Hillerange Kerosene Parts/Questions

[Jay Knight]

I have a Hillerange kerosene range on my PSC Orion, this is my first kerosene stove and it sure cooks good, but I have a few questions maybe the group can help me with. Some where in my sailing past I remember a substance that was a jelly (FireJelly?) to preheat with. Would a small hobby propane torch serve as a preheater? Any better way? I have a 2 or 3 gallon pressurized kerosene tank in the lazerette, how much pressure should I maintain? We have been preheating with a 10cc syringe squirting alcohol into the preheat tray but my wife had a major flare up when she tried to light the second burner. Any advice on lighting the second burner after the first is operating?
Do the needles wear out? My control knob adjustment seems to make yellow flames after any adjustment. Any thoughts? Know a source for parts? I haven't found a wealth of parts for this range.
OR should I convert to propane? I lived aboard 10 years with a Ortigo 6000, with patience it worked fine but alcohol is so expensive now and it DOES have a smell, so that is not a option.

Thanks to all
Jay
PSC Orion

[roverhi]

If you pre-heated the second burner, there shouldn't have been a problem lighting it. Only thing I could think of that would be a problem is a bad burner/parts.

We had a Kerosene stove for 4 years of cruising and liveaboard. It worked great after we learned the foibles of Kero. We burned paint thinner in ours. It was cheaper than Kero and was easy to find in five gallon tins at that time. Haven't seen it in large tins recently, however. Kerosene works fine but don't try burning #1 diesel or other ersatz fuel. It will gum up the burners. We also found that adjusting the burner with the control knob caused major problems. We left the burners on wide open and used cast iron trivets/flame diverters, or whatever they are called, to reduce the heat. Not a problem for 4 years once we started doing that. The oven temperature came up to something like 350/400 with the burner running wide open. That seemed to be perfect for what she made. Know the baked goodies sure tasted good.

I really like kerosene and have just bought a Taylors Stove for my new boat. For cruising, you can find kerosene anywhere, even remote islands that are too small support a proper store. The fuel burns hot, unlike alcohol, and will boil water quickly in large pots, can you say lobster or for morning coffee. kerosene also goes a long ways. We took 10 gallons extra fuel with us on our cruise to French Polynesia and didn't need to refuel for a year of daily use.

Primus or someone used to make a priming bottle. It was gravity fed and was easy to meter out the alcohol for preheating. I haven't seen one advertised anywhere, now, unfortunately. Will try and find a plastic medical irrigation bottle with a spout as a replacement. Have heard of people using a propane torch to preheat the burners but it seemed a little too wild for my taste. After all, the biggest benefit of kerosene is it's safety. Using a propane torch kind of defeats that.

Aloha
Peter O.

[orion1]

We have a Taylors Kero with oven. It is critical to really pre heat the burners well to avoid flare ups. We run 18-20 psi at the tank. Works perfect, and its safe too.

[over40pirate]

Started cruising with alcohol. Switched to kero. Finally got real and put in propane.

Cheaper, easier to find in the civilized world, cleaner, less fumes, cooks faster, and with a few simple safety measures, safer.

It's nice to light the stove and cook right away.

Of course if you have alcohol or kero, and don't have the bucks to change, before you go cruising, by all means use it.

Of course this is just my opinion

[CaptainJeff]

Maybe some napalm-in-a-tube like this stuff?

About the consistency of petroleum jelly. I use it to pre-heat my non-pressurized backpacking stove. Sweet stuff.

[Jay Knight]

Thanks all, the fire ribbon sounds like just what I need, my wife is somewhat put off after the flare up! We will try it with the burners wide open, that will solve the yellow flame. Off to buy some paint thinner!!

Thanks to all
Great Group!
Jay

[Oceansandmts]

You used to be able to get a clip on wick that you can keep in a jar of alcohol, then clip on the kero burner and light the wick. It holds the exact amount of alcohol needed to preheat, doesn't drip, etc, etc. I got mine from one of the British mail order stores, you can probably still get them. It lessons the danger of a flare-up because you are not bringing a bottle of alcohol near a hot or already lit burner. The wick lasts a long time and just uses regular alcohol to light you kero stove.