I have never tried one - but won't multi-fuel camping stove run off kerosene?  Plenty of spares available.

Zane Krajancic wrote:

The smell of Kerosene is pleasant to me and brings back fond childhood memories and I could easily live with it onboard, although I have a yet to be installed Origo alcohol cooker.

 As a young lad our extended family all went camping to the beach every Xmas holidays in a huge tent. No electricity, so lighting and cooking was all Kerosene.  Those were the days.  It's funny how smells can be positive or negative based on your memories and emotions.

I enjoy going on to a boat redolent with the smell of oil lamps and a Primus.  I just don't really appreciate smelling like that myself!

I don't think you'd get on with a Primus, Zane - changing the needles is fiddly and requires much patience!

Arne Kverneland wrote:Edit, evening: Tonight I lit the Optimus a final time before reinstalling the Origo. I tried a 2-minute preheat, but that wasn't enough and resulted in a yellow flare-up. Switched to the other burner and preheated it 3:10min with good result. The special thing with the Optimus 111 is that the pan around the burner is closed.  The burner sits in a pit, kind of. This prevents one from spilling any alcohol on the table below, which is good, but on the other hand, airflow is not good to the preheat flame. I guess this is why it takes a little longer to preheat than other models I have used. This is also why I make a funnel from a tin can, to concentrate the preheat flame around the burner.

Well, there you are!  I used to keep the wick in a jar and clip it over the base of the burner, but that was on an Optimus 555 (I think it was called - the white enamelled one with green hotplates), where the burner was easily accessible.

I use a kero stove on LC and I'm very happy with it. I've only had a flare up twice and both times it was a crew who did not know what they were doing.

They received detailed instructions but thought they knew better (moral of the story stick to single handing and if you have crew, make it female, they don't think they know everything).

I don't think LC stinks of kero nor does Skatty. If you buy Jet A from the airport it high quality and cost no more than petrol at the pump.

Annie,

My Optimus stove already has those wicks. I guess I was just a bit rusty on using that stove so I gave it an extra dram to be on the safe side. I think the bottle cap was bigger than on earlier alcohol bottles as well.

And yes, the kerosene leaves a smell in everything. I kind of didn’t notice when I was in the boat, but when I sold Johanna and removed some sweaters and blankets, they surely started to smell in the car.

Timothy, as for pure lamp oil, I am not so sure. I once tried it on my Optimus, but it simply didn’t work. However much I preheated the stove, it just flared up, so boiling temperature must be much higher than on kerosene. I later learned on a Primus expert's a home-page that lamp oil is not just refined kero, it is something else.

Anyway, I reluctantly declare the Origo as the winner for my use.

Arne

PS: So what do people use for preheating their grills? Have everyone switched to gas grills these days?

Edit, evening: Tonight I lit the Optimus a final time before reinstalling the Origo. I tried a 2-minute preheat, but that wasn't enough and resulted in a yellow flare-up. Switched to the other burner and preheated it 3:10min with good result. The special thing with the Optimus 111 is that the pan around the burner is closed.  The burner sits in a pit, kind of. This prevents one from spilling any alcohol on the table below, which is good, but on the other hand, airflow is not good to the preheat flame. I guess this is why it takes a little longer to preheat than other models I have used. This is also why I make a funnel from a tin can, to concentrate the preheat flame around the burner.