A
Anonymous
Guest
I haven't tried white spirit but I will. Lamp oil doesn't seem to work at all well and ruins the wick, and I haven't found genuine paraffin (or what we call paraffin) here in Spain.
Hurricane lamp as anchor light
- Thread starter misterg
- Start date
ebbtide
N/A
By 'hurricane lamp' do you guys mean the ironmonger's thing that blows out in F4?
Where can I get a reasonably priced copy of the double-lens Wonderlicht (?) which lasted me for 30 years. And I don't mean Nauticalia's 240V version!
Any suggestions?
Where can I get a reasonably priced copy of the double-lens Wonderlicht (?) which lasted me for 30 years. And I don't mean Nauticalia's 240V version!
Any suggestions?
jcmmarine
Well-Known Member
Try a solar powered light.
VicS
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
By 'hurricane lamp' do you guys mean the ironmonger's thing that blows out in F4?
[/ QUOTE ] never known mine to stay alight above F1.4
By 'hurricane lamp' do you guys mean the ironmonger's thing that blows out in F4?
[/ QUOTE ] never known mine to stay alight above F1.4
VicS
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
Lamp oil doesn't seem to work at all well and ruins the wick,
[/ QUOTE ] Check what the wick is made of.
When I worked in a school chem department we used a lot of small spirit burners for heat of combustion experiments. They were intended for use with meths of course but we used alcohols from methanol to the butanols and also paraffin. We found that some seem to have wicks made from a synthetic material. They were Ok with the alcohols but when used with paraffin they tended to melt. Cotton, or at least natural fibre, wicks are what you need for paraffin it seems. (I actually plaited some from string!)
AFAIK lamp oil is just refined and scented paraffin with a big price tag! Some BBQ lighting flid is similar. You could try that but cautiously!
Lamp oil doesn't seem to work at all well and ruins the wick,
[/ QUOTE ] Check what the wick is made of.
When I worked in a school chem department we used a lot of small spirit burners for heat of combustion experiments. They were intended for use with meths of course but we used alcohols from methanol to the butanols and also paraffin. We found that some seem to have wicks made from a synthetic material. They were Ok with the alcohols but when used with paraffin they tended to melt. Cotton, or at least natural fibre, wicks are what you need for paraffin it seems. (I actually plaited some from string!)
AFAIK lamp oil is just refined and scented paraffin with a big price tag! Some BBQ lighting flid is similar. You could try that but cautiously!
A
Anonymous
Guest
I was surprised, as you can imagine. I think that the wick is natural but the oil doesn't wick up fast enough...the symptoms are a low flame and red-hot carbon, just like running out of oil. It is made in China, bought in Spain but I'm sure no different to the ones you'd buy in the UK today. The brass lamp (identical) we had on the last boat for years was fine and would burn happily in gusting 5s. We never anchored in much more than that so I can't comment.
jenku
Well-Known Member
Now this is interesting. My last one was sort of cheap chinese as well and worked nicely on lamp oil until it stopped working altogether. So this summer I bought a new one, declared by the saleswoman to be the real German one and the best and yada yada, and surely it is nice, but it did not work on lamp oil at all, showing the same symptoms you are describing. So I tried spirits. That did work but the flame was not bright enough for reading in the cabin (which is the main use). Then I tried to fiddle with the fuel. Finally I found that a mixture of about 50% lamp oil and 50% spirits worked best. Gives a bright flame, very hot (good during this cold winter...eh sorry summer) and did not flicker very much.
Peculiar though that they would be so sensitive of what fuel is used....
Ah, and I think if I would anchor in anything more than a F5 the lamp blowing out would be my last concern, meaning I would not get any sleep anyway....
Peculiar though that they would be so sensitive of what fuel is used....
Ah, and I think if I would anchor in anything more than a F5 the lamp blowing out would be my last concern, meaning I would not get any sleep anyway....
A
Anonymous
Guest
Funny you should say that....I might have it the wrong way round, maybe mine is German. I did buy a steel Chinese one but that was terrible, so I think this must be German. It's stowed under a load of liveaboard clobber right now and I would not be popular if I dug it out. Presumably it's the wick? I'll try to get some new wick from a ferreteria next week and see how it goes.
neil_s
Well-Known Member
I keep mine in a bucket at the bottom of a locker. I found the best way to refuel without spills is to keep the spare paraffin in a washing-up squeezy bottle. The bottle can go in the bucket, too. You can burn diesel in your lamp if you don't mind the pong - or should I say, your neighbours don't mind the pong!
There is too much fun to be had with paraffin lamps, you will find electric ones boring!
Neil
Neil
There is too much fun to be had with paraffin lamps, you will find electric ones boring!
Neil
Neil
Robin
Well-Known Member
I've just taken down our brass Dietz hurricane light after last night on the waiting buoys off Perros and it will be stowed in it's box in a plastic box in a locker, I don't drain off any paraffin left which is usually nearly gone. Ours runs on ordinary paraffin or French Petrole, lamp oil is far too posh/pricey!
