Mike at OCP asks a very fair price for Peerless #21 equivalents. My local Walmart is perpetually out of stock - last time they had ONE package left and it had been torn open and one of the mantles stolen out of it! Are the no-name eBay mantles good enough for testing and such? Anyone looking to divest themselves of a large stock of mantles? Thanks folks.
I’ve had some success with the of the cheap Chinese mantles found on the bay of evil. In fact, I’ve been running a few for some time now.
For Coleman style sock mantles, I've used these for a while now but you get a failure rate for sure. Some are very weak and split when you burn them in but at the price, I have no complaints as they work well when thet burn in and inflate properly. Coleman style mantles Round, silk style mantles Bear in mind these are UK eBay listings but I'm sure the same ones are available in the US. There are loads of different sellers for these items so it pays to shop around and my guess is the quality won't change that much - at least that's what I've found. When they arrive both types are braded Butterfly from my experience and work with both Coleman/P'may lamps and Tilley/Bialaddin lamps if you unpick the inner seams and use wire food bag ties to secure them to the central burner spigot. For my 'special' lanterns I put on a Peerless as they are just amazing but for testing I use the Chinese ones. If you want to stock up, you can get amazing discounts if you buy 20, 30 or even 50 at a time! Hope this helps. If you look through my posts I've spoken about both tyes before.
Thank you, folks. Great information. Sounds like cheap eBay mantles for testing and Peerless for users. Time to get some orders placed.
I can perhaps see a use for cheap mantles for some particular tests, but in most cases I think the blue flame test without any mantle tied on is sufficient. When the lamp passes that standard test, it's ready for the Peerless, and some real action for a long time.
I use the Butterfly mantles nearly all the time .. cheap and cheerfull ... although to make them fit to 2 hole some mantle surgery is required ... which once mastered is a breeze.... undo or hole bottom of mantlr bag .. tie with wire small guage ..freezer / sweet bag ties Just ordered some of these.. but there are many sellers ..coming from Hong Kong £3.00 for a dozen. Lamp Mantle Pressure Lamp Mantle Kerosene Lamp Spare Parts Service Set 12pcs FY | eBay Alby
@Carlsson None of my Coleman lanterns will maintain a flame without a mantle. Normally I'm very much a buy nice or buy twice type of guy, get quality the first time around and get on with life. In this case I'm rehabbing a bunch of generic 220s that I received in a bulk purchase for resale(hopefully...) and am in no hurry to spend money on tester mantles. I'll put Peerless on the one or two special lanterns in the bunch that I keep.
So if I understand well you want to test if your lantern lights well and then use cheap no name mantles ? So if they light weel your lantern is ok, but if not you are back at the starting point.
If it's two tie for Tilley/Vapalux then you can't beat Liberty brand (labelled for Tilley) nice and big and tbh, work as well as genuine Tilley 164X but not pre-tied.
My goal is mantles that will work acceptably well even if not the best, while not being a big deal should I damage them. I expect that is possible.
My views on mantles is as follows. To be perfect;y honnest, mantles have a pretty straightforward job to do. Once burned in the holes in the material allow gas to pass through which is then burned and heats up the ash 'matrix' causing it to emit a bright light. As I see it, the variables are these: The geometry of the mantle (sock or round) The size of holes. The size of ash envelope. It's strength once it's been burned in. Prior to being burning in there may be a difference in material strength and the specific consruction details and this can cause a mantle to fail when it's initially burnt but once one is in place and 'inflated' correctly I would argue they are mostly the same. Some are easier to fit, some are better made and the hole size change, but I would argue that the cost difference is not justified. I keep a stock of Peerless mantles for my 'treasured' lanterns, but... if I've fitted a cheap mantle as a test and found that it works perfectly, I can't see why would I take it off and replace it with an expensive one? And I have to say, the failure rate I've experienced with both common types of Chinese 'Butterfly' mantles has been pretty low, even when I've use them as twin ties by undoing the inner seams and fixing it with a bag tie.
@paparazi Where can you buy the Liberty mantles? i had some but never tried them and ended up giving them away
Dealt with this guy .. very very good , but phaedrus42 just as good in fact Canadian Ebay .. Winipeg , Manitoba , Canada thenakedpicker (2851 Never let me down... ship to UK.. small letter rate .. Peerless types etc.. pay your money and take a chance .. great service from Canada .. other lamp items as well .. Alby
