My wife often asks me is that the "smelly" paraffin lamp, what are the causes of a lamp that "smells" when its burning, is it unburnt fuel?
Hello, regular unburnt fuel may smell due to aromatic hydrocarbons or sulfuric contents. This gives them the typical smell of petrol or diesel fuel. In odourless fuels (e.g. clean paraffin or Coleman fuel) these contents are quite well removed, or don't even occur due to the synthetic production. These fuels won't even smell if vaporized at moderate temperatures. But when temperatures get higher the fuel contents begin to crack thermally, thus producing a whole variety of substances. These have this typical smell (like extinguishing candles, pressure lanterns burning too rich etc.) already in very small amounts left unburnt. At pressure lamps this cannot be avoided cmpletely, but depends also on the construction and adjustment. Edit: Blue flame heaters/incandescent mantle lamps using wicks such as Aladdin nearly don't produce any smell since they realize a very complete burning process. BR, Martin
...any lamp using liquid hydrogenated carbon fuels you can think of: candles, wick lamps, incandescent mantle lamps as well as pressure lamps...
I have 4 tilleys and 4 Willis and Bates models, and my wife always asks the same question. Although I can't smell a thing, swmbo seems to have extremely sensitive nasal passages, and claims they stink, but this only seems to happen with the Tilleys. I honestly think there may be something in this, but unless I smell it, I just won't know.
I myself can confirm that SWMBO has very sensitive nasal passages. Therefore WAF for these lighting / heating appliances usually isn't too high at all. Men's hobbies have to fulfil at least two of following three criterions: - loud - stinky - expensive
My wife is reminded of a beloved Grandma whenever paraffin is burnt, and she loves lighting the Primus to cook by - no problems here!!
If a Tilley lamp starts to smell, then the most likely cause is that part of the burner has come loose and it does not need to have loosened by much either and I have had that happen twice with a modern Tilley burner. Perhaps women have a more acute sense of smell than us men do, Jeff.
...or they just don't appreciate anything other than the smell of perfume - the more expensive, the better...
