Can you buy paraffin at a reasonable price?

[Caecilius]

I was thinking about getting a tilley lamp to use in the garden. A bit nostalgic I guess, as I used to have one back in the 70s.

You used to be able to get paraffin easily and cheaply (esso blue or the pink stuff). But now it seems quite rare. B&Q sell it, but they charge crazy prices for it: about seven pounds for four litres - more than derv!

Is it possible to get paraffin in the UK for a reasonable price? I'm guessing that it should be something like 50 or 60p per litre as there would be no duty on it.

[Bob Minchin]

Try a local family owned filling station, the type that fills the car for you. Our local one does paraffin but I don't know the price. I use it as a lubricant when machining aluminium and a gallon lasts me years. You could try scrounging a bit from someone with light oil heating. That should have minimal duty and only 5% vat on it.

prices here

[meow2222]

Heating oil & paraffin are both 28 second oil.

I dont know if they'd also run on diesel, 35 second oil.

NT

[Fredxx]

I didn't realise that was the difference. I do run mine on diesel for convenience of supply, but never been happy with it.

[John Williamson]

You could try your local canalside boatyard. Avoid chandlers,they're generally worse rip-off merchants than B&Q.

[Caecilius]

That's useful to know, thanks.

I think diesel might be a bit too smokey and soot up the mantle and lamp glass.

[ss]

About 6 years ago I bought a gallon of paraffin and then it was about the same price as petrol, only source I could find was a local garage and at the time I thought a bit pricey as it used to be so cheap. I bought for the same reason as I had some old camping stoves and tilley lamps and a paraffin iron and I wanted to see them working, all was ok until I tried firing up a blowlamp ....I panicked thinking it would blow up and chucked it into the drive and it landed under my wifes car :-) all ended well though. I was going to sell them off on ebay but with energy prices going the way it is I will just hold on to them for now.

[SteveW]

You can make life easier for youself (although it means paying duty) and get a lamp where the fuel is easily available. I bought one from a camping shop many years ago - it looked just like a Tilley lamp, with hand pump to pre-pressurise, vapouriser and mantle, just the same but it was designed to run on unleaded petrol.

SteveW

[SteveW]

Ah, just found it. Coleman do them.

SteveW

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Anyone with 28sec home heating oil has it in a 1000L tank.

[Caecilius]

Coleman fuel, aka "white gas" seems to be more common in the US. That's pretty close to petrol I think, although the idea of using petrol in a lamp seems scary to me as I've always used paraffin.

Good idea though. It may be easier to get a coleman fuel lamp and use unleaded. Probably doesn't need so much pre-heating with the meths burner either.

[polygonum]

Having had a Coleman stove for many years, it is so much more convenient not to have to deal with two fluids (meths and paraffin).

Unleaded is OK but doesn't, IMHO, burn quite so cleanly. The critical difference between white gas and petrol, when I first used such a stove, was that most petrol was leaded. And that was a "BAD THING".

[meow2222]

pressurised types have an awful safety record ISTR

NT

[harryagain]

It was a BAD THING because you would be breathing the fine lead oxide particles.

[news]

It might be worth ringing up these people

to see if there is a supplier within easy reach of your location.

[Muddymike]

I use a multi fuel Colman lamp and run it on petrol which I always have for the mower etc. I do have an old Tilley but don't use it simply because of the poor availability of paraffin in the UK these days.

Mike

[polygonum]

I felt no need to explain the absolutely obvious to anyone with a couple of brain cells that are not totally plumbic.

[Rick Hughes]

I'm sure if you go to an old Ironmongers they will still sell it.

[Huge]

Our doesn't. Or rather, they do, but prepackaged in 5L drums and it costs more than diesel.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

It was a BAD THING for Coleman stoves and lanterns because the lead formed whiskers which affected the clean burning.