BBC News video: "'Time warp TV sets the best' says restorer"

[gavinhall]

I've got a 3m by 9m workshop with asbestos roof. It's dry but very cold in the winter. So far I've tried a fan heater (too small), convector heater (no where ideally to place it), electric radiators (take ages to heat up then 1 trips the RCD plus they don't radiate much) but by far the best is a 1950's 3 bar belling fire which just hits the spot (even had it in the kitchen last winter). I've tried insulating the roof but all the weight made it too heavy and the joists sagged. The only thing that concerns me is the cost of heating the place, mind you it is next to a BT pole with power on it.

[Hybrid tellies]

Have just seen this video clip. Brilliant , I think you have put over our interest so well. I am so envious of that workshop of yours.

[ALANS ANITAS]

Can't be all that long ago I was paying 20p a gallon, Oh dear, it must be nearly 40 years.

ALAN

[mark pirate]

Heating your workshop is a difficult task, i used to use a valor parafin heater, then went electric, i tried several fan heaters, but find the best compromise is a modern convector, but expensive to run, i now use a calor gas fire, again not cheap to run & causes my dehumidifier to work overtime, i would love to fit a small woodburner, but space (as always) is at a premium!

Mark

[womer_uk]

Originally Posted by PaulR

At over £7 for 5 litres its an expensive way of heating these days.

Try going to a local fuel distributor, (do a Google)

I went to mine yesterday (Millers Oils In Brighouse, Yorkshire) and paid just under £14 for 20 litres of heating paraffin, (it's coloured yellow, as there's only 5% VAT on it, no fuel duty) Just take a 20 litre plastic container with you, you won't need a jerry can if you haven't got one.

They sell you up to 99 litres at a go without signing a HMRC form.

[Heatercathodeshort]

How times and prices have changed. By the 1950's the act of sending young boys up chimneys had somewhat faded but the task continued in the form of carting paraffin cans to our lovely 1930's Esso art deco garage at Wimbledon Chase. It was dispensed by a miserable old git in soiled white overalls who was usually moaning as he hated leaving the petrol pumps to deal out the paraffin. It got worse. My father purchased a five gallon drum with a tap that was so heavy I had to rest it on garden walls all the way home. [It was old tellies from jumble sales about a year later. Obviously good practise.] No doubt he would have been arrested today for child cruelty.
It certainly caused a massive amount of condensation with water running down the walls. The EHT used to spark over when our Ferguson 236T was first switched on which eventually led to breakdown of the EHT rectifier valve holder. This was a problem I met in later life as a repair guy repairing receivers in Brixton South London where the use of paraffin heaters was very common in the many bedsits of the time.
I would say, don't use paraffin heaters in your workshop or 'museum' especially if you handle vintage television receivers. The amount of moisture produced is not healthy for 50-60 year old LOPTS and it stinks! [I prefer the smell of diesel..]
Now as it's Christmas and the time for carol singing, this may bring back memories of early ITA advertising for those who are still alive to remember it. Sung to the tune of SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES.
'They asked me how I knew it was Esso Blue
I of course replied,
with lower grades one buys,
Smoke gets in your eyes!'

Ah! the Esso Blue man. It cost 1/- [one shilling] a gallon back then, not a litre. Work that one out.
All the best for Christmas and keep warm. Regards, John.

[Mike Phelan]

When I did field service, there were many homes heated by paraffin. EHT problems galore.

I used to use a Tilley heater in the workshop and that had the same condensation problem, but was cheap to run if you used the non-domestic sort; TVO for tractors.
It's still available at Teales on the A62 at Mirfield. There was one of those electric greenhouse heaters permanently on in winter - 400W or something like that.

Now it's a fan heater plus a £10 halogen heater, and a dehumidifier.

[alanmoore]

Hi , i remember ,as a child in the late 60s my dad worked in a wallpaper and paint shop. They used to sell parafin for 2/6 a gallon . There was always a constant stream of people coming in with thier empty cans during winter. Who remembers the self service parrafin dispensers in petrol stations and the tankers which used to tour the streets selling the stuff? All part of a world which is not here any more . Cheers Alan.

[Peter.N.]

The cheapest heating fuel at the moment and for some time has been off peak electricity. You can pick up storage heaters for next to nothing. I used one in my workshop for many years and it has the added advantage of being a dry heat.

Peter

[M0FYA Andy]

When I was a youngster in the 50s a mobile shop in a van toured round the local streets every week. The driver/shop assistant was always referred to as "The Lamp-Oil Man". From memory I think his main stock was household cleaning items and suchlike, but there was also a large tank of paraffin with a tap at the bottom which was used to fill customers cans. I had an elderly great-aunt who lived in the same street who used a paraffin heater in her kitchen in winter. It was always a treat as a kid to be allowed to carry the paraffin can out to be filled!
Andy

[ricksteptoe]

When I was a lad our entire house was heated by paraffin stoves until about 1970. The man came once a week in a tanker and we would fill a drum with tap, and a two gallon can. Needless to say all the windows ran with water, and mum used to have towels spread on the window cills which would be rung out two or three times a day. I never noticed any deleterious effect on our tv but when we got central heating several ceilings fell in due to the drying out, it's amazing how big a chunk of plaster can be swallowed by a Hoover Senior.

