Greetings, Picked up 2 of these and the wooden box they came in, as near as I can tell they are Swiss Army. One has a Petromax fount and the other Genoil, both have Genoil on the top of the vent. It has new un-brunt double end mantles on both with some sort of plug that goes in the bottom of the mantle. Question is are these kerosene of gasoline, no Preston loop style generator
These are meant to burn (unleaded) gasoline. However, you should take care of the pump valves (NRVs), in order to avoid any leakage of highly inflammable fuel through the pump tube. Unlike Petromax, these are operated with the arrow with the handwheel to the up direction, when the needle should be retracted from the jet.
Martin, thanks. What's with the double ended mantle and the piece that goes in the bottom of the mantle?
It is just a mantle support for the use of double-tie mantles. You can either get some 250 HK double-tie mantles or just remove the mantle support and use regular mantles. Erik
I've one these sets and bought 2 NOS Aida 250cp 'Preston' type vapourisers about 10 years ago with the intent of fitting those.....
No, in my experience the jet orifices of the Swiss Army lanterns are somewhat larger than those originally intended for burning kerosene/paraffin. Also, heat transfer is worse with the straight carburetors than with those with the Preston loop, which can cause problems when using certain types of kerosene. Both will be a cause of the Swiss Army lanterns burning too rich with kerosene.
At the risk of muddying the waters - It's up to the individual I have quite a few lanterns with that type of control wheel, so to make things easier for me, I reversed the wheel so that when the pointer was up, so was the needle. Of course, it's up to the individual. Because the quality/volatility of kerosene (paraffin) can vary not only between countries but also between different brands, this is debatable. Here in the U.K. I have successfully used not only premium paraffin but also (28 second) heating oil though I never used the lanterns at the low temperatures experienced through the winter months in central and northern Europe or the U.S.A. / Canada. However, because I had come to the same conclusions as @Martin K., I'd increased slightly the air gap to get a cleaner burn.
paul m hooked me up with a guy in Thailand several years ago and I got a pair of real German 250 CP Petromax Preston loop vaporizers to retrofit my Swiss Army set. 250 CP stuff is not so easy to lay hands on. I'd like to thank paul m once again!!
