Paraffin pressure lamp question

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JayBee

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We have a Vapalux paraffin pressure lamp, which we like to use in the cockpit occasionally, when at anchor or alongside somewhere.

A small hole in the mantle has allowed a jet of very hot vapour to be concentrated on the glass in a couple of places, resulting in the glass becoming locally discoloured, with whitish concentric rings about the size of £2 coin. I am pretty sure that this has weakened the glass and that I will soon need to replace it. They are quite delicate and expensive and it is a nuisance to have to carry more than one spare on board.

My question is this:

Is it possible to "anneal" the glass in a hot oven, or otherwise?

Anybody?
 
The annealing point of pyrex is 560°C which is way above what your oven will get to. You would probably have trouble controling the cooling too.

Isn't there a tatty lamp on fleabay with a decent glass that you can use?
 
I wouldn't worry in the least about the glass. It will remain perfectly OK if you stop using a holed mantle. Mantles cost £13 for ten. They are a consumable.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I do have some spare mantles from Base-Camp and change them when I notice that they need changing. Too late, obviously.:)

The Vapalux glass looks different to the Tilley Pyrex equivalent, sharp edges, as opposed to rounded. Anyway, it seems that annealing is a non-starter.
 
alahol2 said:
I've had similar marks on lamp glasses. You can remove them with a plastic scourer and something like hob bright (or Vim). Doesn't seem to have harmed the glass in any way.
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Thanks. I'll give it a try, but I seem to remember trying this before without success - the affected parts of the glass just breaking away.

Maybe I was just being a bit ham fisted.
 
We've just had a cockpit canopy fitted and I'm keen to get a paraffin lamp to use rather than torches or LED lamps of any kind.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for the best lamp? I've done huge amounts of trawling around the web and these pages and it seems to come down to either Tilley, Coleman (though not keen on using the Coleman fluid nor u/l petrol) and Vapalux.

Ideally we'd want to be able to adjust the brightness, not sure if all lamps allow you to do this.
 
ChiPete said:
We've just had a cockpit canopy fitted and I'm keen to get a paraffin lamp to use rather than torches or LED lamps of any kind.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for the best lamp? I've done huge amounts of trawling around the web and these pages and it seems to come down to either Tilley, Coleman (though not keen on using the Coleman fluid nor u/l petrol) and Vapalux.

Ideally we'd want to be able to adjust the brightness, not sure if all lamps allow you to do this.
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Paraffin pressure lamps are not designed to give adjustable light, but will dim (and flicker) as the pressure falls. Vapalux and Coleman (they do make a paraffin version) are more robust than Tilley. Spares are readily available for all three. Tilley are the only remaining British maker. The Army chose Vapalux which probably gives a clue on simplicity, reliability and ability to cope with abuse. Tilley has the disadvantage of needing a separate pre-heating torch, which you can easily lose. Coleman and Vapalux have a pre-heater cup fitted to the vapouriser tube.

Remember that these lanterns get hot - don't hang one from a piece of string, and don't have it close under a canopy.
 
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All the pressure paraffin lamps run at pretty much one brightness, there isn't really any control (the same applies to Coleman).
As to which is best, all of them have their advocates. I have used all three and, for me, the Vapalux is the best built. Lots of 320's on e-bay but they can go for some silly prices. Having said that, when you consider that these things keep going for decades, maybe £70-£80 is not such a silly price.
 
Thanks for the replies chaps, I'll head off to eBay and see what I can find. The ex-army Vapalux's look pretty much bomb proof (or squaddy proof, which is much the same thing ;))
 
ChiPete said:
Thanks for the replies chaps, I'll head off to eBay and see what I can find. The ex-army Vapalux's look pretty much bomb proof (or squaddy proof, which is much the same thing ;))
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When searching eBay remember that Bialaddin is actually Vapalux and takes the same burner and pump spares.
 
ChiPete said:
Thanks for the replies chaps, I'll head off to eBay and see what I can find. The ex-army Vapalux's look pretty much bomb proof (or squaddy proof, which is much the same thing ;))
Click to expand...

Have you considered Petromax? Made by Jerry, used by the Swiss Army:
http://marinestore.co.uk/NT4136-8.html

Took a while for me to figure out how to light my 150 (the smaller sister of the 500), but now well pleased!
 
Another vote for Vapalux. We've used an M320 as our primary source of heat in the cabin, on and off, for ~3 years (liveaboard).

We've had glass break though as a result of a hole in a mantle. We had no spare at the time and had no choice but to run the lamp without the glass - it worked absolutely fine for weeks.

Since then I bought a complete working lamp of ebay for about £30, 24 spare mantles and a spare glass.

The ebay ones go very cheaply if they look a bit ropey, but with a few Base-Camp bits the lamps themselves go on for years so they're a good buy.

Flare-ups very rare (once, due to not pre-heating enough) and very manageable (just turn off the fuel - takes half a second, flame is a 'cool' one anyway :)).
 
I've had various lamps (for fishing and camping) and I have no hesitation in saying that the Coleman North Star is the best. It is a petrol lamp though. I could never go back to paraffin and all that messing about trying to get the damned things to light. Electronic ignition is great! Because there is no need for an opening to get a pre-heat burner through, the wind has no effect. It will light at the push of a button even in a howling gale.
 
CreakyDecks said:
I've had various lamps (for fishing and camping) and I have no hesitation in saying that the Coleman North Star is the best. It is a petrol lamp though. I could never go back to paraffin and all that messing about trying to get the damned things to light. Electronic ignition is great! Because there is no need for an opening to get a pre-heat burner through, the wind has no effect. It will light at the push of a button even in a howling gale.
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+1 I have had one for years it burns for 20 hours on 1 fill

plus you can vary the light output
 
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