Who owns an oil lamp?

zzvyb6 · Dec 21, 2012

We have a few of them (vintage all glass) that I keep up to date with new wicks, chimneys and fragrant oil. (I prefer the scented oil instead of kerosene). There's a fire extinguisher nearby most of them, too. I burn one occasionaly to make sure they will light up. Otherwise, the wicks go dry and it will burn away instead of sucking up fuel. Keep a barbeque lighter handy for when the time comes. I'm not a fan of matches because of the residue (hot or cold).

The best lamps are ones which which are bottom heavy (so they won't tip over) and ones that can be hung on the wall (so kids won't get their hair burned off when they approach or knock them over.

J35 · Dec 21, 2012

I have several but I am afraid they haven't been used since the 90's and are collecting dust.

Today for emergency light I use LED flashlights and solar yard lights, just pull a couple up when it gets dark and place around in the house after the generator is secured for the night.

-- J

dave1949 · Dec 21, 2012

I have two Dietz kerosene lanterns and one glass oil lamp. I keep them around for backup lighting. They get used about every year it seems.

crash325 · Dec 21, 2012

Only light we had when I was a kid. Remember going to get kerosene ( coal oil ), it was a nickle a gallon. Still have a can and lamp filler. Now a 5 gallon can is about $35. Strange, jet fuel is mostly kerosene.

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Mickey_Fx · Dec 21, 2012

Like many who have posted here, we have a few. The one we prefer to use if needed is an antique that belonged to the wife's great grandparents. Uses a circular/tubular wick. Puts out quite a bit of light and a fare amount of heat. We keep a couple qts of lamp oil but that and kerosene is pretty spendy. We also have a Coleman lantern or two. If we're going to have a power outage for more than a few hrs and it is night time, we'll be using the generator. Much of the house lighting is from CFL bulbs.

forgeblast · Dec 21, 2012

I have a few, but I also made a few olive oil lamps. They were real easy, wrap some brass wire around a pencil as a holder and then tread some jute string through it. Fill a small glass container to the top of the holder and once the wick (jute) is saturated it will burn, it will go out if tipped over.

Marveltone · Dec 21, 2012

We have several oil lamps of various sizes and vintages, both flat wick and Aladdin. They do make rather lovely decorations, but we really appreciated them during our 77 hour-long power outage earlier this winter. Wouldn't be without them or our two-burner kerosene stove for such emergencies.

We also use three kerosene lanterns in our screen porch all the time. Nobody ever wired in any lighting out there, and we think it would be a shame to spoil the atmosphere now.

Joe

Soundguy · Dec 21, 2012

i have 4 or 5 and use 2 of them semi frequently

mvwicker · Dec 21, 2012

Got one in the cabin, plus a few candles, all inherited from the previous owner. The oil lamp wick was burned black along the top and needed trimming before it gave any light, rally fun to do during a blackout, by candlelight. If you rely on traditional oil lamps in emergencies, I suggest you trim their wicks and make sure they are filled some sunny day before you need them.