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Somehow, I just got auto-banned for trying to post this thread. I must have chose the wrong thread tag. Anyway... Back in June, I picked up a rusty Perfection 525M Kerosene heater at a local goodwill for $5. It was in somewhat rough condition, with heavy rust and pitting all over the chimney and metal work, but I bought it anyways. I was surprised to find that it had a full tank of Kerosene and a good wick when I got home. I had been looking for ways to heat my screened-in porch for the fall and early winter. Since then I've restored eight vintage Kerosene heaters of various makes and vintages. This Perfection 525 was my first restoration attempt. I sanded down the rust from the external metal surfaces using a drill and a wire wheel, drained the old Kerosene, and Installed a new cotton wick. I painted the exterior of the heater with Rustoleum Matte Black High-Temp Grill paint.  Up Next: Fonts- Not just for Typesetters anymore...     MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Nov 13, 2015 |
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Nov 4, 2015 10:57
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Those are great! Many years ago, I worked for my dad when he still owned his hardware store, and every once in a while someone would bring in an old unit like that looking for parts. I only ever saw them in well-used (or worse) condition, and it's really cool to see some all shiny and new like that. I always thought the older ones were way classier looking than the new ones with big wire grilles on the outside. Looking forward to seeing more!
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Nov 4, 2015 14:09
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Sorry for letting this thread sit idle for a few days. I was sick last week and had a lot of more important things to catch up on. I have a new project on the way from eBay. It's a late model 1960's Perfection 730 that someone decided spruce up with non heat resistant pink paint. If this heater happens to look older than the 1960's to you, theres a reason for this. In a classic example of the if it ain't broke mantra, The Perfection Stove Works, AKA the Cleveland Metal Products Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil, built a handful of basic portable Kerosene heater designs from the late 1800's to the early 1980's with only minor cosmetic changes, and as of the mid 1960's, warning stickers. Parts are more or less interchangeable between models. Almost all of them use the same tubular cotton #500 wick, which is still readily available and costs less than $10. Heat output tends to range from 10-12,000 BTU's and the 1/2 gallon tank of Kerosene lasts for 10-12 Hours and lifts out of the heater for easy, mess free refueling outside. In proper working condition, a Perfection Heater will produce NO odor and will never smoke once it reaches operating temperature. I'll photograph and document the whole restoration process when it gets here on Monday.  I've found that many of these perfection heaters tended to end up as plant stands, umbrella holders, ashtray stands, electric lamps and various other kitschy abominations painted in horrid 1970's colors, so the pink paint doesn't surprise me all that much. As long as the Font (Tank/burner assembly) is still intact, and the heater itself hasn't been modified too much, they usually can be saved. I'll get to that in the next post. Stay tuned. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Nov 13, 2015 |
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Nov 13, 2015 08:21
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How goes it? Did it arrive?
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Nov 19, 2015 06:18
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wormil posted:How goes it? Did it arrive? It arrived and then some.   I'll post a writeup later this evening
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Nov 19, 2015 19:37
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That's awesome. I'm always looking at alternative heating and cooling solutions, and while my current fave is the P9000 Newport Propane (so tiny!), it's cool to see how far things have come. It sounds like the perfect porchside solution. Also, the lady in the ad is holding the cat completely incorrect.
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Nov 19, 2015 21:04
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Okay, Here we go. This is how the heater arrived. It turned out that it had been painted with heat resistant paint at some point, but constant use and being left in a damp environment allowed heat and rust to take it's toll. I tested this by using the burner from one of my other perfection heaters and letting it run in it's it as-found state. The paint stayed put, but that doesn't matter since it's all going to be memoryholed anyway shortly. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't have to chemically strip the whole chimney.  We'll come back to painting later. Right now, we're going to focus on the Font. The font is the most important part of a Kerosene heater. It contains the fuel tank, wick, wick raising mechanism, gallery, and flame spreader.  Luckily, the font on this heater was in good condition. Perfection heaters made before WWII used a solid brass font that was soldered together. This is a post-war font, made of galvanized steel. Let's take it apart.  The Flame Spreader lifts off after giving it a slight clockwise turn. Like most heaters of this age, it's rusty but in otherwise functional condition. A little work with a wire brush will bring it right back. It is crucial that all the holes in the flame spreader are clear of rust and debris.  Now we'll attack the gallery. The gallery should just unscrew from the top of the tank, but occasionally it'll be glued on with old kerosene varnish. If that's the case, you can hit it with a heat gun or a blow torch for a few seconds. Since the gallery is so close to the wick, it's usually caked with old Kerosene varnish.  