Date:         Mon, 10 Jan 2000 16:10:24 -0500
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@IBM.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@IBM.NET>
Subject:      Re: Plat Cat... for real!
Comments: To: "Fitz-Randolph, Douglas" <dfrandolph@TALKAM.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <C1A47AF64D80D01198AC00A024CC3499A6D2F9@TA_EXCHANGE1>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 15:32 1/10/00 , Fitz-Randolph, Douglas wrote:
>1) I've been using my DuraCat/BlackCat since September and it STILL stinks -
>
>as in it produces this noxious sweet smell when running. Smelly, yes, but
>I can live with it.

Gee, got this crummy old Bernzomatic propane-fed (along with two big
mooring pennants and an S-W electric oil gauge for $10 the bunch) and it
doesn't smell at all.  Mild propane smell while lighting, but instructions
point out that if smell continues then it isn't properly lit.  It's ugly,
though, dear me.  And the catalyst bed is fragile.  Instructions say if it
gets a hole in it, patch it with some pulled from elsewhere on the
bed.  It's a rectangular sharp-cornered box with room inside for a 14-oz
tank and a spare -- I run it with a hose from a BBQ tank.  The heating
element is a maybe 10-11 inch flat dish with a coarse wire grill over it,
the whole mounted about 1 1/2 inches clear of the front of the
box.  Variable regulator that screws to the top of the bottle and sticks
through a hole in the box, with a red button on top to increase flow for
starting.  Adjustment range supposedly 3000-6000 BTU/hr.  I've run it for
days with no peep from a CO detector (which OTOH went off and drove the
people at the dealer nuts when they pulled it into their work bay).  The
heat is primarily radiant which makes it nice in the mornings if you hang
it overhead off the skylight adjuster.  Sort of like a heat
shower.  Haven't had any problems with overheating the skylight, which I
leave open a crack.  This gives nice convection-forced ventilation with
input through the door vents.

david
David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"