Forums > Technical Discussion > Biodiesel vs. Your Wicks

Posted: 21st Apr 2004
I don't see why it would. Seems like a pretty innocuous substance.... sort of.


It's non-toxic, so I don't see why it would eat up kevlar when chemicals like alcohol and white gas don't.


This is totally speculation, but i would bet wicks wil last longer with it, since it has such a low burning temperature.


so I guess that's still not a solid answer, since I don't actually "know," but I wouldn't worry about it.

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Posted: 22nd Apr 2004
the substance itself will not damage your wick material, at least any more than white gas or parafin will. it is, however, pretty smokey (about like kerosene, but maybe not quite that much), so you will wind up with more soot on your wicks - but no more than if you are using kerosene or low grade parafin.



so if you don't like really dirty wicks, or think soot damages them, then maybe you want to avoid biodiesel. I don't care, and the reasons I don't use it is because it is hard to find, is hard to light, smokes a lot, excess/residual biodiesel fuel that flings off your wicks is very slippery on most surfaces (creating a significant physical injury hazard on stages and sometimes even on tarred roads), smaller/dimmer flame (seems to have a longer burn time though - again, about likt kero), and splattered fuel is very hot (biodiesel seems to have a much higher heat capacity than any other fuel I've used - feels like you just got frying pan grease splattered on you sometimes if you are doing say a buzzsaw or something like that).

-v-

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