I took this one inside and hit it with some Zep Fast 505 Degreaser, let it soak for a few minutes, scrubbed it well with a scotch-brite pad, and rinsed it with hot water. It's brass, so a little h2O won't hurt it. While the Gallery is soaking, let's deal with the wick. All Perfection heaters use a tubular cotton wick mounted in a disposable metal wick carrier. The wick carrier is perforated with slots so that the gear on the wick raising mechanism can mesh with it.  To remove the wick, with the gallery removed, turn the wick up with the wick knob until the gear disengages with the wick carrier. Then, grab the wick by the metal carrier and pull it up while twisting back and forth.  As you can see, this wick was pretty much spent.  The Font completely disassembled. It's time to install the new wick. Avoid replacement wicks made by "New World Marketing" "Pik-A-Wik"" Kero-World" "Kero-Heat" etc. They are really poorly made and are all around lovely.  The best readily available wick for Perfection heaters is the American Wick AW-500, available for under $9USD on ebay. The AW-500 is actually a relabeled Hattersley wick, made in England. Hattersley has been in business for over 200 years. They know their wicks. Installing a new wick is basically the removal process in reverse. Feed the wick tails down into the tank, gently slide the wick carrier over the wick tube, making sure that the perforations in the wick carrier will match up with the wick raiser gear. Once you get it down far enough, the gear will catch the wick carrier and you can use the knob to pull it the rest of the way down. To Be Continued... MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Dec 2, 2015 |
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Nov 21, 2015 09:24
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So, you just installed your wick.  Now it's time to level it. A level wick is essential to a clean burning heater. Some people try to use a blade to do this. I found a much simpler method thanks to this guy on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD99KHowjE4  Install the gallery and raise the wick so that the lowest point of the wick is level with the top of the gallery. Squirt some lighter fluid on the exposed part of the wick and light it up.  The Naptha will burn off quickly and the exposed portion of the wick will smolder red. After it has smoldered down to the top of the gallery, drop the flame spreader on the wick to stop the burn.  In the Next Post: Sanding and Painting. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Nov 21, 2015 |
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Nov 21, 2015 10:03
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Using a wire brush and a 220 grit 3M sanding sponge, I removed most of the old paint and heavier rust. You don't have to pay as much attention to the base of the heater, since it never actually gets hot. Before you paint, wipe everything down with a TACK RAAAAAAAG to remove any sanding debris.(for any goon that remembers Furniture to Go/Furniture on the mend With Ed Feldman and Joe L'Erario. Those dudes ruled.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F9PfxorDSw) Every one of the eight heaters I've restored have been painted with Rustoleum High Heat grill enamel with overall good results.  The flat black is extremely forgiving for a rattlecan paint. Spray it on thick and it doesn't run. Find a flub while the paint is still wet? Wipe the offending spot off with a paper towel and spray over it. It dries just fine. I usually like to give the heater three thick coats, allowing about a half hour between coats. If you have a compressor and spray gun, they also sell it in quart cans. Now to the trim.  The Perfection emblem is made of stamped aluminum and is held on by folding tabs. With the heater opened, You can reach in through the bottom of the chimney, bend the tabs straight, and pull the emblem right off. The Handle comes off just as easy. I painted the emblem and handle with Rustoleum Ultra High Heat Gloss Silver. And now, Here's the finished product.  After drying for a couple hours or so, I like to light up the heater to bake the paint. The paint smell will burn off in a couple of hours, and you'll be left with a tough enamel finish. 
MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Nov 23, 2015 |
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Nov 23, 2015 09:21
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Very neat thread, thanks for posting it! I noticed in the corner of your pictures an itty bitty heater and noticed this for sale locally:  Are they one and the same? Looking to heat the garage this winter for working on cars and was wondering if you had any information about what it is or how many square feet it would probably heat.
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Nov 24, 2015 02:22
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Extra posted:Very neat thread, thanks for posting it!   That's an Aladdin Blue Flame, made by the Aladdin Lamp Company in England and introduced in the early 1930's. The Blue Flame is Unique because it uses baffles and a more complex flame spreader design to enable the heater to burn with a blue flame. The baffles in the wick tube create a circular vortex of incoming air, allowing the heater to distribute more oxygen to the wick, leading to a leaner, more efficient burn. Output is about 9400 BTU. It uses an Aladdin Series 15 wick which is readily available. It would heat a small to medium sized garage pretty well. They are still very popular in Japan. http://www.aladdin-aic.com/products/bf/ Also, it doubles as a cook stove after you remove the lid. 
MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Nov 25, 2015 |
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Nov 25, 2015 04:03
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Wow that's awesome I had no clue. Thank you! You did an amazing job restoring that one. The cook stove feature is  as well. I'll have to see if the seller still has it and try out your restoration methods.
