladdin Equator? i just did a burn on mine the wick looks pretty good now.Some say to do a burn every four uses.Not sure if that true or not?
Anytime the flame is burning there is a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. However when the flame is either too high or too low the risk increases. so I would suggest cracking a window until you can sort out the problem.
Did I ruin my heater by using old kerosene? I just started using a new heater after my last on stopped working after a couple of years. Both of them do the same thing. They smell real bad and even at the highest setting they barely put off a flame. They don't even make the center piece with all the holes in it glow. It is a small blue flame and it doesn't even go all around the center. Can I fix this or did I ruin it? The kerosene was over a year old and not sealed just covered. I didn't know it could go bad. I'm not much of a handy man. Plus I was using kerosene from a pump and not the store, someone told me that wasn't the right grade for heaters. If I did what you did in this video to burn out all the bad fuel from the left in the wick and replaced the fuel in the tank with kerosene off a store shelf would this fix my problem or how would you solve this problem? Or did I ruin my heaters? I feel it is the fuel because it did the same thing in a brand new heater that I hope I haven't ruined. Thanks any feedback would be great
Jerry Martel they're not ruined but it sounds like you got some watery kerosene or off road diesel. You can try this method and after a few burn offs if they are still the same you will need to replace the wick. Either way it's no big deal and totally fixable.
I burned out the bad fuel, tomorrow we are going to get clean kerosene from a store, hopefully, it didn't seem to damage the wicks, they are white now, and dry. I'm hoping the clean fuel will fix the problem since it only burned bad fuel once. We'll find out tomorrow, thank you for taking the time to explain what I need to do, neither wick is over a year old, and the newest on only had one tank of bad once and I burned it out and both wicks are white, so hopefully, with cleaning the wicks like you demonstrate in this video plus a clean tank plus using store bought kerosene will fix the problem without having to replace the wick. Unless you no something I don't about using bad fluid, even though they're new heaters, are you saying that by using bad kerosene I might have ruined the wicks? Or do you think there's a chance that I might not have to change them since they wasn't exposed to a lot of water? Or maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Any insight during this stage of repair would be greatly appreciated.
If all the tar has been burned off the wick it should be fine once you add fresh kerosene. If it is still burning wonky just repeat the steps in the video that will eventually remove any water that may still be in the wick.
I picked up a heater from a family member.Looking at the wick there is no fiberglass fuzz at all.Will I need to replace it,or do you think it should light?
+steakbiscuit1 If you are sure it is not fiberglass you could just replace it with a fiberglass one. The fiberglass wick in mine is around 4 years old and still works great so they are well worth the money and effort. Other than that I'd say try putting in fresh Kerosene and if the wick is not filthy it should light. BTW the fiberglass is sewn onto the wick at the top in a 1 inch wide strip sometimes wider.
+steakbiscuit1 If it is black with tar balls and smut it can be hard to see the fine hair like bristles. Let it burn off and then you should be able to see a big difference.
Can someone tell me why , all of a sudden, my heater will not light at all? It was working fine just a few minutes ago, and now, it will not light at all. I've used it for one winter... (last winter), and had just begun using it again a few weeks ago. All was fine til now. :( What should I do?
When I got this last kerosene, he told me it was the bottom of the barrel, and he was almost out.... I don't even know if I'll be able to find any close to where I am.... guess I'm up the creek without a paddle... I guess I need to buy another blanket? :(
