Greetings Keith, I'm going to try it on kerosene and if that works I'll know it's not the stove. I have heard from some other Petromax owners that there may have been a bad batch of stoves. This one does have a bad pressure gauge. I will call Britelyt and see what they say.
The BD I put in it was not winterised and came out of a cold storage shed so it was a little thick, so I cut it with some dino. It came close to lighting - a lot of sputtering. I heated the stove ring with a propane torch. I've been using the same BD in my car @ 50/50 w/ dino and so far it's been ok. By meths do mean methanol? Do you think Isopropyl would work? I hope to have time to get back to it this weekend. I will write up what I discover and post it. I'm not ready to give up on the stove yet! Regards, Mike Keith Addison wrote: >Hi Mike > >I'm puzzled. We use 100% biodiesel in this stove, a standard kerosene >pressure stove from India: >http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_processor10.html#stove > >It's just the same as all the other pressure stoves and blowtorches >I've used, Primus and so on, and pressure lanterns (I had an Aida >Petromax lantern). There's a trough under the burner, you fill it >with meths and light it, by the time it's nearly all burnt up the >pipes are hot enough to gasify the fuel, pump up the pressure and >you're away. It works just the same with biodiesel, never fails. It >does get cold here (it IS cold here!). The Aida was a bit more >complicated, but basically the same IIRC. Aida's the same as >BriteLyt. It's hard to see much detail in the picture of the BriteLyt >stove at their website, but I'm surprised it's not working. > >Up to now I'd have said it's not that you're lucky if you can get a >kero pressure stove to burn biodiesel, more like you're unlucky if >you can't. I've found the BriteLyt folks responsive in the past, and >they seem to be interested in biofuels applications. Why don't you >ask them to help you? They probably will, and if you'd be so kind you >could forward it here so Ken and others get an answer too. > >Best > >Keith > > > > >>So far all attempts to light it have failed. It's 30 degrees here and >>that may have something to do with it. I cut the BD w/ a good shot of >>Dino diesel and still no go. I got the preheater going but no flame on >>the ring. I brought it inside overnight to warm up and will try it >>again. If it doesn't go I'll mix in some kerosene. The booklet says >>you have to preheat for 3 1/2 mins sometimes to get BD lit. It came >>smelling of kerosene to I expect the factory lit it and tested it. FWIW >>the pressure gauge is bad but it does hold pressure. >> >>I had hoped to use it to heat oil so the the bd process was all fueled >>by BD. >> >>I also looked at some of the camping stoves but they are very expensive >>and designed to be as light weight as possible. The guy at the camping >>store said the thinner distillates works best. >> >>We'll see, >> >>Mike >> >>Ken Dunn wrote: >> >> >> >>>Please, let us know how it does, Mike. >>> >>>Take care, >>> >>> >>>On 12/5/05, Mike Weaver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>>Just got a Britelyt today. Haven't been able to get it to light on BD >>>>but I think it may be due to the fuel being too cold. Will report back >>>>if I get it going. >>>> >>>> >>>>Ken Dunn wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>>What is everyone using as a heat source for preheating? I'm thinking >>>>>about buying the BriteLyt mentioned on JtF. I could use it for other >>>>>purposes as well which would be nice. Anyone test it? Care to >>>>>comment? >>>>> >>>>>Take care, >>>>>Ken >>>>> >>>>> > > > >_______________________________________________ >Biofuel mailing list >Biofuel@sustainablelists.org >http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): >http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
