kenyon 550 kerosene stove and oven

Jim Legere · Jul 13, 2010

Hi,

Congrats on perservering with your kerosene stove. I have same boat, same year and same stove. Personally I love having a kerosene stove and cabin heater, but most here on the forum would not agree with me. The peace of mind of not having any explosive fuels on board is enough for me.

You do need to have some level of kerosene in the tank or it will take forever to pressurize it. Imagine pumping up a car tire with that pump versus pumping up a bicycle tire...

The only way I have ever found to get the leve of the tank is to use a dipstick (piece of 1/4" wood dowel in my case). remember that the dipstick will go in at an angle (on my tank anyway) so there is less kerosene than is indicated. If the tank is nearly empty, you might consider removing it and giving it a good cleaning. Kerosene and diesel tanks get pretty grungy over time.

The tank should be pumped up to between 10 & 15 PSI (need a working pressure gauge). The whole trick to these stoves is to religiously preheat them. Fill the the cup below the burner with alcohol, methanol, etc. A small used dishsoap bottle or similar works well as a dispenser. Light the alcohol and wait for it to burn out completely. Try to keep drafts away, as this will affect the preheating. As soon as the alcohol flame is out, turn the burner knob all the way to the left (anticlockwise). This will bring the "pricker" up into the burner nozzle orifice and ensure it is not blocked with soot, etc. Then immediately turn the knob 1/2 way to the right (clockwise) while applying your lighter or match to the burner. It should light right away and burn with a hot blue flame. If the flame is yellow and sooty, the burner was not preheated enough and you have to shutdown, wait for it to cool enough to safely refill the alcohol cup and start over. I have used a butane torch to preheat the burner underway, when it was too rough to keep alcohol burning in the cup. The trick with the torch is that it always takes longer than you think to get the burner up to temperature.

These stoves are getting harder to find parts for, since Force 10 in British Columbia and Patria in Portugal were bought out. I hear Holland Marine in Toronto has some parts and Taylors/Blake/Lavac in the UK can also supply. Good luck and happy cooking!

jorgefife · Jul 13, 2010

I found Jim Legere's comments on the kerosene stove very informative
I too have one such stove on my H33 (1982) which appears to be original; the stainless steel (?) container is inside the sliding panel, just above it
I have no idea which one I have, but ass I said, is the original
The oven has never been used, and all is there, so it appears
I would not have brought this up, but now that J.Burans started it, my question is: do I follow the same instructions as in his boat?
Is the metal container inside the cabinet removable?
I think I will take it off and give it a good clean
I am all for the originality of stuff ( still have 2 juke boxes from the 40's, and never owned a CD player: all vinyl records, so there you have it
SO; can I copy same instructions?
Thanks for the help that will be forthcoming (it never fails)
Jorge

Ed Schenck · Jul 14, 2010

I sold my Kenyon recently. It sat in the garage for eight years. I could have gone and tested the bicycle pump theory. It should work well though. Any good floor pump will have a gauge as well. You can check that the tank gauge is working. You are correct, the pump head will clamp on, not screw on. That should not present a problem.

Jim Legere · Jul 14, 2010

Bicycle pump - yes!

Jim, a bicycle pump or any other type of pump that will connect to a schraeder valve will work and you don't need much pressure - a pump that will make 20 PSI should do.

I have a Force 10 heater in my cabin, fed from a Tee on the same kerosene tank that supplies the stove. Nice to have on soggy, damp days like today in Halifax is. Boat, which was from the Cheasepeake area, came with one of those over the hatch marine AC units - sold that down there and put a heater in when I got her back to Canada. Great white north, eh?

Somewhere I have a good kerosene burner manual that came with the Force 10 heater. I will find it, scan it and put it on this site for all the kerosene fans.

BTW, never try to use kerosene in oil lamps in the cabin - you eyes will sting for weeks. Instead, buy the purest, clearest (most expensive) lamp oil - aka parrafin - that you can find. I have 3 oil lamps. My favourite is the Den Hann Jr. Trawler lamp from Holland. It has a circular wick and burns really bright. We ony ever use the electric lighting for convenience - like going to the heads or searching in the icebox. We also use a kerosene riding or anchor lamp. Outside, kerosene is no problem. I draw the line at kerosene powered running lights however. I dunno, kerosene seems like a traditional and seaman-like fuel to me.

