Woody Kirkman sent me another improved air intake to evaluate. It works awesome! It improves the wind resistance about the same as my super duper exit baffle. In fact, adding my exit baffle with this improved air intake does not really affect the wind resistance any more, so the lamp is out there now with just the improved air intakes running just fine.
It also provides for more air intake capability than his "three holed" experimental version, allowing me to "turn it up" more without seeing signs of starving for air (black smoke).
I did have some issues at times where it would randomly go out even on calm days, and it took me quite a while to sort out those problems from the "wind problems". When it went out due to wind, I was often out there watching it happen, and there was no doubt that the wind was doing it. Sometimes on calm days it would be running fine and then all of a sudden I would notice that it was out.
I talked to Woody on the phone a couple weeks ago and mentioned to him that the globe seemed to be sooting up more quickly than I thought it should. He started talking immediately about the wick charing up on the end - another symptom that I had noticed but not yet mentioned.
Woody told me it was probably a damp wick.
I started replacing wicks when this happened with some improvement. I also occasionally found water in the kerosene, so it looked like water was the problem.
When I replace a damp wick with a new one, I soaked the contaminated one in soapy water to remove the kerosene and then left it to dry, planning on reusing them if it was just that they were damp. It has been really rainy here lately, with humidity almost always over 80%, so the washed wicks were not drying well.
I became very suspicious even of "new wicks". They seemed to give me problems after even a few days of operation in kerosene that I hade decanted to make sure there was no water in it.
I store my new wicks in my basement, which is really damp at the moment. As an experiement, I took a length of "new wick" and stuck it in my microwave oven for about 10 seconds. After being microwaved it felt pretty damp, so I came to the conclusion that the wicks can absorb alot of water just sitting in storage. It is now my standard procedure to microwave new wicks repeatedly for 10 second periods untill they no longer come out feeling damp. Don't try this on a used wick if you are married. Trust me, just don't do it ;-)
I'll post some pictures of the newest air intackes in the very near future.
Rick
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