Newbie advice needed again for Tilley R1 heater

HI I'm after some more novice advice as I have just bought an R1 heater to keep me warm when I'm in the garage fettling my Tilley's as and when they arrive. lol.
It had been serviced before I got it (not off evil bay) and it started up lovely with a nice bunsen type flame. I was surprised at the amount of heat coming off it. But after about 6/7 mins the blue bunsen flame got longer and moved away from the burner itself. There was no flame coming out the mantle but no matter what I did to the pressure or the control cock I couldn't that the bunsen flame back so I turned it off. Once it had cooled off I fired it up again and the same thing happened. I contacted the shop and they said that operation was normal because as the burner got up to working temperature the vapour was superheated and that's why you can't see the flame at the burner.
Am I worrying over nothing and should just get on with enjoying the warmth. Any help/ advice is greatly appreciated. Please see the pictures below. Thanks Mark

 

As long as the flames are inside the mantle, you have nothing to worry about. Enjoy the warmth !

The better the shine on the reflector, the more efficient your heater will be. Use either something like Duraglit or a cream (Autosol is popular) to achieve a mirror finish and a coat of high temperature clear lacquer to keep it that way.

 

But the mesh mantle continues to glow red? Flames lifting off and going out is too lean a mixture - aka running out of fuel!

John

 

I'd be more worried about the lack of a grille to be honest - be careful!

 

Thanks for all your advice but it was playing on my mind so I tried something. I lit it up again and as the flame started to come away from the burner I put the the preheater back on the vaporiser. Within a minute the bunsen flame was back up to the burner and stayed there for about 5mins before the flame moved away again. This suggest the vaporiser is not keeping hot enough or transfering enough heat after preheating the vaporise the fuel. I'm going to try a 606 vaporiser that I know works (see what happens) and then try the heat quench method on the 149 to see if any carbon comes out and polish up the outside and give it a try. Watch this space.

 

Judging by the first pic, your air pressure is too low. That could be part of your problem.

 

1.5 pints of kero and provided the pump's in good working order, 70 to 80 pump strokes and stand back.

 

Ah, those times in a pub, I remember it well.

 

Thanks for the advice. I stripped and cleaned the burner, put 1 1/2 pints of paraffin in and put 70 strokes of the pump in and it ran like a dream. Thanks a lot everyone this site is brilliant.

 

Well done @Rockabilly Mark - preseverance nearly always pays off with these things.
re: pressure - when pumping the centre of the "pip" on the tank should rise when you are at the correct pressure. You will see that is recessed when there is no or low pressure. In your original picture on this thread it is not "up". They can fail, but normally I find that they still work.
Anyway, an excuse to light it up again ?

Chris