# Pictures of your oil lamps please.



## stumpoak (Jul 29, 2007)

I am interested in the wide variety of oil lamps that are in use out there and which ones you find are particularly functional. If it burns with a flame, I am interested in your pictures and opinions.

Things of particular interst are:

Burn rate of fuel and what kind of fuel used
Wick type
Light production
Soot production
Availability of spare parts/cost of operation
Oil burning Nav/Running lights
Cabin Lamps
Anchor Lamps

You can't take too many pictures! The more detailed the photo, the better! 
Thanks so much for your help in this project.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Ive only got a cheap oil lamp from Wal-Mart. I use it on Lola to save power. It works out pretty good. I can get a week if it only burns for an hour or 2 a night. I want to get the Trawler Jr lamp from West Marine, but the price jumped like mad. In the 2007 book it lists for $144, in the store its $279...

I've got one pic of the lamp and where its at.


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## Giulietta (Nov 14, 2006)

Where is the lamp??? hehehehehe


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Yea yea i knew that was coming.


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## erps (Aug 2, 2006)

Two of 'em. One in the salon, one in the galley. Big round wick, easy to service, burns kerosene or lamp oil. Produces some soot and a little heat. I've often thought of getting an aladin mantle light as they are a lot brighter.


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## poopdeckpappy (Jul 25, 2006)

I have 3 Gimbaled oil lamps (DEN HAAN)










Light production is really good and the soot and stink production is zero due to the use of liquid paraffin lamp fuel


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

WM puts the Trawler Jr. lamps on eBay once in a while. I don't know if it's overstock or not but I was able to pick up my second one last fall for about $100.

I can get 4 to 8 hours from a filling and use "lamp oil". Two of them in the main saloon on my C&C 34 provide just the right amount of light for dining and even cooking but not quite enough to read by. Never noticed any soot but the small amount of heat is pretty pleasant in the evenings.

I have several hooks around the cabin so I can hang one directly over the galley, over the saloon table, over the nav station, etc.

I used to have a W&P anchor lamp that worked quite well. It was really appropriate in the cockpit of my Marshall 22 catboat but not so much on my early 80s IOR-influenced boat. The lamp would soot up a bit in higher winds but it never blew out even in 30 knot rain squalls.


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

Ms Wombat gave me this for my birthday last year, splendid woman that she is.










Don't really use it regularly enough to know how much oil it burns.

We also keep a couple of El Cheapo hurricane lamps which we fill with Citronella oil to fend off the mosquitos. Doesn't work against sand flies unfortunately, indeed they seem to love the stuff.  Can also double as a anchor light.


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## Giulietta (Nov 14, 2006)

You guys actually fire those lamps inside the boat?

Do they release smoke?? Never thought of that....are they heavy?

I might buy one for the cruising times...

My wife when are at crusing and at anchor "decorates" my boom with candles and candle lamps to give some "charm" at night... I hate that!!!!!

My boat looks like a Lolipop store or something waiting for the smurfs or the Leperchauns to arrive...besides I keep banging my head on them, and burn my fingers because these things stop with the wind, and she keeps asking me to light the candles, that keep blowing out agrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

Alex,
We don't use ours very often in summer cos it does give off a bit of heat but any other time of year it's fine. Not good enough to read by but gives off enough light if we are just slouching about or , say, playing scrabble or the like. To my mind candles are a pain although on our PB I had a small candle lamp with glass sides (no blow out) that used altar candles which are dripless. (edit - they only smoke after sex or if the wick needs trimming/adjusting.)

As an aside, when we were down in Tasmania a couple of years back I noticed that a lot of boats with spirit stoves put an upturned flower pot on their stove as a heater. The pottery (ceramic ? clay ?) absorbs the heat and radiates warmth for a goodly time even after being removed from the heat source. They swear by them. Come winter I'm going to try it with one of the hurricane lamps. (Not good to leave a gas stove burning for hours at a time). OK so we get pretty mild winters down here so it doesn't take a lot to heat the cabin.

Obvious warning to anyone who has never used an oil lamp , make sure the cabin is well ventilated.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

I converted an anchor light type oil lamp into a LED light. I used one of those sensblubs. A lot of light, enough to read buy.


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## kwaltersmi (Aug 14, 2006)

Do you all leave hatches and companionways open when the lamps are burning? How much ventilation is needed for safety? I'd like to pick up a couple oil lamps too.


