Paraffin heater

Section62

JohnMars said:

Section62 said:

JohnMars said:

Hi!

Just wanted to chime in as an owner of both a Zibro laser fan assisted paraffin heater and zebra wick heater.

I had to laugh at some of the comments on here with concerns about using a liquid fuel heater in the house! Its a very safe heater to use and very effective but Ill also outline some of the negatives.

First is the use of liquid fuel in the house - paraffin is stable and not easy to set light too - its not at all like petrol, and lots of people have oil lamps in their homes or oil candles - its the same stuff!

Ive always had oil based heating too, and actually the time the boiler sprang a leak on the oil line was the worst thing I have smelt - but never had this with he paraffin heaters.

Other on here are right - its currently about equal in cost to heat with paraffin vs gas or electricity - if you can get a 20L container for about £45, you can get about 16 hours from 4L tank full @3KW - so 56p per hour for 3kw of heat. If someone is paying 0.520 per KW currently then a 3kw electric heater would be £1.56 per hour to run!

The heater is small, very well made and with lots of safety features - if you do so much as bump it it turns itself off, if the room gets to hot it turns off and if the O2 level falls it turns off.

It's easy to use, just a push button to turn on and off, and modern thermostat to turn temp up and down.

Now the bad things.....

Smell - no matter what the sales hype says they still smell of paraffin - I love it when its going, but its the start and stop that are the worse ( ill go onto that in a bit). Burning normal paraffin from the 4L plastic cans from hardware / DIY chains is fine and you'll just get a slight smell when using.

The worst smell is when you start and stop these heaters, and this is basically the deal breaker. Starting is not so bad but when you turn it off it really emits a strong paraffin / oil smell. People vary but you may find you have to open a window wide to air the room when you turn it off, which kinda could your room down!

For this reason you cannot use them in the advertised way of turning it off an on, once its lit it stays lit - the laser ones can be turned down to min 800w, but I would not want to keep turning it on and off because of the smell.

The other bad thing is what that smell is, and the fact its not vented. That smell is unburnt paraffin being slightly vaporised due to you shutting off the fire - so your now breathing that. Unburnt paraffin can contain all sorts of nasty things like benzene and toluline  - things that have negative health consequences.

Now, at 42 Im not too bothered, we use the heater as an emergency back up in case of power outage and as a summerhouse heater, but I'm not sure even I would want to be breathing that in on a regular basis.

The extra carbon dioxide they emit is also linked to exacerbation of health issues such as COPD and asthma etc - have a read around indoor pollution before making your decision.


Lastly is the filling, paraffin is messy and smelly and I always come in stinking of paraffin on my hands which lingers no matter how much you wash it off. Its just the nature of these oils, they creep and even a surface that looks dry makes you smell of paraffin! Storage and carting of 4L at a time is a pain and if your buying 20L you do need to watch where you store it, if you get a leak its really horrible stuff that persists in your soil and contaminates your waterways - it will kill all aquatic life if it gets into your pond etc.

So in summary - yes they have a place, I love them and think they make great back up heaters, but you need to consider the possible consequences of breathing in fumes on a regular basis if your going to rely on it as a sole source of heat.

Ive never felt its dangerous in its use, in fact I feel more uneasy with a calor fire (which we also use), and the technology for monitoring and auto shut down is a world away from old 70's Aladdin heaters people think of.

Just let me know if you have any more questions.

You laughed?  Then went on to list a good number of short and long-term disbenefits and safety concerns over using paraffin as a fuel in the home.

I didn't find any of them funny myself.  There are some serious health and safety issues relating to the use of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels in the home.  Nobody should be using a forum like this one to suggest otherwise.

Use one of these appliances incorrectly and it can kill you.  No laughing matter.

"Nobody should be using a forum like this one to suggest otherwise"


Someone asked an opinion on a fully legal and quality standards passed indoor home heater, that is legally obtainable in the UK and conforms to our standards.

How is my posting about my experiences and dare I say  "recommending" a fully compliant appliance available in the UK wrong?

Where do you think I said it was wrong for you to post about your experiences/recommendation?

No matter how "fully legal and quality standards passed" an appliance is, the use of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels involves risks such as storage of fuel, refuelling the appliance, and combustion products which are/can be harmful to health.

My point was that nobody should be suggesting there aren't serious health and safety issues relating to the use of these fuels in the home.  It was not a comment on any specific product, nor anybody's experiences or views on that product.

Mstty

JohnMars said:

Section62 said:

JohnMars said:

Hi!

Just wanted to chime in as an owner of both a Zibro laser fan assisted paraffin heater and zebra wick heater.

I had to laugh at some of the comments on here with concerns about using a liquid fuel heater in the house! Its a very safe heater to use and very effective but Ill also outline some of the negatives.

First is the use of liquid fuel in the house - paraffin is stable and not easy to set light too - its not at all like petrol, and lots of people have oil lamps in their homes or oil candles - its the same stuff!

