Hi folks, I was after a Hipolito for a while and finally got this tarnished example today. Apart from a couple of small dents in the tank this is complete and it pressurises. Will put a mantle on it and fire it up before refurbishing. Tried some Brasso in its nickel plating and it works to a degree but a lot of hard work. Any suggestions welcome! The Tilley 246b was included in the bargain, this needs a new pump as the NRV is heavily corroded and impossible to remove. Also a pricking needle and a preheater. These, I think should be easy to come by as there lots of these lamps out there.
I was going to suggest to avoid Brasso as it contains ammonia which is bad for the brass but I checked the latest MSDS and Ammonia is no-longer listed so maybe they changed the formula and it is now ok. https://www.futures-supplies.co.uk/downloads/007.092S_Reckitt_Benckiser_Brasso_.pdf
The Hipolito will respond well to a short bath in a dilute citric acid solution along with a soft toothbrush. It does mean taking the whole thing apart, so a couple of lead crush washers will be needed for the NRV and Vapouriser on reassembly. Best to search for the forum using the advanced search for a citric acid recipe.
Thanks for the advice, decided to clean rather than strip the nickel, and not as bad as first appeared. Experimented with the hood and tried soaking a tissue with cider vinegar, (all i had), and leaving on for 5 minuites, then a scourer with Jif. It worked! Will try your Citric acid sugestion for the rest. Will post some pictures before and after. Decided to fire it up anyway with a Tilley type double tie mantle but this lasted for all of thirty seconds. I have some anchor mantles on order that look more suitable.
I tried these on mine. There is no going back now. Excellent. http://www.petromax-shop.de/petromax_en/petroleumleuchten/petromax-hk-500/zubehor-ersatzteile/extras-und-zubehor/gluehstrumpf-helox-hk500.html
This is about Hipolito think Petromax. I bought the Helox mantle for an experiment, along with some of the usual type. It wasn't from that link and I don't remember the price. I do remember wishing I could return the standard ones for credit. They won't get used now. Maybe that tells you something?
Jon, that Helox mantle look very much like a Peerless (E.g. #111). Atleast from what we can see in those pictures. How does the material feel? Peerless has a very specific, stiffer almost plastic weave. Does this Helox feel the same? Perhaps it's even made by the same manufacturer, just branded with another name? If it's the same, or atleast similar, mantle, you could just as well buy Peerless since they are by far much cheaper. Their 500CP models work well on most Petromax clones I have tried them on. Have you already forgotten
There is no difference between this Hipolito and The Petromax lamps made from the early seventies to the late nineties, the basic components were all made on the same tooling and AFAIK that tooling came from Germany. Sadly, Heinz moved production to China and Hipolito subsequently went bust and the tooling ended up being scrapped. Though rumours persist that some of it was saved.
Would this explain the origins of the Chinese Anchor lamps that look similar? Or what about those Airplane lamps fron Honk Kong? As for the mantles, all useful info. Thanks. Ordering a couple from Ebay at £3.75 for two.
No, Chinese, Indian, Hong Kong, Malaysain, American, Canadian and British Petromax copies have existed for decades. Hipolito were located in Portugal and the quality was as good as the German Petromax lamps of the sixties IMHO. When Heinz moved production to China they just had a chinese (Silveray?) manufacturer stamp the Petromax name into their lamps and sold them. They are junk, but easy to distinguish, the x of the Petromax is barely stamped into the fount, the roundels have a sun with eleven points instead of ten and the fount has a six digit code stamped on the base. Pelam who now own the Petromax brand do much the same but the parts are manufactured by a better company (Santrax) and the lamps are assembled in Germany so the quality control is higher. The sun still has eleven points and I believe the fount still has a six digit code. The lamps are better quality, but just don't compare to the European made lamps.
I have to buy them by the box (100pcs) but I pay just under .50£ a piece for my Luxor mantles. To me they seem to work perfectly. The Chinese (I think) mantles I used before seem to be more easily damaged (like in transport etc.). I also recently (finally!) found myself a Hipolito 502 lantern, needs a clean but looks to have seen little use, and came with spare globe & a tool + 'standard' spare parts. Happy! Best regards, Wim
Hej Christer, yes I can go with a description of "a slightly plastic feel" to the Helox. It's a much finer weave than the standard Petromax mantle, which in turn has about the same density as a Tilley 164. Could well be the Peerless would be equivalent which is useful to know if they are cheaper in price. They do seem to be harder to get. For the rate at which I use mantles on my 502 it will be some years before I need any more. The mantle doesn't always survive the journey to summer camping in Cornwall - on the roof rack of a Land Rover.
Peerless mantle are often rebranded, my current stock are branded 'Lancaster' (aimed at the Amish community) and came from the US.
Hej Jon! I think Peerless is very easy to get hold of. Generally it is the non-Thorium mantles, but I think they are bright enough. Our own Phil sell them, as you can see [url=http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/ They are cheaper on eBay at a present sell, but that's a bulk of 100 pcs, so perhaps not what you are looking for if you think it will be years before you need any.
Thanks for the link. It's actually the Tilley I want to improve now so maybe some DT140s are worth trying on that. I have found standard 164s a bit disappointing.
Yes, it might be worth a go. The DT140 has worked well on the lamps I have tested them on. Mainly Primus, but I actually tried it on a Vapalux yesterday. It doesn't look as nice as the regular, more round mantle, but it gave out a better light than the old one did. As you can see, it's tied as Phil suggested.
Where can we buy DT140's? I have a Vapalux 310 and a Tilley 246b and would like to try them on these.
Just above I posted the link to Phils ad in the trading forum. [url=http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/ it is again.
I need to stock up on DT140s when I run out of my current Fukishima man mantles. They do look very good.
The next batch of DT-140s are being made with the lower end already inverted and folded smaller. They should be more straight-forward to tie on. I have stock again, but of the current type. They work well on everything I've tried them on. Sorry, not a very clear picture.
That's nice. So you don't need to re-thread the upper string on these in order to get the knot on the outside. Do you know when you will get a batch made with this newer adaption?
