Hello, petromax quality

Hi after lurking and looking at various posts on here I got a petromax hk500 for my Christmas present.
After having two that had manufacturing issues that pelam couldn't be bothered with I thought I would drop by and say hello.

I'd like to ask if I return the lantern- are there any better choices as I needed two and a maintenance kit to make one good one.

My trials ant tribulations are listed at www.petromax.org.uk

 

You are definitely in the right place. There are several extremely knowledgeable gentlemen who post here.

From my own very limited experience I would recommend you buy an older Petromax, possibly on ebay, and "Fettle" it yourself. You will be much happier in the end, and you will understand how the thing works, so next time you will not need pelam.

But you may find yourself buying more and more lanterns and lamps.

Very Best Wishes
Dan MacPherson

 

Hello!
You will fall in love with the old Petromax lamps.

 

Quality control has always been a problem with any Chinese made lanterns and the modern Petromax is no exception. Personally I have no experience with Pelam. I buy Petromax parts from Stuga-Cabana http://hytta.de/index.htm mostly because the service is good and my friend Erik Leger works for Juergen and he is a serious lamp collector who knows a great deal about Petromax and German lamps in general. I understand from Erik that they have to check each lamp before they sell because of these problems. I wold expect therefore that their lamps are good to go when you recieve them.

I agree that buying an older example from the Bay and fettling it yourself will certainly get you a better quality lantern. Any of them up to around the mid 1990s will be good because they were made in Germany up to the early 1970s and then for about 20 years at the Hipolito works in Portugal. In fact the Portugese Hipolito lantern is also a good quality product and Petromax parts will fit and work in them.

Part of the problem here is the different expectations we have to the Chinese. We expect a product that is ready to go right out of the box. In general the Chinese buyer expects to have to do a little work before it will function correctly. The products are cheap and you get what you pay for. I know they are not cheap when you buy one from Germany but they were when the German company bought them from Hong Kong. ::Neil::

 

Well two things:
1) A german friend used to say: the last petromax was build in 1969 when they closed the factory in Altena.
2) Petromax is a name not bound to a specific model of lantern.

Quality is always in the hands of the manufacturer.

I remember that Bart from BBL got two new lanterns from Pelam. He had to rebuild them first before he could light them.

So in the end statement 1 is true.
Somewhere I posted a long stiory about the last good quality ex army petromax lanterns. It maybe worth reading.

 

Hello and welcome aboard!

 

Wim is quite right here of course as from 1969 they were not made in Germany and the quallity started to suffer. The Portugese ones are pretty good but they made the top caps of steel which is not as good as the original German types. However these European Petromax products are OK and of pretty good quality. The Hong Kong product is not near as well made and there have been many quality issues. Trouble is even today they are still marked as German made, which is a foul lie but some people, such as the good folk at Britelyt, chose to believe it.

 

after making one perfect lantern out of two.

I have finally got the sprung loaded fuel valve to behave on lamp two- I filed and 1200 wet and dried the razor sharp lips off the valve seat.

Re assembled it and three runs the sod decided to misbehave again- the solution seems to be complete wear part replacement as the seal was lifting out of housing as well.

Hi Wim, small world, we spoke at Christmas

I'm hooked.

I have tried a butterfly 41 500cp mantle and it appears the tie string is weaker- so on tying it must be right down by lip of burner nozzle.

On a plus side mantle seems more robust than the petromax mantles which are less than great in my opinion.

Does anyone else have a better non thorium mantle suggestion

 

oh and any thoughts on a small spot of holts fire gum to retain burner nozzle?

 

I have had a few of those ceramic nozzles drop out in transit and I have fixed a few in with exhaust cement so yes a small dab to hold it in should work fine. Don't use too much though because if you ever need to remove it you may find it will only come out by breaking it. ::Neil::

 

I think I have a new hobby developing, thanks for your replies

 

Turns out a website and some visits to pelam's forum repeatedly-They now want to talk, so hopefully I will get a satisfactory response and am keeping an open mind.

 

Hope to see yu at Pelams to make your own

Karli from Germany

 

Well after what can only be an interesting set of responses from pelam.

