Monitor 30 makes noise but not heat

[Korndogg]

Hi all,

I just purchased my first home and the in the garage is a Monitor 30 kerosene heater (picture below). It’s about 30 degrees here so I tried out the heater and it doesn’t seem to make heat.
I’m very mechanical but I’ve never worked on HVAC stuff. The panel on the front says to lift a little arm 4-5x if the heater hasn’t been used in a long time, so I did that. The panel says that after turning on the heater, ignition will occur after 20 seconds and then the blower will activate after 5-10 minutes.
I have a video of me turning the heater on, but I can't seem to post the link since I don't have 15 posts... After ~20 seconds there is a click and the “burner status” lights “low” and “medium” light up. However I’ve let the heater run for another half hour after that and nothing else seems to happen. The exhaust (outside the house) smells like kerosene but nothing inside the heater gets warm (I pulled the front panel)

Any thoughts?

Is the position of the tank relative to the heater ok, or should it be higher?


Appreciate any help to get me going on this!

Thanks,

Tommy

[hawkins111]

tank height

Korndogg,

A Monitor heater is a gravity feed unit. The tank must be a minimum of 18 inches higher than the bottom of the unit and it must have a vent in the top. That tank may be too small to give the right fuel pressure even if it is 18 inches high. Fill it full and raise it a foot higher than the top of the heater. Try that and see what you get. Once you figure out how high it needs to be, get rid of that rubber line. Use copper tube with flare fittings.

Tom

[Korndogg]

Hi Tom (funny, that's my real name :-) )

I put the fuel tank on top of the heater and while I fumbled around with the outlet for a minute I heard bubbling! I left the tank there and the heater fired up as expected. Great!

I guess I should've just put it there and tried it. I had lifted it up by hand to bleed air but clearly not for long enough.

Thanks for the help!

Say - any estimate how long that tank (3-5 gallon) will last? I know it will vary by temperature, but are we talking 5hr? 15? 25?

Thanks again!

Tommy

[Korndogg]

Oh, and not that I doubt you, but for what reason should the rubber hose be replaced? Is it a safety concern or will the rubber break down and gum up the heater, etc?

[hawkins111]

rubber fuel line

Tom

That 3 to 5 gallon tank will last about 12 to 18 hours at moderate use. The reason you do not use rubber is because of FIRE. If I came over to work on your heater and found a rubber fuel line I would stop and do nothing else until I fixed the fuel line. It is a real danger.

Tom

[Korndogg]

Gotchya. I thought you might say that. I'll figure out what I need to run copper. I assume just some 3/8 line and a tool for the flare fittings?
I've done brake line flare fittings on cars before.

[Korndogg]

Fixed, thanks!!

[dfitz3390]

yep right idea did you have a more permanent fuel tank somewhere ? ahhh i see

[Korndogg]

What do you mean more permanent? What's wrong with that one?

It's just a garage heater so I think it's fine. That tank is 5gallon and I'll keep a spare 5 gallon jug on hand so that's quite a bit of time.

[HayZee518]

yeah its ok

your tank is ok but it should be higher. the book says that the static pressure at the heater is supposed to be 2.5# gravity feed. if your heater starts to thump it would indicate starving for fuel.

[Korndogg]

Good information... How much higher do you suppose it should be? I can't really make it much higher without being unable to fill it. And there's already an exhaust through the wall so it would be a pain to make the heater lower. Grr..

[Korndogg]

I did some searching online.. I think that you must have meant 2.5 psi from gravity feed. I found that you can estimate gravity feed pressure at about 0.5psi per foot. If that is accurate then it sounds like the tank should be 4.5' above the base of the monitor? That's not happening unless I'm going fill the tank with a 6' step ladder.
Currently the tank is 12" above the base of the monitor so 0.5-1.0psi depending on how full the tank is. It is currently half full. I just fired up the heater for a while and it worked well without unusual sounds. I will keep an eye/ear on it when the tank starts getting low and raise the shelf a bit more if I need to.

Thanks for all of the help guys - I really appreciate it!

Tommy

[HayZee518]

tank level

well, food for thought. I got my outside tank outlet approx a foot and a half above the wall penetration which is two inches above the floor, equal to the inlet fitting of my 2400. I got all kinds of pressure even with the fuel at about four inches left in the tank.

[dfitz3390]

What do you mean more permanent? What's wrong with that one?

It's just a garage heater so I think it's fine. That tank is 5gallon and I'll keep a spare 5 gallon jug on hand so that's quite a bit of time.

i was posting as you were posting the pics so it came out a bit late, for safety, myself i might have added some distance is all Monitor30 is a bit shy on safety features compared to the newer models. hey if it works right

[dtjacob]

Fuel Tank

Hi:

Kind of like the fuel tank you have..........is there any kind of info. on the tank as to mfg., etc.?????? Wife says NO to any kind of outdoor tank, so I've been using the internal tank on my 422.

Thanks,
Don