Lamp Oil

[Ray & Sandy Erps]

Anyone have an alternative fuel oil for kerosene lamps?  I've been buying lamp oil at the local drug/hardware store.  It labeled 99% pure parafin oil.  I've used a product labeled liquid candle before that burns well, but it's expensive.  I tried regular kerosene once, but we both thought it stunk.  I went to the local home improvement mega store to see what was on their shelves.  They had some sort of painter's naphtha, mineral spirits and big cans of kerosene.  I suspect that the naphtha and mineral spirits are too volatile to use in a wick lamp, but they were priced right.  Anyone have some insight into all these fuel possibilities?

[Stu Jackson]

Ray

Regular lamp oil from the hardware store works fine in our wick lamps (saloon trawler lamp, small anchor light and wick candle light).

$4 at Ace, $8 at West Marine.  No brainer.

[Ken Juul]

We use "scented lamp oil" in our Weems and Plath yacht lamps.  Quarts are available at Walmart for a couple bucks or occasionally the Dollar Store.  Tried several brands, none have been too sooty or smelly.

[Tom Glennon]

BEWARE of the trickery of sly wording on the labels of some "oil" products.

I grabbed a bottle one time in haste, seeing the words "100% parafin"....only to read later that the line above it said"Contains less than..."  Nothing burns cleaner than the pure paraffin, in my humble estimation  

[Ron Hill]

Ray: Watch out with the stuff you're mixing - that stuff can be volatile.
The best price that I've found on liquid paraffin is to buy it from West Marine/Boat US in the 2 gal jug.  The price is in the packaging and that liquid paraffin burns clean with practically no smell.