I have a Tilley AL21 searchlight. It has an original Tilley vaporizer and it works great....for the moment! I thought I would get ready for the inevitable failure of the original Vaporizer and bought one from the well known ebay seller from Korea at great expense. I must say I am not pleased! These units come with two needles and two orifice spuds and look to be very well made. Unfortunately, after installation the needle would not line up with the orifice hole and ruined itself with the first half turn of the stop-cock. After switching to the "new" needle and orifice spud and carefully making sure they would meet/work together, I pre-heated the lamp. Once lit, I was upset that there was very little light output and most of the flames (blue/with slight orange tint) were mostly on the outside of the mantle at least an inch in every direction. It seems to me that there is way too much fuel being shot out of this orifice for this lamp. I have switched back to the Tilley original and there are no issues whatsoever. Are there different sized orifice spuds for these lamps, or have I just spent a fortune on junk here? If so, is there anyone out there who knows of an EXACT replacement for the 5" vaporizer for my lamp as I very much enjoy using it. I would love to locate a new old stock unit from an earlier series at any cost. Any help on this will be much appreciated.
Unless I'm way off base here, it takes a standard 606 vaporizer (I think). If so, you should not have any problems finding a NOS one for your AL21.
Like you I have had disappointment and failure of these Korean / Taiwan vapourizers finding the engineering not up to the mark and delivering too much fuel and adjustments difficult I got my money back on the Korean one , and well I have left the other it is not good ..Some people have had great success with them .. and good luck to them .. not me .. What I have had a great deal of success with is cleaning out and servicing old vapourizers and going for NOS stock ... there are several posts here on that and I have given life to a good few that I now keep as spares ... soaking in oils and wiring/ spinning out the carbon deposits within ... also oilstoning the needle point of Part 607 to a needle point works wonders I found .. heat and quench is good also .. Plenty of used vaps on ebay
@Alby I think you're right. I've never bought the Asian ones so I can't honestly comment but with the Tilley NOS or good used ones available, why pay that god-awful price for the "pig in a poke"? I find as long as the hole in the vap is not enlarged you can just heat and quench and the crap will come out. If the cleaning needle is shot, they too, are available usually four more in a bundle. I've been tempted to try the new designed ones but the price puts me off, plus reading some of the experiences people here have had, I don't think I want to spend the money!
I have got no other choice than to run the cleanable Taiwan/Korean ones on my 1940s 300X and Korean E41s.. All came with original single use vaporizer. However, I do not have access to good grade kero here. The single use vaporizer only lasts for at most 3 light ups. The 4th light up will only give me a fireball with no end. I do agree, the aftermarket vaporizers are not great, but they have improved over time. Every time i notice, light output gets low, i take the vaporizer apart.. OH MY GOODNESS soaking in gun cleaner or other cleaners a definite must
