Damage to your burn chamber can quickly shorten the life of your heater and is very expensive/time consuming to repair.

Damage to the chamber can be caused by a few things:

• Not cleaning out the chamber
• Clogged chimney
• Flame retention head mis-aligned in the burner tube (most common)

Its very easy to prevent this damage and extend the life of your heater by many many years. We have customers who have 18,000+ hours on their heater with the original burn chamber!

1. Be sure to service the burn chamber every 800 to 1000 hours.
   More often may be necessary depending on the fuels you use. If you’re using particularly dirty or heavy fuels it can create more ash –  that ash builds up in the burn chamber.
2. Be sure to clean/check the chimney during the maintenance of the heater every year.
3. When reinstalling the burner in the heater after service, perform the flame retention head alignment outlined below.

If you follow those easy steps –  normally just once a year –  your burn chamber will outlast the rest of the parts in your heater.

Flame Retention Alignment Proceedure

The nozzle assembly is the “business” end of the burner. It’s where the fuel is atomized and ignited. So it’s very important to ensure your nozzle assembly and retention head are centered in the burner tube.

We’re assuming you know how to pivot your burner away from the heater – and don’t forget all the normal safety warnings: prior to working on your heater, make sure the electrical cord is unplugged and please wait for the heater to cool to room temperature!

Here we have a photo of an improperly aligned nozzle/flame retention head.

Notice how the flame retention (silver disk with louvers) is not centered.

The gap at the bottom is wider than the gap at the top. This will cause more air from the combustion fan to exit through the bottom. This will in turn push the flame upwards against the side of the burn chamber. Having the flame against the side of the burn chamber can result in one side of the chamber overheating and it can potentially burn it or crack it.

Having your flame retention head aligned like this will most certianly shorten the life of the chamber.

Here we have a properly aligned Retention head.

Notice the spacing is fairly even around the gap. Its very easy to position the ring correctly. It can be moved simply using your thumb to push it to one side or another till you get it centered. This should be done just before closing up the burner after service.

This simple procedure will ensure your flame is going straight down the center of the burn chamber.