Diesel or Karosene

Old Retired Cop · Oct 28, 2020

I have a Kerosene fueled torpedo heater. I am wondering if diesel fuel could be substituted in place of more expensive kerosene?

LouNY · Oct 28, 2020

Mine is listed as a multi fuel and I do use #2 fuel oil in it,
it does have a bit of order to it.
Also I have had it wax up and quit running,
so I do blend the fuel that goes in it when it gets below 30.

fried1765 · Oct 28, 2020

Old Retired Cop said:
I have a Kerosene fueled torpedo heater. I am wondering if diesel fuel could be substituted in place of more expensive kerosene?

Kerosene is certainly better, and definitely has less odor, but diesel is much cheaper.
I bite the bullet, and use kerosene.

dodge man · Oct 28, 2020

Kerosene. I would think diesel would smell really bad

workinonit · Oct 28, 2020

Diesel will smoke more, smell more and foul up the parts quicker than kero. That said there are tons of them running off of diesel. We had 50 or so of them in our shop at the power plant used for freeze protection and running off of diesel. I had one guy that worked on them all the time. Kinda like the Fram guy.

KennyG · Oct 28, 2020

Mine is set up to use either. I find that diesel doesn't smoke or smell in it. If it's labeled to use diesel, try it and see if you like it.

Avenger · Oct 28, 2020

I wish I had a kerosene one, mine is propane. And it sucks.

Tractor Seabee · Oct 28, 2020

Most of the newer ones are dual fuel and work fine on diesel. When I was in construction we did it all the time and even on my own. I never noticed any real smell. Diesel puts out more BTUs per gallon and a lot cheaper. Kerosene in 5 gallon cans is crazy expensive.

Ron

Snobdds · Oct 28, 2020

Avenger said:
I wish I had a kerosene one, mine is propane. And it sucks.

why do you say that? I have a propane salamander heater and a job site jobber. Both have very few fumes and work great.

GSVette · Oct 29, 2020

Before I put my mini split in I used a propane salamander to boost heat my shop. It did the job but it certainly sucked the propane in doing it. I suspect that is what Avenger is referring to.

I occasionally fire it up now when I’ve put the mini split in freeze protection mode and then decide to heat the shop back up-it is much faster than the mini split ( but also more costly).