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Nov 25, 2015 21:26
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Fantastic job on the restoration. These do need to be vented outdoors right?
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Nov 27, 2015 04:30
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wormil posted:Fantastic job on the restoration. These do need to be vented outdoors right? Nope. You can use them just like a normal space heater. A properly working kerosene heater burns at around 99% efficiency and produces little to no CO. If you want to be extra cautious you can crack a window a tiny bit to make sure you have a supply of combustion air. As long as you use common sense and don't burn it in a closet or some other tiny sealed room and you'll be fine.
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Nov 28, 2015 19:21
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I work at a cigar shop a couple days a week. One of my regular customers is a UK expat who asked me to find him a Valor Valiant. The Valiant is a small blue flame heater that has more or less cool touch surfaces while operating and was intended to heat a small room, placed in a corner. I found one on ebay UK, and two weeks later it was here in Ohio.  Before  After  The Innards. I didn't paint the inside of the door because the old instruction and Esso Blue labels were too cool to ruin. I still need to get a 3.5x3.5in piece of glass cut for the sight glass in the door, it was broken in shipping. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Dec 2, 2015 |
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Dec 2, 2015 10:33
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OP, nice work! How well would one of these work in a garage? I know you said they burn pretty clean, but would I be safe to, say, use one to heat up a 2 car garage for a few hours before beginning work on a There's a gas station that sells kerosene not too far from me, so actually finding fuel wouldn't be an issue. I think it'd be a hell of a lot cheaper than grabbing an oil filled radiator, at least in terms of energy. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Dec 3, 2015 |
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Dec 3, 2015 12:01
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some texas redneck posted:OP, nice work! One Perfection Heater will heat up a two car garage in a few hours. I use two to get my garage warmed up quickly, then shut one off once it gets to about 70ºf and keep the other lit to maintain temp. Here in NE Ohio, once it gets cold, it stays cold for weeks or not months at a time, also I'm impatient. Remember, A theoretically perfect 120V space heater only produces at best about 5000 BTU's and the conversion of electricity to heat via resistive elements is super inefficient. The Perfection produces about 12,000BTU almost instantly. You also have the added benefit that the metal chimney also emits a decent amount of radiant heat. If you're worried about fuel cost and want to experiment, there have been a number of people that claim that you can burn new Ultra-Low-Sulphur road Diesel with good results. I haven't tried this myself. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 08:49 on Dec 4, 2015 |
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Dec 4, 2015 08:34
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MullardEL34 posted:
I'm gonna have to disagree with that point. It is 100% efficient, every cent of power you pay for is being turned into heat. It may not produce enough BTU's, but that's a limit on the amount of current you can draw. I'm not saying that it's the most cost-effective method of heating a room, but in terms of what percentage of the fuel coming into the room is turned to heat they are incredibly efficient. Because you're paying for transmission losses and power plant inefficiencies, resistive electric heat is often very expensive. Heat pumps are much more cost-efficient, but they require coupling to the outside world and are fixed-location. The amusing thing about electric resistive heating is that you achieve the same efficiency with pretty much any electrical device, so you would pay the same amount for the same amount of heat if you just ran an equivalent amount of computers, or light bulbs, or electric griddles.  BTW: you do amazing work, and those heaters are works of art. That Valor is loving gorgeous once you've done your thing.
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Dec 8, 2015 17:04
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I felt adventurous tonight and decided to run my Perfection 525M on Ultra Low Sulfur Road Diesel. I bought two gallons of ULSD at the local Speedway and decided to give it a shot. I added about one ounce of denatured alcohol to the Font as had been suggested by posters on a kerosene heater collector forum. The result? It works great. No odor or any perceptible changes in burn time, and possibly a bit more heat output. Apparently cotton wicks are very forgiving when it comes to fuel, and modern ULSD is probably cleaner than the kerosene these heaters were designed to burn 100+ years ago. I would NOT try this with an Aladdin or any other Blue Flame heater. They tend to be finicky enough as it is. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Dec 9, 2015 |
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Dec 9, 2015 09:16
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Update: I've been running my two Perfections on ULSD for three days now with no issues. ULSD is like $2.34/Gal here in NE Ohio and 1K Kerosene sells for $3.79-$4/Gal depending on where you buy it. It's also more convenient, since I can just roll up to a diesel pump, pay with a credit card, fill my cans and go. Off Road Kerosene by law has to be sold by a gas station attendant and half the time the people working the counter at my local gas stations that sell Kero don't even know how to turn the drat Kero pump on. I'm not sure yet if I could recommend ULSD as an indoor fuel, but for heating a garage or shop it seems to be just fine. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Dec 12, 2015 |
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Dec 12, 2015 09:02
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