old stoves, lights and fridges

[belinda]

Before you throw out an old stove, pressure lamp or kero fridge, see if it can be repaired.

Three businesses to try for parts and repair are:
- in Sydney try Brandt Brothers 02 9318 2666
- in Braidwood try Vintage Oil Lamps www.oillamps.com.au
- in Melbourne try T W Sands & Co [e-mail]

"Earth Garden" magazine often has articles about kero appliances and solar power.

If you really want to replace your old appliance with a new one, let the rest of us know. Your broken stove may have just the parts we need - I'm after a new tank for my Ravia metho stove and a shelf for my ice box.

[cobber]

G'Day Belinda,

First point:- I don't throw anything out (ask SHMBO)

Second point:- Thanks for the contact numbers.

And lastly:- Do you need the wire shelf wot stuff sits on or de gal. shelf wot de ice sits on?

A sheet metal worker will make up a tray to sit ice on, the only minor problem would be getting it sweated into position

Good luck, keep at it ;D

Cobber

[Deleted]

Belinda's "before & after" light restoration photos:

......I've noticed that a number of the restoration projects have the same sort of lights and though it would be good to show how well they clean up.

Our auto electrician did them up as part of the re-wiring. He has a little sandblaster and got the old paint and rust off, then re-painted them silver and used the best of the lenses.

Cheers

Belinda

[Belinda]

After operating in Sydney since 1870, Brandt Brothers will be closing at the end of the year and will just operate as a mail-order business out of TW Sands in Melbourne.

They can work on all sorts of old lamps and stoves, doing repairs and supplying parts.

If you are in Sydney and have a Tilley lamp or Primus stove that wants some attention, or a hurricane lamp that needs a new wick or chimney, get along to Brandts in the next couple of weeks or you will have to post it to Melbourne.

[ditzygypsy]

From: Belinda Keir
To: Mark Taylor
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 4:02 PM
Subject: please post this for me


I collected our newly-repaired and perfectly-functioning Ravia stove on Friday. We are chuffed to have an original stove in working order.

TW Sands in Melbourne were able to build a new brass tank and bored out the burners. They are familiar with these stoves and have worked on a lot of them - particularly the burners. The boss was travelling up to Sydney this week and so I met him at Brandts (their Sydney business) so he could fit the tank and burners to the frame and show me how it works.

I'm glad he did that because lighting the stove is a bit tricky. I won't go into the details here - you would be better to phone Bernie at TW Sands. However, he did have a few bits of advice to keep a Ravia stove running happily:
- use a good quality metho to avoid the burners clogging. Glendale is a good product, and he also hasn't had problems with Diggers. Avoid cheap metho from supermarkets.
- if you are using the stove regularly keep fuel in the tank so the wicks stay damp. About every six months empty out what is left in the tank and replace with fresh fuel. Keep an eye out for the tank becoming gungy.
- if you are using the stove rarely, empty the tank and let everything dry out.
- eventually the wicks that are inside the tube from the tank to the burner will clog up and need replacing. When you unscrew the tank from the back of the stove there should be a piece of metal poking out of each hole. Pull this out gently and the wick should come with it. Cut a new bit of wick twice the length of the tube (Sands sell the right wick), fold it in half, attach it to the bit of metal and carefully poke it back in. If this sounds too difficult, send the burners to Sands or call them for instructions over the phone.

As background information, Ravia stoves were an Australian product, last made in Kogarah (Sydney).

I have attached before and after photos of our stove, plus instructions for a slightly different model. Sorry the text is a bit blurry - I had to unscrew the cupboard door off the van and stick it on the scanner (the instructions are glued on)

Ravia page one.jpg

Ravia page two.jpg


Ravia before.jpg


Ravia after.jpg

[Deleted]

"Leo Cronin" from Caravan Fridge Parts sent me an email & offered to assist anyone chasing parts and repairs for their old caravan fridges.....

Leo can be contacted via email at:

www.caravanrefrigeration.com.au

[belinda]

We went back to Coledale last weekend and once again the Ravia stove did great service. However, some more advice about using metho stoves:

- watch out for pots boiling over. We had a spill and suddenly there was a puddle of water with burning metho mixed in. Metho is pretty safe, but it still wasn't good. After this we will use bigger pans and push the curtains right away.

- fill the tank before every meal while everything is cold. That way the tank will always be full of cool liquid, rather than hot vapours

- Bernie from TW Sands (knows everything about lamps and stoves) recommends a fire blanket and powder extinguisher as the best fire protection for this sort of stove in a confined space.

