Troubleshooting and Maintenance on a Kerosene Flame Weeder

Finding land, working a small plot or anything else countryside related
Post Reply
User avatar
Zasso Nouka
Tech Support
Tech Support
Posts: 5705
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:37 am
Location: Chiba Prefecture
Has thanked: 4120 times
Been thanked: 3394 times

Troubleshooting and Maintenance on a Kerosene Flame Weeder

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Our kerosene flame weeder was behaving erratically over the last few days and I thought it might be the nozzle that was blocked so decided to give it a clean. It's just a simple wand type flamer rather than the serious back pack types but still does a good job.

Image

You need to undo the screws holding the shroud on the front end

Image

And then slide the shroud off revealing the coils and nozzle

Image

The nozzle, circled in red can be easily unscrewed for cleaning

Image

Once it has been cleaned and unblocked it is easily screwed back in place and your flamer will work as good as new.

We burn off a lot of the dead and dried weeds around the borders of our land at this time of year so the flamer comes in really handy

paradoxbox
Posts: 255
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:52 pm
Has thanked: 92 times
Been thanked: 261 times

Re: Unblocking a flame weeder

Post by paradoxbox »

Do these things work on green weeds with deep roots like dandelions?

I've been digging them out recently since they can't really be hand pulled very effectively, they just disintegrate in your hand and regrow a few days later.

Wish I had a goat!

User avatar
Zasso Nouka
Tech Support
Tech Support
Posts: 5705
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:37 am
Location: Chiba Prefecture
Has thanked: 4120 times
Been thanked: 3394 times

Re: Unblocking a flame weeder

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Unfortunately it will only kill top growth so not too effective against deep rooted weeds. Where they really excel is when weeds are just starting and haven't developed a large root system yet, a swift pass will finish them off. We also use it on freshly prepared seed beds to kill emerging weeds just before the crop germinates and another good use is the cafe car park which is stones laid on top of soil where a kusakariki can't operate.

User avatar
gonbechan
Founder
Founder
Posts: 2531
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:10 am
Has thanked: 2687 times
Been thanked: 1436 times

Re: Unblocking a flame weeder

Post by gonbechan »

Gonbechan nozzle and sparkplug cleaning 101
Leave whatever in a cup of Sanpo-ru for a few hours and then fish it out with waribashi and rinse off.
It works better than absolutely anything.

Image

paradoxbox
Posts: 255
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:52 pm
Has thanked: 92 times
Been thanked: 261 times

Re: Unblocking a flame weeder

Post by paradoxbox »

サンポール never ceases to find new uses! It's that hydrocholric acid in it that does the trick I think. 300 yen per bottle can't be beat..!

Be careful about using that stuff on a day with no breeze, hydrochloric acid, even the weak stuff in toilet cleaner, can react with many substances and if it reacts with something sulphurous it can create Hydrogen sulfide gas which will kill you with a single breath if the concentration is strong enough! No joke, every year thousands of people mistakenly kill themselves with similar products after accidentally mixing them with some other cleaner or chemical.

User avatar
gonbechan
Founder
Founder
Posts: 2531
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:10 am
Has thanked: 2687 times
Been thanked: 1436 times

Re: Unblocking a flame weeder

Post by gonbechan »

wow, so that is something you really do NOT want to put in your toilet when you have eggfarts.

So glad I use duck neck wotsit stuff to clean my loo.

User avatar
Zasso Nouka
Tech Support
Tech Support
Posts: 5705
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:37 am
Location: Chiba Prefecture
Has thanked: 4120 times
Been thanked: 3394 times

Re: Troubleshooting and Maintenance on a Kerosene Flame Weeder

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Had a curious problem develop on our flame weeder

Image

Over the last few weeks it's been slowly loosing it's mojo and the flame intensity has dropped off markedly until this week it was so low unburned kerosene was left on the soil after use, the flame was really yellow, billowy and lacked the intensity/force it previously had. So took it apart and couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it but bought a pack of new o-rings and decided to give it a proper overhaul. Striped the whole thing down, separating all the parts and blew them all out with our compressor, cleaned as much as I could with petrol and replaced the o-rings then put it all back together and can report back that it is now burning as good as new. You can see on the video below that the flame is not super visible which is how it should be.



So if anyone else gets similar issues with their flame weeder I'd suggest totally striping it down and blowing everything out with an air compressor. Whether changing all the o-rings made a huge difference is hard to say but 300円 for a complete set is hardly going to break the bank and the one inside the piston was quite loose so probably needed changing.

Post Reply