Yes. I have a Britelyt stove. It is not the easiest stove to operate, but it does work. I am considering selling it someday. This photo is right after the initial light up before it transitioned to an almost invisible blue flame. I was using Diesel fuel. The stove is claimed to be multi-fuel, but I refuse to use anything with a low flash point. I use diesel (hard to light), kerosene, charcoal lighter or Tiki fuel (hard to light). NEVER USE GASOLINE unless you want to end up in a burn unit. Again the company says it can run gasoline, and I have seen it run on gasoline, but it is very dangerous.
Hi Linus I was thinking of buying one of these several years ago when they were sold by pelam of Germany. But I changed my mind, as I was not to keen on how they look. Even though the stove claims to be a multi fuel stove, kerosene is the best fuel to use in it. I can understand you not wanting to use gasoline in it, diesel takes a hell of a time to preheat and being as it is a motor fuel it will contain additives that will quickly gum up the vapouriser/generator which will need a lot more cleaning out or replacing. Kerosene will work a treat in it, as you know kerosene has a high flash point, yet not really hard to preheat, and will burn nice and hot and a lot cleaner
I agree. Kerosene is easy to light. I love using it. I stick with diesel/tiki oil mix in the Petromax lantern. It burns without issue there. The level of heat is high enough to vaporize the fuel in the lantern. The tiki oil is nice because it repugnant to mosquitoes. The riser tube in the lantern does not cross the flame. There is less clogging. In the stove the same tube crosses over the flame and the moving parts will clog. I am pretty good about cleaning them. It is an awful lot of maintenance to perform because of a poor design. The stove is incredibly hard to light on diesel. It will work. There is some smoke that leaks from under the stove, but when it is going it burns very hot and it can boil water very quickly. Kerosene is best to use overall. The older version of the Petromax stove is a better design. I can still light a Butterfly stove quicker than this stove. The Britelyt stove has a rapid start, but it still takes longer to light. The Butterfly stove is not as hot, but it is so easy to use. Here is a link of the stove in various states of lighting and use:
Big. Even after it finally burns blue, that seems like a lot of smoke coming from below the burner. Something must be leaking. Can that been fixed?
The smoke is there because the threads leak and the diesel is not hot enough. Any hotter and auto-ignition occurs. Auto-ignition is a pain because the diesel fuel burns in the chamber. Muffler Mender could be used to seal the leak. The leak is not there with kerosene. It is a complex stove which is not better. Like I said, someday I am planning on selling it with full disclosure on the oddities that come with it. I use it while camping. I like to take several stoves if I can. When camping they all burn kerosene. It is just so much easier to use kerosene with this stove.
I forgot to exlain why I use diesel so much. During the winter we get nasty ice storms and bad weather. Electrical power is knocked out quite often for days at a time. We have a diesel generator to power our home during these events. During the spring and summer, I try to use up the remaining diesel so that I do not have to store it so long. I cook a LOT of meals outdoors during those long summer days here. Cooking outside also keeps the heat out of the kitchen and the rest of my house during the summer. Having a diesel vehicle would solve that problem because the fuel can be rotated. If that was the case, I would have to start buying ULS Diesel that does not contain red dye. My generator is an off road engine, therefore I can used untaxed fuel in it.
Burning diesel is probably asking a lot any any stove. Changing the subject a little but the fact that red dye is used for both off-road diesel and bulk kerosene these days is just nuts. And, asking for a mix up. Kerosene always costs more than full-tax diesel, who the hell would pay extra to use kerosene in a vehicle just to avoid taxes? Damn gov'ment bureaucrats and politicians; I hope their fat paychecks got sequested up their .....
I have both kinds of kerosene. Taxed and untaxed. They are supposed to be the same. I find that the red dyed kerosene causes the wick on my Kerosene heater to require maintenance more often. I have to burn the wick dry more often. It is 1-2 dollars less per US gallon. I agree, it is really stupid too. I guess that is the market today. Supply and demand is one thing, but with damaging regulations that no longer make sense we all suffer. People worry that the supply of Kerosene will dropp off due to the market conditions. The red kerosene vs clear is pretty much the same on my stoves.
If you need a stove that runs on diesel, I would probably think that the German Heinze Geniol is the right choice. Yet tho, I dont have one myself so havent tried it on diesel.
"I love you have the stove burning on a piece of plastic... " Good point. Putting it on the grill cover was not the best idea. It is not plastic. It is fire retardent, but yes, not the safest practice. Good catch. At least I kept the fuel far away.
Exactly what we have come to expect from the Britelyte stove! About 9 or 10 years back, these things started to be advertised. They looked like an interesting modern take on a brass classic. One of our early members, Bob Brubach (Bear1) checked them out and found them to be unreliable junk. I remember the time a few years back when my brother John brought two brand-new "Petromax" B-lyte clone lanterns to a campout. They were very pretty, one nickel and one brass. They leaked all over the place from the first start up. A real fireball fiasco!
I think the quality can be said to be uneven. The lanterns work well for some; the next guy will have a horror story. Or at least a potential horror story, had the device been used indoors.
Perhaps a small tractor is your answer. Plow snow, till garden, mow lawn, twitch out firewood. Have P.T.O. and your world will turn. Power attachments make almost any task possible like wood splitters or even PTO driven generators. Its amazing what even the smallest tractor can do. Tractors are off road equipment and I think they are exempt from fuel tax. Well filtered diesel treated with stabilizer should remain viable for an extended time. If the fuel temp stays consistent less air will be exchanged through the vent and moisture will be less of a problem. Water and diesel engines do not play well together. Some here talk of bacterial fuel contamination, thankfully something I've never encountered. It may be beneficial to consider a strategy of two(2) smaller storage tanks instead of 1-large. You can alternate between the two using the oldest first. I think diesel would be rough on any heating appliance. Heaters like the orchard heaters(salamander), immersion burners and Yukon type military stoves w/ liquid fuel conversion can chew on the sootiest mess better than any pressurized stove. Wick stoves and heaters have their own troubles with tar and carbon fouling. As mentioned Geniol has a military version designed specifically for this job. On the note of BriteLyt, I picked up a 100cp lantern 2-years back. I love small lanterns and thought this had a classic look. It was a series of troubles right out of the box starting with a leaking lead washer then failure to shut off. It now sits on a shelf waiting for me to rip into it again. Last I recall, I need to yank the main valve to replace the pip yet again. On the flip side I have a 500cp Wenzel w/ a BriteLyt steel nozzle that runs hot and super bright as it should... go figure. AR
All, I am responding to a 10 year old post. I ended up trashing that BriteLyt stove. Their lamp was okay but the stove was garbage.
