And created a lot more, we can't win! As kerosene over here is often the term used for the less ideal C2 heating oil, as opposed to C1 premium paraffin. And petrol isn't the same as the ideal naptha in all its various forms. Nothing is ever simple.
@Ed Winskill That’s true! My absolute preference for alcohol stoves arises from my fathers refusal to allow me to have a “Pyro” petrol/gasoline powered stove. Instead I was given a Rechaud fire bomb - a brass dish of meths/methylated spirit/denatured alcohol with a gauze over it that went off like Vesuvius.
It's true that the kerosene widely available here for fuel is much purer and cleaner stuff than the kerosene of my youth, when, in 1962 or '63 my folks gave me the Optimus 45 that was the long-ago genesis of the memories that brought me to CCS in April 2001. Kero back then had a stong smell, familiar to longtimers and users of lesser grades. The K-1 kero, which is all that I have ever seen when I returned to the brassies in '01, has almost no detectable odor. I get a whiff, just enough to evoke the ancient memory, only from the hot vapor if it lasts a second before ignition, as happens now and then. Even then it is slight. So we seem to only have high grades here, as far as I've seen. To some degree, I miss the old smell....
I have had a Petromax 829Rapid , 1969 MFG , since nearly new . Having tried some different fuels . Amish mix , kerosene , Lamp oil , not to be confused with liquid paraffin wax for candles , Mineral spirits , even 50-50 gasoline and diesel . The best running cleanest burn is fresh K-1 Kerosene . I use peerless 500 cp mantles . The lantern gets used at least 80 hours a season @ hunting camps . Using anything but K-1 has proven to need frequent generator service with a well used .30 cal bore brush and steel wool . Maybe as little 2 tanks of fuel roughly 30 hours if using any alternative fuels other than K-1 . Can go 2 seasons if wanted with K-1 . Just my $.02
Not to muddle the waters further, but, I have a Petromax Clone, and one of the sales points when I bought it was that it can burn any liquid fuel , or mix thereof. I have since switched to kerosene and stayed with it. Perhaps it was the Clone version only that made this claim?
So no "wasbenzine or Coleman " in my petromax. Got that But can I use it in my Optimus 8 ? I think I can, because the 8 needs no pumping to get onder pressure.
Ian, is that a Brytlite? My brother John had two; beauties in wood boxes. One for petrol, one for kero. Both on initial ignition: a blazing mess, leaks everywhere. Those had a bad rep, with us at least....
Give jet-A a whiff sometime, it has a powerful odor to it. I've started using the full term "gasoline" instead of just "gas", after posting about a new truck being a "gasser", and someone here asking if that meant propane gas, or gasoline.
Ed, yes. BrytLite. That’s why I only said “clone”, I was reluctant to name it. Mine does not have leaks but the quality is just not there. A real disappointment after the high claims they made in the sales speal.
