Wallas Woes!

R

RDragon

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
93
Fluid Motion Model
C-248 C
Vessel Name
R'Dragon
Good Morning all!

Was out at Blake yesterday and tried to fire up the Wallas to make coffee. Got no fire and lots of Blinky lights. Andrew responded quickly, but even with him talking me through the reset process, I couldn't make it work! I need some troubleshooting help!

Little more info, Tank is half full. 😎 We have not run the unit in 6 months (or more 😱 )

Thanks again!
Drew
 
I have the same problem with my Wallas from time to time. Especially when it's cold. Seems like the gizmo that preheats the burner doesn't warm up the burner enough to make fire. I never have had a problem resetting it though. The procedure best as I remember it. Turn on the stove and wait until it feaks out and all the lights start blinking. LEAVE THE SWITCH ON THE STOVE IN THE ON POSITION. Turn OFF the house battery switch for about 10 seconds. Then turn it back on. Then turn OFF the switch on the stove. Then turn it back on. It should fire up in a few minutes, assuming there is fuel in the tank and the house batteries have sufficient charge.
 
If I remember right it took quite a while and several resets for me. There was air in the line and you could actually see it slowly moving its way out. Once it did, everything worked great!
 
And remember, it has a safety in it that will not allow it to be restarted for 5 minutes after you turn it off, so you may be interfering with that function somehow.

We actually have to reach into the cabinet under the stove and disconnect it to reset it.

We had one of these for 10 years on our MacGregor sailboat and it never gave us trouble, so we jumped at getting one in the Tug.

Sparky
 
Thanks for the thoughts! I spent an hour yesterday doing the reset process...(I really NEEDED a cup of coffee!) I wonder if I don't have a bunch of air in the line :?:

So here is a helpful hint....Use diesel, it's pink and you can see where the fluid is. I, on the other hand, have been using beautifully clear Kerosene....I have no friggin idea where the fluid is or isn't! 😳

DO we have a dumbbell flag for the tugnuts yet? Maybe we need one??????

Drew
 
I was fiddling around in the locker where the tank is for the Wallas stove a couple of weeks ago. The fuel line goes into the tank thru the center of the fuel tank cap. I noticed, if you pull on the fuel line, you can pull it out thru the cap. It will not come all the way out because it has a filter on the end of it. But I presume you could pull it out enough that the filter on the end might not be at the bottom of the tank any more. Unscrew the lid and see if you have enough slack for the filter to make it to the bottom of the tank, or, just push the excess fuel line thru the lid and into the tank and see what happens. Also, the procedure for resetting the stove is in the Wallas owner's manual, near the back I think.
 
bbrh842":2yw3ik8s said:
I have the same problem with my Wallas from time to time. Especially when it's cold. Seems like the gizmo that preheats the burner doesn't warm up the burner enough to make fire. I never have had a problem resetting it though. The procedure best as I remember it. Turn on the stove and wait until it feaks out and all the lights start blinking. LEAVE THE SWITCH ON THE STOVE IN THE ON POSITION. Turn OFF the house battery switch for about 10 seconds. Then turn it back on. Then turn OFF the switch on the stove. Then turn it back on. It should fire up in a few minutes, assuming there is fuel in the tank and the house batteries have sufficient charge.
Click to expand...

That should not make any difference. The Wallas is supposed to be wired directly to the battery with only a fuse in the line. That keeps it from being shut off during the mandatory cool down cycle. Turning off the battery switch shouldn't make any difference.

Charlie
 
Charlie, That is not correct, it does make a difference. After the couple trys ( or what ever, it is in the book ) to light it,
It needs to be reset by shutting off the power. 842 is correct. I ran mine out of fuel and got air in the line, after a few tries I had to shut off the power and reset. 🙂
captd
 
I'm still looking for the reference on the C-Brat site but on our boats, the Wallas is wired directly to the battery, not through the switch. This prevents someone from coming into the dock with the stove running, shutting everything down (including the battery switch, which all of us normally do) and not letting the stove go through it's cool down cycle (5~10 minutes). I'll find it and post it eventually. The C-Brat user Mac-Mac is a Scan representative and I'll seek clarification from him.

Charlie
 
Actually Charlie I just unplugged it from the stove. The plug is a big white block on the right side of the stove inside the cabinet. If I remember correctly. The book gives that information, but I think Andrew afirmed it cause it seems the last thing I do is read the instructions. 😳
captd
 
We will chime on this. We are very happy with the Wallas and use it a lot. Our stove is direct wired to the house battery and has its own fuse holder. By the way, I have used a silver colored Sharpie pen to label those fuse holders by function: Stove, Bilge Pump, and volt meter. We have had to reset our stove several times and follow the directions in the manual. Simply, we pull the fuse and wait a couple of minutes and start over again. It always works for us.

