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?
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.
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.
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 :D
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. :wink: