I have read many good posts on cleaning generators. And have used them to good sucsess. However has anyone tryed an ultrasonic cleaner. It would seem that as long as the part is fully flooded with the cleaning agent than ultrasound should be able to loosen the most stubburn of carbon deposites. Rick
Hello Rick, yes, that would work, a mate of mine uses one and he puts paraffin in it rather than the cleaning agent. He reckons that paraffin works better on steel, Jeff.
I've given it a try. First on a R55 and the a Q99. It would seem that a water based solution works best for me. Hot water a dash of detergent (surfactent very important) and white vinager. Getting that Q99 unplugged was of the greatest intrest to me. The importent thing was to make sure that the cleaning solution worked its way into bends of the Q99, after that its was only a matter of letting the machine do its work. After about 20 minutes the generator was brite brass clean, and lightly blowing into one end revieled black gunk and a much freer flowing gen. After a good rince out with clear water. The generator was dryed out with heat from a small torch. The tip was reinstalled (which allso emurged from the cleaning tank clean and brite). The generator was reinstalled into it's 1927 LQ327, and I must say it fired up like it had a new generator. I was a bit worried that this process may damage the asbestose core. However since the the tip has not needed any pricking since it has been istalled, I'd have to say the core was left undammaged. Rick
Hello Rick, that's good news and that solution would work better on those Coleman generators as they are mostly made of brass. The paraffin tip in my previous post, is for cleaning steel only! Jeff.
I tried this yesterday on one from my 295-700T without any success. The solution I used was methanol with a good chemical cleaner (Decon 90 which is mildly caustic). After 5 hours in the U/S bath it was still fairly black and I could see the needle still had a shiny black coating. The lantern is still spitting and pulsing. Next I'll try your acidic solution in hot water. Which detergent did you use because some are mildly caustic and could counteract vinegar? Cheers Trevor
Just a small dash of dish soap. Its really just there as a surfactant. I believe I used dawn. And don't scimp on the white vinegar. Let me know how it goes. Rick
I've had good luck with weak phosphoric acid solution. Under the carbon is corroded brass. The acid attacks the corrosion and the carbon comes off with a bristle brush quite easily. Dan MacPherson
Tried this again, but as before, without much success! Used a 10% soln. of neat acetic acid in hot water with some soap and gave the vapourizer a good blasting in the U/S bath. After an hour the outside of the vapourizer was spotless, so this solution works better than the one mentioned above that I used first. Problem was that the pricker/ cone and inside of the jet was still covered in a thick, rock hard + shiny black coating. After increasing the acetic acid to about 20% I noticed the brass was starting to corrode slightly, yet even after 6 hours the black coating was still rock hard. I bought this dual fuel lamp second hand here in the UK and assume it has been run on unleaded petrol, so it may be fair to say running these lamps on unleaded isn't a good idea. Admitted defeat and fitted a brand new vapourizer, the difference it has made to the lamp is surprising. Cheers Trevor
Now that's a surprise because you've given your location as NE and I thought that must be Nebraska - like most Brits, I struggle with those abbreviations for US states. Anyway, you're quite correct - some Coleman lamps will run on unleaded petrol. What they don't bother to add are the four words 'but not for long'. As you've found out the hard way, the additives in unleaded soon clog a generator. Like you've also discovered, trying to refurbish these generators can be more bother than it's worth. I generally source replacements from eBay where they're ridiculously cheap compared with Tilley and Bialaddin/Vapalux prices. I guess whichever route a person takes depends on how much they value their time...
Hi David I may have to amend the location since there are so many international members, which is great. I collect other things besides and am a member of the relevant forums, but they generally have only UK based members so I'm used to putting my location as NE for North East. The lantern is a 295-700T which had a number of problems, all of which have been cured by replacing the vapourizer. After the acid / sonic bath treatment I tried to scrape some of the coating off the cone with a scalpel blade and it was almost like glass, rock hard!
North-East England? - there will probably be an indoor meet-up in Annfield Plain in January. Interested..?
