Sourcing Lamp Oil

[Parahandy]

For many years I have enjoyed Oil Lamps on my Canal Boats , both the Heavy Brass Gimbal Wall Mounted Type as well as a couple of Traditional Table Lamps scattered throughout the Boat , I think them almost Therapeutic especially in the Winter in the middle of nowhere with some Coffee on the Stove . I have been using Bartoline Lamp Oil in 1 litre Bottles which I was originally sourcing from Uxbridge Chandlery at £2.20 a Bottle , I would often stock up when passing or even jump in the car for an occasional weekend visit should my supply run low . The problem I have recently faced is one of supply with none being available on my last two visits , this has caused me to shop around and I have been stunned with the prices being asked for this stuff , anything from £2.20 at Uxbridge to £9.00 at a Hardware shop in Tring , all for the identical Product by the same Manufacturer , in fact it seems that sellers are now speculating in this Product as if it were some Precious Metal , the pricing can be Breathtaking . In the end I sourced some from an Internet Supplier and because I bought in bulk it worked out cheaper than even Uxbridge when you factored in my Travel Costs. Does anyone have similar experience or thoughts to offer .

[DaveR]

B & Q have loads as it is the same as used in the garden "candles" that they sell. Major supermarkets also have stocks during the barbecue season.

[Parahandy]

Thanks Dave I shall take a look .

[Alan de Enfield]

There are various 'grades' of kerosene - Lamp-Oil is simply the 'posh' name for the high grade paraffin - often labelled as 'premium paraffin'.

 

Paraffin is simply standard domestic heating Kerosene but with a higher level of refinement and is called "K1 Kerosene"

K1 grade is the purest form of kerosene. It's clear or slightly yellow, with a maximum sulphur content of 0.04 percent by weight. Due to its low sulphur content, it's possible to burn K1 kerosene without a flue to remove combustion by-products from the room. However, you should avoid red dyed K1 kerosene, specially indoors, as it has more impurities and can produce more fumes than its clear version.

K2 grade kerosene can contain up to 0.30 percent sulphur, which is a much higher level than K1 grade kerosene. K2 kerosene must only be burned in appliances with a flue, as the fumes released can be very harmful if inhaled. In the case of heaters, K2 must not be used also because it affects proper fuel wicking, creating the need for frequent wick cleaning and maintenance that can produce a fire or explosion hazard.

[Mac of Cygnet]

Paraffin comes in various colours according to brand (Dum, dum, dum, Esso Blue!), Aladdin Pink, and green.  Should none of these be burned without a flue?  We used a Tilley lamp at home for years during power cuts, before LEDs overtook it.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Paraffin from DIY shops or garden centres can be, if your lucky, less then a fiver for 5 litres.

I use paraffin in Davy lamps and a range of other lamps burns clean and well

[WotEver]

But ‘paraffin’ stinks... of paraffin. 

‘Lamp oil’ doesn’t. 

[tree monkey]

28 minutes ago, WotEver said:

But ‘paraffin’ stinks... of paraffin. 

‘Lamp oil’ doesn’t. 

Paraffin smells lush

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Paraffin smells lush

You're weird. Bet you like creosote too

[David Schweizer]

5 hours ago, Parahandy said:

For many years I have enjoyed Oil Lamps on my Canal Boats , both the Heavy Brass Gimbal Wall Mounted Type as well as a couple of Traditional Table Lamps scattered throughout the Boat , I think them almost Therapeutic especially in the Winter in the middle of nowhere with some Coffee on the Stove . I have been using Bartoline Lamp Oil in 1 litre Bottles which I was originally sourcing from Uxbridge Chandlery at £2.20 a Bottle , I would often stock up when passing or even jump in the car for an occasional weekend visit should my supply run low . The problem I have recently faced is one of supply with none being available on my last two visits , this has caused me to shop around and I have been stunned with the prices being asked for this stuff , anything from £2.20 at Uxbridge to £9.00 at a Hardware shop in Tring , all for the identical Product by the same Manufacturer , in fact it seems that sellers are now speculating in this Product as if it were some Precious Metal , the pricing can be Breathtaking . In the end I sourced some from an Internet Supplier and because I bought in bulk it worked out cheaper than even Uxbridge when you factored in my Travel Costs. Does anyone have similar experience or thoughts to offer .

I have been using oil lamps for daecades and have always Paraffin, which is still readily available from Agricultural merchants, Garden centres and even some Garage forecourts. Lamp Oil was always expensive compared with paraffin but has become extreemly expensive in recent years, and apart drom when i aquired some free of charge , have never used it. I would suggest that you gat some paran=ffinand try it, before trying to seekanother source of. lamp oil.

[David Schweizer]

3 hours ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Paraffin comes in various colours according to brand (Dum, dum, dum, Esso Blue!), Aladdin Pink, and green.  Should none of these be burned without a flue?  We used a Tilley lamp at home for years during power cuts, before LEDs overtook it.

When did you last buy any paraffin? Esso Blue, Aladdin Pink, and Fina Green have not been available for abnout twenty years. sinc the old imperial paraffin pumps were banned. The only colour yo will find nowadays is either pale brown or purple.

43 minutes ago, WotEver said:

But ‘paraffin’ stinks... of paraffin. 

‘Lamp oil’ doesn’t. 

If your oil lamp "stinks" it either need cleaning, or the paraffin has gone off and lost it's perfume, which is added to disguise the naturall (horrible) smell of paraffin.

