johnsmachines

Looking at yesterday’s photo, the yellow flame indicates inadequate air for the amount of gas going in.  The air holes at the gas jet level were already at maximum size, so I drilled some holes in the burner base itself.

Yesterday’s photo.  Feeble flame.  Not enough air.   So I drilled holes in the burner end, next to the gas inlet.  (thanks for the suggestion Huib!).  Unfortunately, the improvement was minimal.  And gas flames shot out backwards towards the operator and gas jet.  A bit disconcerting.  And, I wondered, could the ceramic burner itself be restricting the flow?

So the next step was to remove the ceramic burner, and make changes to the spreader tube beneath.

The ceramic burner broke in pieces during the removal.  Possibly still useable.

But I thought, maybe I will see what the flame is like without the ceramic burner altogether.

And this is what the flame looked like…

Now, that is more like it!  (you can see the holes which I drilled in the end of the burner to increase air intake)

Admittedly, the flame will change when the burner is back inside the boiler, but this is the most encouraging flame yet.  Minimal yellow.  The gas flow will need to be reduced.

Next session, I intend to experiment with the hole sizes and number and angles.  I do not expect to be using the ceramic insert in the final version.