Kerosene

O

outdoors4evr

501 Club
What happened to Kerosene? I want to fill up my fuel cans before winter sets in and saw the price at $4.25 per gallon. :surrender: (Cans are still empty)
The gasoline and diesel prices have dropped, why haven't the Kerosene?
Anyone find a lower cost supplier? :help:

Kerosene used to be significantly cheaper than gasoline. That's why farmers converted tractors to run on Kerosene / distillate. On-Road Diesel is currently around $2.50/gal here, but that stuff really stinks in a tube heater.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200395535_200395535

Did Kero become a "novelty" fuel?
 
Kerosene usage is only a small fraction of what it used to be. I suppose that with less being sold, any fixed costs in producing/selling it get distributed among fewer gallons, increasing the price. Just my guess...
 
I needed just a gallon a while back, went to my regular source, but they no longer carried it. If you want a REAL sticker shock, try Lowe's or other hardware...$20-30 for a 1-gallon can!!! :shock:

Finally asked a friend, who told me a few of the Cruiser gas stations carried it. By this time, that $4+ looked super cheap! :?
 
Kerosene went crazy back in the Kerosun heater craze days. Normal kerosene would mess up the wicks in them, so K-1 came about. More pure and more expensive. I think most any place that sells kerosene, these days, sells only K-1. Limited demand has, of course, driven the price higher.
 
If you are using it in a torpedo heater, the low sulfur highway diesel burns just as clean. Some of the posts I have seen say it works good in the wick type heater, but you have to change the wicks a little more often.
 
I am using a torpedo style heater. Considering using on-road diesel (low sulfur) in the heater, but the garage is attached to the house so don't want to stink out the Mrs. (not that Kerosene is much better)
 
K-1 is not bad with fumes IF your heater is set right ---- had to mess with one of mine to get it to run right without too much fuming
 
My experience with K-1 in a torpedo heater is a little kerosene smell when it is started. After it is warmed up, not much.
 
I do oil lamps inside my house...Kerosene is $3.99 at selected Marathon stations....I burn 3 gallons in 10 days in the lamps...little heaters for each room
 
Around here kero is $7 per gallon and diesel is $2.50 so it's not hard to figure I run diesel.
I bought a Master torpedo heater from tractor supply a couple years back and started with kero but switched over because of the price. The manual specified that I could run 4 types of fuel in it and one was jet fuel, can't imagine the price of that. :roll: It also specified that depending on the grade of fuel you used you'd have to adjust the flame. If the flame is too high or too low it doesn't burn clean which is very much like a kero heater that has a wick.
Switching to diesel the flame was too high and sooty so I turned it down. Now I get a little puff of that diesel smell at startup and it burns clean. I can leave the barn and when I return there's no noticeable odor. I also bought a good carbon monoxide detector that has an alarm and digital readout of any fumes detected. So far it's read "0". I set the temp and it shuts off and restarts as necessary to maintain it. If I have any complaint with it it's that it's loud. I have a wood stove in the barn but from 30 degrees It might raise the barn ten degrees. It feels good if you go over to it to warm up but a few feet away it doesn't do much. The turbo heater gets the whole barn toasty. :)

Its running and you can barely see wisps of flame.
50856526756_8fb0478bff_b.jpg


Took this two days ago and it was 40 degrees outside. My barn holds the overnight temp so it was like 30 in there when I went out.
This is where it was in about 30 - 40 minutes.
50856621622_06e232aa93_b.jpg
 
I've the same heater as you, Mike. Works great. I still burn kerosene. Get it at the local MFA station at $4.25/gallon (same as last year's price). Compare that to K-1 kerosene at the home improvement store at $32 / gallon.
 
Stanton":1dd5bzc8 said:
I've the same heater as you, Mike. Works great. I still burn kerosene. Get it at the local MFA station at $4.25/gallon (same as last year's price). Compare that to K-1 kerosene at the home improvement store at $32 / gallon.
Click to expand...
$32 a gallon ! :shock: Wow.
Set it up for diesel and you won't notice much of a difference in it's odor.
That heater was one of the best tool investments I've made. If I didn't have it I doubt I'd go out there to get anything done.
 
Correction: I was wrong; going off memory. It’s $22 for a 2 gallon jug, which makes it $11/gal. Still, I don’t mind paying $4.25 per gallon by comparison.
 
What did you have to adjust in your torpedo to run diesel? Change an orifice or just move a needle valve?
How can you tell it is running cleanly?
 
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