Now everything is so expensive I seem to be going backwards, typing this hunched over one 400 watt bar of a halogen heater, never mind, i'll soon warm up when I turn on the radiogram!

By the way, the Esso song was given away on a flexi-disc some time in the late sixties, never did see the going of my copy,

[Wage Slave]

Originally Posted by alanmoore

Who remembers the self service parrafin dispensers in petrol stations and the tankers which used to tour the streets selling the stuff? All part of a world which is not here any more.

Believe it or not, here in hi tech Japan both are still very much a part of everyday life in winter. I go to the petrol station every weekend to buy self serve paraffin. At the moment about 18 litres a week which will climb to more like 36 when the weather gets really cold. The truck comes around about twice a week but it is a bit more expensive. People buy tickets in advance and just leave their empty plastic jerry cans outside their house to be filled while they are at work. Japan being Japan no-one steals.

The heaters are mostly electric fan assisted and do a decent job but of course condensation on the windows is a problem. They pressurise the fuel and burn with a blue flame so there is no smell while they are working. On switch off you get a brief whiff of toasted paraffin like you get at airports sometimes. They and the wick/grill type are equipped with movement sensors so they shut off instantly at the first sign of a quake.

In the countryside it is usually used for hot water as well. People have a 100 to 200 litre tank and trucks come around, refill them and bill you later.

I long for the comfort and convenience of economical gas central heating at this time of year.

[Heatercathodeshort]

The paraffin door to door delivery service was usually carried out by ancient Bedford O and TK tankers. It cost a penny or two more than the garage so my regular carting continued.
A nasty white deposit used to coat the EHT components causing arcing and breakdown. This could never be cleaned off and replacement of the PTFE holder was the only cure. The dampness used to condense leaving the deposit. Bottled gas heaters create an identical scenario. Add this to the heavy nicotine coating, very common in the 60's and you can imagine the problems we had to suffer. Happy Days! John.

[Boom]

Originally Posted by alanmoore

and the tankers which used to tour the streets selling the stuff?

As a child I used to help out the local delivery driver on his weekend street rounds. It's not so bad now but in those days it stank to high heaven and even after a bath the smell wouldn't go away.

You could also run car engines on it but again the smell (and smoke) gave away what you were doing.

There were also many house fires caused when the heaters would get kicked over. All in all we are better off without them.

[PaulR]

I bought a two burner oil lamp a few years ago and used to use it all winter as a focal point, but as I said in my earlier post paraffin from the local hardware shop round here now costs over £7 for a refill to my can. I have never checked whether it is 5 litres or a gallon I get, judging by the age of the shop it is probably a gallon. Anyway, at that price the lamp is now disused.

[ms660]

If you can source cheap or free sawdust then sawdust burners are good, nice and dry.
Failing that a small wood burner.
All the above installed correctly of course.

Lawrence.

[terrykc]

We used to be plagued with corroded EHT rectifier valveholders in Bush TV105/115/125 series sets and I remember reading once that it was caused by paraffin heaters. (One gallon of watervapour produced for every gallon of paraffin burnt, IIRC.)

So after that, every time I came across one, I made a point of asking the customer if they used paraffin heaters. Never, ever did I get a 'Yes" answer!

Given that we were Bush dealers, we would have seen a lot of them but we did service anything and everything, so we were familiar with most sets on the market. Yet I only recall this problem with these particular Bush sets. The B9A valveholder used was pretty standard and didn't cause corrosion problems anywhere else.

I never knowingly replaced one twice - but we did give them a liberal application of vaseline or silicon grease when we fitted them ...

Does anybody else recall this as a Bush only problem (and, presumably, the first RBM Murphy equivalents) or discover the cause?

Terry

[Peter.N.]

I seem to remember having failures pretty well across all makes due to paraffin heating condensation, mostly it was just the EHT tracking down the CRT glass but I remember LOPT failures also. Sets from the homes of heavy smokers also exhibited similar symptoms, especially pipe smokers, one set I had in looked as though it had treacle poured over it, there was so much tracking and leakage I had to scrap it.

I don't remember a particular problem with Bushes, I worked for a Bush agent until '63 and then started on my own but didn't have much to do with them after that, GECs were my chosen sets from then on.

Does anyone remember the 'Esso blee dooler'

Peter

[terrykc]

Originally Posted by Peter.N.

Does anyone remember the 'Esso blee dooler'

Is that something regional?

In my neck of the woods it was "The Esso doo bleeder ..."

[Phil G4SPZ]

Well, it was the "Esso Blee Dooler" in the Midlands! Paraffin or LPG are no-nos for any room containing precious restored TVs and radios. I used to use LPG but corrosion on kit was always a problem, electricity solves this but tends to be expensive.

Lovely to see the sets, and the TV article was pretty good. The shop exterior is fantastic!