What kind of lamp oil to use in indoor oil lamps?

November 18, 2019 10:22 AM

Is it better to use clear kerosene lamp oil, or a paraffin lamp oil?

I have several oil lamps I would like to start using indoors and to have available for when the power goes out. They are the glass/decorative kind like this.

I bought some paraffin lamp oil from the store as it claimed it burned cleaner and had less smell and smoke as compared to kerosene lamp oil. It says on the paraffin lamp oil bottle that it is good for all types of oil lamps and with all types of wicks, round and flat. I will be using 3/4" flat wick.

But now as I am researching it, I've found several sources that say paraffin lamp oil should NEVER be used with large flat wicks, but only in small types of lamps with thin round wicks. I've just read a bunch of reviews with some people saying the paraffin lamp oil works great, even with large flat wicks and other contradictory reviews saying it's thick and gunks up the wick and causes the lamp to not burn properly or safely.

Please help. Should I use this paraffin oil or take it back and get the kerosene stuff?

posted by fourpotatoes to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

I've burned many gallons of paraffin lamp oil using lamps with the large flat wicks. 90% of the time I'm doing this indoors and have had no issues whatsoever. One thing I have noticed, is if you keep the flame lower, you'll accumulate less soot on the inside of the glass. Soot that does accumulate is easily wiped away with a damp cloth. I've used the oil in cheap Chinese hurricane lanterns and a nicer Dietz lantern.

I have not observed anything over the hundreds of hours of burn time that would lead me to believe the paraffin oil is unsafe.
posted by sewellcm at 10:44 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is the specific oil I've been using most recently.
posted by sewellcm at 10:47 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would recommend purified kerosene lamp oil. It does not smell

Paraffin oil is not the best choice for your application because you intend to light it very infrequently. Paraffin as in candles, you know, is a solid. So they have to add solvents to the paraffin oil to keep it liquid. The problem is that if you let the lamp sit for a long time, the solvent evaporates from the wick, which means the paraffin solidifies in the wick. So now you have a wick that doesn't draw fuel from the container very well until it gets hot again. This means the wick can burn which means you have an inefficient wick which needs trimming.

So for long term storage, I would recommend purified kerosene lamp oil.
posted by JackFlash at 11:47 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

You might also want to look into a "smoke bell", which is a (usually glass) thing that you hang over the lamp to collect the soot that emanates from it rather than letting the soot waft up and around and collect on your ceiling and walls. Image search for "milk glass smoke bell" for some examples. They tend to be antiques.
posted by smcameron at 2:50 PM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

Open the can or bottle and take a sniff before you purchase any lamp oil in quantity and start with the smallest sized bottle or can that is available. Consider storing it not in the lamps, but in sealed containers. Some people find the fumes to be unbearable. I believe the paraffin has less smell when not burning, but it matters very much what your lungs think of the products when burning also.

Whatever else you use, do not use Danforth's non-explosive lamp fluid. Fortunately it is no longer available, but is famous for being cited in an epitaph, "In memory of Ellen Shannon, age 26 years, who was fatally burned Mar. 21, 1870 by the explosion of a lamp filled with R.E. Danforth’s non explosive burning fluid,” and is also credited with spontaneously combusting at room temperature and incinerating a railroad depot, several warehouses, a loading dock, nine train cars, and a steamboat named the War Eagle in a single conflagration in Wisconsin in the same year.

The fluids they have now are much, much, much safer, due to such incidents.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:06 PM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you all, each comment was helpful. As I already have the paraffin oil, I think I'll give it a try! Love the idea of the smoke bell.
posted by fourpotatoes at 4:00 AM on November 19, 2019