went to fire up the Vapalux to make sure all was good for an impending camping trip only to find it was losing pressure. fortunately when I purchased it from Willis and Bates 20 odd years ago they also gave me a service kit of seals. so yesterday replaced all the seals except for the pump leather cup, and found that the used seals were split and hardened. I was a bit dubious about the seal kit being over 20 years old and I must have used one as the filler cap air release seal was missing so had to make a new one myself. polished the lamp up and now looks like new. ran it for an hour and all good. very bright with a genuine mantle
Looks great @bonza !. you might want to get a spare seal kit in stock. The fettlebox do a good one in Viton which will last longer than the traditional rubber. Chris
I have looked after it, no dents or anything, the hood is burnt and some of the enamel has cracked off. this occurred because I used the wrong mantle (too small) and there was a fair bit of flame outside of the mantle creating a lot of heat on the hood. annoyed me as when I bought the mantles they were supposedly suitable for Vapalux, but compared to the original mantles were distinctly smaller. another topic to raise in another thread I suppose lucky for me it happened not long after I bought it and managed to get two spare hoods and a stock of mantles plus a couple of vapourisers from Willis and Bates in England. since using the correct mantles it no longer overheats and I haven't changed the damaged hood
