Hi all, I’ve a Svea No.5 and a Primus No. 85. Whilst the both of these stoves are to be used outside mostly, I’d still appreciate their running with as little smell as possible. The 85 is a recent eBay purchase, bought without a burner - its former owner at some point had fitted a reducer in the riser tube ......... this is proving tricky to remove. However, with a little patience I’m sure I’ll beat it. Will try heating it once again and applying a little beeswax to the joint - just see if that will do it? Whilst I’m doing this, I’ve the last of my former garage/workshop contents to move into their new home and a kitchen refit to prepare for - (my wife not being too impressed with the distraction of stove tinkering). Anyhow, I came across a 25kg container of limestone flour which I’d had left over from keeping a Heavy Horse - it’s a common feed additive and purchased from agricultural merchants. It has a multitude of uses and here is one which I’ve found very useful from my Grandfather. Take 330 grams of limestone flour and add it to a gallon (3.785) litres of heating oil. Let it stand for 5 days before straining/filtering off the fuel - which will now be not only odourless but burn altogether brighter for the effort.
It’s certainly a very evocative smell, personally - and very probably due to a childhood of growing up around fishing boats and farms, it is a smell I rather like, along with that of tar, malt and hay to be honest Spiritburner - however, every little helps when encouraging the wife to accept these little brass monkeys onto the ranch or within the cabin
Even with domestic heating oil Shagratork? - good paraffin is getting a little pricey and hard to find, where as heating oil is somewhat cheaper but prone to smelling a little more. I completely agree though - when burning correctly and hot enough these stoves should indeed burn with very little odor. Anything I can do to achieve a clean and efficient burn economically should be the proverbial ‘Win, Win, Win!’
I have to admit that I was talking about using standard British paraffin. I have used heating oil but usually outdoors, which is where I normally use my stoves. You should try your limestone flour.
Hi Colin, should you have any difficulty sourcing the Limestone Flour or indeed have any difficulty purchasing it in small amounts other than 25kg - just give me a shout and I can send you up a wee bag sufficient for a batch or two. The postage is no bother - the wife’s a postie and gets free postage stamps, I’ve enough to last a lifetime here! The stuff has been given a reprieve from being binned a number of times, and hung around since I gave up the Heavy some three years ago.
Doing a bit of research on the topic I discovered that charcoal can be effective in removing or reducing the amount of sulphur in the kerosene/paraffin. Has anyone tried this, only the benefits of removing sulphur from domestic heating oil would be great.
