What would be the best fuel for indoor use in the Petromax Lantern...don't like a lot of fumes floating around. Just ordered a few so haven't had a chance to experiment yet. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks

-- Larry (Inthedark@Dallas.com), December 15, 1999

Answers

While I think the Petromax is intended for outdoor use, and that you would be MUCH happier burning and Aladdin indoors -- if you can find one -- I would recommend the same fuel mixture for the Petromax that I do for the Aladdin: kerosene, Pearl Grade K-1, maybe with a shot of methanol to catalyze combustion (although I suspects that the Petromax will burn cleaner than the Aladdin with or without the methanol). Mix rate is like 1 oz methanol to 5 gal kero. I think white gas (Coleman fuel) would also burn well enough indoors -- I had a close friend who always burned Coleman fuel in his Aladdins during outages and shut-offs; but for highest values of safety, economy, and cleanliness go with kero +. Petromax has a heavy-duty hiss which wopuld get old in a domestic setting; and is extrarodinarily bright for indoor use, plus generates a lot of heat and presumably consumes porpprtionally high O2.

-- Roch Steinbach (rochsteinbach@excite.com), December 15, 1999.

Concur. We have Petromax for outside and barn use which is great. Too noisy and hot for convenient indoor use, IMO. Of course, in an emergency, sure. But Aladdin's are better indoors by far.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), December 15, 1999.

Well darn! I just ordered 5 of them. I should know better than to make a move without consulting with the experts. Still have three names on our Christmas list....outdoor, hunter type relatives...guess they will be getting lanterns (and good ones too). NOW...off to try to find an Aladdin...Just hate watchin T.V. in the dark...Thanks to you all.....Uhhhh, any suggestions on Aladdins before I screw-up again???

-- Larry (Inthedark@Dallas.com), December 15, 1999.

Spare mantels, spare chimneys. On the chimneys, the high altitude chimneys are longer than standard length, better chimney effect, more air drawn, burns brighter, burns cleaner. You can add a rolled up piece of aluminum foil to get the same effect on any chimney. The Lox - On chimney is very prone to breakage from heat expansion if you put it on really tight. The straight walled chimney are less break prone but can tip and fall off when moving.

Folktale - put a new chimney into a pot, bring to a boil and then stop heat, allow to cool. Supposed to release lines of stress. Makes sense to me.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), December 16, 1999.

Mmm-hmmm: highly recommend you look for an Aladdin that can be accomodated in a wall bracket -- an item which Aladdin makes and markets along with the landterns. Lehman's might still have them, or www.nitropak.com. I prefer the brushed Aluminum "Watchman" model; -- the one Stan Faryna was co-op ordering a week or two ago: it' slick looking, and if it drops. you have a dented but functional landtern, as oposed to shards of glass. In fact! Stan might have one or two extras of those lying around, who knows?

If you can't find a wall-bracket you can make one, or may be able to find an old '70's wall bracket in a Flea Market or antique store. I found a cool wooden one with a mirror for $8, marked as a "wet plant stand" at my local flea market. Anyway, the light is more effective up above eye-level, and that way it much less liekly to get knocked by kids or cats.

And recommend you NOT give away all those Petromax lanterns. They are extraordinary things -- and if you get the right model can handle any fuel. I use mine in the garage.

-- Roch Steinbach (rochsteinbach@excite.com), December 16, 1999.

Larry,

I'll second the don't give away those petromax until you've tried them.

Yes they give out a lot of heat - but I understand they now have a stove attachment you can mount above the lanterns for cooking. You may not need the heat in dallas (open the windows?), the again goofy weather patterns could make that heat desirable. Yes they hiss as they burn - but they burn virtually anything. We fired ours up and shut off the lights. After an hour or so, we had tuned it out.

OK, not to be tacky, but just how big is your place? Five! Wow. Not to mention they are expensive suckers. We got one for the main living area and figured that the 'decorative' oil lamps and candles that don't produce that much light are sufficient for other areas.

Good Luck. jh

-- john hebert (jt_hebert@hotmail.com), December 16, 1999.

Questions? Call Diana at 727 856-9245 or e-mail at britelyt@earthlink.net

-- rb (ronbanks_2000@yahoo.com), December 16, 1999.

Yeah, John, I'm good at overkill....I just thought these were "little" lanterns. Figured I'd need one for the den and one for each bedroom....And these were backup to my 6.5K Gen which I just had converted to propane. Think I'm going "Nuts" trying to figure out every contingency! Best of luck to you & yours... Larry

-- Larry (Inthedark@Dallas.com), December 16, 1999.

Larry,

You're not going 'nuts'... you just do things with lot of Gusto! (Your family is fortunate that you have both the enthusiam and the means.) Have fun with those gifts.

jh

-- john hebert (jt_hebert@hotmail.com), December 17, 1999.