The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Kerosene

I'd use it for cleaning up greasy parts and then use the rest to help burn my brush piles.

Old Kerosens should be just fine...it does not spoil or go bad.

...but some of it will have a smell if you burn it in a kerosene heater.

Speaking of Kerosene, I had to quit using my Kerosene heater here in Mississippi. The cost of it is like $8.00 per gal. I put in a propane heater and it's ONLY about $3.00 per gal. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Speaking of Kerosene. For every gallon of kerosene burned in an
unvented kerosene heater, 1.1 gallons of water is produced.
Don't ask me how it does that, I got that information from
the Clemson U site:
http://www.clemson.edu/psapublishing/pages/fyd/HL256.pdf

I do know that the new salamander that I bought to take the chill
off in the pole barn, produced enough humidity that literally
all of the bare metal in a 42x50x12 building rusted over in a
couple of days of using it. Needless to say, it was a mistake and
I should have put the money toward a vented wood burning furnace.
Now all of my wood, and metal working machines and
steel stock is covered with rust.

DG

LPG and LNG also create more humidity, it's a result of the 'splitting' of oxygen in the combustion process, replacing it with CO2 and H2O, un-vented open flame heating is never a good thing

Bill

It will probably have high sulfur and stink a bit.

Use it as a parts cleaner.

Bruce --

Kerosene is a petroleum distillate not unlike gasoline, fuel oil, etc. All these distillates are composed of a range of different length hydrocarbon chains. Shorter chains, lower boiling point, more fumes. Assuming the container isn't perfectly sealed, the light fractions will evaporate leaving a higher percentage of the heavier stuff.

Your old Kero is fine but it may behave a little more like No. 2 Fuel Oil, e.g. a little more stink, little more soot, little harder to light than it really should.

As for the humidity, Mr. Graham is right on. Hydrocarbons are just that -- a bunch of hydrogens bound to carbon atoms. When they burn the H-C and C-C bonds break and form new ones with oxygen. The carbon mostly winds up as CO2 and CO but the hydrogen mostly winds up as water (H2O). There's a lot more H than C hence all the water.

Sorry for the chemistry babble. Short story is that it should be fine for nearly all purposes but may stink a bit.

Pete P.
Harborcreek, Penna.