I made a brief post about Tilly lamps over on our Facebook page and it gained some interest. So on with a longer post over here.

So what is a Tilley lamp?

It’s a paraffin fuelled light which was invented many years ago and was popular before we all had hot and cold running electricity. They first went into production just over 100 years ago with the current model being in production since 1964. However like the tradename hoover it has become a name used for any paraffin fuelled lamp. So not all Tilley lamps are actually tilley lamps. If it has a wick then it isn’t anything like a tilleylamp.

How does it work?

It takes liquid paraffin and turns it into a gas. This gas is then mixed with air and is burned in a mantle which produces a white light from the mantle being heated by the flame.

How this is done is quite clever.

The base of the lamp is airtight and has a small pump on the side. This pump is used to pressurise the tank to about 30psi by blowing a small amount of air into it. The fuel then is pushed up the central column which supports the lamp. This column runs through the middle of the mantle which has the flame inside it and is heated up till it is almost boiling. It then escapes through a tiny little nozzle on the top of the column where it vaporises into a gas which then mixes with air and is pushed down into the mantle where it burns. This burning heats the mantle until it glows as well as providing loads of heat for the vaporising process. This allows the process to be self sustaining

The lamp with the glass and the top removed.
To the left there is the pump which is used to pressurise the tank
The long rod in the middle is the vaporiser
The small black knob at the bottom is the on/off control

The vaporiser removed from the lamp with the control cock to the left.
The long thin thing is the pricker which is pushed upwards when you switch the lamp off. This should clean out the nozzle to greatly reduce blockages
There is rubber washers between these parts which age and go brittle and cause leaks

Under the cap.
You can see the central hole which the vaporiser goes into. Above this is a bulb where the magic happens
The three arms is where combustion air is pulled in as they are hollow.
The ring of small holes is where the mixture of gas and air come out of to burn inside the mantle which has been removed here

The same part but with a mantle which has been poorly fitted, that said modern mantles aren’t quite as good as the old ones.

A closeup of where the pump goes into. You can see a notch out of the threads which allow the pressure to escape easily when you release the tank pressure

The air pump which i am not taking to bits as the leather washer is an £$%£$ to refit.
This is used to pressurise the tank to get the whole thing going
Again there is a rubber washer which will go hard with age and give you some leaks

Why would you want one?

Apart from being quite nice and producing a pleasant light they also need no electricity to operate so are perfect for camping trips or when you have no mains electricity. The process also used to produce light is spectacularly inefficient as in less than 1% of the energy in the fuel being turned into actual light. The rest of the energy is mostly wasted as heat. A rough estimate of the waste heat is about 700w which is actually very useful as heating as 700w is about the same as a small oil filled 240 heater. So a Tilley lamp can provide heat and light. When the power goes out that is deeply useful.

I find them to be far less harsh than LED lights and the warmth keeps the office nice and warm out in the workshop office where in the dark winter months i will often have one running on the desk.

They can run for about 12 hours on a tank full of fuel which in the real world with occasional use it can be years. The one kept in the kitchen sat for 18 months with no use and was up and running within minutes in a power cut. So very little maintenance and no batteries to worry about.

Why NOT too have one!

They aren’t perfect by any means and they aren’t for everyone.

The mantles originally contained thorium which is vaguely radioactive but more modern ones don’t use Thorium. The debate if modern mantles are as good as the old ones is an ongoing debate.

They can easily chuck out lots of lovely Carbon-monoxide if not working properly so they really aren’t overly suited to use in a tent

Even when not trying to kill you immediately with CO they still do chuck out combustion products so they aren’t recommended for long time use.

Also you have a pressurised container of flammable stuff bolted to a red hot burny thing and if you get it wrong lighting one then it’s a flame thrower.

They also need a wee bit of care and changing the mantles which are very delicate is a tricky wee job

That said i have 3 of them and wouldn’t be without one somewhere in the house.

The tilley lamp pre-heating using a lighting torch which explains the blue flame from meths

How to light one and run it.

If you have been paying attention you will of noted the entire process needs heat so bad news for the youth. It doesn’t have an on button.

The basic process is to take the pre-heating torch and to soak it in meths

Clip it to the central tube under the mantle

Light it with a naked flame like a match or a lighter and this preheats the vaporiser

Once the flame starts to die down you quickly open the small stop cock and then pump the handle to send fuel into the lamp and it should light with a pop.

Be warned if you do this too soon you won’t have enough heat to vaporise the fuel and you’ll have big black sooty flames coming out the top.

Maybe the first time you try to light one maybe do it in the shed/garage/greenhouse as outside you have wind which makes it harder

A nice gentleman has made a video

One word of warning based on the above video. Don’t leave the handle above the lamp when it is on a flat surface as it will get very hot from the lamp and you WILL pick it up. This will give you the chance to explore your knowledge of swear words.

To run it you shouldn’t need to pump it up if it is in good health. But yours probably hasn’t been serviced this century and it will be leaking air. So when the light starts to die down you will need to give it a few pumps. If it suddenly dies then you might have some cack in the nozzle which can be fixed usually by quickly switching it off and then on again. If you do this quickly enough it should relit. If not its time for the preheating torch again. Why this works is inside the vaporiser there is a thin needle which gets poked up into the nozzle hole when it’s switched off. This helps to clean out the nozzle

To switch it off use the small control knob to turn it off and then undo the big collar around the pump to reduce the pressure in the tank to zero.

Where to get fuel

It is recommended that you run them on paraffin which can be bought online, in most garden centres, some garages and the big box DIY stores. I however cheat and use normal household heating oil as i’ve got a thousand odd litres of it in the garden. If you are in the stick you probably do as well. A full tank is about a 800ml and this should last 12 hours non-stop so a 5 litre container will keep you going for a good while.

For the meths (methylated spirits) for lighting it then it is the same places online, garden centres and big box DIY places. I have used IPA (isopropyl alcohol) for lighting one and I dare say you could use a cheap vodka.

I am pretty certain that Mearns hardware in Laurencekirk will carry both Paraffin and meths

Where to get one

There is a theory that tilley lamps aren’t actually made, they just suddenly materialise in garden sheds and on the top shelf at the back of an old garage. I cannot disprove nor doubt this despite it breaking the standard model of physics.

Ebay, gumtree and facebook marketplace all appear to be good places to get one if you haven’t got the patience to wait for one to appear prices range from £40 to £90ish for a standard one

If you feel brave rich you can buy a brand new one direct from Tilley but they aren’t cheap at over £150

Did i mention they won’t work unless a glass of red wine is close by?

Where to get spares

This whole post was kicked off by me biting the bullet and finally servicing ours as they were all a wee bit leaky due to the seals hardening with age.

I got my spares direct from Tilley which appear quickly via Royal mail

Other options are the fettlebox and base camp. I have not used either of them but they have a good name in the facebook group

What next?

I hope this has given you a wee bit of food for thought and it might even get you to drag the old one that has appeared in your garden shed.

There is an online community and beyond tilley lamps their is paraffin blow torches and the slightly mad paraffin cookers which all use the same idea of vaporising paraffin to make heat.

If i have made any mistake or you can add anything please drop a comment below

AND FINALLY

Can barras blades service my Tilley lamp?

It is not a technically difficult job it’s just seals and washers which is pretty standard engineering. The only problem is liability should it go wrong. So ask me and we can work something out as i’m sure I could do a better job than most who has only watched a few youtube videos

Tilley lamps