Grow Your Own Magazine

Help Please, Have recently purchased a Parasene Heater for little greenhouse, have been using it on and off for a couple of weeks without any trouble. Lit it last night and left it merrily burning away, walked in this morning and inside of greenhouse is completely covered in soot .......what has happened?, any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks

Been there done that, what you have done is think oh its going to be cold tonight I will just up the burner and it will be warmer, thats the problem the parasene will only let you turn the wick up so far then it will start to smoke, you might be better off to make a smaller area that you are going to heat rather than trying to heat the whole greenhouse.

Ooops! Just been to the lottie and turned up my Parasene heater because it is very cold tonight! I have an area curtained off (with a shower curtain!) to isolate the area I heat!

Ahh well, s*d it!! I'm not going back to the lottie tonight, so I'll just have to take a bucket of soapy water tomorrow night to wipe the soot off!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I have one of these but have never used it

1. because it was given to me by my father-in- law who only gave it to me as he had the exact same problem a few years ago, i.e green house turned to black house.

2. I am frightened of the children burning themselves on it.

so If anyone wants it it is free to a good home. I also have an almost full container of parasine but this is probably not suitable to send thro post

If you don't keep the wick trimmed it will smoke as well. Blue flame ones are better but end to use more fuel

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I think your wick needs to be trimmed. If too long they tend to smoke. I note what Serenity says, but I did have one and did use it, but got rid of it for all the reasons she describes - and more.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Mine is working fine just filling it is the problem. I can never see when its getting full and it overflowed bigstyle tonight. I have trimmed the wick though as remember as a child the paraffin heater smoking and Dad having to get the scissors out!

Just a quick tip, when the heater is out take the centre of the burner out if you can, turn the wick up so that it is just level with the top of its chanel and rub all the chared stuff off the top of the wick. It saves having to cut the wick with scissors therefore making the wick last longer. Another thing is that when you light the heater let it burn for 10 mins or so before you make the final adjustment to the flame. That way you stand less chance of a 'soot invasion'.

I well remember parasene heaters in my youth, shows my age doesn't it

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

Serenity, do you still have the heater? If so I would like it please.

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Digger-07

"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right" Henry Ford.

Hi Jennie,

With regards to (over) filling your heater, you need to fill it up carefully, then get a cheap measuring jug ( mine cost 40p ) empty the contents of the heater into it and note how much it has taken to fill it.

If you then use the jug every time you fill it, you can put just the right amount in knowing that you won't overfill it.

NB: for this to work, you have to let it burn out each time of course.

Darren.

Thanks for that Darren - such a sensible idea I hadn't thought of!

Nice one Darren, my OH will be well pleased! So will I, I'm fed up of him complaining I keep spilling paraffin everywhere! DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

I told everyone at work it was my new "very expensive" perfume I seem to be sitting on my own these days

I'm glad someone started this thread as I'm having some problems with my heater. It is a Parasene heater for the size of greenhouse I have and it's not so much smokey as stinky. My husband lights it and I think he may have done what everyone else has and turned it up too far. I can smell the stink outside the GH even when the door is closed and when you have been in the GH your clothes stink of paraffin. It also seems to be affecting the plants, some of them don't look too good. Help! I can't even turn it off, as during the day for the last three days it hasn't moved above freezing here and Alex (OH) isn't keen to do anything in the dark so will have to wait until weekend.

Ogilvie - I just have it turned down quite low, but have it on all the time, not just at night time. Mind you we don't get the really low temps that you have south - -3 for us the other night was quite low. I've got the large one (at work so can't remember which one, but its red!). You do need to trim the wick a bit and light it with the wick quite high, but then once the flame has taken just reduce the wick until you end up with just a nice glow. My greenhouse doesn't smell at all (just me!) and I certainly can't smell it outside.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

The smell won't affect your plants but your trouble might be that there is no Oxygen in the greenhouse (you need a window or louvre open just a tad ).

Parafin does smell I'm afraid - have you spilt any whilst filling it? if so clean it up as it will poison the soil (if you have beds).

You can buy an addative that you put in the parafin that is supposed to mask the smell - never tried it so can't say.

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I bought a small heater with the mesh lid just before Christmas. Bessie mate who was plant sitting while we were away, actually managed to burn the mesh right through so now there's a hole where the mesh was together with a ton of soot !

The other twin thingy heater in the 6'x8' g/h has coped well in the weather. I open the door once a day and everything inside seems to be doing OK. The smell actually doesn't bother me too much and I fill mine with a funnel and keep an eye on the level inside the funnel. Only overpoured once so far.

As far as the wick is concerned, trim it flat and light it when it is just protruding the holder. If you then leave it alone for a minute and turn it down as low as you dare so the flame is only 1/2 inch (12.7mm for you metrics) tall.

Dont be afraid that this is too low as the heat it generates is amazing. You use less fuel and won't get sooty. What most people don't realise is that you have to do this every time you light it.
Hope this helps
Darren