Kerosene heater wicks

I have a Dyna-Glo kerosene heater I use to take the chill out of my shop. It's ten years old on the original wick and was starting to smoke, so I decided to replace the wick. I picked up a "Kero World" brand wick at Family Farm and Home and attempted to swap it out. But I couldn't get the safety shutoff to work; the new wick would stay up instead of snapping down inside the heater when I hit the shutoff. Also, the new wick didn't seem to protrude high enough when it was turned all the way up; it's supposed to stick out 3/8", and it only seemed to be protrucing about 1/4".

I should mention the replacement wick was made in China. I didn't think much about it, since the heater itself was made right next door in Korea.

I fought with the new wick all week, and I could never get it to work right. Today I decided the wick must be defective, and I bought a second wick from the local Ace Hardware. This wick is "American Wick" brand, and MADE IN ENGLAND. I could tell it was going to work as soon as I started installing it. It clearly fit better, and had the correct 3/8" protrusion. And when I hit the shutoff, SNAP! The wick retracted all the way, just like it should.

The kicker: The good Limey wick was two bucks cheaper than the Chinese knockoff!

This is clearly a safety issue. It's unbelievable that defective junk like that Chinese wick is on the market, when it could definitely get someone killed.

Several years ago i had to replace my dyna glow wick. I called the help number on the unit and ordered on from dyna glow. A little tricky to put in but it fit right and still working fine.

Also found with those units is they must be spotless. I cleaned the center tube and the sleve with carb cleaner till everything just glistens. When they are right they work really well. By the way, have you ever tried the catalytic converter for those? You can pick one up on flebay. They look like a round gray color piece of window screen maybe 5 inches across. You hang it with a couple of little wires right over the burner. NO smell at all!!! I don't think they are made anymore so 5he price has gone up a bit. They really do work. Look up Platinum Catalytic Filter on fleabay.

> Also found with those units is they must be spotless. I cleaned the center tube and the sleve with carb cleaner till everything just glistens. When they are right they work really well. By the way, have you ever tried the catalytic converter for those?

My original assumption was that the tube was dirty, since the original wick was carboned up. But everything seemed to be clean and I removed any carbon I could find.

The catalytic converter looks like an interesting device, although I've never had a problem with smell as long as the wick is clean and the fuel is good.

> I called the help number on the unit and ordered on from dyna glow.

I would have ordered a wick if I had not found the made-in-England wick locally.

The original wick is marked "PASECO LTD", which seems to be a Korean manufacturer. I suspect the "American Wick" brand wicks sold at Ace are made by Hattersley Aladdin, but I can't prove it.

Ya many years ago those converters were like ten or fifteen bucks. Not anymore. They really make it so there is NO smell of kerosene. You go nose blind so go outside for half an hour and then come back in. You will smell some kero smell. With the catalytic converter when you come in you get a little smell of hot metal and that is it. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.milesstair.com That link takes you to about the best site I've found so far for kero burner parts and info.

The square radiant kerosene heaters,the one's with a removable fuel tank, work better. The level of fuel the wick is in doesn't change as the fuel is consumed.

Hello everyone.
I need a good kerosene heater. Any ideas which brand to get?
I want to buy one that is durable but I'm confused with all the information. Safety is another concern of mine.
Can anyone tell me which one is good to buy in this review?
Kerosene-fueled heaters
Thanks.

I definitely recommend Dyna heaters. They are optimal in terms of price/quality ratio. But you can also check out more really nice and worthy options here