Smoke Unit Temperatures

[Kevin Hunter]

If there is such a thing as an Armortek Idiot Of The Week/Month/Year award then perhaps I should be added to the list of nominees.....

They say that confession is good for the soul......... I have managed to cook my smoke unit

Proximate cause frankly was a combination of absent minded oversight, having no idea how much oil was in the unit and not wishing to overfill the unit. The long and short is that the smoker ran dry, overheated and lead to a small "engine fire" as the nylon/plastic part of the unit caught alight.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I blame absolutely no-one except myself. However, looking forward I think it would be a good idea if the smoke unit could be modified with some kind of fail safe? I know it is possible to buy preset thermostatic switches, at reasonable price, which would open and cut off the power if the smoker case got too hot. I plan to buy one, but in order to get the right cut out point does anyone know the optimum operating temperature for the smoker?

Annoyingly, my DX8 comes with telemetry options but I was using the temp sensor to monitor the batteries. In future the loop will be wrapped around the smoker case with an appropriate high temp alarm on the TX. Belt and braces.

Finally, every cloud has a silver lining. For Gill and Mark, they will be able to sell me more spares for my Cent For me, the interior of my engine compartment now has some very realistic weathering!

Regards
Kevin

[Adrian Harris]

I must say I've never heard of a smoker unit catching fire like that before.

The elements used are from soldering irons and, if run when outside of the smoker unit, will glow a nice orange colour. I'm not sure how long for though...

The elements are actually from soldering irons, and already have a thermocouple built into them. I have used a Dallas chip to monitor the temperature of one of these elements, with the idea of modulating their power consumption, so that they didn't act as such a drain on the main batteries, but gave up on the project due to lack of time.

Adrian.

[michael hilton]

Hello Kevin, sorry mate you are not the first to fry your 'smoker'. I managed the same mistake on my Comet. I thought my error was caused by a short circuit..just an excuse really. Ring Gill and all will be forgiven Mick

[Kevin Hunter]

I must say I've never heard of a smoker unit catching fire like that before.

Well I was quite surprised too.

[Adrian Harris]

Eeuuuuww

Not quite the smoke you were hoping for

Adrian.

[Robin Hinson]

Me too I'm ashamed to say on my King Tiger, mine actually caught fire but luckily for me I was close enough to it to put a CO2 extinguisher on it. However, the loom and fans all went up in smoke. Replaced the lot but reluctant to use the unit now. Nope, your not the only one

Best of Wishes

Rob

[Kevin Hunter]

Michael / Robin.............. Thank goodness it wasn't just me! I feel a bit better now
Kevin

[Stephen White]

To add to the theme that confession helps the soul, I was dead impressed with the smoker on my Pz III at Yeovilton Air Display the other day . It was managing to exude great swathes of smoke from every orifice of the tank. It impressed the crowd no end. I did vaguely register that it also seemed to be consuming fluid at a rate of knots.

It was only when I got home that I discovered that the heating element had worked loose and was only partially engaged in the mounting boss. Smoke everywhere. Luckily, I didn't suffer spontaneous combustion of the rear end of the tank and all is well. Mark suggests cable ties to keep it in position. I'm certainly going to do that now.

Smoking can damage your wealth.....

Stephen

[Kevin Hunter]

Thought you may wish to see why you should never run the smoke unit dry - well, not for too long anyway!