Well you are now 'officially' in danger of becoming a collector. Well done for persevering. It does make you wonder what previous owners did with these things when so many parts need attention. You can use any ethyl alcohol for priming and some here have been using Bio Ethanol and even hand sanitiser. I have 2 optimus 350s and one needs two primes to guarantee ignition , the other one. Never worked it out.
I have lots of bioethanol but have not had the best experience using it to preheat lanterns. Sometimes the flames will never even start to work their way up the vapouriser before they snuff out. I’ve set it aside for use in my Trangia. I also have some Sinol gel, which works really well for priming my Optimus camp stove, but it leaves a nasty residue on the brass. I’d hate to have to deal with that in my lanterns.
Matti, those tube setups look just like they would have been part of the original design! Very nice work indeed. How long are the tubes?
Most ethanol is “bio-ethanol”. That is, it is alcohol with the formula CH(3)CO(2)OH. It doesn’t matter how it is derived, it will be the same (eg moonshine). If it’s not adulterated, it will perform the same no matter how it is made. I use ethanol all the time to preheat stoves, lamps and lanterns. Nothing else. One trick is to use some wicking material like carbon felt or fibreglass to soak the alcohol and concentrate the flame close to the vapouriser/generator. Tony
That’s good to know. I wonder why I always had a hard time soft starting my Petromax 150 CP with my (bio)ethanol (the non-Sinol stuff I referred to before)… I’ve establish that I can get the Optimus 350 going with just a single tray of Sinol, so I guess I might as well stock up on the pink stuff from Biltema when my supply gets low since it’s considerably cheaper.
I believe the intention with the tube is to have a flame near the mantle when it is time to either turn on the fuel or start pumping. When the flame gets low in the spirit cup, there should still be a flame at the top of the tube. The 1350 and 1550 were never fitted with these tubes as you were supposed to start the lamp with the quick starter.
Strange stuff here. I accidentally broke the mantle on this lantern a couple days ago and replaced it with a Petromax Helox mantle. It hasn’t run right since. It will start up and run, but the light output is quite dim and yellowy. It fills the house with noxious fumes and the mantle has remained blackened like in the picture after several burns. The jet-to-J-tube gap is 16.5 mm and I can’t adjust it because the fixing screw is rusted and won’t budge. Could it be that the Helox mantle is somehow too much for a 350 CP lantern? The packaging says it’s rated for 500–600 CP lanterns, yet I think it’s the standard mantle supplied with the 350/500 service kits if I’m not mistaken.
Edit: I guess it’s the case that there currently are no standard 350 service kits from Petromax. Obviously only some of the parts from the 500 kit would cross over to the 350. I don’t want to sacrifice a good mantle just to see if the problem is the mantle, so I’d love to hear someone else’s experiences using a Helox mantle with a 350 CP lantern.
Hi again! The mantle is too large. The lantern is basically a 350/550CP lantern though. So to use it with this mantle the nozzle has to be changed to a 550 one. Regards Matti
Thank you, Matti. That’s kind of what I figured. It just seems silly that Petromax is “forcing” its customers to waste fuel by only making 500 CP lanterns and spare parts. I’ll bet they get lots of social credits from the global government for their care for the environment .
I do have a related question about this lantern. I’ve noticed that the previous owner seems to have bent the upper vapouriser to get it (the jet) to line up with the hole in the inner case. Because there were multiple lead washers under the lower vapouriser, the whole assembly just didn’t sit entirely squarely. Now that everything has been gone over and corrected, the alignment problem is accentuated. I have to fiddle with the positioning of the frame and feed the jet through the hole in the inner case, then pull the case into place on the frame. What might be a gentle, yet effective, way to straighten out the shaft of the upper vapouriser? The bend/kink located near the bottom of the shaft.
Heat it until it's dull red and quench it in water. This will soften the brass. Then work it straight using tools of your choice. Then heat and quench it again to re-anneal.
Thanks, Dashwood, I think I can manage that. Matti, I’ve just discarded the Helox mantle and installed my very last Golden Globe. The last one of these proved to work well, so let’s hope the Optimus will be happy with its new sock.
Hopefully someone can help me figure out what’s happening with the lantern now. I’ve lit it three times today since installing an appropriate mantle. Each time it’s started and run like gangbusters for the first five minutes, then gone significantly dimmer and yellower (and subsequently smellier) once thoroughly heated up. It won’t come back to peak performance no matter what, and eventually just needs to be shut down. The mantle somehow manages to stay nice and whit despite all this.
