Hi, in this forum, its said, that Tilley vapourizers burst often when lamp is operated with kerosene. And therefore it seems to be even more dangerous to use gasoline or mixtures of both in Tilley lamps. It 's said that the oil's carbon soot within the vapourizer destroys the part. Is that true ?? Or is it rather too high temperature in kerosene operation, which destroys the vapourizer? And mix with gasoline decreases the temperature and saves the vapourizer. ?? regards willi
Paraffin/Kerosene varies in quality in different countries and some of it does not agree with Tilley vapourisers.
I could only translate from google but isn't it he is saying he has been mixing gasoline with kerosene or using pure gasoline and that is causing the trouble?
Willi Tilley vapourisers are designed to run on kerosene. No amount of conjecture can make it otherwise. When Tilley lamps were commonly used in households for daily lighting and heating, the vapourisers were a disposable part - used for a few hundred hours until the jet became enlarged or the vapouriser clogged with carbon. The vapouriser was never designed to last forever, but they can be fettled to extend their life a bit by getting rid of built up carbon. An enlarged jet, though, is the end of a vapouriser without an engineering solution. Best regards Tony
Willi I used Google Translate to try to understand the article in your link above. In it they talk about the brass vapourisers that were being made in Germany. I have three of these. I would advise you NOT to use them. The brass gets very hot inside the spigot of the burner and distorts eventually getting jammed tight in the spigot. Tilley made the vapourisers out of steel for a reason, and the reason is in the above paragraph. Tony
Are You Sure You dont mix up with The birchmeier vapourizer from ch. They seem to ne critical. Br Willi
Never burst, but are known to bulge making removal of the burner head difficult. Never use petrol (gasoline) in a Tilley - it's designed for paraffin (kerosene).
Have You seen picture in The link above? Vapourizer had burst during kerosene Operation. Many More auch Fotos in hytta and pelam Forum.
This topic has been discussed on more than one occasion and it was determined that the type of paraffin/kerosene which was being used in those lamps which suffered vapouriser failures was of poor quality and therefor it burned to hot.
bp4willi - what I meant by that was I'd never personally experienced a burst Tilley vapouriser in 15 years. As far as I can remember, neither has any British collector I've met or spoken to. The only people I've heard to have experienced this problem are Dutch and German collectors so I presume it's somehow due to the kerosene they are able to obtain in those countries. The picture to which you refer is merely further evidence of this. Any British collector ever experienced a swollen (or "pregnant", as Bart used to say) Tilley vapourisers?
The other reason Tilley didn't use brass for the vapouriser tube was that in many of their lamps and lanterns, it's all that supports the weight of the burner and gallery...
I posted about a Bialladin vapouriser of mine doing this some time back... Having cut the vapouriser in half afterwards I'm convinced that the eventual failure was due to the build up of a wooly carbon deposit in the lower half of the vapouriser. I assume this causes it to run lean and overheat. Basically it taught me - if you have a lamp that is running badly, turn it off before there is any damage. If a lamp is giving out poor light then something is wrong...
Yes - and there's only so much benefit to be derived from pumping it up a bit more. Similarly leaking seals; there's a limit to the effectiveness of extra tightening...
I had this one burst a few years ago, so long ago now I can't recall what lamp it was on! There was discussion about it on the old BBL site. I might even have it kicking around somewhere in the spares box. I seem to remember the thinking was impurities in the fuel and build up of carbon was considered to be the cause. I generally have been using kero in my lamps as I don't light them often and I have plenty of kero available for my main interest of the old stationary engines. Hope thats of interest. Regards Dave
Ouch! That's nasty. It also demonstrates that the Tilley steel vapouriser can split. David, Do you still have it? I would be interested in seeing it dissected and seeing how much carbon had built up inside. I posted a dissected Aladdin vapouriser here a while ago. It was distorted. Upon dissection it was choked with carbon. Cheers Tony PS Here is the link to the Aladdin vapouriser dissection: http://0flo.com/index.php?posts/42982
Well it is almost true what David says it mainly happens on German/Dutch soil. BUT a German collector, Ludwig, found out by simple reading the Tilley book that Tilley was familiar with the problem. On one of the last pages (101) there is a message from Tilley about swollen vaporizers. This was also already mentioned on the infamous BBL forum long time ago. Besides this all: german and Dutch collectors are known to experiment with fuel, design changes etc. some work some don't. Willy Springmann was the frist who made a renewable Tilley style generator. It is copied by others.
