Hi everyone, my most resent purchase was this Petromax lamp which arrived today. I'm not sure of age if any, probably one of the modern chinese ones. Not too bothered I just wanted a decent useable lamp. Which it was as you can see until the ceramic pepper pot dropped off B0!!$CKS. Might have been because I only had one sock mantle which I had already taken the string out of so I used thin wire to tie it onto the burner. Anyway whats done is done, so now I need a replacement 500cp ceramic burner if anyone has one I shall also put a wanted ad in the trade section. Here is a picture before I broke it. Whilst it was running however I noticed some slight pulsing so I tried to clean the jet which put it out so I lit the rapid pre-heater to try and get it going again but all I seemed to get was flames coming out of the top and it didn't go again. It was only after I'd let it cool down and was pumping it to keep the pressure up while heating it again that the burner fell off . Lucky I guess it didn't happen while the lamp was running . Any ideas gratefully received. Regards Matt.
Hi Matthew, Looks like a newer version to me but it sure looks good. Yes those nozzles can be an awful start when they get loose. It'll become a habit pretty quickly to check it before lighting. You should be able to get what you are needing from Stuga-Cabana or Pelam in Germany. It sure beats waiting for the post from the US.
Hi Matt, a few months ago I bought the same one as yours, with the blue plastic knobs. It came from a fisherman and was almost green with oxide. Now the surface is pretty rough, can't make it shine like yours! But it works 100% so I'm happy 8) . These white clay burner inserts do have a bad habit of coming loose, one does not want to force them in to hard for fear of damaging them. I got some replacements from a German firm that also sells cheap mantles and (Chinese?) replacement parts for Pmaxes & their clones. These were not expensive at all. Pelam (I think) is also selling a stainless steel version, when I saw these advertised they went for approx. 15€ each. Have not yet seen them in use, they claim one gets a brighter light using them. Dunno! Maybe someone on board has used one and can inform us? All the best, Wim
Hi Matt, I guess that the new ceramic burners are as well made as the lanterns..... I had once new from Hytta and comparing with the old ones they missed a full thread. In all my collecting years I had never one fallen off...until last meeting it happened twice with the same lantern. The solution was some exhaust kit. What you also can do is : when mounting, put a little piece of the mantle wire between the burner and the mount this will secure and tighten the ceramic somewhat.
Hi John, I thought it was probably a new(ish) one but not too bad. Quality I have to say doesn't seem as great as I thought but that I think is because it is so new. Gives out a good light though when it's going. I had seen the ones available from Germany but was hoping to find some in this country. Hi David, once again Base camp slipped my mind If all else fails then I will put an order in there. Hi Wim, I have seen your lamp in the reference gallery. Condition doesn't matter if you want to use the lamp so long as it gives a good light which these certainly do. Also you don't need to worry about damaging it. I saw the metal burners on ebay from Germany. They look quite good but they are £20 on top of the price of the lamp might just keep a spare ceramic one. Hi WimVe, always the way with modern stuff never made as well as the old ones. I like the idea of using something to stop it coming loose. Would you put some of that exhaust paste/sealant on the threads before fitting? Thanks to all of you for your replies. Best regards Matt.
Right then, this lamp has been put on the back burner for long enough now and it's time I had a go at fixing it again. I got a ceramic burner off another CPL member who is quite local to me so I went to visit him lamp in hand. We fitted the burner and a new mantle but we had no luck lighting it. We tightened the jet and vapouriser but, checked the air gap but nothing seemed to work. A lot of flames and a severely black mantle. We eliminated any fault with the lower half of the lamp including the jet as we fitted the top of one of his working Petromax lamps and it fired up perfectly and ran flawlessly for quite some time. So all I can think is that there is a problem with the fuel/air tube. I have cleaned this inside and out I have twiddled the control screw while it pumps out yellow flames and black smoke (No mantle). So any ideas, or perhaps if someone has a complete spare burner assembly, I would really appreciate it. Best regards Matt
Hi Matt, Had the same problem with my Relum Magnalux (Anchor). What I found was it took a long time to burn-in the new nozzle and new mantle. I wasted at least three different types of mantles, thinking that it was a mantle incompatibility; eventually, after just ignoring the excess flames, the new nozzle and new mantle settled down and it goes very well again. I had also tweaked the baffle adjustment, but made made no diffence, so took another similar hood/burner and tried that. This one worked, so looked at the baffle in the non-working burner tube and tweaked it till it was at the same aspect as the one in the working hood. No explaination as to why it now works, maybe just happens like that sometimes. I posted a pic of my Relum working here http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/3928 Regards Steve.
Hi, It might be the coil of the vapouriser is clogged, the paraffin doesn't get enough heat to evaporate which leads to an orange burn and soot. You can clean it with a Bowden cable that you, once it is in the coil, fit into a cordless screwdriver and let it rotate at low speed. To do the above you will have to remove the upper part of the vap and then the jet has to be removed.
Hi Steve, I have tried several times to light it now and it always does the same lots of fire and smoke but no attempt to burn with a blue flame. I think this is an unfortunate problem I am having with this lamp but it is putting me off buying anything other than the straight forward Tilley and Vapalux/Bialaddin lamps that I have come to love so much. I shall however persevere and continue to try and get it going but I think a new burner assembly is where I need to start. Hi Stephan, if all else fails then I will try what you say but I didn't want to disturb anything on the lower half as I think it is all ok. When I bought the lamp it had had little if not any use what so ever so it shouldn't really be clogged up at all. Thanks to both of you for your advice and i hope to get it sorted soon. Best regards Matt.
Hello Matt, are you only pre heating the lantern once? I have found that it sometimes helps if I pre heat the lantern twice, the second pre heat right after the first. Jeff.
Hi Jeff, I have been using the rapid pre-heater and usually have it running for about a minute to make sure it is hot enough. But still nothing
I have a Chinese Petromax clone that I bought from Clas Ohlson some years ago. It is a small 150cp model. It is the very devil to light. It once worked fairly well but after numerous flare-ups I got sick of it and it sat on the shelf for years. I have recently had a look at it again. I removed the vaporiser and found it was a mess in there. Cleaned up the needle and holder, the conducting rod and the vaporiser. I found a cracked thread in the china nozzle as well. It now works well again but for how long I don't know. These lamps look like absolute must have boy's toys -pressure indicators, roaring preheating torch etc but they seem over complicated. Just too much to go wrong especially when made in China. I know the trusty Vapalux M320 is unexciting but there is so little to go wrong and that is the brilliance of the thing. Sometimes keeping it simple is the best way... I also think that with these Petromax style lamps if you have a number of failed start ups and resulting flare ups that they get very gunged up with sticky half burnt crud. This makes it increasingly difficult to start it up the next time and so on and on until you get sick of it. A possible solution is to preheat very thoroughly every time and even more so if you have failed to get it going the time before.
