Hi - my first post here, although I've been a frequent visitor over the years. My well liked 320 decided to destroy its vaporiser and mantle support while on holiday - which was irritating as we were relying on it for heat and light in a damp tent on Skye. What is more irritating is the cost of replacement parts. Hey ho. I've searched and found references to similar failure with the suggestion that fuel quality may be the culprit. I've been using Caldo / CAS# 91770-15-9 which seems to have been implicated in a similar failure in a Bowlfire. So - can anyone recommend a brand of paraffin which will conform to what I understand is recommended, that being CAS# 80008-20-6 please? Of course I guess I could just raid my central heating oil tank - - - I'd hate to repeat the problem - and dont want to replicate with my 1950'ish Tilley - or the 1970 one either. Many thanks, Mike.
Hi Mike. As Jeff says, heating oil is fine. I have been using it for two years in all my paraffin lamps and stoves (including Vapalux lamps and Bowlfire heaters). Just be sure that the oil is 28 sec kerosene. A small percentage of home heating systems run on 35 sec which is diesel/gas oil. In the UK, 28 sec is yellow, 35 sec is red. Terry
Thank you both - I'll go and dip the tank! Just about to send off a cheque for marginally under £40 to replace the damaged bits. Vap tubes aren't cheap these days! I'm sure I didn't pay £28 for the last one. Returning to the question of fuel - for those who dont have access to c/h oil - what thoughts / recommendations on a suitable brand of kerosene?
I get my paraffin from a local hardware shop which sells it 'by the gallon'. I don't know what brand it is, but its blue in colour and smells like paraffin should smell... Have a scout around for any old style hardware shops, especially if there are alottments in the locality - keen gardeners often use paraffin heaters in greenhouses... The shop where I get mine still has an old fashioned pump that has a glass globe which fills up before dispensing into your own can. My own can is an old army jerry can, date stamped 1953 - the year I was born...
My local fuel suppliers have kero, red diesel and white diesel. I've just this weekend been and filled up with 20 litres of kero £16 and 5 litres of red diesel £5. I hope I don't get my tank dipped by the police, on the stove that is.
Just under £40 is a ridiculous price to pay for a vapouriser. Where's that from - Korea? You'll surely get one cheaper from eBay. If I'd known you better I'd have let you have a new one for half that. In fact, I remember selling a complete lantern with a brand new vapouriser for £20...
Vaporiser £28 / Mantle support £8 / postage £3 = £39 from Base Camp who I've found really good. eBay currently shows £29.99 for one NOS, £28.40 for another one - both with P&P. Appreciate your comment! Mike
For draught kero/paraffin, local small town/village garages are a better bet than city ones. Forget Shell, BP, Esso, Texaco etc. Look for small garages selling fuel you've never heard of. For anyone in the Sussex area or passing through, the following 'Local Fuels' garages have kero on pump at 69p per litre including tax, plus pre-filled 20 litre containers: Hawkswood Service Station, A271 - Hailsham - BN27 1UG Horam Service Station, A267 - Nr. Heathfield - TN21 0BN Clayhill Service Station, A26 - Nr. Lewes - BN8 5RU Bolney Cross Service Station, A272 - Nr. Cowfold - RH17 5QY Plus these in pre-filled 20 litre containers only: Selmeston Service Station, A27 - Nr. Polegate - BN26 6UE Trinity Place Service Station, Eastbourne - BN21 3BZ Old Town Service Station, Eastbourne - BN21 1HQ Uckfield Service Station, High St, Uckfield - TN22 1EJ All the above except Old Town Eastbourne also have red diesel on pump. Terry
Ironically, the place I use in Auchterarder, Perthshire, is one of the "old fashioned" ironmongers - who now only sell pre-pack! I'm old enough to remember my parents buying the proper stuff from a pump, for the variety of paraffin heaters they used in a large, old house. This was in Ireland, in the early 60's in a house which was lit by bottled gas! The same garage who offered a shot of Redex when you filled the car, from a large syringe device. I'll have a search around - in the meantime, I'll have to practise my syphoning techniques I guess and raid the ch tank. Anyway - here's my collection. This taken last year during one of the frequent power cuts we have! Very useful to have a stock of pressure lamps. Plus a couple of Trangia cookers, one of which is 40 years old, and both of which are running on gas. And a 15 year old MSR Whisperlite Internationale which runs on Aspen. With the exception of the Gaz lamp, all of them were un-fired when I acquired them over the years, even the gold Trangia, which I got 15 years ago! The red one came from a Civil Defense store in Stirling which was closing, about 20 years back. The Vapalux was bought a couple of years ago on the Bay.
I had what I assume is a similar failure http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/6955 However I'm now convinced that mine was not the fuel as such... I think it was initially due to a blockage in the fuel pickup tube when cause a restricted fuel flow. This in turn cases what I found in my vapouriser, which was an almost wooly buildup of carbon in the lower half of the vapouriser. The resulting lean mix caused overheating and eventually a meltdown. I've since cleaned out the lamp and fitted a new vaporiser and it is now running as good as new.
Have a look for a "jiggle siphon" HERE is one I know is pretty good if you can get to a tool station. So long as you can get the end in the C/h tank far enough, then it saves you the unpleasant taste if you suck to long.
Just to update on this - my shiny new mantle support and equally shiny vap tube arrived today from BaseCamp and have just been fitted. Interestingly, the vap tube comes in an original looking (white) box with a "made in Korea" sticker on it. So we'll try that one first then, rather than the NOS one I have as a spare! Following a suggestion here I fitted the Tilley mantle (I've got lots of these, so might as well use them) by fitting to the top first and then inserting the tube and screwing it in. Much easier! I can report - so far anyway - excellent results. Mind you, it's only had a 30 min burn to test it. We will see - I'll monitor it's life, as best I can. The lamp is burning better than it ever did, so hopefully the quality of the Korean made vap tubes is ok. Given it was running on the original which was on the lamp when I got it when it failed, I guess that the original tube may of course not have been 100% despite the lamp being NOS when I got it. An old cat-food tin on a string allowed me to raid the CH oil tank. On a related note, I've found reference to the use of Redex as a preventative to stop or minimise carbon build-up. Has anyone any thoughts on this?
The Korean made Vapalux stuff I've seen looks to be good quality... Certainly better than new Tilley stock by a country mile! Slightly off topic I've seen new bowl fires listed and wonder whether this means that grids could now be sourced brand new as spares??
I had a new Tilley vap tube a couple of years ago which leaked from the ferrule to tube joint. The chap who supplied it (can't recall who / where) was absolutely adamant it couldn't be leaking there. When I eventually convinced him it was he replaced it - the replacement was fine. It looked to have been merely crimped on.
Hello Mike, that problem does occur with the more modern Tilley vapourisers and the tube is just crimped to the bottom end, that problem can be cured by cleaning the metal well and then running some solder around that area. I prefer the older vapourisers which have brass bottom ends which are threaded into the tubes, Jeff.
