Alladin Oil Lamps

if your looking for the above mention lamps, try your local Ace Hardware store. A friend of mine found a gold mine in a Northern California Ace Hardware Store....Lamps for a price of 52.00 each, including the chimney, mantle and double wick. These lamps give off the same amout of light at a 60 watt bulb.

Oil can be bought at Walmart for a very reasonable price.

pamela ;)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), May 21, 1999

Answers

typing error alert: should say: These lamps give off the same amount of light as a 60 watt bulb. sowwwy......

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), May 21, 1999.

Pamela, Thanks for the tip on Ace Hardware. I phoned all of my local stores in the book in southern CA and none of the stores had them. I then checked out the Acehardware,com location and searched for other stores and found one in a local small community. Called up and he had three on the shelf. Great tip. The man who owned the store said Ace, as a company, is allotted 300 lamps per week. Of this he receives 5 lamps per week. He also said that Aladin is maxed out and that they will not even answer the phone. One I got home I used the lamp for the first time and I AM IMPRESSED. These are really worth the extra money, IMHO.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), May 22, 1999.

they are hard to get, at this point. but I got mine ayear ago! two genie's. wouldn't sell 'em for $500 apiece! got lottsa mantle's to. now if I could only pump up that pesky petromax...

-- ed (edrider007@aol.com), May 22, 1999.

Yep- but i don't know if they can reorder Alladin stuff or not now. Our local Ace has had a lantern sitting on the shelf for years- same kind I have. Plus mantles, wicks, etc. I mentioned this fact at a get-to-gether with my neighbors on Y2k, and two families headed out to Ace pronto- one beat the other to it by an hour and bought them out. blew their minds at the store. couldn't believe it when the second person showed up an hour later! As of yet, they haven't restocked....

but yeah- it was $52. It does make me wonder of course at the relization that when only those few of us who were "into" Alladins and such were buying them, it was no problem to get supplies. Now- it's another story altogether. I actually have to plan ahead to get things I cold normally obtain easily....

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), May 22, 1999.

Was thinking about the lamps and realized I have no idea how to light them and use them. spend many summers using the old coleman white gas laterns; practice made perfect!

Gonna pick up oil next week and start teaching the older kids how to fill and light them safely. Also leave them around the house in various places so the little ones know they are not to be touched.

didn't know about the allotment to the Ace Stores; good tip for me. Our little store is closed on Sundays...

pamela ;)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), May 23, 1999.

Real Goods is advertising a decorative glass Aladdin, very pretty, also 60w equivalent--for around $150!!!

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), May 23, 1999.

Can I ask another stupid question? Why is Aladdin preferred over the generic brands? I have two oil lamps and two kerosene lamps. None of them are name-brand anything. I'd have to look in my database to be sure, but I'm convinced that I paid no more than $8.95 for the MOST expensive of the lot.

Our electricity recently went out for 3-4 hours and I fired up one of the oil lamps. It suited the purpose just fine.

I'm just curious why Aladdin is so popular (and expensive) when there are so many alternatives.

Anita

-- Anita Spooner (spoonera@msn.com), May 23, 1999.

Anita,

The only reason I purposely looked for the Alladin lamp was that I was told that they output comparable to a 60 watt bulb. For me this was important, because every single soul in this house (6) and the four possible guests are avid readers. I felt that if i was going to invest in oil lamsp, I should get ones that I know work well and are suitable for reading.

Hoever, if you have found off brand lamsp that you have found suitable , I would love to get that infor from you too!!

thanks for your input.

pamela ;)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), May 24, 1999.

I've been on the phone for an hour over another matter, so sure hope this is still in copy mode from them. Someone E-mailed me the response to the Aladdin question. Here it is:

All lamps use a single wick which then lights and is very similar to 1-2 candles in power. The Aladin uses a double wick system that creates a ring of fire in wick area. This fire then lights a woven, silk mantel which is very similar to a coleman lantern. This mantel then glows very brightly, nearly equal to a 60 watt bulb. and produces a great deal more light. It also produces heat which will help heat a room. This is a patented process and no other lamp uses this mantel/wick combination. They are also very well made, beautiful and use brass for the metal. The lamp will out last its owner.

Well, I didn't really need to hear of yet ANOTHER thing that would outlast me, but at least I now know the difference.

Pamela: We do our reading around here by natural daylight. We're VERY prudent in our electricity use. In the evening, (if the need arises and we have no electricity, we'll be playing Bingo with my mother (who would be moved here with us.) I sure hate that thought....but hate even more the thought of her living at a type-B facility that might not be able to withstand Y2k.

I don't know what types, etc. the oil/kerosene lamps I purchased are. I purchased ONE at Albertsons's (a local grocery store) last year and then found the same thing at Hypermart (an offshoot of Sam's/Walmart) for several dollars less. I think I purchased the kerosene lamps at Walmart also, yet I'd have to check my database to be sure.

Anita

-- Anita Spooner (spoonera@msn.com), May 24, 1999.

thanks for the info on the Alladin lamps, Anita. I knew there was a mantel and a double wick, but I haven't even tried them out yet. Just got my 4 on Friday.

With potentially 4 children, one elderly and 5 adults, we are going to need some light for the evening. Some much to do and so little time.....

thanks again

pamela :)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), May 24, 1999.

Hey, folks,

I was without power for about three years, back in the seventies. I used four types of lighting: candles, "regular" kerosene lamps, alladins, and propane. You've all experienced candles. Regular kerosene lamps give off a fairly weak light (altho much stronger than a taper type candle), but are easy to use and get good fuel economy. The alladin I had was a pain in the rear to operate. I don't know if they are still the same or not, after this long, but mine had a circular wick, and trimming it was a real chore. If it wasn't done right, these little "fingers" of flame would burn extra high, and cause the chimney to smoke up. Also, the alladin tended to "accelerate", that is, it would gradually keep burning higher and higher. If you left the room where the alladin was burning, you were likely to return to find the thing burning out of control. When this happened, there would be lots of sooty smoke all over the room, and the chimney would require lots of scrubbing.The alladin also used about a quart of kerosene per night, while the "regular" kerosene lamps could go for six or eight nights on a quart of kerosene. Although the alladin gave off a very nice, bright light, it wasn't worth the trouble to me, and I ended up using the regular kerosene lamps for everything except reading. For reading I bought a propane light disigned for RV's. This type of light has a somewhat obnoxious hissing noise when it is burning, like a coleman lantern, but has the strongest light of all (I'd estimate it's light at close to 100 watt light bulb equivalent.

For y2k (I now have electric lights) I am going to buy a propane lantern. I still have some regular kerosene lamps and lots of candles.

-- malcolm drake (jumpoff@echoweb.net), June 10, 1999.