Use of "bio" fuels with Petromax pressure lamps.

Welcome to the forums, William!
Truth is you rarely see retailers advertise products for use for indoors because they don't want to make themselves liable. On top of that they rarely have any reliable data on how dangerous indoor use is. Heck, if I'd be a retailer I'd refrain from advertising my products for indoor use, too.
That said it is perfectly possible to run your Petromax indoors. As you normally run Petromaxes with kerosene (in German: petroleum) there will be virtually no explosive gases.
The problem is, as you already mentioned, with carbon monoxide. I refrain to run my Petromax indoors for a prolonged period because carbon monoxide always builds up. Your best bet is to ventilate regularly or - even better - have a window leaned slightly open at all times to allow for fresh air coming in. Fresh air is the best way to stop carbon monoxide building up.

Pelam Alkan is labeled as purified paraffin. It is kerosene just with a different name.

The second lamp oil you mention, Agowa, is not meant to be burned in our Petromaxes. It can be burned and it has been used with success. However vegetable-derived oil will always clog up the vaporizer faster than with kerosene. In terms of indoor use it is not better than generic kerosene.

Regards, Dietmar

Welcome here, William

The use of an pressure Lantern indoors is always a thing You should know what You do.
Make sure there's a possibility of air exchange. Also choose an clean fuel due reduce the possibility of toxic combustion products.

The problem with the vegetable oil is that this not complete vaporize. Some of the fuel components crack in the vaporizer and will clog it in a short time. Like Didi already wrote.

Regards,
Rüdiger

Hi William

Good to have another Irish man here...these Germans are ganging up on me

As for the fuel....its a tricky one....Im going to convert my petromax to take standard unleaded buy changing the gaskets etc...and my older Colemans run on CF fuel which is about 11eur for 1lt ...have tried different fuels but with no results...as the guys said with the bio stuff it can cause other problems...

Hi lampies i would personaly use the fuel the lantern was designed for bio fuel diesel i woluld take a lot longer in warming/primming and would not burn as good and would block the vapouriser/ generator with carbon a lot quicker

If the petromax is converted to use coleman fuel a lot of us collectors here in the Uk use panel wipe from motor factors or aspen4T which is a unleaded petrol with out any additives which is not as easy to buy but both products work well and is a lot cheaper than coleman fuel

Brian

The very man

This panel wipe..has it any adverse affects on paint???...Cause I normally overfill!! Is it ok to use this in Coleman CF lanterns??

Coleman fuel is through the roof here...just not an option anymore!

Hi Fox I personaly have never used panel wipe but i am a member of spiritburner a forum very simular to this forum, a lot of the members on there use panel wipe in there coleman stoves and any petrol stoves like the primus71 etc and they say it works and performs the same so if the lantern is designed for unleaded petrol then panel wipe would work fine i only have a small selection of petrol fueled stoves so i have not used it ,just in case there is any confusion with panel wipe it has to be the solvent based and it is used to clean body work prior to spraying i would not try to use cellulose thiner.
i do believe panel wipe is naptha based like coleman fuel

Brian

Thanks for info....I shall give it a try....this CF fuel is an outrages price

I looked it up trough my company, that works with all sorts of biostuff. The Problem is that 90% of all types of biofuel has to be preheated, and that has to be done to a boiling temperatur, so that the carbonhydrates gets split up in smaller parts, else it won't burn. So you wouldn't be able to use the rapid preheater. But it could be done by using the spirit preheater. BUT Petromax also warns in the instructions that it can't burn colored oils. But i think may be able by using palm oil or rapeseed oil. The are thin.. And boils easily.

I don't have an answer, but i think that i could be fun trying one day. I think i will try boiling the oil first, and then cool it down, and put it on and then tyr it out.

best Regards Jesper.

Rapeseed oil has already been tried with horrendous results. But if you want to see that for yourself go ahead—I can't stop you, can I?

Regards, Dietmar