Hi lampies hope you all have had a happy christmas,for a while now i have been wanting to give my Bialaddin bowl fire a service i won this a few years ago on ebay and every thing held pressure so i left it as it was, but this year i decidied to give it a proper service and change all the washers so ordered a set of viton washers from Spirit burner(Ross) our forum founder,i am not sure this should be in this post should be in the fettling section as it is not a lamp/lantern if it should not be hopefully our moderatots wont mind putting it in the right section for me I have not shown a pic of the Bowl fire before the fettle as there is a pic of it some where on CCS and all i needed to do was strip it down and clean out the tank and replace the seals/washers. the above pic shows it all striped down ready for the new seals and rebuild in the left hand side of the pic you can see a pack of Spirit burner's superb quality viton service pack The above shows a pic of the base plate of the tank and shows the original paint work what was removed by a prvious owner the heater came to me with just the brass finish to the tank all i have done is to give it a polish. On the base plate there is made in England scribed on it and the letters960 stamped in it i assume that it is a 1960 model In the above pic is the next stage of the rebuild the hadle mounting bracket is screwed to the tank i must admit i made a mistake at this stage i have put the hadle/bracket in the wrong place so when it was fully rebuilt the pump was in front of the reflector bowl where the pressure release and filler cap should be here in the above pic is a exploded lay out of the upper burner/mixing chamber and heating element/mesh in the order it is fitted the ceramic insulator is already mounted on the spighot at this stage. The above is of the upper burner assembly now ready to be fitted on the vapouriser Here is the pump rod with a new leather pump cup fitted, which comes with the service pack Here is the heater fully assembled at this stage i noticed the handle was fitted in the wrong place so the pump was in front of the reflector and not the filler cap and pressure release screw so it had to be taken apart and placed the right way round LOL Here is the heater working now perfectly and with the hadle fitted in the right place Here is a close up ogf the heating mesh. I havae all so replaced the pip and washere on the NRV and a new washer fitted to the cleaning needle cock and vapouriser. With the Bialaddin cock unlike the Tilley control cock it does not have a washer seal in it if the cleaner/control cock is used for shut down then it is the cleaneing needle sealing the jet orafice that shuts of the fuel supply i all ways shut down any paraffin lamp/stove by releasing the pressure
Hi there! Thats a lovely bowl fire!! I must admit the service pack from spirit burner is good value for money and excellent quality! Does this fire have the same output as the Tilley version like mine? Also the dish/bowl is very shiney what method do you use to shine it up? Thanks Adam
Hi Brian, another great fettle! I guess your house must be the brightest lit and hottest of the area! It looks like these bowl fires were very popular in the UK, also the Valor wickies & such. In Belgium one hardly sees those. I remember as a kid, we had an electric "bowl fire", the aluminium bowl being close to 50cm (20inches) in diameter. (maybe it was more like 40cm, but still, these things were BIG...). Best regards, and happy fettling in 2012, Wim
Hi Adam and Wim many thanks for your compliements I agree Adam the service packs from Ross are superb quality and very good value for money to be honest i have not got a tilley bowl fire like yours or have used one but last year i found one of those big Tilley bowl fires with the bigger tank and it has one of those fuel gauges on it that works by magnet like a compass that is in the shed covered in redoxide over spray, i have decided to restore that in the future as most of my interest has been in vintage camping stoves but i have recently taken a great interet in lamps and fires basicaly all pressure fueld appliances. But i would imagine the Bialaddin bowl fire having a very simular heat out put as your Tilley. My reflector like most is not perfect the plaiting has some small pitting i just cleaned it with a sponge and washing up liquid to get rid of the dirt and dust from being in the shed most of the dust etc has come from my buffing wheel as it sits behind it. i do use it in the shed in the winter while i am fettling. i could have used a chrome cleaner after washing it would have given it a bit more shine Hi Wim they were popular in the sixties for heating even though they were designed to be used in doors the bowl fires seemed to be used more in back of shops small work shops and garages my dad rembers seeing them in the 1960's a lot in the winter on market stalls. most hose holds up to the 70,s i rember had a valor or aladdin wickie for heating there house in fact i have a valor Modulette next to my computer desk as only one radiator has to heat both the lounge and dinning room and i have a aladdin out in the hall way in fact it heats the hall way far better than the radiator