When we first got the Laurie Ann, we discovered that the fuel line was kinked and therefore blocked in the spaces behind the hot water heater. We cut the line, moved the fuel tank to the bottom of the cabinet below the stove. With reduced fuel line run, it powers up very easily. To keep the fuel line from sliding in and out of the tank, we put some blue masking tape around the fuel line to keep it from going further inside. We use both diesel and sometimes kerosene to run the stove. Kerosene is much cleaner and may be it will help clean the stove.
 
So, how critical is the time element? I spent on hour, unpluging, pluging etc....I swear it was the definition of insanity! The one thing I didn't do is wait more than about 10 seconds between cycles.

So...If I start the unit, wait until it decides not to work and then unplug it (at the base of the stove, where the white plug is) and WAIT about 5 mins before plugging it back in...That should make a deference?????????
 
RDragon: Here's a link to the Wallas site. It will give you an installation/operations manual which will tell you what the lights mean and how long you've got to wait. I think you've been too impatient in shutting off/turning back on the stove. It is microprocessor controlled and takes time to reset itself. Let us know how it works out.

http://www.scanmarineusa.com/techtalk_I ... %2085D.pdf

I assume you've got the 85D model with the blower lid. Most R-25's do if they have the Wallas at all. Pages 4-7 are particularly relevant. Their phone number is on the last page, they will be glad to answer your questions and help you.

Charlie
 
Having been stumped by my Wallas stove more than once, I read all the Posts with interest. Two things I did not read clearly, but which I have learned the hard way:
1) If you attempt to start the Wallas two times (2x) and do not achieve ignition, it locks down. Then, you must re-boot the electronics through the process alluded to by others: pull out the white plastic power line from the stove.
2) Easily overlooked is the Wallas requirement that your house batteries be fully charged. The electronics are very sensitive to the voltage in your batteries----below the full 12 volts, the Wallas may not start---regardless of what you do.
 
Charlie,
Best tech bulletin I have seen. Easy to read and understand. Thank you!

BlueBayou...Appreciate the thoughts I will go back to school and learn PATIENCE! This time will not be trying to get my morning cup'ojoe! Will be easier!
 
Charlie: Thanks for that Wallas Stove pdf file ref. 🙂
 
Tugnuts:

First, thank you for your patience in overcoming some of the specifics of the Wallas systems. The 85D/270 protection circuits provide an important service, but can be confounding if you aren't familiar with their design parameters.

A couple tips:

If your 85D/270stove/heater is wired directly to the battery, turning the boat switch off will not help in the unlock procedure. If it locks up, you have to set the stove switch to "on", kill power to the stove (pull the fuse or unplug the power plug) and re-connect the power (immediately is fine, no wait required) and switch the stove off again. You are now ready to attempt a start two more times. This will not solve the reason why the unit would not start in the first two tries, however. This needs to be determined (out of fuel? poor electrical supply? etc.) before you try starting again.

We consider a battery that is approaching 12V to be nearly dead. Also, if your wiring is compromised through corrosion or other issues, you could see 13V at the stove, but it won't start, since the available power won't meet the 9+ amp demand and stay above the starting voltage threshold. If you suspect low power is stopping or retarding the start process, try starting your engine and then start the stove while the engine runs. You can then stop your engine if you wish, since a Wallas will require much less current (and tolerate lower voltage) to run than it requires to start.

Thanks again, and feel free to call us at 1-888-606-6665 for assistance!

macmac
 
Well I finally got word back on the stove I had to take out of the "Dragons" boat. Had a bad pc board which is apparently quite common on the older wallas units. The "Dragon" had done everything correctly, but was seeing some weird light combinations that even I have never seen before. We will see how she fires when I get it back in the boat next week!
 
Andrew, what would be your defenition of an [older unit] ,, last year in sept up in the san juans we found ourselves lettting the heater run all nite on a few occasions. expect to do the same this year in the gulf islands,, sept and later. it worked great as a cabin heater as long as you keep it on low, and to save the batterys we left the lid up. we only had to reset once,, because we had not turned off the fridge 🙁 ,, low voltage folowed] we are hull 15 thanks. looking forward to meeting you and the rest of the ranger tug crew in a couple of weeks,, steve and tina still no clue
 
Whewwwww! That is a relief to hear! I was begining to think I was to stupid to operate and would have to return the whole boat.... :roll: Thanks again for all of your great help...Everyone on the board, but most especially Andrew! Without him, I'd be more worthless than a soup sandwich!

Drew
 
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