Just match up the size the bushing when looking for one. As you can see they’re relatively inexpensive. I paid 3-4 times more than I ever should for that old hot water washer I fixed up. I would’ve been better off throwing it in the corner of the shop and let it sit from the get go. At least it’s there now.
You can also get different temperatures. I would find the original specs of the machine and match it to that. Mine new one has a 250 degree thermostat and that thing pretty much steams. It probably would with a steam nozzle.
Installed a pressure gauge on the unloader and changed the pump oil. Then I plugged her in and pushed the button, the pump jumped to life and the gauge went to 500psi then when I pulled the trigger it jumped up to 1900psi. That all seemed to be working fine, despite a couple leaks on the fittings below the coil. I got brave and flipped the switch for the blower, it spun up and started blowing air and I could hear the electrodes sparking away. Then I primed the pump and after closing the bleeder, the fuel pressure went up to 110psi. Pulling the trigger while the burner was on didn’t seem to do anything, no smoke or heat out the exhaust, so I removed the eletrode/nozzle plate out of the burner tank and pulled the trigger, it blew out a spray of fuel and ignited causing a little fireball. So I had air, fuel and spark, but again with the nozzle/electrodes back in the burner tank, it didnt seem to be flaming up, when I pulled the trigger. Then i stood on the trigger for maybe 30-60 seconds and all the sudden I heard the glorious rumble of ignition! Tons of white smoke started billowing out from the exhaust and a little from below the coil then I saw flames shooting out the exhaust and I got scared and shut it down. Excess fuel kept burning/smoldering inside the coil for a good 30min after I shut it down. So I don’t know, it seems like I’m putting way too much fuel in there before it ignites. Maybe it’ll work better with the fresh nozzle when it arrives on Monday. How long should it take to light up once I start squirting fuel in there?
The fuel should ignite right away. There shouldn’t be any pause. Sounds like the fuel isn’t atomizing enough. Too big of droplets to ignite right away? That’s what I’m thinking. Did you install new electrodes? I guess another option is not enough spark.
I’m not sure if this would make a difference but I know you have to adjust the airflow so you have the right fuel to air ratio. There should be a little damper door by the blower. At least my old washer did. Maybe you’re not getting enough airflow for the amount of fuel? When the burner is working correctly you shouldn’t see any white or black smoke. It should be “clear”.
Use blue medium strength thread locker (Loctite) on metal to metal fittings. It works better than teflon tape or dope and you’ll never have a leak.
Thanks! I’m really happy with how it’s come along in the last week. I bet your right it’s either not atomizing the fuel enough or the electrodes are out of whack. I didn’t replace the electrodes, but i did set the gap between them. On this setup it’s not possible to set the distance they stick out in front of the nozzle but you can adjust how far off center they are, if that makes sense. They were about 1/2" off center, so i think i’ll try pushing them in a bit closer so they’re more in the path of the fuel.
I only let it burn for a couple seconds after dumping a ton of fuel into it, so it’s hard to say if the air/fuel mixture is off. I think it was smoking so much because it was saturated with way too much fuel before it lit off. I’ve found the airflow adjustment bands, you can see them behind the pressure gauge in the pic above. I could mark their location and give em a twist to see what happens, then if it doesnt help, just set them back. After seeing flames shoot out the top I decided it’s definitely time to pull it out from under the carport tent into the middle of the yard and I’m keeping my fire extinguisher handy for sure!
Thanks for the loctite tip, never tried that, always had good luck with npt fittings and a good quality ptfe thread tape. The fittings that are giving me trouble are JIC flare fittings, these I’m not so familiar with. I know generally the flare fittings aren’t supposed to get taped as the seal is in the flare instead of the threads, but would you use the loctite on the flare surface? I’ll probably just replace the flare fittings that are leaking, since most are really rusty.
Well I got the new nozzle installed, still didn’t want to ignite right away. Adjusted the electrodes in closer to the nozzle, that didn’t work either. Finally I started playing with the airflow and found the choking it down a bit got it to ignite right away when the trigger is pulled. It’s still billowing smoke from below the machine though and I’m not sure what’s causing that. There must be some leaks in the flash pan or something, guess I need to put it back up on the saw horses so I can get a look under it and possibly pull the coil tank back apart.
Was the burner shutting off when you let go of the trigger? The way it kept smoking it sure didn’t seem like it. The flow or pressure switch might be bad. You should be able to get the fuel and airflow just right to where you can see smoke. Just clear exhaust.
I would line the bottom of the pain with ceramic insulation or refractory. I know I already mentioned it but that old one of mine had a thick chunk of refractory at the bottom so nothing could escape. Maybe they use the refractory on the vertical burners just so smoke can’t escape out of the bottom.
Yeah I’m pretty sure it’s shutting off the fuel, when i pull the nozzle/electrode plate out, it only sprays fuel when the flow switch engages. I suppose it’s possible the solenoid is leaking a bit after it’s shut off, I did see some dribbling after it shut off but I didn’t think it was necessarily a solenoid leaking kind of dribble. I’ll double check it this afternoon, just to make sure that’s not whats happening.
Good call on the refractory cement and insulation. I think that will be my next step. I may just have to bite the bullet and fab up a plate to seal the flash pan where it had rusted around the coil tubes. I was trying to fill the rust holes with fireplace cement, but the coil jumps a bit when the pump unloads, I could see where that would cause my cement patch job to fail. Looking back at the pictures I posted of the flash pan, I did leave that one hole in the center open, I thought it was there to provide a water drain, but maybe that’s where the smoke is coming out.
My other theory is that the insulation is just soaked in fuel from my attempts to get it burning.
Had a vacation come up, so this got put on pause. I did tare into the flash pan like we talked about. There wasn’t any refractory cement in there, just a crummy layer for kawool.
There’s some npt bulk head fittings that go through the flash pan to the coil, i wasnt able to get them screwed down tight to the patch i put on the flash pan, so i tried sealing them with high temp rtv.
I feel like that rtv is just gonna rip and leak again as soon as the coil get jostled around, so I’ve ordered some new bulkhead fittings, when they arrive I will have another go at securing the coil.
Also I’ve got some new kawool to put in there on top of the refractory cement. Then hopefully it’s just a matter of reassembly and tuning in the air/fuel ratio.
I was working a maintenance outage at a power plant one time and we only had a couple more days before layoff. The last night the found a bunch of holes in the ceiling of some duct work. It was outside so somewhat open to the elements besides the sheet metal and insulation covering it. It would get soaked inside. Instead of giving us a few more days to actually weld in some new steel plate they gave us about 10 cases of that high temp rtv and some putty knifes. They were the tubes the size of a regular caulk gun. Three of us went to town smearing that crap over an area that was probably 12’ x 12’. The coal burners are falling apart. They are closing 3 around us. One is already shutdown and the other two will be soon. That’s why I got into pressure washing.
I got her all put back together and it’s burning very nicely now! Even got the cover straightened out enough to close, replaced the flat tire and built a new handle/soap tank holder out of an old treadmill frame i had laying around.
It just makes the slightest puff of smoke when the burnner first ignites and it hasn’t had a chance to warm up yet. Once it’s hot there’s not really any noticeable smoke on ignition. I uploaded a video to YouTube if you’d like to see how it runs now. https://youtu.be/fgwlH_oQD3Y
To find the manual for mine, I called Karcher / Landa tech support. I think if you call their primary number 800-444-7654 you can work through the phone system to get to them.
For parts I purchased all aftermarket parts for OEM parts you have to go through one of their dealers. Use the tool located here to find your local dealer Find Your Local Landa Dealer | Landa
