Im a lantern collector, pretty sure I just bought an old lantern that someone had been burning diesel in. Took me a while to rinse the fount out with acetone. Lots of residue. Not as bad as folks who get the bright idea to paint their lanterns. Been working two days removing paint from a couple lanterns and still not there yet.
Kerosene has low demand in the Philippines now, so not only is it a treasure hunt to find a gas station that has kerosene, when found, it can be more expensive than even gasoline in my country. I burn diesel in my flat wick during power outages, no problem. I live in the tropics, maybe that helps. This is a non issue with me. Lamp lights up quickly enough, and if I adjust the wick properly, there is not visible smoke.
GreenerHill okay good I'm not the only one. Everton says it's an odor, but I love the smell! When a bus or tractor trailer, or diesel powered train locomotive passes you, you can smell the burning diesel, and I personally love that smell. I like the smell that my kerosene lantern leaves off.
Some say this will clog wicks bad, but it doesn't seem to do that to me.....I burned some of my old lanterns and flat wick oil lamps at night all winter and am using same wicks. It leaves hardly no odor also.....a lot less than the florascense clear lamp oil I was using. You may have to trim your wick a little more often, but that is a lot more economical than $ 10 a gallon kero or lamp oil. I actually went from 3 to 4 oz of alcohol to a gallon of diesel........ I've been amazed at how well this works.......
HillsideOak, They never stink if you know how use them, if they stink it means the wick is turned up too high, people try to get more light out of them than what they were designed for.
long as its all 100% cotton you can burn HOME HEATING OIL in it. FIBERGLASS wicks it will just clog them up in 2 uses. BURNING 100% HOME HEATING OIL IN MY THREE PERFECTION KEROSENE HEATERS NO PROBLEMS, NO SMELL NO ODOR NO HEADACHES. lamp oil & kerosene bunch of worthless garbage $4.00 for gallon of kerosene that stuff can be thrown overobard. i will use HOME HEATING OIL (RED DYE DIESEL FUEL) $2.19 g home heating oil.
Im using some Diesel with white-spirit of refined petrol. 2 Us Gallons with 17 Oz white-spirit of refined petrol. We call it here (wasbenzine) in NLD. It seems to burn good in my Dietz air pilot#8 with 7/8 wick. The viscosity is perfect now. 5.2 gallons of kerosene cost me $57 usd in the Netherlands. 1 gallon of diesel cost 5 usd. Farm light Lamp oil cost 2.5 usd per liter, but its not good for the wick. Fuel is very expensive here in the Netherlands. Some people Mixing Diesel with Alcohol , but alcohol is hygroscopic. I don't want water in my fuel.
I have been putting many hours on my brand new Dietz #8 Air Pilot running pure Calif diesel fuel. I skipped the alcohol just to see if it gives problems. No! Maybe we have politically correct diesel fuel here....it eats the leakoff lines on my GM 6.5 engine in 18 months.... But I really can't tell by sight or smell that diesel is burning different than kerosene in that lantern. Actually, it smells cleaner than kerosene. Who would ever guess that.
OK, after experimenting with about a dozen daily use lanterns in my collection, I ran into a few problems with diesel. One Dietz Jupiter that had diesel and Tiki torch citronella oil in it for 2 years untouched, refused to burn for more than 10 minutes at a time. After removing the burner, I was amazed to find that the wick was completely coated with nasty sticky brown paste like old crystallized honey. There was even a large spot of it on the bottom of the inside of the tank. After some aggressive cleaning, I partially filled the font with Klean Heat and put in a new wick. Of 8 lanterns burning last night, I asked my guest to identify the whitest flame. It was from that Jupiter lantern. I had diesel and kerosene burning in the others. This led me to check about 20 other lanterns in my collection. From now on, I will be storing my best old collectible ones dry. Some of these like the Dietz King Fire sell on eBay for $500 so I want to burn them carefully when the rare ones come out to play. I will never again mix fuels. I marked my daily use lanterns with colored electrical tape on the bail to identify the fuel inside. Most of these lanterns were made between 1920 and 1957, mainly Dietz D-Lites and Embury No 2 Air Pilots. There are a few new made in China Dietz lanterns like the Jupiter in there as well. Diesel burns differently in different lantern burner designs. The wick definitely needs more maintenance but I get about 4 hours burn without having to trim the wick in Embury No 2 Air Pilot lanterns...1930's and 40's. The Dietz No 8 Air Pilot worked the best for some reason while burning diesel. There is definitely more combustion buildup on the inside of the glass using diesel. Everything I used diesel in had 7/8'' wide wicks. I didn't try it with smaller wicks but one crappy little Swallow brand 235 Chinese lantern burns the leftover mixed garbage fuel happily. I prefer the $10 a gallon Home Depot Klean Heat as the best no hassle cleanest smelling fuel. Kerosene is OK outdoors as it smells while burning even when fresh. The older it gets the worse it smells but it always burns and doesn't clog the wick. Diesel will work, doesn't smell much while burning, but needs wick trimming and adjustment more often. I have a few hundred feet of wicks of all sizes in a shoe box that should last a while if ever needed. I wonder if the water in 90% alcohol will corrode the inside of the tank so I never added it. I hope this helps. If anybody is burning diesel in their lanterns for 4+ hours a night, please let us know your results.
It helps it light easier, and burns a bit hotter so the wick doesn't char up as fast. It does still carbon up and has to be trimmed more frequently. But the alcohol helps it burn cleaner.
Greg p $39 for 5 gallon at Lowes and Home Depot and Tractor Supply. Price varies through the year. Higher in Winter. Never drops below 5 dollars a gallon. Probably state taxes that adds to the cost.
I just bought 10 gallons of K-1 Kerosene for $3.25 per gallon, total cost after taxes was $35.10. The current wholesale price is about $1.85 per gallon. www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMA_EPPK_PWG_NUS_DPG&f=M
@@pharmhound68 you buy kerosene at petroleum retailers or at the airport, not at Lowe's or Tractor supply. I get mine at a Shell station in Tallahassee., It's much cheaper up in Georgia. Walmart charges $5 a quart, utterly ridiculous.
Kerosene here in Florida is $5 a gallon at gasoline stations, probably much cheaper at the airport, surely they do not fuel those jets with kerosene that cost that much.
I'm burning Biodiesel in my lamps inside now...no petrol smell at all, but petrol is ok for outdoor use. You just have to make the bio fuel yourself though. It's only a less than a day process too!
i burn it in my kerosene heater. diesel. checked with CO detector like we use to enter confined space. no change in CO or O after several hours of use.
Andy are you burning it straight or mixed with isopropyl alcohol? I see one guy on youtube using diesel in his heaters with approx 2-3% iso, so was thinking of trying the same with biodiesel. But don't want to clog the wick!
@@ttttonyyyy How did it work out? Thinking the same for side/spare use. I will be living in isolation over winter and no shopping or even access to anything.
Even since I found out the hard way that you do NOT want to use heater kerosene instead of lamp oil indoors, I've been wary of using substitute fuels. Petroleum jelly is not the same thing as axle grease and paraffin candle wax is not the same thing as tar or asphalt.
@@pharmhound68 can you add it to fuel stored in a jug or do you need to just add it to the lantern itself? How much do you add per so many oz. Of fuel? I'm gonna pull out some of my kerosene lanterns and do maintenance on them and doubt I can find kerosene in my area this year.
Let's see: Diesel fuel is $3/gallon. Kerosene is $13/gallon here in eastern Missouri. How many gallons before my wick fouls? At the savings of $10/gallon, having to replace the wick often is still better than choosing kerosene.
