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Smudge Pot

What were you burning that kept burning when it blew? :confused: I've never had mine continue to burn but all I put in it is drained used oils/fuel. It just errupts and makes a mess. Reffill it and keep rolling for the night.

If you are running it at regular orchard heating temps it shouldn't ever get hot enough to blow.
 
Sceep said:
If you are running it at regular orchard heating temps it shouldn't ever get hot enough to blow.
Click to expand...

This is the key.


I pretty much only use mine at our wheeling event in the fall and everyone wants it wide open with 8' of flame out the top and glowing cherry red. The first year or two I didn't have any problem. Then two years ago it did the thing once in my driveway and again at camp and then last year it did it at camp again. We also had camp set up kind of dumb and way too much expensive gear too close to the fire pit and pot.

If you burn it like it's designed to burn, I don't think it's possible to boil over.


Edit: I also get cleaner and more consistent burns if I use more diesel and less thick oil. At a minimum, I try to cut my oil with about 50% diesel...but that's mostly because I have about 30 gallons of unusable contaminated shit from a spill at work a couple years ago. :laughing:
 
Burning used atf and gear oil mixed with rancid diesel and used motor oil makes for interesting smelling smoke:beer:
 
Note that synthetics have a much higher flash point. Burning synths may contribute to boiling, as you have to get it much hotter to burn well. A diesel/synth mix seems to help.
 
Sceep said:
What were you burning that kept burning when it blew? :confused: I've never had mine continue to burn but all I put in it is drained used oils/fuel. It just errupts and makes a mess. Reffill it and keep rolling for the night.

If you are running it at regular orchard heating temps it shouldn't ever get hot enough to blow.
Click to expand...
Had used engine oil in it. It was burning with flames just coming out of the top and the stack had a mild glow about 1/4 of the way up.
It was running smooth and steady, no extra air or anything unusual. The crackling was the only thing I had not heard before.

When it erupted everything that came out was already on fire and continued to burn. Scorched an area in my yard 8'x8' and was only about 10' from the house when it happened. Oil all over the outside of the pot and on the ground was on fire. After putting it out I realized the damn thing was going to be a real pain to clean, move, or do anything with. I decided to try to start it back up in an effort to at least burn off the what was on the outside of it. Of course when it got warm it ignited the exterior again and I had to use the fire extinguishers again.
 
Sceep said:
Note that synthetics have a much higher flash point. Burning synths may contribute to boiling, as you have to get it much hotter to burn well. A diesel/synth mix seems to help.
Click to expand...
I don't know the type of used oil but I know there is high possibility it was Mobile1. I got the oil from the company mechanic, he changes the oil in our fleet vehicles. Mostly gas trucks but there are a couple of diesels. Sometimes there is transmission oil in the buckets. All I know is that what I poured into the pot was black but I could see some light through it and it looked pretty consistent. I did not detect any water.
 
booger said:
Had used engine oil in it. It was burning with flames just coming out of the top and the stack had a mild glow about 1/4 of the way up.
It was running smooth and steady, no extra air or anything unusual. The crackling was the only thing I had not heard before.

When it erupted everything that came out was already on fire and continued to burn. Scorched an area in my yard 8'x8' and was only about 10' from the house when it happened. Oil all over the outside of the pot and on the ground was on fire. After putting it out I realized the damn thing was going to be a real pain to clean, move, or do anything with. I decided to try to start it back up in an effort to at least burn off the what was on the outside of it. Of course when it got warm it ignited the exterior again and I had to use the fire extinguishers again.
Click to expand...
Thats nuts.:eek: Definitely not typical in my experience.
 
Sceep said:
Note that synthetics have a much higher flash point. Burning synths may contribute to boiling, as you have to get it much hotter to burn well. A diesel/synth mix seems to help.
Click to expand...
I've heard this a lot but I don't think it is the case

yes synthetics are more temperature stable in their fine properties on up to like 300f where they'll be at inside a TC
but at 700+ where they're burning, I don't see much difference at all
 
[486] said:
I've heard this a lot but I don't think it is the case

yes synthetics are more temperature stable in their fine properties on up to like 300f where they'll be at inside a TC
but at 700+ where they're burning, I don't see much difference at all
Click to expand...

🤷‍♂️
If my pot is full of synth it is much more difficult to get lit than a pot of dino. But yeah, once its burning good there seems to be little difference.
 
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