Hello all,
I have been mulling over getting a good quality oil or kerosine lamp. I do not know much about either, except the ones that walmart sells seems like cheap flimsy crap. Perhaps I am wrong, but that is just the sense I get. For 15$ or so, maybe less, it seems like it would fall apart after a year or so. Are there any metal/glass/antique oil or kerosine lamps that I should look into finding? There are a few on amazon which are called anchor lamps. These seems to be decent as far as quality goes.

Any recomendations? What would be better to go with, oil or kerosine, for indoor use during the next power outage?

Buy once, cry once: http://www.aladdinlamps.com/

But if you don't want to or cannot afford to yet, these are good lamps also.
I have 2 of these: http://www.lanternnet.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=WKL&Product_Code=WTK2&Category_Code=WKL

& 1 of this one: http://www.lanternnet.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=WKL&Product_Code=WTK1CLIMAXLAMP&Category_Code=WKL I really like this one, it puts out a lot of light, & looks great sitting out in everyday decor.

ETA picture of my W.T. Kirkman No. 1 Climax Replacement Lamp in action.

Try Lehmans hardware in kidron ohio.

Aladdin lamps are very expensive, super bright, and have fragile wicks.

All my lamps and lanterns are oil burning flat wicks. They are not as bright but super simple to use.

You are right that the Walmart lanterns are junk. Their lamps are not bad at all for the money. I have several and they work and burn brightly.

For collecting and long term use I vastly prefer brass burner antiques. I pay between $30 - $60 for an antique in good shape. A few have needed new burners that are cheap on line.

Do a search on my name to find my archived thread on useable antiques. My girl bought me a neat little round wick oil lamp a couple days ago for $20 with a very high quality burner. 10 times better light than a candle since the flame is so stable.


Take a magnet with you to the antique stores to find really old lamps with real brass burners. The steel ones are not nearly as nice, but they work okay.

Buy Klean Heat from Home Depot to fuel them. Same price as Walmart lamp oil but better burning. Don't buy Walmart kerosene.

Do you want a lamp or a lantern? A lamp is used in a house and generally is not readily portable. There are ones like the Aladdin that also use a mantle and produce a lot of light, like a 60W bulb. They are fancy and can use glass shades kind of like a modern table lamp. Lanterns are a portable lightsource. Prices vary but good lanterns are often quite cheap. THey produce good light and are much more safe than Hollywood has made them seem.

For a good new lamp you'll pay $100 or so, unless you want to go to yard sales and flea markets, you can find them from $5 up at those, you might need to buy parts, wicks, or repair them but they can be a great value. For a good lantern you can pay $$$ for an antique, hit the flea markets and garage sales for an inexpensive antique, or you can buy one from Kirkman or Lehmans. Lehmans just had the Dietz Blizzard on sale for $10. They are made in China but they've been made there since the 1950's or so. I have USA made antique Dietz Blizzards and the current Chinese Dietz Blizzard and in terms of light produced they are more or less equal, build quality is good too with the new ones. I get more of a sense of satisfaction using the USA made antiques I have but they don't really work any better IMHO.

W T Kirkman has a good site... Lehman Hardware has a German made lamp they claim is a little heavier...my hurricane lamps are both large fount....a Chicom Dietz Air Pilot and US Dietz Little Wizard...the 7/8" wick Air Pilot is considerably brighter than the smaller 5/8" wick Little Wizard...and down here refined 1 K kerosine is about $10 a gallon...Kirkman doesn't recommend paraffin lamp oil in wicks larger than 1/2"... yeah, get a couple of extra wicks... mine was backordered for several months...

Keep in mind that Dietz lanterns are made to burn kerosene, not lamp oil. Kero may burn a bit dirtier than lamp oil but, as someone else pointed out, lanterns are made to be portable, mainly for outdoors.

pretty much as long as the container will.

Where can you buy a roll of wick? I've never seen that anywhere.

I wish I could buy kero for $3! Around here the cheapest is $6 for the red stuff.

http://www.oillampman.com/Page15.html

Are you near Dallas? $6 is the cheapest I've found here - and there is only red, no one sells clear within 100 miles from what I've found.

+1 on the clear kero. I prefer the older USA made Dietz and Emburry lanterns. the tin is heavier and the glass is much thicker. If you are going to go new check out the Feuerhand lanterns from W.T. Kirkman. They are German made and better quality than the Chinese made Dietz. Also if you put a few drops of pure essence oil in your lantern it will cut down on the smell indoors. Just my .02 YMMV

I have a lot to say about Kerosine as I use it a lot for heating. so in no particular order:

The best reference I have found is a guy named Miles Stair he's a prepper. His website.

http://www.milesstair.com/

The Federal Government charges $.24 per gallon tax on clear kerosine. Make sure you keep your receipts and remember to fill out the form and file for a rebate at the end of the year. The tax is the over the road highway tax, because the Clinton administration finally figured out that most kerosene actually ends up in trucks.

The Mercedes of kerosine lanterns if is the Butterfly #828R

http://www.milesstair.com/BF_828R.html

Nothing even compares to the amount of light it puts out. I recommend one for every prepper.

I also recommend everyone in the north US have a kerosine heater and some fuel as a backup. I keep one in case my oil furnace clogs a nozzle or smokes a relay module in the middle of the night. I don't want the house to freeze up.

Kerosene can also be used for cooking.

FYI all kerosene equipment was designed to run on mineral spirits. Kerosene was a product marketed by Standard oil to monopolize the lamp oil business. You can read about it here:

http://www.milesstair.com/kero_fuel_primer.html

Buy all your lamps and stoves from St Paul Mercantile

http://www.stpaulmercantile.com/index.php?ref=Miles&action=store&page=KeroseneLanterns

The walmart ones suck shit.