Hi, Has anyone tried one out? Reminds me of the older marine style coleman stoves - less the pre-heater torch. http://www.britelyt.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BPP&Product_Code=STV-PB :o
Hi Norm, I has the misfortune of trying this stove out when it was first introduced a few years ago. In fact, I actually tried out 3 of them - no sucess with any of them. The quality was very disappointed - the fuel tanks were filled with a fair quantity of loose metal shavings, the fuel tank itself was a rather thin gauge chrome plated brass, the chrome was peeling off on the bottom of the tank. When pumping up pressure the fuel tank would actually start to balloon outwards. All connections were prone to leakage and in fact did. I ended up returning 3 of these and finally gave up, couldn't get any of them to light. I tried everything to no availl. I can't believe they're still selling these - in my opinion, based on 40 years of kero stove use, is that these things are absolutely useless and worthless.[/code]
I can't find a link, but I read something to the effect that the stoves are assembled in China with parts from Germany, Austria and Portugal. I won't say anything about the stoves beyond that as I have never seen one up close.
Hi, I tried one. As recieved the tank filler solder joint leaked I re-soldered it and tried to run it, all threaded unions leaked and would not stop even when tightened so I lapped them together. The pre-heater is lousy and the holes drilled in the elbow expel unburnt mixture which really stings the eyes ! Eventually I got it lit, when I pumped up the pressure in the tank, the tank deformed to a considerable degree causing the generator to try to lever the burner off the tank (I didn't pump that much pressure in, even though the pressure gauge didn't work) I placed a saucepan of water on the stove, I guess the air temp was about 18 C and about a pint and a half of water in the pan, it still had not boiled 3/4 hour later (it was just uncomfortably hot to dip a finger in) I left it running and when I came back to it 1/2 hr later it had gone out of it's own accord for no apparent reason with plenty of fuel. I think even if re-jetted to give a bigger flame the air intake is too close to the burner and it would ingest flame. When throttled back it tends to underburn. The best bit about it is the pump piston it's really neat and works well, just a shame it's wasted on this stove. I am going to modify mine to try and make it work but really it is more ornamental than functional.
I haven't tried any of their products but I can say that there has been considerable 'debate' on the Guild website regarding the lanterns. Essentially they're Petromax clones and the Britelyte company insists that a wide range of fuels (including petrol/gasoline) are suitable. This has been hotly disputed by many and, in fact, the German Army (Bundeswehr?) had, many years before, banned the use of petrol in the lanterns after several 'incidents' - they are for kerosene/paraffin only. The full details are available on the Guild website including a long article by Neil McRae...
Yes, Russ - it's http://www.lampguild.org/Default.html?Defaulttext.shtml&1 If you want further information on Britelyte, then simply search the archives - there's a link to Neil's article which was published on Wim van der Velden's website. Hope that helps...
Thats sad news...."looks like" it should be a neat little stove to use. The pre-heater really caught my attention. I rave about that torch feature on the Geniol/Petromax BUND stoves and lanterns. I thought about going for some of the "DEMO" lanterns and stoves on eBay. I'll pass with this info..unless its cheap enough 8) I've only purchased one part from BriteLyt - a backup burner. A little off the stove topic, but I asked Bairstow Brothers if Willis Bates ever experimented with a pre-heater torch on the Vapalux/Bialaddin lanterns. They said no or had no such records. I guess its just a simple reliable design - why change it!
Similar situation with the pressure gauge/filler caps W+B fitted to their very first lanterns back in 1940. Bairstow Brothers had no knowledge or records of them ever having been made. Yet I've got one on one of my Vapalux lanterns and I know of three others that have survived. There are also W+B versions of the Tilley "hospital" and "donut" types in existence. So maybe a Bialaddin blowlamp pre-heater might turn up one day - who knows...
