If a generator was stored in an unheated room, would it be an idea to warm the petrol on the hob before putting it in the tank, to make starting easier? Obviously a different saucepan would be used to the ones used for food. Asking for a friend.
Bill
Use a gas hob, with luck you should get a decent bang.
are you actually being serious?
the petrol would evaporate into the room makign an explosive petrol vapour - air mixture. one flick of a switch anywhere and BOOM!
No different to a gas leak.
It would be a good idea to use a thermometer to avoid burning it.
Tim
That was my thought too. Any problems in starting and I'd get my can of EasyStart out.
It's not April 1st?
Let me know when you're going to do it, and I'll make sure I'm nowhere near you ;-)
You might take a bucket of hot water to the genny room and dip the petrol can in it, but no way should you have a naked flame or a hot electric ring anywhere near the petrol. In practice, would it make that much difference having warm petrol? Cars are designed to start and run in sub-zero temperatures.
If you'd said diesel, then there might be an advantage because it would melt any wax crystals that have formed in very cold *summer* diesel; winter diesel is formulated differently so wax crystals don't form except at *very* low temperatures.
It?s Bill, shooting fish in a barrel by the look of things. ;-)
Tim
BANG !
Sounds like a good way to make the house smell like a petrol station, and might be rather dangerous to boot. I thought for a moment you might be proposing putting it into the microwave.
Brian
It actually reminded me of a generator in a company I used to work for. They had a little oil burner thingy, warming a coiled up feed from the tank for the standby generator. I did point out at the time that this did seem illogical, since you would not be using it until the power went off, and then it would take time for the warm diesel to arrive anyway.
This was back in the 70s. Brian
Just have him warm the tank with a blow torch... keep the lid off so you can hear when it boils! ;-)
Have you ever seen video of Russians in Siberia, lighting an open fire underneath a diesel truck to heat the fuel tank and lines! Safe enough if you know what you are doing.
No.
More like Whooof!
Your friend qualifies for a Darwin award :-)
Completely daft. All you need to do is warm up the carburettor and cylinder with a fan heater, hair dryer, hot air gun, or even a gas torch if you are careful to waft it around and not cook the exposed wiring.
true true
It reminds me when I used a blowtorch to warm a butane cylinder! Every time the flame was dying the torch was applied to the cylinder!
I ended up in A & E trying to use petrol to start a bonfire.
Petrol vapour is heavy and stays at ground level and builds to a nice explosive mix.
Doint mess with it - use diesel
Igniting diesel is surprisingly difficult.
I remember when we were being given a safety induction course. On the grass outside (a dying patch, not nice lush green lawn!) the fire safety officer had laid out two shallow metal trays about 4 feet square. He poured a bit of petrol into one and a bit of diesel into the other. Using a long pole with a bit of Oily Rag (TM) on the end, lit with a lighter, he brought one close to the petrol tray. It was a warm day and some of the petrol was evidently starting to vaporise, because the petrol lit with a WHOOF as soon as the pole got within about a foot. Some had been sprayed out onto the grass and left burnt patches. It burned with impressive orange flames until it was all gone.
Then he brought the pole to the diesel tray. Nothing. When he touched the flame to the surface, there was a bit of half-hearted smoke but as soon as he dipped the pole into the fuel, the flame went out, no matter how often he tried. He eventually managed to get it lit by tipping the tray slightly so there was a thin film of fuel on the bottom at the upper end: that eventually lit, and the flames soon spread to the rest of the fuel, which burned with a lot of black smoke for a lot longer than the petrol had - it was burning longer and slower than the petrol which went up very quickly.
My wife (and her parents and sisters) survived a petrol fire on her parents' river boat when she was a child: it's thought that petrol vapour had collected in the bottom and had ignited somehow. Her parents replaced that boat (which sank and the melted burned pieces had to be recovered and scrapped) with one that used a diesel engine.
Not all generators work on diesel! :-)
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required