I will wait till tomorrow and if they don't decide to get their act together-I'll post every communication I have from them and there are some juicy points that show they tell porkies.

Some cached pages make interesting reading as well

 

Pelam pedalling crap as my website shows, many too scared to call them out for what it is.
Chinese based crap for as much as possible!!

If I'd have bought a butterfly or an anchor from santex it couldn't be much worse.

Britelyt do petromax in usa and pelam in Europe, their warranty as per their booklet is worth sweet FA as well.

The general line is manufacturer not in control of quality - wtf are they on

 

You are confusing manufacturers here. Modern Petromax are made by Santromax in Hong Kong and as you have noted the quality is not great.

Anchor are made in Shanghai China and you get what you pay for. Poor quality materials but in general a reasonable lantern.

Butterfly are another matter. These are a much better made lantern by Lea Hin in Malaysia or the TingKwon factory in Hong Kong.
Not all Asian made lanterns are the same and there are some half decent makes out there. ::Neil::

 

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anybody would want to buy any of these Asian-made Petromax clones.

If you want a high quality user lantern, simply buy an ex-military Vapalux, either new or used, via eBay and have done with it, once and for all. It'll see you out and your childrens, childrens, children will probably still be using it next century.

That's what I thinks anyway...

 

I agree with you there. If you want a Petromax then there are plenty of 'real' (German made) ones available at cheaper prices than a new one. I'm not too fond of Petromax myself, but I do understand the reasoning for having one. Spares are readily available because of all the clones around.

 

It depends on what you want from your lantern. Vapalux are solid and robust, I give you that, but they aren't very bright...
And that's often what you want from a lantern you really intend to use; as much light as possible.
If you need a really bright lantern, but still wants quality that will last, just go for an original Petromax like Nils says.
Or it's European made clones or "semi-clones".

 

Well, they're at least as bright as any other manufacturer's 300cp lantern and a good deal brighter than many.

I can't speak for yours, Christer, but my Vapaluxes are easily bright enough for my purposes...

 

Well David, that's a pretty bold thing to state...
You have obviously not seen a well working Optimus 300 in action, just to mention one.
And I know that real Petromax's are even brighter than our domestic (read Swedish) plagiates.

I'm not trying to compete here - that's just ridiculous - but to say that a Vapalux is as bright as any other 300 cp rated lantern is just a bit too much.

I really like British lamps and lanterns, no doubt about that. And I have quite a few.
They have many qualities!
But the word 'Brightness' would not be the first thing I would consider...

 

By definition, a 300cp lantern is as bright as a 300cp lantern...

 

No way! You´re not kidding, are you?
300 meaning 300... who would have thought it...

Well, seriously, that goes without saying!
But can you please elaborate what you mean by that remark?
It was you yourself who brought this very subjective thing with rated CP´s up, and I know that you, just as most in here, know that rated CP´s from manufacturers is a completely different thing from both experienced and actual ditto's.
That's why I can't figure out why you get so upset over the fact that different 300 cp rated lanterns differs in actual light output.

 

Well I'm not upset at all, Christer, I've got far more important things to get upset about. I just thought that your remark suggesting Vapalux lanterns weren't bright was a sweeping generalisation and gave an unfair impression of the breed.

It just seems odd that the military - British Army and NATO - have had it wrong for the past 70-odd years...

 

Please provide links

 

I note Butterfly are sold in USA, do they sell in uk? not seen one yet for sale.

 

I'm thinking of ebay or other auction sites, flea markets, secondhand stores, etc.

 

I don't think they had it wrong. Other things were probably more important for them than the best possible light output.
A tough and sturdy lantern must be of more importance under some conditions.

 

A while back, Neil made luminous intensity measurements of some lamps and his conclusion was the same.

Granted most of these were from a sample set of one, and others may do better or worse depending on age and condition, but it's a good comparison none the less.

Dan

 

I found butterfly seem slightly more forgiving than the petromax ones when transported in a car after use.

as all mantles are essentially ash, does anyone have an opinion on which are more robust to a degree?

I am aware of hair spray mist as an option as well.