Kerosene For Heat

[cubcadet]

Recently, I bought some dyed kerosene to use in my space heater. I was very sceptical about using the pink dyed K-1 kero in my heater. It happens to be a portable unvented heater. My fears were unfounded. I filled my unit with the dyed kerosene and fired it up. I purposely ran it down til it burned out. I inspected the wick and it was clean, the black residue that normally accumulated on the wick was gone and it was coated with a fine gray dust, which I brushed off. I refilled the tank and lit the wick and it fired up brighter than I ever saw it. Apparently, there was less odor too. So, I think the dye is not detrimental to these Kerosene heaters. I hope this helps.

[ChoochCharlie]

Dyed is not the same. *By letting your unit burn out you were performing what we call a "carbon burn". *You burned any residual carbon off the wick.

I have heated exclusively with kero for years, using a round convection unit and square radiant units. *Dyed kero burns well enough but requires more maintenance, carbon burns every 3 to 7 days. *Clear K1 kero leaves less buildup and requires less maintenance, carbon burns every week to 2 weeks. *

The other problem with dyed kero is that water is not as visible. *Water in your kero is the worst. *Stinks and puts out less heat with more soot. *A tsp of alcohol per gallon helps. *Mix it into solution in the dyed kero. *Best is to let the water settle in your kero can, siphon down to the last inch, then pour the rest into a glass container. *Let that settle. *The bubbles in the bottom are water drops. *

To properly perform a carbon burn, let you heater burn down to almost out. *Carry it outside and let it burn all the way out and cool down. *Raise the wick all the way up and re-light it. *Let it burn out, cool and light one more time. *This will burn off residual carbon and get you back to full performance. *Works best with fiberglass wicks like from Kero World. *Cotton wicks don't last as long and do not take maintenance well.

Did you know that Kerosene and Kerosine are both accepted spellings? I didn't till recently. Thought they had misspelled it on my blue plastic cans.