Kerosene heaters and Toyota

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splatterdog
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Kerosene heaters and Toyota

Post by splatterdog »

Recently came across this website as I'm kind of a kero fanatic. I've always known Toyotomi as a maker of high quality heaters(Toyoset, Toyostove, Kero-Sun). Turns out they have been the stamped sheet metal supplier for Toyota since at least 1960. http://www.toyotomi.jp/en-index/company ... n-history/

It's too bad lawsuits from idiots forced them to give up wick heater sales here in the states back in the 90's. The only new wick heaters out there now are China crap.

Luckily craigslist usually has them cheap. I've gotten NIB for $25. Ebay prices can be insane. If searching for one, try to find a "double clean" unit. They are supposed to be the cleanest running and also have some adjustment range. Every other kero wick heater needs to be at 100% for max efficiency and cleanest burning. They come in the round convective or rectangular radiant just like the non double cleans. I'm partial to radiant as the smaller size is better suited for most situations and the feeling of indoor sunshine feels so good. https://www.toyotomiusa.com/factoryOutl ... uct_id=128
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RivBWZjyNzM

The wife thinks I have a problem. Pretty sure she thinks the same about T4's.. I'm still waiting for a winter power failure to prove her wrong. I'm up to 10 Toytomi heaters now and a model K cook stove plus an Alladin Blue Flame heater my grandparents used in France when Grandad was stationed there after WW2. Oh, and an Alladin lamp which is based on the blue flame burner and uses a mantle to produce silent bright white light since 1908. http://aladdinlamps.com/

Stay warm my friends
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: Kerosene heaters and Toyota

Post by Petros »

we have on occasion had our power out in winter for a week or more. One or two nights we can get by okay, like camping out, just using our wood stove. but much longer gets tiring wearing winter clothes in doors all day. We have propane heat so our stove is always good to go, just have to manually light the burner. But our hydraunic heat, though propane powered, requires electrictiy for the cirulation pumps, blower fans, and thermostat system to operate. So we have to burn wood in the wood stove. but that does not really heat a stow story 2800 sf home very well.

I have several kerosene heaters, I do not recall the brand, but US made. I think we bought it at a garage sale. I do not care for the soot it puts out so I use it in the garage, or in our utility shed (attached to the house, where our boiler is located) to keep the water in our heat system from freezing. Inside the house we use these portable propane heaters that put out a lot of heat. We have been using those propane bottles commonly used on camping stoves, though those get kind of pricy to use long term. I have been meaning to find an adapter to connect directly to our propane supply to the house to these portable heaters, we have 500 gal tank on our property, so we get it at bulk price delivered to our home. That will last all winter, we can even run our generator off of it (I converted the generator to run on propane, the crappy federal ethanol blend caused the carburetor to corrode away into a useless solid mass).

we use oil lamps, and candles for lights, when our girls were young they always thought it was a great adventure to have the power out. We would cook on the wood stove (pop corn and hot chocolate was the favorite), read stories to each other by oil lamp, play games, etc. funny, we could do that with the power on too, but it was easier to turn on the TV or put in a movie.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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splatterdog
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Re: Kerosene heaters and Toyota

Post by splatterdog »

The soot shouldn't be too bad. Most of it is from start up and shut down. I mostly use mine in the camper. My camper was off grid for several year's with a broke furnace, so kero was ideal. Now that theres power to it I still use it, but having a fan to circulate makes a huge difference. Keeps the window frost to a minimum and the floor will get to barefoot temp when it's sub zero out. I have a small fan screwed to the ceiling directly over the heater for optimum flow to the rear and also swivels to blow start up smoke out the door. The inside isn't tarred after several winters..

Petros, if you are using a convective, you may want to try a radiant. I think they run cleaner. That observance does make me question the double clean burners just a little. They still make them today so it must be legit. The non double clean radiants use a catalytic converter vs a flame spreader(stage 2 on a double clean). The glowing converter gets combustion in the better than 99% efficiency range. As far as older heaters, the more modern radiants do not use a screen or spring around the top of the converter. My newer heaters are a hair cleaner in my opinion.


For added convenience, I have my oil supplier drop off 55's of fuel at home. DO NOT use red dyed kero in a wick heater! It kills wicks.
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