Hi. Just converted a friend of mine to this illnes of ours, and he is now sitting embarrassed on his terrace with his new PM829Rapid500HK - unable to light the thing in front of his neighbors and family. Guided him through yhe procedyre, still no luck. Not having one of these PM myself - are there any tricks I could suggest? After preheating the mantle and top of the lamp goes up in flames - every time. Fuel OK. Pressure OK. Brand new out of box. Urgent - honor is at risk!
Since he's new to lanterns and you said flames the first question is how long is he preheating it? I find newbies are awful impatient sometimes. If he's using the meths cup I'd suggest he burns it twice just to make sure. If it's with the rapid then it needs to burn about 45 seconds, making sure to keep the pressure around 1 BAR. If it still makes flames for him I'd check to make sure the vaporizer tip is tight.
It's best to pre heat the lantern in a shed, that will keep it hotter and the nozzle must be tightly screwed in, that should be done by hand, do not use any type of tool because those nozzles break easily. This is my method for lighting the Petromax type of lanterns, let the lamps pre heat until only a third of the meths is left in the trough. Then with the pricker turned up I add some pressure, 10 strokes of the pump should be enough, but it depends on how much fuel is in the tank. I then slowly lower the pricker and once the mantle lights I gradually build up the pressure. Jeff.
Air gap should be about 14,5mm (give or take a few tenth's of a mm). I presume this is one of the Chinese Pmax'es? Best is to have a close look at how it is assembled, our Chinese friends sometimes have a problem with quality control. I hope all turns out well for your friend (and you! ). Best regards, Wim
That air gap looks a little wide, best to gauge it as Wim suggest and check the cleaning needle protrusion as well. They do not run the lanterns at the factory so it's probably not even close to right.
Chinese stuff is not always assembled with care and it may be the generator tip is not tight. A lose mantle ceramic cap will not make flames but a loose jet surely can. So check the air gap as suggested and then see how far out the pricker needle protrudes (this only need to be just showing) and then make sure the brass jet is secure. You might also check the J tube is clear. Normally only on older lamps but a spider or insect nest in there will destroy the mixture and this lamp has travelled a long way so who knows what might have crawled in there. ::Neil::
He ended up replacing the lamp. I probably would to. Brand new off the shelf should work. BTW these lamps are markedet as German Quality, still assembled by hand. Says nothing about which hands used. Came as a surprice to me that these lamps are made i China? Are there parts-issues to be aware of further down the line?
my experience with brand new lamps I have sold is: first lighting works fine, second ends in desaster. this is due to after the first burning, some elements, like the nozzle jet or the ceramic burner are loose. this is of the heat extension etc. please check if all these are tightend again, then you won´t have any problems furtheron.
It is the same story over and over. Petromax now a days is a brand name, more then ever, owned by a german company that is all german there is. I can recall a telephone conversationbn with Bart, from (the late sniff) BBL, he got two to test if yo wanted to resell them. He had to check and rebuild them first to get them working right. So he didn't sell them. Since I don't buy new lanterns I have no clue about the quality standard of today. When you want a good petromax type of lantern, buy an ex german army (BW) in its metal container. They are sold NOS for around 100 euro's. But be sure it is marked petromax if you want that. Geniol, hipolito and even aida lanterns are also called petromax lanterns...