Ive always had oil based heating too, and actually the time the boiler sprang a leak on the oil line was the worst thing I have smelt - but never had this with he paraffin heaters.

Other on here are right - its currently about equal in cost to heat with paraffin vs gas or electricity - if you can get a 20L container for about £45, you can get about 16 hours from 4L tank full @3KW - so 56p per hour for 3kw of heat. If someone is paying 0.520 per KW currently then a 3kw electric heater would be £1.56 per hour to run!

The heater is small, very well made and with lots of safety features - if you do so much as bump it it turns itself off, if the room gets to hot it turns off and if the O2 level falls it turns off.

It's easy to use, just a push button to turn on and off, and modern thermostat to turn temp up and down.

Now the bad things.....

Smell - no matter what the sales hype says they still smell of paraffin - I love it when its going, but its the start and stop that are the worse ( ill go onto that in a bit). Burning normal paraffin from the 4L plastic cans from hardware / DIY chains is fine and you'll just get a slight smell when using.

The worst smell is when you start and stop these heaters, and this is basically the deal breaker. Starting is not so bad but when you turn it off it really emits a strong paraffin / oil smell. People vary but you may find you have to open a window wide to air the room when you turn it off, which kinda could your room down!

For this reason you cannot use them in the advertised way of turning it off an on, once its lit it stays lit - the laser ones can be turned down to min 800w, but I would not want to keep turning it on and off because of the smell.

The other bad thing is what that smell is, and the fact its not vented. That smell is unburnt paraffin being slightly vaporised due to you shutting off the fire - so your now breathing that. Unburnt paraffin can contain all sorts of nasty things like benzene and toluline  - things that have negative health consequences.

Now, at 42 Im not too bothered, we use the heater as an emergency back up in case of power outage and as a summerhouse heater, but I'm not sure even I would want to be breathing that in on a regular basis.

The extra carbon dioxide they emit is also linked to exacerbation of health issues such as COPD and asthma etc - have a read around indoor pollution before making your decision.


Lastly is the filling, paraffin is messy and smelly and I always come in stinking of paraffin on my hands which lingers no matter how much you wash it off. Its just the nature of these oils, they creep and even a surface that looks dry makes you smell of paraffin! Storage and carting of 4L at a time is a pain and if your buying 20L you do need to watch where you store it, if you get a leak its really horrible stuff that persists in your soil and contaminates your waterways - it will kill all aquatic life if it gets into your pond etc.

So in summary - yes they have a place, I love them and think they make great back up heaters, but you need to consider the possible consequences of breathing in fumes on a regular basis if your going to rely on it as a sole source of heat.

Ive never felt its dangerous in its use, in fact I feel more uneasy with a calor fire (which we also use), and the technology for monitoring and auto shut down is a world away from old 70's Aladdin heaters people think of.

Just let me know if you have any more questions.

You laughed?  Then went on to list a good number of short and long-term disbenefits and safety concerns over using paraffin as a fuel in the home.

I didn't find any of them funny myself.  There are some serious health and safety issues relating to the use of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels in the home.  Nobody should be using a forum like this one to suggest otherwise.

Use one of these appliances incorrectly and it can kill you.  No laughing matter.

"Nobody should be using a forum like this one to suggest otherwise"


Someone asked an opinion on a fully legal and quality standards passed indoor home heater, that is legally obtainable in the UK and conforms to our standards.

How is my posting about my experiences and dare I say  "recommending" a fully compliant appliance available in the UK wrong?

I think from the thanks you received from your informative post and follow up say it all versus your counterpart 👍

Thanks for this real life information 

Section62

Mstty said:

JohnMars said:

Section62 said:

JohnMars said:

I had to laugh at some of the comments on here with concerns about using a liquid fuel heater in the house! Its a very safe heater to use and very effective but Ill also outline some of the negatives.

....

You laughed?  Then went on to list a good number of short and long-term disbenefits and safety concerns over using paraffin as a fuel in the home.

I didn't find any of them funny myself.  There are some serious health and safety issues relating to the use of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels in the home.  Nobody should be using a forum like this one to suggest otherwise.

Use one of these appliances incorrectly and it can kill you.  No laughing matter.

"Nobody should be using a forum like this one to suggest otherwise"


Someone asked an opinion on a fully legal and quality standards passed indoor home heater, that is legally obtainable in the UK and conforms to our standards.

How is my posting about my experiences and dare I say  "recommending" a fully compliant appliance available in the UK wrong?

I think from the thanks you received from your informative post and follow up say it all versus your counterpart 👍

Thanks for this real life information 

Ok, help me out here.

Which of the warnings by various other posters about the risks of CO poisoning, fire, excessive moisture, need for ventilation etc do you think it is appropriate to laugh at?

It isn't about the appliance. It is the inherent risks involved with the fuel(s) and combustion products in a modern dwelling.