Williams' Smoke units

Williams smoke units are usually made by Seuthe, although they might be Chinese knockoffs. Seuthe smoke units also come in LGB and other brands of trains. They all say to use the same smoke fluid, which is the thin type, probably with a kerosene base.

Supposedly, using the wrong fluid can "clog" the smoke unit and make it inoperative.

But as far as I can tell, there is nothing to clog in a Seuthe type unit. So maybe it forms a coating that blocks the heat? I have no clue.

As far as your original question, I have used the proper smoke fluid and had the units stop smoking. I have seen others use any fluid they like and have the units keep working.

It's a mystery to me.

The Williams smoke units are not that good to start with, at least the pre-Bachmann era of Williams steam engines. They put out little to no smoke and make sure that you don't over fill the smoke unit as it takes a long time to burn off any extra smoke fluid.

You might be better off if you can install an MTH smoke unit in your Williams engine.

That is my experience with Williams smoke units.

Lee Fritz

I like the 3 Williams steam locomotives than I own, but their smoke units are garbage.  They leave the engines with drops of smoke fluid all over them and they have little in the way of smoke output.

I'm not saying that Williams are not great running conventional engines, put Bachmann needs to upgrade their smoke units.

Back in the day, that was good stuff.  Give me modern times any day with all the great products we have for our hobby today.

I have several Seuthe smoke units in building smoke stacks.  I run them with Mega Steam with great results.  I have none in locomotives.

I have several Seuthe smoke units in my parts box, and the stack is building.  Like Marty, I like them for stuff like campfires and buildings, but not for locomotives.  I get my supplies doing conversions, a lot of Williams and Weaver brass has been coming through lately, they all used the Seuthe smoke units.  I upgrade them with fan driven smoke, the difference is substantial.

I use mega steam in mine with no problems. I don't dislike my seuth units in my scale units. I always have a fan breeze across my tracks and they smoke well and look pretty good.

Tim,

Of course the manufacturer wants you to use only their product.  Just like your car dealer telling you to only have your car serviced at his service department.

Those Seuthe units are tricky...put in too little smoke fluid and they will run dry and burn out; put in too much fluid and they tend to overheat and burn out. We have found that 6-8 drops seems to work best. That is about 1/3 of the smoke unit pot. There was a time when if you wanted a scale-sized loco, it came with a Seuthe unit. It is amazing how far our hobby has come in the last several years especially with smoke units.

VISCOSITY (thickness) of the smoke fluid is the key with the Seuthe smoke units. It has to be the right viscosity...Mega-Steam works well because we chemically engineered it to be able to be used in all smoke units. Most other smoke fluids on the market tend to be too thick and will gum up the Seuthe's tiny heating element that is enclosed in the tiny pipe inside the tube.

Hope this information is helpful. 

After having fan driven smoke units, I don't own any locomotives with a Seuthe smoke unit, other than ones waiting for upgrades.  The difference is night and day.

A properly working Seuthe unit will produce a respectable looking stream of smoke, but few of them work all that well. Here's a photo of a good one in operation. Nothing like a good fan driven unit, but not too bad either. The big nuisance with Seuthe units is having to refill them every few minutes.

Follow the directions.  Many problems can be avoided if folks read and followed the instructions.  Use the WBB fluid.  I have one WBB steam locomotive - the 4-6-0 Atlantic converted to PS2 by GGG.  The stock unit smokes very well.  

Upgrades can also be done to a fan driven unit if space permits.  However, the folks advocating this approach are in the business of doing the upgrades, so they have the skill and the cost to them is minimal.  The approach for others might be less clear cut if the stock unit is reasonably satisfactory.  

One thing you simply do not get with a Seuthe unit is nicely timed chuffing smoke.

The Suethe brand smoke fluid is a different mixture than other brand of smoke fluid. It is 'Oxygenated' some oxygen mixed in with the fluid. Meaning that it is thinner than water or so it seems. That is why Suethe recommends its own brand of fluid. It will 'puff' at a lower heat (voltage), instead of more or less a steady stream. My source of information came directly from LGB years ago.

 Thicker fluids like Lionel's older mixture does gunk up the little tube. It gets residue build up in the tiny tube and then starts to smoke less and less until it quits and burns it self out.