Hello everyone, I'm new to the site and fairly new to pressure lanterns as well. I started collecting with a Coleman 502 stove (1967) and a Coleman 200a (Also 1967). I cleaned them up and had a great time getting them up and running. My 2nd lantern is one I just recently purchased. Its a PicoStar kerosene lantern. I am hard pressed to find much information about them. I understand that they are German and are a copy of the Petromax lamp. What little information I have managed to find on them seems to point to them being a fairly high quality lantern (Not sure if they are as good as the old Petromax or not) and better than alot of the more modern Chinese build Petromax clones. What I can not find is when they were manufactured. 1 person was kind enough to share that they are a post WW2 lantern. Does anyone know when these lamps started and stopped production? Any way for me to date my own lamp? I understand that they use Petromax consumables. Mine appears to be in great shape. It does build and hold pressure, but I have not installed a mantle or attempted to fuel/light it yet. Thank everyone for their time, any help or information would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome aboard! Your lantern was made Meyer and Niss in Hamburg in Germany. I'm not certain of it's exact date of manufacture, but according to the information in the PLC., late 1950's to 1973.
Hi Cornel The Picostar's are great. They came to America via Montgomery Ward who sold them to hunters. They are made as well as if not even sturdier than the vintage P'max and they are a large bright lantern. You'll enjoy it.
@Jeff, thank you. That does narrow it down a little for me. @Hanzo, that's great to know. I've never handled an older Petromax, but it does feel much better built than the 1 Anchor I saw at a friend's father's house (the anchor is what introduced me to this style of lamp). It does feel very well made. I am excited to go through it and then fire it up.
"I am excited to go through it and then fire it up." Cornel, don't forget to post photos of the light up here.
@Hanzo as soon as I get back in town I'll be firing it up. I should be back home Sunday. Thanks for the help and encouragement.
I know i promised a first fire up picture/update. Well I broke the pump (pulled the leather cup/piston off of the end of the shaft). So now it looks like I'm waiting on a new setup from "petromax" I use are quotes since the REAL petromax is long gone, in exchange for a Chinese knock off. Plus it's not like PicoStar has been around for a couple/ few decades. I also ordered a check valve (NRV valve) since it seemed to leak a bit during my 5 gallon dunk test. I really looked forward to a first start up. Fresh kerosene, fresh Peerless mantles staged. But I want things to be safe and fully functional before I make the attempt. Hopefully it's worth the wait to do it right. I LOVE my 200a, but I have such high hopes that this lantern will be brighter. Not a bit brighter, but super notably brighter. It will never replace my 200a in some situations (I truely do love it) but in some situations a MUCH brighter lantern would be nice. Guess I'll have to wait a couple weeks to know if the "juice was worth the squeeze". Call me inpatient, but I wish parts were closer so that I wouldn't have to wait to know if it was worth the wait.
Cornel The Picostar will be WAY brighter than your 200, way brighter. That's the excitement of those 500p P'max style lanterns, their big time brightness. Only quibble is these style of lanterns take more tuning up and attention to maintenance than Coleman. With Coleman it's just light and enjoy, with this style its sometime light and trouble shoot. lol
Remember, there are no shut off valves in this type of lanterns. You don't turn the pricker control wheel for the purpose of start ups or shut downs. The proper way to shut down is by relieving the fount pressure using the knob at the filler cap. The lantern works only with kerosene and fuels with similar boiling points. Certainly not Coleman fuel or gasoline. There isn't a real necessity for shut off valves in this case.
Hello everyone. So my pump arrived in the mail and i was able to pressurize the lantern and check it for leaks, finding only 1 at the fill cap which i fixed by tightening bit. I pulled the generator and placed it in my ultrasonic cleaner for about 45 mins and blew it out with compressed air. I also installed a new needle since the original was missing the tiny wire tip. I filled the font about half way up with clean new K1 kerosene and pressurized things again. Flipped the preheat lever and it lit with no issue. After about a minute of preheat and alot of pumping to keep pressure above 1 bar, i turned the needle control valve to the down position and turned off the pre heat. A tiny flair up and the the lanterns was lit. I was quite excited. I let the lamp run for about 2 or 3 minutes and then the noise and the brightness began to pulse, as if it was surging. I pumped the tank up all the way to the red line on the pressure gauge and the issue did not change. I relieved pressure from the font and let it cool down. After that i checked that the generator was tight and i see no issues or things out of place. Restarted the lantern using the same procedure with the same result. Runs very well for about 2 or 3 minutes and then the surging begins. This time it was nearly dark, so when i relieved pressure on the font to extinguish the lantern i noticed the "J tube" was glowing dull red (Not sue if that is normal). Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the lantern runs very well for a few minutes but once fully heated up it surges? I have cleaned the pickup tube screen, and generator in the ultrasonic cleaner. Ive dunked the lantern in a 5 gallon bucket of water while pressurized to verify no leaking. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Only putting the generator in an ultrasonic bath even for a longer time might not be enough to get rid of the old carbon and fuel residues in it. You could try caustic soda in the ultrasonic bath and then clear the straight part from the bottom with a suitable drill. The Preston loop can be cleaned with a piece of a bicycle bowden cable core. When doing this, you have to insert the wire from the top at an angle while gently turning. But be careful not to damage the thread and the nozzle seat. Subsequently, remaining oxide layers can be dissolved with diluted citric acid in the ultrasonic bath. Be sure to rinse the generator very well after this treatment. This could already be enough to fix the problem. If that doesn't help, you could put some brass gauze around the needle rod in the lower part of the generator, which will help prevent boiling distortions. These usually cause the pulsing/surging and eventually also heat up the fuel in the tank a lot.
That is good advice from Martin. The inner hood has an air gap which needs to be set at the correct height or the burner will not get the correct mix of fuel and air. I would also check that the burner nozzle and the part which it screws into are properly tightened. It's best to give the tank a good clean out, because old fuel which has hardened to the tank will gradually loosen and foul the new fuel and that can block the flow of fuel and air to the burner system.
Thanks for the input. I rinsed the tank, but went no further than that. Ill double check the tank. I'll pull the generator and give it a good clean my mechanical means as suggested and then a solution of a harsher chemical. I did verify the nozzle was tight and had set the air gap at 15mm.
As what Martin and Jeff advised. No, that isn't normal but not uncommon. You need to test it again after you're done with the generator cleaning and further fettling to reduce the pulsations. Some bronze or brass wool carefully stuffed in the gen would help reduce pulsations. With all these rectified, many other consequential issues can be resolved. If the red-glowing J-tube issue isn't resolved by then, it might be due to other factors concerning the ceramic burner cap, low fuel-air flow or the J-tube itself. I'd leave those aside first. Better to resolve one issue at a time.
