Problems lighting the Petromax 500

Hi all

I have recently bought a petromax HK500 and am having problems getting the mantle to glow. Instead there is a large halo around the mantle but no white light. Also flames come out of the hood. Its not clear whether the flames come from the halo or somewhere else. After the attempt the mantle is black with soot.

I have read other threads and followed the advice.

I have done the following
1) Check the mantle condition. Beside the black spots there are not tears rips hoels etc
2)Checked the cermanic burner for blockages. No blockages
3) Checked the tightness of the burnchamber and the cermanic burner. They were tight
4)Cleaned out the mixing tube (33n) to remove any carbon
5)Replaced the nipple and needle to ensure the hole in the nipple was the correct size. Also ensure it was tight
6) Preheated for 90 seconds
7)Adjust the mixing screw but this made no difference
Check the needle length from the nipple and it is less than 1mm
9)Check the distance between the mixing tube and the nipple with the tool. The inner casing rocks (117N) so I set the gap to where is rests.
10) Checked the parraffin comes out of the nipple in a straight line

I am a little stuck with whats going wrong. My only thought is the 14mm gap between the mixing tube and the nipple widens when I put the hood on. Would this cause the problems. do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help in advance

Jonathan Hanson

Hi

I have used kerosene - the brand name is parasene. Please can you tell me why suggest petroleum. Is it better than kersosene.

Thanks for your quick reply

Jonathan

Maxus-Minimax

Thanks for the advice. I have changed the nipple and that seem to make a difference the first time I lit it. The second time I lit it I have the flames appearing from the hood again. This time I notice the flames came from the nipple area and passing upto the hood. The nipple was a brand new one. I wondered if there was a leak but it was screwed on firmly. The kerosene still streamed vertically.

Steelkingdom

I checked the mantles and they were for the 500 model. I didn;t know petroleum was the same as kerosene in germany. thanks for the explanation

Thanks to both of you for your help

Despite my actions I still have a flame coming from the hood and a flame/halo around the mantle. I think the flame is sourced from the nipple but it is new and firmlly screwed so I cant see where the problem is

Look forward to any more help

Jonathan Hanson

hartmut

I tightened the nipple as much as I dared without breaking it. I am yet to try it again as I have to light it in the daylight so I can see what is happening.

Also when I set the hood onto the inner casing it hardly move at all so the gap between the vaporizer and the nipple remained around 14mm.

When I light the lantern the pressure is around 2.5 - 3 bar.

I will look for a little flame coming out of the nipple when I light it next. should be thurday or friday

I will let you know the result. Hopefully it is good news

Jonathan

Hi

I tightened the nipple as much as I dare. I lit the lantern and success. It worked. So the following day I did it again and it worked again except at the end. A ball of flame surrounded the mantle. It rotated the blue dial and that seem to sort it out.

I lit it the following day to build my confidence and it didn't light. It had a ball of flame around the mantle. Once it had cooled I checked it over and discovered the burn chamber and the ceramic burner had come loose. So I tightened it up and lit it again. Success!!

Since then I've lit it 2 or 3 times and had no problems. So I am feeling that the worst it over and that I know my lantern and how it works. I am hoping I know the common problems and how to fix them.

I just wanted to say thank you to all your help with this matter. This forum has been very helpful and essential for me to understand what is going wrong. Without it I would have given up.

Thanks again

Jonathan