Before telling you about how to clean a kerosene heater damaged by water, I’m going to share with you proper storage to prevent that from ever happening in the first place.

Store Kerosene Indoors to Prevent Water Damage

The Kerosene used for kerosene heaters these days is called K-1 or pearl kerosene.  It comes in 5-gallon black plastic buckets and should never be stored outside.  Unfortunately, the sun will break down the plastic and ruin the lids which will let water in when it rains.  Be careful when transporting kerosene buckets in a truck bed when it is raining.  They could be covered for extra protection since the lids can’t be trusted, especially if you ever transport them in the truck bed on sunny days.

Is There Water in the Kerosene?

I have a friend that had 3 or 4  of these 5-gallon buckets that she asked another friend to store for her.  Now, the friend storing them wanted to get rid of them.  I was asked if I would like them for free or a donation, and  I agreed, so, we met up for the exchange.  The buckets were dirty and some of the lids had tape over them, consequently, I asked, “Did these buckets get water in them?”   and I was told, “No.”  If this was true, they would not have been so dirty.  Why did the lids need tape?  The tape is not going to keep out water.  As I was putting the buckets in my truck, some kerosene sloshed out.  It was not a good sign.

Test the Fuel

Back home, I put the kerosene in both my heaters.  That was a mistake.  Wisdom now says to test the fuel in one heater or don’t bring it home at all.  When I lit the wick of my large heater, it smoked and fizzled out.  Oh no!  I tried the small heater and it did the same thing.  I was not pleased with this unnecessary trial.  It was cold and I didn’t have time to fix the heater.  I had to go to work and would have to fix it when I got home.

Do Kerosene and Water Mix?

I found out later that they don’t mix because water is heavier than kerosene and will sink to the bottom.  If I had used my siphon at the top of the bucket, I could have gotten some use from the kerosene and it wouldn’t have been a total loss.  After the bucket is carried to the heater, some time is needed for everything to settle, for movement will stir things up.   The usual habit is to stick the siphon to the bottom of the bucket.   By the way, these hand siphons are useful to have for the kerosene and anything else that you need to siphon.   The picture below shows one.

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Save Your Heater and Wick

If you want to save your heater and wick from rusting, you need to empty the fuel out and take out the wick and let it dry.  I had taken apart my large heater for dry burning and I had changed the wick before, so I out of necessity fixed it first.  The larger heaters can heat 1000 square feet of space.  The one I use is shown below.

Don’t Put off Getting the Water out or You will get Rust

I needed to get the wick out of the smaller KW-11F kerosene heater and empty the fuel.  But, I put it off because the project was intimidating to me.   It is so crazy how apathy can set in when there are so many other things to do.  I was afraid to do it because I figured it would take a lot of time to figure it out.  So, I put it off for a whole year.

Read the Directions Before You Clean a Kerosene Heater

When I was finally ready to tackle the problem, I didn’t look at the directions on how to take off the housing.  I spent a lot of time tearing it apart where I didn’t need to.  You will see in the video the correct way to remove the housing.

How to Clean a Kerosene Heater Damaged by Rust

When I got to the wick and went to take it out, I found that it was stuck and hard.  I had to cut part of it off to be able to get it out.  Anything touched by the water rusted.  If you ever end up doing this, don’t throw away your heater.  All you need to do is get some sandpaper and sand all the rusty parts.  Then spray it with WD-40 and wipe it with a paper towel.  Do you have WD-40 on hand?  You really should.  I bought the one I have for my screen door lock because it freezes up when water gets in it.  This one protects from water and you can also use it to loosen tight screws.

Help at Home Depot

When I couldn’t turn the key in my lock.  I asked for help at Home Depot.  This is the WD-40 I was told to get.  Being water resistant it will protect the heater if it ever gets water in it again.

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Video Introduction

I have no idea how many hours it took me to fix my heater.  The video doesn’t show how I took it apart, but it does show the process of putting the oil on after the parts were sanded, and how to put the wick on and snap it in place.  I made some mistakes in putting the wick guide back in place.  It didn’t line up with anything.  Next, I  put everything back together.  I found out that the turning knob was broken, but I had another heater that I was using for parts, so I took its knob.

Watch the Video

I want you to watch this video even if you don’t have a kerosene heater to take apart, so you can see that with persistence you can figure things out.   At the end of the video, I was pretty proud of myself for “fixing” my heater.  When it started to get cold, I thought I had better get some kerosene in it and light it up.  The wick did not move when the knob was turned and the auto-shutoff didn’t work either.  I found out that I had something else to figure out.  Could I do it?  See link below.

Final Thoughts

It is so easy to use an electric heater or wall furnace, but what if something happens to cause a power outage?  How will you heat your home?  I recommend that you get a kerosene heater.

The smaller heater that I have and that you saw in the video is a Kero World KW-11F kerosene heater similar to the one below.  These heaters use less fuel than the larger size and are great for motorhomes or single rooms.  If you want to heat a large living room, then you would need the larger size.   Stay safe, stay warm, and don’t get water in your kerosene!

Click here to see how I fix the Kerosene Heater and put it back together correctly.

https://healthyhomesteadingadventures.com/fix-the-automatic-shut-off-of-a-kerosene-heater/