13 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Paraffin smells lush

What most people think of as the smell of paraffin is a perfume which is added to disguise it's natural smell which is not nice. It is also dyed to disguise the natural muddy brown colour.

Edited April 27, 2018 by David Schweizer

[tree monkey]

12 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

You're weird. Bet you like creosote too

Hell yeah

[Mac of Cygnet]

1 hour ago, David Schweizer said:

When did you last buy any paraffin? Esso Blue, Aladdin Pink, and Fina Green have not been available for abnout twenty years. sinc the old imperial paraffin pumps were banned. The only colour yo will find nowadays is either pale brown or purple.

 

I just had a look at the contents of my two cans of paraffin.  The one prepacked by British Fuels is as you say, purple.  The other, in an anonymous can, and therefore probably filled from a bulk supply (hardware store?) is most definitely blue. So the latter is over 20 years old? Does it go off?  It still smells of paraffin, which like Tree Monkey I quite like.

[Dr Bob]

10 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

I just had a look at the contents of my two cans of paraffin.  The one prepacked by British Fuels is as you say, purple.  The other, in an anonymous can, and therefore probably filled from a bulk supply (hardware store?) is most definitely blue. So the latter is over 20 years old? Does it go off?  It still smells of paraffin, which like Tree Monkey I quite like.

Depends what you mean by go off?. It will still burn, likely as well as when new. Maybe a few hydrocarbon chains will have reacted via the odd olefinic bond to form longer chains and a few will have split via oxidation but nothing to bother you unless you a using it to fuel a jet engine.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Dr Bob

[rusty69]

Just now, Dr Bob said:

Maybe a few hydrocarbon chains will have reacted via the odd olefinc bond to form longer chains and a few will have split via oxidation

I hate it when that happens!

[Dr Bob]

I know. Think of all the energy being wasted to achieve the activation energy threshold that is required for these reactions to proceed and then entropy takes over.

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Dr Bob said:

I know. Think of all the energy being wasted to achieve the activation energy threshold that is required for these reactions to proceed and then entropy takes over.

I was just thinking that myself Dr Bob!

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, Dr Bob said:

...........and then entropy takes over.

When it comes to mechanical work I quite regularly suffer from that

[rusty69]

"Entropy, entropy......it'll all end in entropy."

 

Quote by the great Kenneth Williams (or sumit similar)

 

[Dr Bob]

.......or was it enthalpy?

 

Did entropy ever fix windows?

Edited April 27, 2018 by Dr Bob

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

.......or was it enthalpy?

 

Isn't that a camera up the back passage ?

[Dr Bob]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Isn't that a camera up the back passage ?

No, that's painful......so I'm told.

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Dr Bob said:

No, that's painful......so I'm told.

Its not the camera you need to worry about (unless its wide angle), butt the cameraman and crew!

[David Schweizer]

1 hour ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

I just had a look at the contents of my two cans of paraffin.  The one prepacked by British Fuels is as you say, purple.  The other, in an anonymous can, and therefore probably filled from a bulk supply (hardware store?) is most definitely blue. So the latter is over 20 years old? Does it go off?  It still smells of paraffin, which like Tree Monkey I quite like.

My experience suggests that paraffin does not de-grade if it is kept in an airtight container, it only seems to  "go off" if kept in a non-airtight container, such as an oil lamp, for a long time, where the atmosphere can get to it. Smell it, and if it still smells of what we have come to recognise as the (perfumed) smell of paraffin, then it is OK. I still have an almost full tin of Fina Green, which is areally quite a rich dark colour, I keep it for filling clear lamp founts. One thing I have noticed is that the old Aladdin Pink did loose it's dyed colour if kept in a steel ungalvanized tin over time, but it retains the perfumed smell, Ideal if you want clear paraffin.

As for the smell, I also like it. It takes me back to my youth when we had an old Fordson tractor on the farm where I helped out, it ran on paraffin, and i still love the smell of old tractors running on paraffin.

Edited April 27, 2018 by David Schweizer

[Flyboy]

9 hours ago, Parahandy said:

For many years I have enjoyed Oil Lamps on my Canal Boats , both the Heavy Brass Gimbal Wall Mounted Type as well as a couple of Traditional Table Lamps scattered throughout the Boat , I think them almost Therapeutic especially in the Winter in the middle of nowhere with some Coffee on the Stove . I have been using Bartoline Lamp Oil in 1 litre Bottles which I was originally sourcing from Uxbridge Chandlery at £2.20 a Bottle , I would often stock up when passing or even jump in the car for an occasional weekend visit should my supply run low . The problem I have recently faced is one of supply with none being available on my last two visits , this has caused me to shop around and I have been stunned with the prices being asked for this stuff , anything from £2.20 at Uxbridge to £9.00 at a Hardware shop in Tring , all for the identical Product by the same Manufacturer , in fact it seems that sellers are now speculating in this Product as if it were some Precious Metal , the pricing can be Breathtaking . In the end I sourced some from an Internet Supplier and because I bought in bulk it worked out cheaper than even Uxbridge when you factored in my Travel Costs. Does anyone have similar experience or thoughts to offer .

https://www.restexpress.co.uk/acatalog/Barrettine_Premium_Grade_Paraffin.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI04zfsdba2gIV7rftCh1gpA6XEAQYASABEgLlh_D_BwE

https://www.clearcraft-catering.co.uk/lamp-oil.html

Edited April 27, 2018 by Flyboy