A while back I was reading a post from Trevor in this forum of a Mr Funnel filter funnel. I was impressed with what I read about it, how it filters debris and even water. As quite often I use paraffin that has been stored in various stoves lamps etc, when I have not got a fresh supply of paraffin. I have a couple of Trangia type fuel bottles I use for storing the fuel in for my stoves, lanterns and blowlamps. Since I read about this funnel from Trevor's post I have been meaning to buy one, and a few weeks ago I bought one from the bay. Even though the spout can not fit into any of my stoves or lamps, it fits perfectly into my Trangia fuel bottle, so I will always have a bottle of perfectly clean fuel free from any water contamination, stored in my bottle and just use a standard Tilley filter funnel to fill up any of my stoves. Here is the funnel it is a FINCO model, I have tried it out and even contaminated a small amount of fuel to see how it works. And I am amazed by how it filtered the fuel, even thought they are quite expensive but well worth the money and well worth having one.
I have been using transparent bottles for kero&gaso that I take back from stove or lantern. It's easy to see if there is water in fuel since water drops will fall on the bottom of the bottle. Same with any particles. When I pour fuel back to stove or to lantern I stop pouring when water or particles are wandering too close to bottle mouth.
Hi Ken it filters out particles as well, and the filter is permanent never needs replacing. Hi Afterburner that's a good idea and very cheap as well very good indeed
VERY cheap indeed! Here Estonian vodka is sold in 0,5 liter transparent bottles so I just re-use those bottles. Just for safety I have made clear marking on them that content is fuel for stove not anti-icing for me. Recently I found from Köln airport's tax free shop 1 liter Gordons Gin in plastic bottle, but that bottle is still under processing to be a fuel bottle.
Water and particulates can be filtered from petro fuels through a chamois. It must be real leather and can be either a real piece of chamois skin or a sheep or goat leather substitute. My Sainted Papa always had a piece of chamois in the goody box in his car in case of poor quality fuel, a common problem in the late forties and the fifties. I remember holding it in the top opening of the gas can when he bought gasoline from a farmer or a gas station in the hinterlands of So.Dakota and Wyoming. He installed an auxiliary water bulb filter in the fuel line of our old Model A Ford. When cash was in short supply he'd start the Ford on gasoline. After the engine warmed up he'd switch it to the tank containing kerosene or diesel fuel. either was 1/3 or less the price of gasoline and only slighty less powerful in the Ford's engine. During WWII he got all the gasoline he needed as his was a strategic occupation and exempt from fuel rationing. He fitted the car to burn non rationed fuel, (diesel or stove oil), and traded his gas ration coupons to those who needed 'em worse for fresh veggies, eggs and stuff of that nature. I'm not sure it was exactly legal but it sure helped folks out. I only know these things from stories he told when the radio was blocked by static in the evenings. From about 18:00 to way past my bedtime atmospheric static blocked commercial radio signals every night from mid Spring to early Fall. TV was a fantasy only seen in the newspaper or in the Sears store in Rapid City. That's why I got a library card at the age of five. I remember the first book I checked out of the library was a book on sewing. One of the most useful life skills I ever learned. YE GODS!! A mouse just scampered across the kitchen floor into the cabinet under the sink. Da Missus is attending a function across town. I'll have to call her and have her pick up a packet of mouse traps on her way home. I'll bait 'em with bits of Snickers bar. It's the second best mouse bait, exceeded in efficacy only by raw bread dough. {Time Passes} She arrived with my mouse traps, so I set them with Snickers bits and commenced waiting. {Another half hour or so passes.} I heard a trap snap and checked it to find a freshly slain mouse, put the still warm carcass in the trash outside, reset the trap. We'll see how many of the little vermin fall for the trap. I wonder sometimes what triggers these outbursts of verbiage. I probably need coffee. Gerry
Hi mr optimus I am pleased that you like your Mr Funnel. I am also pleased that you find that it does exactly as I said. Yours is a different colour to mine. Maybe yours is a different size or maybe they have changed the colour.
Hi Terry & Trevor Many thanks for the information. It is a long standing problem that I have never solved. Previously I stored the dregs out of bought stoves in one container. The gunge generally settled to the bottom and I used the upper part for initially rinsing old tanks. Over the years I have had some very strange things out of the tanks. Apart from loose solder I have removed a pencil, fragmented instructions and very bizarrely what looked like shredded white chocolate out of stove tanks. I presume someone had rolled the instructions and put them in the tank for "safe" keeping. They must have forgotten they were in there and filled it with paraffin which caused the instructions to break up. I only realised that it was the instructions when a fragment of paper came out with part of the makers name on it. I never found out what the substance was that resembled shredded white chocolate. Hopefully I can now use the contaminated paraffin instead of eventually dumping it.
Hi Brian . very interesting funnel . so i did check it this funnel . wow amazing perfomance show me thank you good information for us Gunsoo
Hi Gerry very interesting read there, I knew chamois leather was a brilliant filter for petroleum based fuels, but I did not know it filtered out water thank you for this info. Hi Trevor I am well pleased with it thanks to your post. It's confusing sometimes buying on line, there are quite a few variations of these funnels there are still black ones which more common, my one is about 6 inches high altogether the spout just fits into one of those fuel bottles. I was hoping they made one that the spout fits into a stove lamp blowlamp etc. Hi Bryan they are well worth having, and as you have read they do work as they say. Hi Gunsoo your very welcome and thank you for your kind words of compliments
Hi Bryan I have used paper coffee filters, to filter paraffin when I have taken it from one of the paraffin heaters I have. It starts out filtering quick but soon slows right down, and wont filter out water/condensation that builds up the water is the real reason why I chose the funnel
Once I also needed to make improvised filter for kero to remove tank rust from it. First I tried coffee filter as many others, it was too slow. Then I tried paper towel, it was working much more faster. I think that pores in that one are bigger so the flow through is better...
Gerry, I will hazard a guess that the mouse regrets your insomnia. Mr. Funnel can be purchased from St. Paul Mercantile (www.stpaulmercantile.com) which is now back in business after the New Years Day fire.
Mine arrived today and I am pleased with it. I was a bit surprised at how quickly it filtered the paraffin. Usually effective filters are slow.
I've also got one of these funnels and it works well. My suspicion is that it works on the same principle as Coleman funnels where the felt seems to be hydrophilic and thus attracts water which gathers in globules upon it. That's my interpretation/best explanation of what happens, anyway...
I was surprised as well how quick it filtered the paraffin, in fact Bryan I was a bit concerned at first until I see the end results
