It's becoming clear to me that there is a very wide and impressive knowledge base from the members of this website..... With this in mind, can anyone please tell me how cold paraffin will get before (and if??) it gums up and won't work properly in pressure stoves, lamps and wick burners ??? I would be especially interested to hear from paraffin users/ enthusiasts in naturally very cold climates like Alaska, Scandinavia, etc., etc.
Hi, The freezing point of kerosene is quite low at below -40 deg Centigrade or F. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_fuel One of the problems in getting paraffin pressure stoves operating at low temperatures, but well above the freezing point of the paraffin, is to get effective pre-heating of the burner. Alcohol becomes very difficult to ignite, even with a wick, at even modestly low temperatures. Best Regards, Kerophile.
If i remember right kerosene freezes at around -70F.I used kero for light at my cabin all through the 70s, when the temps got to the -50s every winter, & dont remember it ever being frozen. I kept it in 5 gal pails outside, & it always poured.
Thats is interesting, because I remember diesel waxing and stopping vehicles in UK winters before additives became commonplace. A quick read on t'internet shows that one of the preventatives was adding kerosene to your tank in a 1:15 ratio to stop the wax crystals forming. As I understand it, even waxed diesel is still liquid, but the small crystals in suspension make it cloudy and block up the filters and injector nozzles. I am currently using wicks of cardboard strip to ignite my meths because it is almost immune to being fired up by my Zippo. There is no 'jet' action as with a butane lighter so it is difficult to get the flame inside the windshield. A little tail of cardboard sticking out of the windshield keyhole solves that problem. As a bonus the cardboard adds colour to the flame so I can clearly see when it has lit.
At the bulk plant I worked at, in the winter diesel came mixed with about 20% stove oil/kerosene I believe was the % to keep it flowing.
I've heard people here in sweden talk about ordinary kero "waxing" ang gumming up the filters of remote fueled stoves with in line fuel filters. Supposedly some unclean fractions of the fuel have tendencies to solidify even at moderate freezing temperatures. I've never had it happen to me, although the more commonly found "lamp oil" I've sometimes found as a slurry in my familys unheated cabin.
Kerosene and Kerosene may not always be the same The simplest smelly kerosene is usually trouble free, at least down to -35 deg C. witch is the coldest I have been sleeping outdoors. Some kero qualities sold as lo odour kero or even lamp oil does not work well in the cold, and may act more like the above description of diesel. This "lamp oil" may even get wick lamps failing in altitudes higher than 1000 meters above sea level, even at normal temperatures. I have used some kero-like less smelly coal grill fluid for the last 3 years, and thats working great at at least - 20 deg C. dsk
