I disassembled it all over again, down to the wick in the sleeve. The wick is perfectly smooth, so that's not it. I made sure that I inserted it back in the sleeve with the knob in "high" position while I re-set the set lever. But the ignition coil is still too far away from the wick, and can't light it.
This is crazy because I used this heater for years, and it was working perfectly.
I put in brand new size D batteries. The ignition coil turns bright orange, but nothing happens. Is it supposed to glow, or make a flame? It's glowing, but nothing happens. What would happen if I just lit the wick with a match?
Try bringing your wick up to the fully raised position and pinch and bend the wick toward the igniter until they line up right. I have two coronas one of which has a broken igniter due to wear and tear. If you open the little door,press down the start lever,and light the wick with a barbecue grill lighter,you can safely light the heater if lining up the wick fails.
One problem I have encountered is sometimes the little prickers on the wick sleeve have to be pressed firmly on the wick or vice versa actually.Just make sure they are free of foreign matter. Another thing you could try is mix some wick cleaner with your kerosene to prevent carbon buildup on the wick and to ensure all condensation is gone from your kerosene. This is readily available wherever wicks are sold.You could even try a different brand of wick. I just installed a new wick and because of a small defect in the fabric the trip mechanism isn't working perfectly. Always make sure when you put your wick assembly together the wick has to be fully raised and then extended to it's full length and then pressed against the lower set of prickers before you drop the whole assembly in place. If you don't do this you could have problems raising the wick to it's full height when assembled. Corona wicks are available on line but are a little more expensive.As far as your problem pressing the lever down,just take the cage,cylinder,and top off of your heater and then you can work the assembly around.It should be a quick fix.I just had to do this myself. Sorry for the delay getting back to you but I've been away from the computer for about a week.
Be patient in allowing the wick cleaner to be absorbed into the wick.Also when you said that your wick could not lit with a scripto,that should not have been the case. Raise your wick to the highest position,open the door to the heater,and look inside the door as you press the start button.You should be able to see about a quarter of an inch of wick showing.If you can't see the wick,you have to check the wick installation. Good luck and keep me posted.
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Still have to try it. Will let you know if it works.
Meanwhile, I disassembled the whole thing all over again with the intention of carefully re-assembling in case I missed something. I also pumped all the kerosene out of the heater, back into the plastic container I keep outdoors. Unfortunately, the wick was still full of kerosene and would not stick to the little teeth in the sleeve. So I hung it out to dry, literally, until it was dry enough to take with me to the nearest hardware store. This took a long time, until the end of last week. The wick is dry, but very soft, and will not stick to the teeth. So I affixed it to the sleeve with clothes pins and bought tiny rubber O rings to keep the pins in place. Now, I can finally try to assemble it again. I have no idea what will happen. I guess I could possibly lose the O rings because I have to push the pins inside temporarily, but I intend to put the O rings right back on when I get the two parts of the sleeve lined up. I still don't know if the sleeve will work with just clothes pins and O rings.
I'll let you know what happens. I really need that heater to work. So if it doesn't, I'll just have to send away for a new wick, all over again.
I took the heater to a repair place. The man said there was condensation in the tank, and that's why the wick wouldn't light. He dried the tank. Then I bought a new, dry wick, and he installed it. It worked PERFECTLY the first night after I took it home. The second night, it would not lighting again, same thing all over again.
This time, the up and down mechanism feels stiff, I looked inside and the wick is still lined up fine. So the stiffness didn't seem to make any difference. It just won't light. I tried using one of those long Scripto lighters from Home Depot, but it doesn't work. It lit a tiny section, but then it went out.
I can't believe this is happening. For five years straight I was using that heater with no problem whatsoever. Why now?
The whole wick assembly was working perfectly smooth the first night. The flame was even, and normal, and responded to the knob adjustment. So something happened after that. I bought new kerosene, so it's possible there was water in it.
I am amazed to learn that there is a wick cleaning product that will get rid of condensation by mixing it into the kersosene. This could be the source of the whole problem that destroyed three wicks. But maybe this wick can be saved with this product? If not, then the kerosene will never again be a problem.
Thanks for the information.
broken pins on wick sleeve
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