I've been meaning to do this for a while now so with no other lantern related projects on the go I went ahead and did it. 1. Remove the old generator. 2. Grind off the flared end and remove the jamb nut. 3. Replace the generator for a 639 model. 4. Add a pre-heater cup 5. Reassemble everything. 6. Fill tank with kero 7. Fill pre-heater cup with meths and light. 8. Wait until meths is almost used up. 9. Open valve and away she goes! Apart from the potential safely issue with the Schrader valve when it eventually needs a new o ring, I have 1800 litres of kero in the central heating tank at any one time and it costs 50p per litre. It's a no brainier really, especially as the new heating fuels are now low sulphur.
Well done. For my end, I have enought native kero lanterns to light slow with alcohol plus kero. So i keep the colemans with gasoline for quick light.
@bp4willi I agree with your logic. Charm and practicality of a Coleman gasoline lantern is the quick light feature. Clincher is they make burning gasoline safe to do. Economy’s less of an issue when light-ups are for the hobby/aesthetic appeal of liquid-fuelled lanterns.
I still have 4x CF lanterns for instant use: 2 Coleman 220s and two AshFlash, a1020 and a 1010. The 220s are convertible but I have no plans to do so as I have 1 converted 220 already. The AshFlash will never be converted as a) it's really not easy to do and b) there may be less of them... and anyway I like them the way they are. As a matter of intetest, both have added pre-heater cups which negates the 'lively' (= terrifying!) start-up! As for the 295, the conversion has rendered it a great deal more useful to me personally, and as there must be millions of unaltered models in use around the globe, no harm has been done. Oh and I have a new 295 generator I can swap over should I need to. It's actually a ridiculously easy conversion and took me roughly 10 minutes including grinding the flare off the original generator to get the jamb nut off. I didn't even damage the mantles which was a bonus!
Interesting project. As an aside the 214 burns kerosene and only has a schrader assembly. I would argue still safer as you can vent pressure with impunity unlike white gas. I think that the same conversion to a 285 or 288 could be pulled off without grinding as the nut is not captive.
I already converted my 285 to kero but I have to confess I can't remember what I did! It certainly works OK though.
With such a large amount of kero on hand such a conversion would be viable. Works well. I have a 295 but think I will leave it as is, have plenty of kero burners about.
Here's my 285 with a pair of odd looking mantles also running on kero. I seem to remember all I did was change the jet but it's a long time ago now and I didn't document it. I added a frosted globe which gives a nice diffuse light. When it cools down I'm going to put some new mantles on as these aren't brilliant.
Comparing models it would seem that the 214 is the same as a 286 (single mantle version 285) except the generator but less the heatshield and plus a clip and pre-heat cup. The collar has different printing to reflect just on or off rather than the control possible with white gas. The 285 has a fatter generator than the 286 so the hole in the twin mantle burner is larger. Not sure if that will change things but probably not. The 288 has a thinner generator so could also be converted easily.
So I've replaced the dodgy mantles with two pink top Chinese sock types that work well. I was lucky with this pair, often they split or form holes and the ties can be very fiddly to fasten but these are working well.
I agree, I've had so many failures with them but they are just the right size for a lantern like the 285 or 214. I took a chance this time and go to lucky but they are so variable. Norman in the US has had a much better experience with the pink tops whereas the green tops always fail for him. We decided there's probably a few different factories Making these with vastly different quality control regimes.
