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Smudge Pot

Jay & Valerie

Jay & Valerie

Ranger
Donating Member
Got a smudge pot just in time for camping season. I am going to clean it up tomorrow and paint it.

My nephew has one and these things work great for keeping warm while outside.

If you have never seen one, they are also called Choofers or Orchard Heaters. They were used to keep orchards from freezing up until the 80s or so by creating a haze over the orchard and trapping heat in. However, they have a side benefit of radiating a lot of heat.

They can burn Diesel, Kerosene, used motor oil, used vegetable oil, hydraulic oil, etc. They burn really hot so there is almost no smoke when it gets going. It's easy to light, does not spark and put out a lot of heat. The stack can get glowing it is so hot.

5Ewngjt.jpg
 
That doesn't surprise me. I get the concern about air quality and if you don't get them fully burning, they can put out a lot of smoke. But if you get them going full on, I think they put out about the same or less than a traditional wood fire.

I did a search about legality in California on these...the only thing I could find was the State Implementation Plan for EPA/ARB which states...

"Section 438 Orchard Heaters: No new orchard or citrus heater produced or manufactured shall be sold for use against frost damage unless it has been approved by the CARB. All orchard heaters used shall be of the type which produces unconsumed solid carbonaceous matter at a rate of not more than (1) one gram per minute. Burning permits are not required for orchard heaters operations."

I then found this online...same thing, just shortened version.

http://www.arb.ca.gov/DRDB/SD/CURHTML/R70.HTM

I am not sure how you would measure the output of one of these but when they are burning really hot, the smoke output is very little and they get burning really hot within a few minutes of starting them. So, I wonder if they actually might be legal. Of course, the wording says nothing about using them for non frost damage.

Update:
So I continue to do more research and found that the output of this type of heater (Return Stack) is well below the 1G per minute limit imposed by the CARB. According to this source anyway, it is about 0.2G - 0.4G per minute.

https://ucanr.edu/repositoryfiles/ca406p8-71518.pdf

The EPA did a study as well and found that the outputs of return stack heaters were minimal, though pipeline models were the lowest of all orchard type heaters.

http://www3.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch09/final/c9s02-3.pdf

So, I am wondering if these are actually illegal or not in California or anywhere else. I think they fell out of favor for sure and there are probably better ways to protect orchards these days that are more cost efficient.
 
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That seems big to haul around but you do have a pick up so you have more space than I do. We use a "Little red campfire" which we plug into the aux propane outlet, easy, though on a cold evening I would be looking for your site to get some real warmth. lol
 
Yes, the truck does make it easier. It also breaks down into multiple pieces to make it easier to haul around.

So, the engineer in me wanted to dig further. I looked at the EPA study and ran the numbers.

On their chart they have the X axis for the density of the fuel and the Y axis as the smoke output. The density of motor oil is approx 7.3lbs and vegetable oil 7.6lbs. So, if you work off of 7.5lbs you get an output of approx. 25Kg/1000 heaters. Since the K and heaters cancel out, you get 25g/1 heater over 1 hour. Divide by 60 and you get 0.4167g per minute. This is below the 1g per minute California requirement so according to the math, these models should not be illegal.

Now, they are probably not the most economical way to keep warm but if you do your own oil changes or can get the used vegetable oil from a local restaurant for cheap (which is probably the better way to go), then you can take the chill out of the night air quite effectively and not have to pack in a bunch of wood, deal with smoke in your face, having to toss wood on the fire every 15 mins.

But you give up making smores, the popping and crackling of a camp fire, the smell of a nice camp fire.

Anyway, that is what I found out regarding legality of Orchard Heaters.
 
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