Paraffin Heaters

[rcawthr]

How do the old style aladdin paraffin heaters work and what should the wick look like? Does the system vapourize the fuel?

Mine just has a small blue flame around the top of the wick

[Ewood27]

Speaking from memory, the heater works by having the wick absorb and draw up the paraffin to where you light it.  The wick looks and feels rather like a circular webbing strap, damp with paraffin if it's in a heater with fuel in it.  The top 2 or 3 mm should be black and charred.

 

In use the flame causes intense heat at the very top of the wick which vapourises the paraffin, and it is the vapour that burns.  It should burn with a steady blue flame all round when the heater is closed up in normal working mode.  Turn it up too high and you will get yellow bits shooting from the top of the flame.  If the flame is blue in places and yellow in some others, and you can't get all blue by turning up or down, the wick may need trimming level.  A bit of a messy job!

 

Eventually the wick will burn away and have to be replaced, but yours sounds just fine.

[smudge]

Blimey that brings back memories. I remember having one of those ornate black paraffin heaters in the bedroom & when lit used to send lovely patterns over the ceiling, sending me off to sleep.

[Oor Wullie]

Me to Smudge, and the flame must be blue.

[smudge]

Yes - oh happy cosy days gone by!

[Pete H]

My father was Chief Engineer of Aladdin in the 60s.  By a strange coincidence, today I am going to sought out a special Blue flame Installation on Sir Francis Chichester's boat Gipsy Moth IV that he circumnavigated the world in. As a school boy and young engineer myself I used to visit his lab and understood moost of his developments. The principle is very simple. It vaporises the paraffin, draws in air using the chimney and mixes the two in the correct proportions in just the same way as a bunsen burner with the extra benefit that you do not have to set it. It is self balancing and is also quiet, very efficient and very clean burning.  One important aspect though. It must always be used in an adequately ventilated room as it will otherwise run short of oxygen and start producing Carbon Monoxide, which is poisonous rather than Carbon Dioxide, CO2 which is not. It also produces water which can increase condensation.

The blue flame is right. A yellow flame shows unburnt carbon particles and the wick should be adjusted or cleaned with a special wick cleaner

Hope that helps

 

[Savage5x]

Really a request for PeteH.

Pete, with your experience in this area, do you know of where I could obtain a tank for a DryWind, perhaps Dry Wind paraffin heater? I need a repalement tank or this one professionally repaired urgently as it heats the boat I live on. (I have undertaken a temporay repair but would feel happier with it done professionally.)

[Garethcnmjones]

They were too noisy...

[Garethcnmjones]

they were awful but worked well... Media URL: http://www.cnmonline.co.uk/Paraffin-Heaters-c-2335.html
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