We didn't have anything disastrous happen, but going away in the van is certainly tightening up our camping procedures.

cheers

Belinda

[Deleted]

Hello Belinda

Good safety tips for anyone using metho stoves in ply vans.
Bernie is right about extinguishers and blankets. Plus i seem to remember the authorities mentioning a detector/alarm in VSB 1.

I wouldn't have thought of the pots boiling over and mixing with the metho.
I was going to take our van to Nabiac Motorcycle Museum Swap Meet over easter but decided to take one of my bikes for for sale on a trailer instead.
I took our metho cooker to trial it on billy boiling, bacon and Eggs and sausages . I had used it at home once before and I let a bit too much metho into the tray around the burners . When i ignited it i had a flame about a foot high. i soon mastered the art of lighting it without causing a halacaust.
It cooked tea on saturday night with no dramas. I lit it again on Sunday morning and put the billy on. While i was yarning with a bloke on a site next door , a mate decided to 'Top up" the metho while the burner was on.
Luckily i spotted him before he got around to getting the lid off the tank. could have been a disaster.

what is the average consumption for these stoves?? I realise the higher the flame the more you use but roughly how many meals or billy boil ups per 1 litre.

I used 1/2 litre to cook snags and eggs for tea, bacon and eggs for brekky, then boil the billy twice on sunday morning. Notice i didn't mention cuppas on saturday night. We tended to visit the esky a lot more than the kettle

Reddo

[belinda]

Hi Reddo,

we are used to metho stoves having bushwalked with a "Trangia" storm cooker for years.

What sort of stove do you have in your van? The type of stove will decide a lot about the best way to use it.

For a weekend away with a family of five we would probably use about two litres of fuel, but I always take more. Remember Bernie's advice (I put it on a post somewhere) about always using good quality metho or you'll clog up the burners. He recommended Glendale or Diggers. A Trangia fuel bottle is the safest way to carry metho and fills a stove without spills. You would be able to get one at a good camping store.

For reducing fuel use, the biggest hint is use someone else's energy wherever possible. Parboil sausages at home and freeze them, fill the billy with hot water from a kettle or the camping ground kitchen, cook on the electric barbecue provided rather than in the van etc.

I would use a broad billy rather than a tall one, both for safety and so the maximum amount of pan is in contact with the flame. We use the pots from our large Trangia stove and handle them with Trangia tongs. It means there are no projecting handles to be knocked over.

Draughts also greatly reduce a stove's efficiency.

hope this helps

Belinda

[Roehm3108]

Hi Belinda
This is the stove I bought on ebay recently:


It's a Coleman, and in very good nick. There is no book with it. The fuel in it smells like kero. Would that be right??? It also has a pressure pump type handle on one end, which reminds me of the Pressure lamps that used to exist. Can you or anyone out there enlighten me a bit on these stoves??? I will try to contact Colemans as well to see what they can tell me.

Cheers
Ray

[humpty2]

Ray, my small knowledge of Coleman stoves was that they used White Spirit.......which is basically petrol without colour in it!!!

[belinda]

Hi Ray

there are several websites on old camping stoves. Try putting "Primus" or "pressure stove" into Google. You should also try contacting Coleman direct - they are still in business and have a big website. Send them a picture of your van and what you are using the stove for and they will probably be interested.

Shellite or white spirit is used in small pressure stoves or "choofers". It's nasty, dangerous stuff and I'd hate to see you (and the van) go up in cloud of greasy black smoke. Coleman did make choofers, but yours isn't one of them. If you want to see a modern choofer look at an MSR whisperlite.

Similarly, kero is mostly used under pressure.

I'm guessing your stove uses metho like the Ravia or Maxie stoves. When TW Sands manufactured a new metho tank for our Ravia they used a Coleman tank identical to yours (look at the "after" photos).

I would definitely contact Bernie at TW Sands and send him a photo of your stove. He was very helpful with advice and happy to work on ours. I only sent them the tank and burners, not the whole chassis, so postage from Sydney to Melbourne wasn't prohibitive. They did a great job and now it works beautifully.

cheers

Belinda

[don]

Hi picked up a metho stove branded Shields (looks similar to Maxi). Polished the brass tank & gave the rest a coat of potbelly black.Looks great & works beaut.... Don.Attachment Deleted