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## poopdeckpappy (Jul 25, 2006)

I leave one of the aft most ports and one of the forword most ports open when we use them, just to be safe, they really don't get used that often, but they're nice when we do


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I have the big and little Den Haan maps.. The little one was gifted to me, and works quite well as a backup anchor light, and for warming up the cabin. The big one has never burned right, and is way too large for use as a backup navlight.. I didn't think carefully enough about the dimensions when I ordered it, and when it arrived I didn't feel like paying to ship it back, and a restocking fee, so I kept it... don't know what to do with it now.
I ordered a couple of cheap brass lanterns from http://www.y2klanterns.com/ and was pleased. Not much use anymore since little LED flashlights last forever and provide much more light at much less cost than burning paraffin.










Here is my new backup and primary anchor light








mounts on top of my radome and batteries last forever!!!


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## billangiep (Dec 10, 2003)

We have three lamps that we use quite often during the cooler months. We burn either paraffin our ultra pure unscented lamp oil. The paraffin has no oder at all but does burn much hotter. The oil even though unscented has a bit of that mineral spirits smell when burning. If you are having sooting (smoking) problems you may have the wick to high.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

I ignored the last oil lamp I knew, and gave away my last Coleman lantern last week after 15 years of not using it. I just don't like the smell of most oil lamps, or having the flame on the boat, or the fumes. These days, LED lamps are so convenient and so cheap, that's all I would look for in portable interior lighting.

I like fire--I just don't like it anyplace that I might be sleeping. Especially around flammables like Polartec and most upholstery.


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## Sapperwhite (Oct 21, 2006)

I have a miner lamp that work really well. It takes up half of the space that the big trawler style lamps do, burns bright and clean, and i can sit it down anywhere because it has a flared base. It also has a good hook for hanging where I want it.

I use Weems & Plath brand paraffin fuel, burns bright and clean, no smoke. I have two dorades in the main cabin that keep the boat well ventilated, and i just barely crack (1/2") the companionway slide for a little extra. I have a CO detector right near the area that has never gone off because of the lamp (cooking is another story). It's a small lamp, not a camp fire.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Bill, what kind of boat do you have? It looks like a Bayfield 29 from the avator picture.


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

kwaltersmi said:


> Do you all leave hatches and companionways open when the lamps are burning? How much ventilation is needed for safety? I'd like to pick up a couple oil lamps too.


We very rarely close the companionway hatch and almost never have the drop boards in when onboard. The Womboat also has two good dorade type vents, an opening port in the aft quarter berth plus two small hatches which we leave open permanently over the head (which is aft opposite the quarter berth and galley) and the galley which open under the dodger. other hatches are open depending on the weather or sea conditions.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Alex, I have a hanging oil lamp I bought from the poor girl who fell off _Picton Castle_ (see http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38925&highlight=Picton+Castle) and I have a paraffin lamp mounted on the forward bulkhead. I will get you some pictures when I go aboard next week.

Do NOT use kerosene (unless it's an outdoors anchor lamp). Use high-quality paraffin and if you are unfamiliar with how to use any kind of oil lamp...practice on land! Trimming the wick from square to round edges gives a better flame, and the usual procedure is to lift the glass or otherwise access the wick with it about 2 cm. high. Once lit, lower the wick until it is 0.5 cm high...this will usually give plenty of flame. Lowering it further will extinguish the flame, but you have to be careful that it is truly out.

Probably for your boat a hanging lamp would be best because then you would only have to put a hook of some type in the cabin roof and the light (which is only good for atmosphere unless it is one of those larger models like Sapperwhite's miner's lamp) will be cast evenly around your cabin.

Open candles are a terrible idea on a boat, with the exception of tea candles in heavy bases, and that's strictly fair weather stuff.

There's a few religious groups in North America who don't like electricity, and consequently have continued to evolve oil lantern technology, such as it is. Dietz is one of the better companies:

http://lanternnet.com/

Lehman's is a company that sells products to people who don't have electricity or live "off the grid" (not your types, I know), and they sell dozens of oil lamp styles.

http://www.lehmans.com/jump.jsp?itemID=693&itemType=CATEGORY&path=1,2,669,682


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## Stillraining (Jan 11, 2008)

*Living in the Seattle*

area we have all our hatches closed , Bared , locked and boobed trapped with double barreled shotguns, so electric is the way to go here.


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## billangiep (Dec 10, 2003)

SVDistant it's 32c.. http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y143/billangiep/Bayfield 32c/?action=view&current=HPIM1386.jpg

Val, good site, it brought me to this. price's seem reasonable miners lamp $59
http://y2klanterns.com/nautical-lamps-lanterns.html


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

*Here's ours*

It works fine but we prefer the LED's (Sensibulb) cabin lights we have instead..