Hi Brian, Indeed a very nice Bowl Fire and an excellent fettle. The brass finish is gorgeous! I use mine, along with a Tilley R1 & R15 or Coleman Hot Ray. I have them all on a shelf and I'll pick a random one to use. I give all the "children" equal time and they all work well. Ross's washer kits are surely excellent. I have spare sets for all lamps, heaters, etc, in my parts bins so that if I'm lucky enough to get a nice lamp, lantern or heater, I can get it up and running without waiting weeks to get the parts (I'm in the US). Having a spare vapouriser is nice too, if only to use in quickly diagnosing problems. From my limited experience, poor performance was usually due to the vapouriser. It looks like your mantle is about 2/3 "lit". Is that as much as it gets, or have you not pumped it up more for a reason? When I initially got my Bowl Fire, it took a lot of pumps to get it to 100% and it stunk. Irritating to the nose and eyes. Replacing the vapourizer made a huge difference. It now takes about 75 strokes (as opposed to about 130 for the Tilley R1) to get to a full mantle and there is zero smell. For a totally smell free shut down, I first close the cock which shuts off almost all the vapour to the burner, and then dump the pressure in the tank. Otherwise some unburned vapour still rises to the hot burner and I get complaints from the Boss. I have measured the BTU output of all of them, by weighing them while running, on an accurate digital shipping scale. Take a reading while the heater is running and then take another reading after an hour. You now have the weight of the kerosene used. Knowing that kerosene has a heat value of about 135,000 BTU/hr and the weight of kerosene is 6.82 lb per gallon, the rest is conversion arithmetic. I'm not sure of the heat value of Coleman fuel, but it's probably less than kerosene. Bialaddin actually rates the Bowl Fire at 3260 BTU/hr. My measured value was close at 3491. My R1 and R55 used 65 gm of kero in an hour and the Bowl Fire used 80, so from a BTU perspective, the Bowl Fire is hotter. However, the raw BTU value is somewhat meaningless with these heaters as its the reflector size, shape and it's reflectivity that makes the big difference in the radiated heat you feel. As can be expected, the 14" reflectors (R55 & Coleman) "throw" more heat and need to be placed a bit further away. For convection heat, I use one of my many wick fed heaters (which I also collect). You'll love that big Tilley when you get it up and running. Regards, Dan
Hi Dan thank you very much for your kind compliement you are totaly corect it is burning at about 2/3rdsi lit it indoors just for pics and it was giving out enough heat so i stopped adding pressure i should have lit it 100% realy for the pics. i agree with you that mostly the heat generated from these heaters is radiated and the bigger the reflector the more radiant heat. Lokking at the type and size of the heating mesh compared to the Tilley smaller round aspestos/steel mesh mantle i would have thought the BTU's on the Bialaddin would be more
Hi Brian Iv'e been using my bowlfire to keep the bum warm while machining some more NRV pip's ,so i thought i'd post some pics of my one too or three Here are some pic's Some pip's already to go One too or three & as for the Tilley's Someting tells me i need help What do you reckon Best regards Stu
Hi Wim I didn't think the folks here could take any more , best they check out the post on the C200 / 400 on the CCS site if they're desperate for anymore bowlfire action "ce soir" Best regards Stu
Twelve radiators and bowlfires but only three guards... I just buy them up whenever I see them on eBay on the chance that I'll need them someday. Also folk on here / CCS have been known to make excellent reproductions, although materials aren't cheap and it's very labour-intensive...
Hi David et All Don't forget i can make Tilley guards in stainless steel for the R1's etc ( the simple ones until i get my jig altered ) & hope to be able to do more later . If i ever get a Bialaddin guard I will make them in stainless too Stu .
I had forgotten - as my mother says, "When drink's in; wits out"... Here's an image of a repro Bialaddin guard made by, IIRC, a CCS member in North Yorkshire:- Excellent work...
Hi David very impresive where can you buy these reproduction guards i may well be interested for my bowl fire
just got one of these for me Tramp Mobile, £30, now to blow meself up, or die trying to light it, no cleaning , no testing, but will be outside, with buckit of water and a wet blankit
Those are good bowl fires and they are simple to fettle and the link below shows the relevant paperwork, but the library is only open to subscribers. https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/1950s-bialaddin-bowl-fire.1456/
It should work well. The gauze support disk should be supporting the bottom of the gauze, and the reflector will work better after a clean. The element support tube will probably screw in some more. Have you got a ceramic tube in there ? I can't see from the video.
It will be toasty ! - better try it out tonight as it gets dark - that way you will see the flame pattern and the gauze glow. good works !
only 1/2 of the gauze goes red, should all of it go red hot, or is it a case of some do and some dont , light it up in me kitchen then turned the lights off, pic a bit bleared as no flash and shaky hands , getting old
That’s a good find and even better you could get it going without too much hassle The height/ length of the flame is a good indication of the condition of the vapouriser and to a certain extent the burner and seals New or n.o.s vapourisers are available but you may pay what you paid for the whole heater! You could try carefully cleaning the pricker needle ? They collect carbon along with the inside of the vapouriser Take care not to damage the fine needle end Good luck and happy fishing
Yep the second set of pictures show a less than proper burn. As Podbros says the vapouriser might be a little blocked. Clean the pricker wire carefully. It also could be low pressure. New seals and pump leather takes that out of the equation. The red section should reach the bottom but the colour will taper off
need some filler that goes into the on and off bit cap, its leaking a bit, have done it right up, but it is worn out been looking at these things on eeeeee-bayy, £250 what, are they really going that that much
I would start with new seals all round. It uses the same seal kit as a Bialaddin lantern. The fettle box do a good one: Bialaddin & Vapalux - The Fettlebox - you need the 1" filler cap version. There is a gland seal behind the jet pricker ("the valve") this is included in the kit. re: ebay - they are not 'going' for 250 - some people are advertising them for 250....
cheaked seals, they are ok, just the graphite has to be replaced, got some , found it, from my No2 spares, fixed for now, gave it a good clean out last night, working 90% better
