If you enjoy wrenching on an appliance while mosquitoes are eating you alive, then you have found utopia!
But to be fair - This thing actually does work – when it’s working, that is. This is my fourth year with this thing, and when it’s running, it really helps cull the voracious hoards. The problem stems from the fact that it’s rarely working, and when it’s not – well, the old adage about “alligators and draining the swamp” comes to mind.

We’re in Northern Minnesota. If we could somehow convince tourists (that don’t have mosquitoes) that these little devils are an “experience,” we’d all get rich working 3 months out of the year. Three months is all the warm weather we get each year, so you run four or five tanks through this machine a year and then store it in the shed until next June. The first year, it worked great. The second year, I set it up, hit the starter, and – nothing. It was dead. I Called the factory, they sent a new “engine” for the machine with no hassles at all – I’m back in business. The next year, same thing – no start, they sent a free new engine, no problem, if you discount waiting for the thing to arrive. That one lasted 2 tanks of propane, and died as well, so they sent another free engine.

It’s great customer service, but still horribly un-handy wading through clouds of mosquitoes for two weeks while you watch for the FedEx truck like a dog on the porch. This year, I had no delusions of getting another free engine. When speaking with a customer service representative last year, he explained the real problem: It seems that the gas jet in this device has an orifice about the diameter of a human hair. It clogs so easy, it’s not funny. To that end he gave me these tips:

1. Get the cleanest propane you can.
2. Keep the unit running if possible. The unit clogs when “gunk” settles in the orifice and it cools.
3. When you get a fresh propane tank, put it on your gas grill and run the tank five minutes before you attach the tank to this unit. Most impurities get dislodged from the tank during the first five minutes, and the grill can pass them easily.

Since my unit was already dead - and when my carcass is in jeopardy, I can be pretty handy - I took the unit apart. It took no time to trace the gas line to the bottom of the combustion chamber, and by unscrewing a single set screw, and disconnecting the gas line, I was soon looking at the problem. I used grain alcohol to clean the brown goo off the flame-side of the jet, and discovered that the orifice was smaller than I could see without a magnifying glass. It was way smaller than the smallest jet-cleaning tools, so don’t bother purchasing a set for the job.

I poured more grain alcohol (100 proof) into the cavity of the jet, and let it sit for about a half-hour. It still didn’t open up, so I put a few more drops in the cavity, and pressed the rubber tip of the air compressor’s air gun into the open end, shooting 100 psi air into the jet. You’ll need safety glasses if you do this, the alcohol sprays back with a fair amount of force. That got the job done, I put the machine back together and it took off like a chicken running from Colonel Sanders.

It amazes me that a $300 machine is so easily laid to waste by a $10 part that appears custom made, and isn’t offered by the manufacturer. Of course, they don’t want you playing with the business end of the gas line anyway, but a little better engineering could go a long way here. If I recall, gas burn rate is a function of pressure and orifice size. If you changed the regulator to offer a lower pressure, you could open up the gas jet wider. Or if you oriented the jet horizontally so the gunk doesn’t form on the nozzle, you might just have something. Maybe somebody will see fit to create a retro-fit for this thing.


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