Mathurin · Jul 14, 2010

My kenyon stove still sits proudly where it belongs

. It works almost perfectly. I only have an issue with one of the burners. It's seems like there's some debris of some sort somere in the line close to the burner. When I light it, the flame start 'dancing' after a while, and it gets more and more violent till it the flame goes out. Since I didn't needed the two burners, I never really at this problem too much in detail (tought I remember changing the whole burner at some point), but I will need to figure this out before leaving in september. I would never put a propane stove on my boat, nor would I put a gasoline engine. Here some pictures of the stove and of the tank with gage and bicycle valve. I use a small pump made for basketballs...

Jim, do you use a Tilley wick to keep the alcool from spilling all over the place when underway or do you always use the butane torch ?

Jim Legere · Jul 14, 2010

What a good idea! I never thought to use a wick, but I have used a piece of tissue paper soaked with alcohol in a pinch. Usually I just grab the torch if its really rough. I'll try the wick next time.

I uploaded the Force 10 burner manual to the Resources/Downloads part of the website, but I just noticed that another ABYC electrical document that I uploaded a couple of months ago is not accesible - still in the "moderation queue". Maybe Phil Herring or one of you can tell me the best way to upload PDF documents to the Hunter Owners site.

Richard Bryer · Jul 15, 2010

tell me some more about the wick idea- do you leave the wick in the alcohol circle when you light the kerosene? We have not used the kerosene stove much as it frightens the daylight out of my wife and I am in more danger of her and her fire extinguisher running around behind me as I light it than the fire itself! I would like to find a way of preventing the high flames from the alcohol on the preheat - is it just practice in knowing the amount of alcohol necessary?

Mathurin · Jul 15, 2010

Humm, I can't give out much more info about the wick idea, I stole that idea on a forum a while ago when I was trying to find a new burner for my stove. I aven't tried it yet, but I will for sure.

Mathurin · Jul 15, 2010

Jim i found this on the net, maybe it will be easier to just point towards this link than adding it to the hunter site.

http://kenyonappliances.com/uploads/product_documents/alc-stove-550-555-manual.PDF

Where do you buy your kerosene ? For my part, I buy the 1 gallon container at Canadian Tires. Is there a better source I'm not aware of ?

sandpiper10471 · Jul 17, 2010

The bike pump with the clamp works just fine. I bought a big blue foot model from Can Tire and it requires fewer pumps. ( I kept it on the counter and didn't use my foot.

You guys are so lucky. Your Kenyon stoves are stainless. Mine was enameled.

I have replaced mine with non pressure alcohol because it is easier for charter guests to use but I sure do miss the extra heat and excitement of the kerosene. I am saving that stove! And the one on the 33 should work just the same.

SamLust · Jul 20, 2010

Jorge:

Unless someone did a radical change on your boat your stove should be alcohol. Starting procedure is the same except alcoholin the tank instead of Kerosene. Even burning 196 proof ethanol the smell got to me. I replaced mine and ended up with a sinlle camping stove that runs on propane cylinders. Simple.

SamLust · Jul 20, 2010

Fascinating. The link that MATHURIN2 points us to specifically states that the 550 (2 burner) / 555 ( 3 burner ) are alcohol stoves.

sandpiper10471 · Jul 20, 2010

The alcohol stoves have a single post which bolts to the stove top and through which the alcohol is fed. The kerosene one has a Y shaped post and the burner is much harder to take apart. I bought my boat (1982) with a kerosene stove but found the invoices etc. on board indicating the original owner had opted for kerosene and the dealer had swapped them out.

Steve Dion · Jul 21, 2010

I would remove the burner and soak it in Carb cleaner. Then use a needle to clean out the tubes. Soak it in carb cleaner again and rinse it with alchol.

sandpiper10471 · Jul 23, 2010

The problem could be a very small leak somewhere - probably the packing at the stem where the adjustment handle exits the burner. Usually poor packing shows up as a flame there but not always. I like Steve's carb cleaner idea but if you can repair it without taking the burner off the stove, BIG bonus.

kenyon 550 kerosene stove and oven

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