I was told my an old coleman lamp collector that putting glass globes under water and washing them with dishing washing liquid causes them to break, once washed and placed back they shatter or crack when left for a few weeks/months. All of my lantern finds old and new i spray with glass cleaner then rince under water with washing liquid to get the soot off the glass. Ive personally never had a glass break, be he swears that it will cause the glass to shatter/break in time. Can anyone tell me is this true, or myth, how do you clean old glass globes, and have you ever had the water break the glass, or come back after a few months to find it smashed. Regards Darren
Darren, I don't do a lot of lanterns anymore so I haven't done a glass globe in awhile. What I used to do was keep CLR in a plastic tub with a lid on. I used to just place the glass in the CLR and let it soak overnight then rinse and polish the next day. I've never had glass globes mysteriously shatter. I have had a wick lamps chimney shatter for no apparent reason but it had not, at least by me, been washed. Remember, lanterns are storm proof. They could take rain lashing onto the glass whilst the lantern was alight and to my knowledge it was quite safe for the glass.
Thankyou Matty, i havent had one break yet, tonight i washed a Colex globe that i picked up for $12 in a junk store. Its a little scratched but apart from that its mint. Not sure the age of the Colex Globe, this one is green writing only NO rising sun logo. Just the Colex on its own in green. Still a good score.
Darren, I wonder if your friend was using something abrasive on the globes and perhaps scratching the glass and hence weakening it. I don't suppose you know, I was more or less thinking out loud. $12 for a Colex globe is good going. Well done to you. Colex globes are still pretty abundant in Australia. They must have sold one hell of a lot in Australia. I have come across quite a few. I saw one on an Aladdin on ebay the other day. I showed the lamp to a collector in the US and he promptly bought it. They love their Colex over there. I even got a Colex on a Hasag that I bought. It is almost like the Colex glass was the replacement of choice for all lanterns for awhile. I suspect that 'awhile' was the war years.
Thanks yea it was a good buy, i see lots of them around. Its just a shame its got scratches in it, such as life. Im on the Gold Coast we see lots of coleman 214 with the colex glass in them. Only thing im finding in the 214 the assembly burner is always bent. Picked up 214B $50.00 new in the box few days ago. :-)
Hello Kiwiboy00, I've had glass globes just shattered when fired or during shutdown and cooling. That was after the globes being washed in some detergents and scrubbing off the old stains and dirt. At first it was rather mysterious. But after some pondering, I guessed they might have been scratched with a scouring pad Therefore, had some highly stressed points and uneven expansion/contraction, causing the globe to crack or shatter. In other cases, I washed them in some alkaline and acidic liquids, which could have chemically attacked the globes' surface and left behind some unseen residues/compounds. This too might had altered the thermal coefficient of expansion of the original glass globe partially on certain spots and caused it to easily crack during heating and cooling cycles. At least that's how I would reason them without proving them by meticulous tests.
I'm in Moreton Bay. 214 with the Colex. Perhaps the Colex were original to them? I don't know much at all about the newer lamps as I concentrate on the older ones. Anything NIB for $50 is a bargain.
I suspect the scrubbing may be playing a part, depending on what you are scrubbing with. That is why I soaked globes in CLR overnight, to avoid scrubbing and hence scratches.
Thanks MYN all of that sounds very plausible. I guess we will never really know. I might start spraying glass cleaner on the glass then rince it under water dry it off see how that goes. Moreton Bay beautiful place, lucky boy Matty. Whats your rarest lamp ? Also MYN whats yours. Also do you guys ever mix 50/50 kerosene/ shellite how do you find it.
Im going to buy some CLR try it out tomorrow. Just hope it dont eat away into the writing on the globe or remove it, or even distort the colour.
I've used 25/75 kerosene and petrol just to see how it worked and it was fine. However, I suspect long term, it would mean cleaning generators more often. Some of the old hollow wire lamps and Arc lamps, with their size generator, I suspect you could burn shellite in them for a long time before they needed cleaning. Those lamps were being manufactured when fuels were much less refined than they are now. Using modern unleaded in them is much cheaper than using shellite, so that's what I do.
I don't ever recall that being a problem with any glass with logo's, including Tilley. However, I suggest you take the utmost caution. I don't want to suggest you do something and it ends with a bad result. I would only overnight soak badly sooted glass or glass with burns on them. Otherwise, if you just want to clean up a glass that is a bit grubby, a five minute soak and a rub with a cloth under running water is all you need to do.
Well, I don't really have a 'rarest' lamp or lantern. Any pressure lantern is already rare to me here in Malaysia. I could hardly find any for sale anymore. Shellite or any fair quantities of similar naphta is unavailable to me here. I've mixed unleaded gasoline/petrol with kerosene(various ratios) for my Coleman 237 lantern. But then, I've burned both straight gasoline and straight kerosene without problems on it. Therefore the results for any Amish-type mixtures would be intermediate between the two extremes. However, if you've got a slightly worn jet on the lantern, these shellite mixtures would improve the burn by making it leaner than straight kerosene. That's when you would see a significant improvement in light output(brighter) besides an easier start-up.
