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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.
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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.
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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
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🤷‍♂️
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.
 
Java230 said:
Well I've been enjoying the smudge pot,but it's been a year or two? And the cover has failed. Never put on hot, just went to put back on tonight and it had a big rip and feels fragile now. Anything better out there?
1000020537.jpg
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If you haven't shoot us an email [email protected] we will warranty out that bad boy for you.
 
ANGELO said:
We had our pot boil over this weekend. Pretty sure from water. How much water does it take to boil it over?
If there it water, is there anyway to keep burning it without boiling over, or does it have to be drained?
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Water is SUPER dangerous. HOT oil flying everywhere is not good! We recommend no water in your smudge pot or fuel. NONE. If you had it out in the rain with out the lid on and cover on. It's a great time to clean your smudge pot and to appropriately discard of the left over fuel in there. Can be a pain in the ass but less of a pain in the ass then cleaning up boiled over oil all over your yard or driveway. If you hear any boiling sounds its important to turn off immediately and change out your fuel.
 
ANGELO said:
I don't think I could have more then a quarter cup of water in it. I keep it in a pole barn. So it was dry when we left, and the oil was definitely dry. It was sprinkling on the highway for a little bit and maybe blew in the holes in the stack then I started to pour a quart of used oil in and a bit of milky oil went in.
It's boiled over near the camper and trucks
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This is why we don't recommend oil, its way more susceptible to having water introduced, while draining and storing. Do you live in a super humid environment?
 
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...
The fuel is burning hotter than the boiling point of water. When you have water in it, the water is superheated, and expands rapidly as steam…Steam that carrys the oil in it... which then splashes and spatters and vaporizes unburned fuel, which promptly catches fire in a huge fireball or if that's not the case then boiling over.

Ever watched a video of someone trying to fry a frozen turkey and it makes a huge fireball and everything catches fire...... same concept when you have water in your fuel source or in your smudge. We don't recommend oil for this reason. lots of bros get "free" oil from friends but don't know where the oil came from or how it was stored. No thanks..... Not worth it for us. That's why we recommend diesel, kerosene or cooking oil. Less of a chance water has been introduced. Sure more money than "free oil" but also you aren't having to worry about things going sideways. AND your wife will bitch a lot less at the smell
 
SmudgePotDirect said:
NO not recommended
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Seriously!

Remember in physics class when they taught us that “oil and water don’t mix” that’s not true. It can mix quite nicely with the right conditions. Once properly mixed the only way to separate it is high heat. A smudge pot seems to have the perfect conditions to take emulsification and boil the water off of it. Steam works as an oxygenator and with flaming oil vapors gassing off steam makes for a runaway reaction.

10/10 do NOT recommend!!!
 
JR4X said:
Seriously!

Remember in physics class when they taught us that “oil and water don’t mix” that’s not true. It can mix quite nicely with the right conditions. Once properly mixed the only way to separate it is high heat. A smudge pot seems to have the perfect conditions to take emulsification and boil the water off of it. Steam works as an oxygenator and with flaming oil vapors gassing off steam makes for a runaway reaction.

10/10 do NOT recommend!!!
Click to expand...
"free" isn't always worth it LOL comes at a cost. Your friend might be super stoked to get rid or his contaminated oil with little to no effort on his part and then you have a situation on your hands. Not for us..... for sure never recommend. The only "FREE" oil we would recommend is going to pick up free used cooking oil at your local wing place. The smell is amazing and you know it hasn't been contaminated.
 
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