Ours is hung on a line from stern gantry to sprayhood frame with a snaphook in it's middle, the lamp has two extra lines from it that tie to the wheel pedestal. Mounted here (it doesn't have to be up front) it gets some protection from the wind and has stayed alight in winds gusting F7. It lights the cockpit and we have all white decks and coachroof which show up well, it is clearly identified from ashore amonst the myriad of masthead anchor lights.
We also have a very low power consumption Davies light that we can hang up but I much prefer the flickering hurricane light.
Ours is hung on a line from stern gantry to sprayhood frame with a snaphook in it's middle, the lamp has two extra lines from it that tie to the wheel pedestal. Mounted here (it doesn't have to be up front) it gets some protection from the wind and has stayed alight in winds gusting F7. It lights the cockpit and we have all white decks and coachroof which show up well, it is clearly identified from ashore amonst the myriad of masthead anchor lights.
We also have a very low power consumption Davies light that we can hang up but I much prefer the flickering hurricane light.
Gordonmc
Well-Known Member
For storage I use a plastic flower pot holder (without drainage holes) which is just a bit bigger than the lamp itself.
I burn lamp oil which burns with just citronella scent to keep the bugs out. The hurri lamp uses the same fuel and 1" wick as the main cabin lamp which is a schooner globe.
At anchor I hang the lamp from the forestay but on the mooring when I want some light in the cockpit it goes on the end of a pole mounted in the ensign bracket which is angled so the lamp is over water, well out of the way of elbows and heads.
I burn lamp oil which burns with just citronella scent to keep the bugs out. The hurri lamp uses the same fuel and 1" wick as the main cabin lamp which is a schooner globe.
At anchor I hang the lamp from the forestay but on the mooring when I want some light in the cockpit it goes on the end of a pole mounted in the ensign bracket which is angled so the lamp is over water, well out of the way of elbows and heads.
misterg
Well-Known Member
I'm currently using citronella 'flavoured' oil from the DIY sheds, which seems to burn well, doesn't smell as sickly as paraffin, and may even help keep the bugs way.
I have actually knocked the lamp over while it a alight (we were camping, and the dog did it. I was outside having a pee....). The heat from the globe melted the tent groundsheet, and some oil spilt (a very small amount), but no inferno. I saw it happening from outside the tent, and it frightened the cr*p out of me - I thought the whole lot would go up US style. This was the first time we'd used this tent, and hadn't realised there was nowhere to hang the lamp from. On the boat the lamp hangs from the boom above the cockpit, and I'm not worried about it falling, etc.
The Decathlon lamp looks too good to be true - One of the 'un-official' objectives of this year's holiday in France was to go to a Decathlon store - Quimper was the nearest, but could we find it? Could we heck! It didn't help that the address was a roundabout, rather than a road, so the sat-nav couldn't find it, either.
Thanks for all the suggestions - unlikely as it seems, I hadn't thought about emptying the lamp before storing it (Doh!). I'll continue my search for a suitable bucket - the plant pot holder is an interesting angle - Thanks!
Andy
I have actually knocked the lamp over while it a alight (we were camping, and the dog did it. I was outside having a pee....). The heat from the globe melted the tent groundsheet, and some oil spilt (a very small amount), but no inferno. I saw it happening from outside the tent, and it frightened the cr*p out of me - I thought the whole lot would go up US style. This was the first time we'd used this tent, and hadn't realised there was nowhere to hang the lamp from. On the boat the lamp hangs from the boom above the cockpit, and I'm not worried about it falling, etc.
The Decathlon lamp looks too good to be true - One of the 'un-official' objectives of this year's holiday in France was to go to a Decathlon store - Quimper was the nearest, but could we find it? Could we heck! It didn't help that the address was a roundabout, rather than a road, so the sat-nav couldn't find it, either.
Thanks for all the suggestions - unlikely as it seems, I hadn't thought about emptying the lamp before storing it (Doh!). I'll continue my search for a suitable bucket - the plant pot holder is an interesting angle - Thanks!
Andy
davies
Well-Known Member
The fuel of choice is citronella oil - much cheaper than lamp oil, easily available at Homebase, burns cleanly, doesn't smell bad and as a bonus repels the mozzies.
I have some reservations about masthead lights. They are often so close to the mast top that they can't be seen within a 20m circle. What's more, in a dark anchorage with some roll going, you can see a dozen or so masthead lights sweeping arcs in the sky but have little idea where the boats underneath them are. Better to hang the light (Oil, electric, trained glow-worms, pebbles from Dounreay beach or whatever) about 2m above the deck in the centre of the forward triangle.
I have some reservations about masthead lights. They are often so close to the mast top that they can't be seen within a 20m circle. What's more, in a dark anchorage with some roll going, you can see a dozen or so masthead lights sweeping arcs in the sky but have little idea where the boats underneath them are. Better to hang the light (Oil, electric, trained glow-worms, pebbles from Dounreay beach or whatever) about 2m above the deck in the centre of the forward triangle.