Hi Again, I was wondering if there is a decent paraffin which can be used for a nice clean burn or is it a case they are all the same? Cheers Glen
I use the barbeque lighting fluid... when i see it cheaper in the Autumn i buy a few...not sure if it's the same as white spirit or not? Perhaps the chemists among us could say more?
Hi Guys Im not to up on my Chemicals so I would stick anything in just in case I ended up with a Flame thrower etc LOL I didn't even think of trying White Spirit. Mmmm!
I sometimes use mineral spirits. Well, I suppose that's just another name for white spirit. In my area, the local products are just labelled as 'Turpentine' though its a misnomer(its not natural turpentine anyway). They're almost similar to kerosene but somewhat lighter. In my opinion, the barbecue or charcoal lighter fluid is a little different. Most products are quite 'odourless'. I believe they're more of the medium/heavy naphtha stuff. I think they're quite void of aromatic hydrocarbons, which is probably why they burn with less soot in an open flame compared to kerosene.
What I sometimes find is that one lamp can burn really bright and then with a new fill of Paraffin it can be dimmer. I'm usually very careful to make sure no contaminants get in there.
White spirit is a more refined kerosene. It works well if you cant get regular kerosene. Do you wash out your founts regularly? no matter how many times I wash out mine there's a bit of crud in the bottom. I re use the washed out paraffin by running it through a coffee drip filter, always surprised to find very fine stuff left behind.
Glen, a similar discussion about the definition of Paraffin here Probably a dumb question but somebody told me once the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask and in it Matty provided this link to Oil Info explaining the different grades of Paraffin in the UK
Kerosene could sometimes be hard to find in many areas nowadays. In my country, there's hardly anyone having a real need for this liquid anymore. Its rare to find anybody around using it for any kind of lighting(be it wickies or pressurized lamps) or cooking. Except for the few who still use it during blackouts or some fishing/hunting trips. There are also certain very rare occasions where its used for washing or degreassing engine parts. The demand has certainly diminished to near zero. Definitely no one is using it for heating purposes here in the tropics. Some might still use it to start a barbecue or charcoal fire but few and far between. Regular mineral or white spirit is the closest substitute I could get easily from just about any local hardware store and one that smells and works similar to real kerosene.
Oh year, gasoline here is less than $2.00 a gallon! I'm sure once this hysteria slows down it will go back up in price!
My local garage has 4 Ltr containers on the forecord next to the firelighters and packs of coal... But at 10 pounds for 4L...they can go jump! Screwfix has white spirit at 7.98 for 4L (still too damn expensive tho, I get 20L of paraffin in France from the pump for 19 Euro)
In the olden days when I were a lad, the only difference between pink and blue paraffin was, literally, the colour. It arrived from the refinery as one load and the Aladdin chap would put pink dye in his batch and the Esso chappie would put blue dye in his. That was it...
I'm new to all this so ignore the dumb questions please, so you can use heating oil (kero) in a lamp? That's great as it's cheap as chips at the moment I recently filled my heating oil tank and it was only 26p per litre.
Where I live in the UK we have no piped natural gas supplies so for heating and hot water most people have either a kerosene or lpg boiler in their homes, there are some that have electricity, air source heat pump, solid fuel etc etc.
Considering the last time I bought some it was 65p I'm not that bothered, it is often different prices in different parts of the country I suppose it depends how far they have to take it and I'm pretty sure the end of a cart track outside of a town thats 45 miles from the nearest motorway might be a bit more expensive?
Anecdotally it's more expensive here in Scotland for obvious reasons: transportation costs and the hills. Since I've been up here - nearly 6 years - it's varied in price between 90p at its highest and 35p last time I filled up. If your lantern is well set up you shouldn't notice any smell but if any unburnt vapour escapes either when you light it or when you put it out, it can stink quite a bit on heating oil. If I know that one particular lantern is a bit 'messy' I light it and put it out outside. It keeps the wife happy!