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

billangiep said:


> SVDistant it's 32c.. http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y143/billangiep/Bayfield 32c/?action=view&current=HPIM1386.jpg
> 
> Val, good site, it brought me to this. price's seem reasonable miners lamp $59
> http://y2klanterns.com/nautical-lamps-lanterns.html


You've saved me taking some pictures, because my saloon oil lamp from Nova Scotia (which cost me $42) is very close in design to this one, but is shiny...not "antiqued"


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## punjabi (Jul 16, 2007)

Giulietta said:


> You guys actually fire those lamps inside the boat?
> 
> Do they release smoke?? Never thought of that....are they heavy?
> 
> ...


Try these out...

http://www.amazon.com/Flickering-Ba...1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1201810083&sr=8-1

They look cheesy as hell by themselves, but if you put them in a candle holder with frosted sides, you can't tell they're not candles. We use them in our house on a wall mounted candle holder and nobody can tell they're battery operated. Also, really easy to turn on and off...just press down...they have a push switch on the bottom.

If you were electrically gifted, you could probably string a bunch together and run them off the DC system with a common switch.


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## Giulietta (Nov 14, 2006)

*PUNJABI SAVED MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​*
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

did I say THANK YOU?????


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## timebandit (Sep 18, 2002)

SVDistantStar said:


> Ive only got a cheap oil lamp from Wal-Mart. I use it on Lola to save power. It works out pretty good. I can get a week if it only burns for an hour or 2 a night. I want to get the Trawler Jr lamp from West Marine, but the price jumped like mad. In the 2007 book it lists for $144, in the store its $279...
> 
> I've got one pic of the lamp and where its at.


Beware ---that lamp will leak from the arms going from the tank to the top! I think there vent holes drilled there.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

That one is about 2 years old with no leaks. Ive had a few that started leaking before and they got junked fast. For the most part its been working fine for all this time.


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## Johnrb (Sep 21, 2002)

If you do want to burn a candle, I recommend this product. 
http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_...older_id=2534374302697119&bmUID=1201823702685


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Giulietta said:


> *PUNJABI SAVED MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​*
> THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> ...


Seriously? Really?

Well, I suppose they are the _safest_ option...but I like real lamplight, myself.

You should find out what batteries they take and buy a big box before you go back. Batteries are expensive in Europe.


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

What a splendid chap you are. Thanks so much for the Dietz info.

I mentioned earlier that we have a couple of hurricane lamps that we use in the cockpit but they are such rubbish that quite frankly I can't wait to bin the damn things. The wick adjustment is touch and go, sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, The attachment of the wick holder to the base is so poor that it constantly comes loose, they leak oil if they are more than half full and the cap for the tank is simply pathetic. Unfortunately they were the only ones I could find down here and I had been thinking of heading off to the local market to see if I could find a half way decent second hand one. Provided Dietz will deliver to Australia, I'm in business. For once I can be thankful for the religious nutters.

In case anyone is curious, yes I can get reasonable quality oil lamps here but they all have those super dooper mantle things on them. Great for extra light but thats not what we wanted.

Regarding candles, I agree open candles are a complete no no on a boat. You'd have to be crazy. What we had was a fully enclosed lantern that used candles. It was perfectly safe, particularly with dripless candles and hung so they couldn't overturn. Nonetheless oil is better if for no other reason than the ability to add citronella to the oil, which is our main concern.

Thanks again.


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## artbyjody (Jan 4, 2008)

Someone posted looking for one of those $200 West Marine Lanterns - just passing on info...

*Attention Boaters! Den Haan Trawler Lamp - $75*










I have no interest in it - just forwarding it as I remembered someone mentioning it - I have NO idea who the seller is...


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

Here is a link to a LED candle, that is rechargeable.

http://www.budgetlighting.com/store/agora.cgi?page=led_candles_smart_candle_rechargeable.html


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

billangiep said:


> SVDistant it's 32c.. http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y143/billangiep/Bayfield 32c/?action=view&current=HPIM1386.jpg
> 
> Val, good site, it brought me to this. price's seem reasonable miners lamp $59
> http://y2klanterns.com/nautical-lamps-lanterns.html


Word of warning. We bought a copy of the Wheems & Plath miners lamp a year or so back and ended up throwing it away. Adjusting the thing was a major nightmare unless it was dead cold and refilling the thing was very messy indeed.

I am not saying that these are the same as the one we bought but be a little bit careful.


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## Gryzio (Dec 13, 2007)

*I not have many pictures*

I actually collect Candle Burners and Oil Lamps. Not have many oil lamps, but, do have a few.  Also, notice how some shown here have a heat/smoke plate over the top? Very important when close to wood overhead. Here two of my favorite Glass Candle Burners, first is my best of!


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