On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 04:16:38 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote in IHonh.19219$_X.15045@bigfe9:


Ive been told that alcohol is good fuel for Coleman lanterns. Is this true.
I tried it once in a camp stove and it seemed to work OK.


NO! Not unless it was made for alcohol. The main reason is that
alcohol (ethanol) will always have some water. It absorbs water right
from the air, whether in storage or from the air that you pump into
the fount. The ethanol/water solution is corrosive to the parts and
you get all kinds of nasty white/green deposits inside the fount. For
the same reason you should never use oxygenated gasoline in dual-fuel
lanterns and stoves. When they were designed it was never expected
that gasoline would ever contain ethanol. Coleman made a short run of
lanterns and stoves that could run on oxygenated gasoline but no
longer (and they are now prized collector items).

You -can-, however, run the lantern on kerosene! You have to pre-heat
the generator to get it started, and it will clog up more often, but
it will run just fine. I wouldn't use it indoors or in a tent because
kerosene will run rich in a gas lantern and you could die from carbon
monoxide poisoning. But outside it should be fine. You can even run a
gas/kerosene mix for easier starting. I haven't tried diesel or
heating oil yet but I suspect they would work like kerosene.