Meths/alcohol does the job, I put some on a cloth and then gently rub the glass clean. Wet newspaper also works well and can also be used to clean window glass, the glass needs to be rinsed with water afterwards.
I have had at least two globes shatter maybe an hour or so after washing. Just sitting on the draining board and then a crack. I also had one crack in the lamp. It was an Optimus 253 which had not been run for maybe a year and had been hanging undisturbed in the house. Just popped one evening for no apparent reason. Borosilicate glass is generally hard, brittle and thin. I suspect that sometimes the inner stresses just let go. ::Neil::
There are sometimes voids(from manufacturing) within the glass globes which, could accentuate the internal stresses during rapid heating and cooling. It could be a matter of time before they crack. But these are due to a different cause. As for washing the globes, I suggest that strong alkalis such as concentrated sodium or potassium hydroxides, and acids such as hydrofluoric acid be avoided as these could attack even the relatively resistant borosilicate glasses...especially when hot. Physically scratched or chipped globes could also be prone to further cracking and eventual shattering, especially during heating or cooling cycles. The rest, remains mysterious.
I suspect this is not about the washing, it is about the handling. The globe has sat in the same place, upright most likely, through many heat cycles and the glass stress has adjusted to the conditions. Come along and start handlng it, washing it, applying unusual pressures to it and all that adjustment is undone. Ping. Wash it upright and touch it so gently it doesn't notice. Put it back on the same way up with whatever marks there are in in the same position relative to the burner if at all possible.
Sounds sensible. Maybe we should take more care. It's not a major problem though as it is a very small percentage that fail. Mind you the loss of the Optimus was a disaster since I cannot find a replacement so I can't run the lamp without a globe. ::Neil::
Thanks guys i really do appreciate the feedback, so do most of you only use glass cleaner and a cloth, or water & washing liquid. Myself i use glass cleaner let it sit for a few mins, use a soft cloth thats wet with glass cleaner & water, wipe it over, then rince it in cold tap water, then dry it off. Probably jinxed myself now lol
I think that while hot/warm from washing placing a globe on a surface which cools it faster or slower, then the upper part can cause problems. I just washed a dozen hurricane globes is the dishwasher and let them cool down inside. No problemo (yet). On the other hand these globes are hardened and should withstand heat changes.
I’ve had one globe, a cylindrical one, crack while being hand- washed, so now I am very careful: mild soap, warm water (not hot); rince in warm water; dry with kitchen paper. Sometimes the soot is baked on, and in this situation I use methylated spirits to clean the soot. I always dry them, rather than leave them to dry. Cheers Tony
I asked a similar question a while back, i've had a couple of straight globes ( Coleman and Vapalux ) crack on the window sill after washing in warm soapy water but since then i've been using moist kitchen wipes to clean them and drying with kitchen roll, so far so good.
I prefer the solvent method with a kitchen towel over washing. Meths or Bio-Ethanol seem to work best. Definitely not the dish washer. Hardened most of them they may be but I think that could be asking for trouble and is definitely not the method for the rare ones.
I have never lost one yet in the dishwasher. Being an idle old git it is a cleaning method that suits me well. I even shove table lamp galleries complete with burner and globe in there. Saves me dismantling them. Works very well. ::Neil::
Glass globes build up internal stresses over time due to the repeated uneven heating and cooling which are typical in normal use. The stresses in the glass can be made visible to the human eye using polarised light and viewing through a polaroid filter. The stresses appear as a moire pattern in the glass. The stresses can be relieved by annealing the glass in a kiln. Gradual heating to the temperature where the glass starts to soften followed by very slow cooling for about a day down to room temperature. After annealing the glass will be much less susceptible to cracking during washing or drying or in use for many years.
Every globe I've got bar one has been washed in warm soapy water and then carefully dried with a piece of kitchen paper towel and left while the warmth finishes the drying process. None have broken and it they do it won't be the soapy water that did it. The one glass I did not clean with warm soapy water (because it was clean enough already) broke the second time I lit the lantern because it was made of poorly made, paper thin Chinese glass. I seriously doubt that warm soapy water kills Pyrex and or borosilicate glass. If that was true, why the hell would labs use it... they might as well use bloody jam jars instead. If your lantern globe breaks (assuming you didn't score it with a diamond glass cutter or throw it against the wall) it was because it was it's time to break.
....ALSO... most of the globes we all use are old and have been heated and cooled many many times with the resultant stresses involved. To say that washing in warm soapy water must have been the problem and not the thousands or heat/cool cycles is a bit silly IMHO.
