Aladdin No.23 Loxon mantle lamp...

[twocvbloke]

Blimey, they're expensive to buy brand new...

Still, there's always ebay...

My only wish was that the mantles were cheaper to buy, got another one on the way at the moment, though I'll use the present self-dismantling one 'til it falls apart and is unusable, seems to work nicely now with the properly trimmed wick despite the damage, but at about £15 a pop, it's not cheap...

[19and41]

The materials they apply to the mantle is to turn it to a ceramic, albeit a fragile one.  Are you buying from the seller that has a picture of a case of mantles in their sale description?  It looks like I will probably get a lamp piece by piece.  I'd like to get a non pedestal glass font.  That will be after getting a new wireless internet setup, though.

[twocvbloke]

This is where I've bought the new mantle from:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271780574113 ( dead link 03-23-21 )

It's depicting the modern, 40 Candlepower, non-radioactive material mantles (which are produced in the Philippines these days), they also have larger quantities of the for sale I believe, up to a full case of 12 mantles...

[twocvbloke]

I got the replacement mantle yesterday, not going to use it until the present mantle is broken beyond use, so just need to store it in a container with a silica gel bead packet (those "Do not eat" things, makes me wonder how many people have eaten the contents...), just so happens that the present mantle came in a Vanish Oxy-Action tub which is just right for storing a mantle in...

Thought I'd line up the boxes I have so far, in order it's "Made in England", "Made in the European Community" (malta to be specific) and "Made in the Philippines", amazing how manufacturing locations change so vastly over the years, ones between the English and Maltese ones were made in Brazil too...

[19and41]

It's probably a labor intensive bit to manufacture, so it's origin will move from place to place with the price of production.  It will probably be a while before I find the one that is cheap enough to be worthwhile.  Having light when the power is out is one thing, but I also heat with electricity, so having a light to freeze by is a conflicting advantage when the winter comes on.  I may get my Coleman lantern tuned up and try it out, though.

[twocvbloke]

Yeah, they're not cheap, but you just have to persevere and keep looking, I'd been looking for mine since I got my heater back in February, a combination of not enough money at the right time and people going nuts with the bidding made it take most of the year to do so, but, I got it eventually...

There's one here for about $56 (with a "Make offer" button, take advantage of that!!):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261970765018

Just needs a new mantle, a cleanup, possibly a new wick too, but you have the advantage that those parts are cheaper over there...

[NorthernElectric]

I wouldn't want to try an Ecofan on the 37 heater either, during the colder months I was changing the oil in one of my small engines and inadvertently and absent-mindedly placed the emptied foil tray (but still had a fair amount of oil in it) ontop of the heater, and it caught fire within seconds, so, an Ecofan would be destroyed in no time...

A friend of mine had a heat powered fan on top of his airtight wood stove.  When he had it stoked up and banked back, that stove burned pretty darn hot.  It really made that fan spin and it actually helped to circulate the heat from the stove around the room.  The fan never melted.

[twocvbloke]

Stoves and Aladdin heaters are two different beasts though, the Aladdin can set fire to things that were inadvertently placed ontop of it (as I found out), whereas with a stove, it gets hot but not enough to set fire to something (at least not when properly controlled), the placement f the fans is also crucial as the makers of the official Ecofan (which has been copied many times since first release) state that for a freestanding stove, the fan must be placed at the back of the stove's top plate behind the flue, otherwise the fan would overheat and burn out the Peltier TEG module...

I will say that an ecofan (or copy) is a must with a stove, as like you say, it helps distribute the heat around the room (and beyond, in our tiny houses), a lot of people I know who have stoves have a fan sat on it...

[19and41]

I wouldn't want to try an Ecofan on the 37 heater either, during the colder months I was changing the oil in one of my small engines and inadvertently and absent-mindedly placed the emptied foil tray (but still had a fair amount of oil in it) ontop of the heater, and it caught fire within seconds, so, an Ecofan would be destroyed in no time...

A friend of mine had a heat powered fan on top of his airtight wood stove.  When he had it stoked up and banked back, that stove burned pretty darn hot.  It really made that fan spin and it actually helped to circulate the heat from the stove around the room.  The fan never melted.

You may get me into trouble.  I made an offer on it.  It's interesting that that town is about 15 miles from where I was born.

[19and41]

They accepted my offer.

[twocvbloke]

Welcome to the Aladdin lamp club...

Well, not the official one (and yes, there is an aladdin club called the Aladdin Knights!! )...

[19and41]

We have a hardware store nearby that claims to carry everything one needs.  I think I'll try them for a mantle and wick. 

[19and41]

I mentioned that I had got the lamp and described it somewhat on another site I frequent.  One of their members put up pictures of his lamps.  3 tables full of old glass font ones with all the bug guards and all kinds of accessories.  He also had several that had the non- destructive electric conversion.  He had been wanting to show them off.  Fancy that.

[twocvbloke]

Just takes one person to start the ball rolling...

I dug out my other lantern (another chinese thing, looks like a Deitz but isn't one!) from the shed to revive it, dunno what I burned in it last but it left a rather odd crystalline mess on the burner, and smelled a bit awful when I first lit it...

[19and41]

I have a smaller aluminum mining lamp with an "Alonzo" employees' name tag on it.  It has a recoil flint ignitor in the burner area.  It runs on cigarette lighter fluid and has two copper mesh cones that take the place of the chimney with a pyrex glass for the flame to shine through.  I believe they call them Davy lamps.