Smellier means you have a leak. Make sure the vaporizer is on tight and the jet is secure. I recommend getting a few replacement jets as the new stuff are garbage and are hit and miss. I remember buying a brand new one and it kept failing the leak test as it constantly wept from the threads despite it tightening it super tight. I made sure it wasn't the threads failing because my old jet didn't leak at all. Also make sure the parts held in by the lead seals are also tight, tight enough that the lead is seen slightly visibly oozing from the joints.
I guess it’s probably time to go ahead and buy some jets and needles for this lantern. The wire on the needle seems compromised and I think the symptoms may point to a worn jet. Unfortunately the needed parts don’t come cheaply .
I love that this was mentioned here! I just bought a 1550 today and noticed it didn’t have the familiar tube. I thought it was missing. If I plan to soft-start the lantern most of the time I suppose it would be a good idea to add the tube. The man who sold me the lantern said it hasn’t been used in decades. I looked it over, oiled the pump leather, and freed the NRV by getting extra friendly with the pump a couple times. It lit straight up and burned well from what I could see. Just thinking about options (fuel economy especially), is there any reason not to eventually convert it to a 350 CP? And if I were to do so, should NOS Petromax/Hipolito parts be 100% compatible?
Matti, is there any way you could either give me pointers on making one of these or sell me one of the ones you’ve made?
I would use NOS Optimus parts Hos oss hittar du gasol & tillbehör till husvagnen, hushållet, båten eller industrin. Vi har Sveriges bredaste utbud. Välkommen att besöka vår hemsida.
Yes, that’s the place (Fogas) I remember hearing about. I’ll order from there for sure. Do I understand correctly that I could either use the service kit for the 1550 or 1350, depending on whether I want a 500 or 350 CP setup, and that the only differences will be the jets and needles? By the way, the burner and the mixing chamber are both completely frozen/stuck on my lantern. I think the previous owner must have cemented them in place. Not even my strap wrench will get them to budge. If that’s true, is there anything that can be done to free them? I really want to keep the original burner if at all possible, but I’m compelled to disassemble everything to de-rust and clean it before using the lantern.
Yes they are pretty much the same lantern. No idea about how to loosen the burner perhaps it may be water soluble? . Others may know better
Definitely not water soluble. The whole inner casing has been in a citric acid bath for around 24 hours and still the burner and mixing chamber are completely frozen in place. This makes me wonder if I should even buy a complete service kit since the most expensive part in it is the burner and I couldn’t replace it even if I wanted to. Surely someone must have some tips on removing cemented burners and mixing chambers since so many people advocate cementing those items in place like that.
I have never had to do it myself, but would probably end up trying heat and quench. The ceramic flame spreader probably wouldn't survive, but it can be replaced.
I’m guessing it’s more or less a permanent solution and if you want or need to remove the burner you just have to crack it. Getting the remaining cement out of the threads of the mixing chamber must be another big challenge, and then when the mixing chamber is fused onto the J-tube you find out you may as well replace the whole lantern . Fortunately it looks like this lantern was treated well. As long as it works fine after the cleanup and service it may end up being a non-issue.
Nils, would horrible things happen if the heat and quench were done by simply running the lantern with no mantle for a while and then chucking the complete inner casing in cold water? I know it sounds foolish, but on these old Optimus lanterns the screw fixing the J-tube in place is invariably rusted and can’t be removed without drilling out.
Running the lamp wouldn't get it hot enough. It works best to heat to a dull red and then into water straight away. The screw holding the J tube is a pain, but it usually works with heat and quench. Probably have to do it several times.
A related question: Why is a different part number used for the NRV on the 1350 than the one referenced for the 1550? Just trying to work out an order for all the parts I’ll need. My plan is to first try using the original 500 CP jet and needle and see if they’re OK. If they are I’ll use the lantern in that configuration until/unless these parts need changing, in which case I’ll convert the lantern to a 350 CP (1350) configuration. Photo upload is not working at the moment. The part number shown for the 1350 NRV on the Fogas website is 2253V. For the 1550 it’s 2365.
In all the Optimus catalogues I have, the NRV is listed as part number 262 in the old numbering scheme and 2250 in the new numbering scheme. The numbering changed somewhere around 1972 or 73. Part number 2253 is just the barrel of the NRV. So far I havn't been able to find part number 2365, but suspect it is either a stove or blow torch part.
