Hi All I found this Coleman 480 Hot Ray radiant heater on the bay of evils some time ago. I was lucky to find it complete including the ceramic heat mantle. These are very fragile and typically are missing. Note the colour of the fount. At this stage it’s difficult to determine its actual original fount colour. It was a surprise to find, after cleaning, that the fount is nickel plated and had never been painted. The fount was dated 9 4 indicating April 1929. After cleaning, using high temperature paint on the wire screen grille and repainting the wooden handle, it was reassembled. Now the money shot. The Hot Ray uses Coleman Fuel, I used Shellite. The Hot Ray is just that. It puts out a surprising amount of radiant heat. Variations During the fettle and with access to alternate parts I found some variations in the actual manufactured items as follows: In the above examples, I found there are 2 variations of heat retaining fillings in the generator support tubes. The left hand tube assembly uses a fibre woven type sleeve covering a steel rod and the right hand tube has a steel spring. I used the steel spring in my fettle. There appear to be 2 variations of the control valve knobs. The method of retaining the knob is significantly different. The left hand knob is retained on a squared shaft by a centre screw. The second, or right hand version is retained by a grub screw locating on a larger diameter collar soldered to the shaft. Under close inspection, the right hand version appears to be “as built” in the factory. The valve packing retaining nut has more shaft clearance to be able to be unscrewed and slid off the shaft. On close inspection, the inside of the nut’s shaft opening is nickel plated giving a strong indication that this was not bored out after factory fitting. That is to say it appears that this was a factory variation. The knob has text “UNION MFG.CO.LTD.” imprinted. This was a very interesting and satisfying fettle. Thank you for looking Cheers Pete
Marvellous and thorough fettle. I have the ceramic mantle too but I’m not game to risk it. Have seen the nice home made metal ones too and may do that. Nice detail and description in the knob assemblies. Thanks for presenting it so well.
Australian advertisements for the Coleman Hot Ray can be found here: https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/coleman-quick-lite-co-of-australia-24-may-1930.13327/ Here: https://classicpressurelamps.com/th...-of-australia-19-july-1930.14102/#post-102580 And here: https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/coleman-quick-lite-co-of-australia-1931.12720/ Cheers Tony
Peter I was struck by your comparison photo above, showing the two control wheels. The wheel on the right looks identical to one seen on a Collins Bros lantern: Your photo. Colins Bros (curtesy of @Akeepsake). An open question to all members is: On what lanterns etc does this black “swirl” knob appear? Cheers Tony
Great fettle PETE! @Tony until now I have never seen that valve knob on anything but the Radiant Star I have a hot beam that was found here in Australia which has what I would class as a standard Coleman valve wheel What interests me is the other (LH) knob is the same as what’s on my Collins Brothers?? Lots of speculative thoughts running through my head now !!! PETE I’m wondering if the generator support tube variations in packaging denote gas or kero usage ?? That would be my guess ?
@Akeepsake I’m with you on thinking it’s Canadian. The nickel fount certainly points that way, the US examples all seem to be painted founts. I have never seen any reference to the Hot Ray being run on kerosene, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any reference. The only issue I can see would be the preheating. It kerosene was to be used there would have to be some sort of preheater employed and looking at the construction of the heater, generator, R55, and the ceramic mantle assembly any fixing or mounting a preheater would be difficult. Further I haven’t seen any reference of preheater for a Hot Ray. Lots of questions about this radiant heater, that’s the fun of it all, getting the mysteries solved one by one. Cheer mate Pete
Here is mine complete smaller canadian fount dated 35 both knobs just plain, I have another with same size fount and have seen 2 others in my travel the same . Bob .
I haven’t seen a Kero one either . Was just a thought? I’m surprised yours isn’t stamped on the fount ? Mine is a US two tone painted fount Nd is stamped
@Sedgman Wow ....... do you have any details, pictures and/or preheat method etc? It’s certainly the right weather to fire up a Hot-Ray. Cheers mate Pete
I think a good guess, as the kero ones exist. Well Pete, I thought they were only Coleman Fuelled but I couldn't argue with the label. My kerosene Coleman CQ Quicklite Hot Ray 480 runs better on kero than Shellite. I have made my own metal mantle because I had the asbestos one that looked intact and survived a soaking in metho and initial light but I had to remove it for maintenance and it was not up to that. The decal / 'transfer' clearly indicates kero. I used a Tilley pre-heater clip with metho clipped to the generator as shown. I also gave it a hand with some heat from a gas blowtorch. The unit is Canadian and 9 1935 so two years after the Coleman book says Canadian model ran till!!! I do know these dates are up for review as more information comes to light so I am not being critical. I f I pull the fuel tube out in the future I will let you know what I find inside; either a spring or a fibrous covering and any notes I can make with a Kansas 480. Photos attached. Iain
This is an old post but that's a great fettle, @AussiePete And @Sedgman , you'll have fun fettling that Hotray 480!
