Glass Cleaning Tip - Gas Lanterns

[whirlcool]

Today I had to do a bi monthly chore we do here at the house. Cleaning the panes of glass on our outside gas powered lantern. Usually it gets calcium spots on it from the rain that hits it and also dust and grit from the air. There are four glass panels that seem quite fragile to clean.

Normally I take their pieces to the bath tub and wash them in Dawn detergent then you have to dry them to see where the calcium spots are then use either vinegar or CLR to clean those off. Rinse them off and repeat until all four of them are clean. The whole process takes about 30 minutes to accomplish.

Today I said to myself there has to be something I could use to speed this process up. So I went into the bath and grabbed the bottle of SoftScrub with Bleach. I wet each panel with water first than using a piece of strong wet paper towel I applied the SoftScrub to the glass. I moved the towel up and down then left and right all over the panel on both sides. Then I rinsed and used a microfiber towel to dry them(no water marks).

I was amazed at the job this did. There were no calcium marks, no dirt whatsoever and the glass felt like it just came out of the dishwasher. Very smooth feeling. And it seemed even more transparent, just like they did when they were new (they are 13 years old) and the originals. I was amazed. When they were reinstalled in the fixture they looked like there was no glass in the fixture at all.

Next I did the light fixture in the kitchen with is an opaque square glass fixture. Same results. Usually you have to scrub to get grease and dirt off of it.
Hope others here can use this tip!

http://quart

 

[ken]

Allen:

Just a thought here. Would it be any help after cleaning them to spray with Rain-X water repellent?

 

[whirlcool]

<font color=”blue”>

I've never used Rain-X but I know they use it on aircraft windshields. I may try that. Thanks![this post was last edited: 3/28/2014-23:22]

 

[washdaddy]

Allen-

FYI- your link is working.

Rick

 

[mattl]

I have 4 large lights on the house and 4 lamp posts in the yard.  Annually I take all the glass out, each has 4 panes and run them and the glass chimneys through my secondary dishwasher.  It's an classic Whirlpool for the 80's and it actually took the frosting off some of the glass chimneys.  For the most part they come out spotless. 

 

Anyway I'm the only person I know in my neighbourhood  who bothers to clean their exterior lights, glad to know I'm not alone....

 

[whirlcool]

I thought of running these through the dishwasher, but I didn't want to take a chance and etch them, and they seem so fragile I was afraid they'd break. I'm really surprised that I haven't broken not one of the panes yet. But replacements are available at the gas dealer store.

You see a good amount of these around the subdivision. Most of them are not working. They are in various states of disrepair. Some don't have any glass panes at all. Some don't have any mantles in them. Lots have peeling paint and obviously the owners just didn't ever do any maintenance on them. I have had two neighbors ask me why when the area gets a power failure do my lights stay on. We have a few electric ones on the street. But I don't think they have the ambiance of the gas models.

I tried to edit the link in the first message in this thread, but it's too old to edit now. Sorry for the bad link. I usually test them before posting.

 

[polkanut]

Allen,

I'm very surprised to read that your neighborhood still has functioning outdoor gaslights.  Our utility (WI Public Service) made those customers that had them convert to electricity 25+ years ago for conservation reasons.  I agree that they have a softer, more welcoming light than a harsh electric bulb.  They're also a plus in a power outage.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Our gas lantern, installed in 1966, cost a flat $2.50 a month because the line for the lamp came off the pipe before the meter. Before my parents turned it off for good, the Atlanta Gas Light Company announced that the monthly fee was going to $20.00. I do remember ice storms where the gas lanterns were the only lights in the neighborhood and during one storm, a mockingbird perched on the finial above the lantern to stay warm.

 

[whirlcool]

We've had gas lanterns at our last three houses. They cost about $11.00 per month or so to operate. And we have had quite a few times where our light was the only light source on the block after power failures, etc.

We have a very deeply recessed entryway at the front door. It is very dark inside there. Plus there were large boxwoods right next to the entryway. This could be a place where a criminal could easily hide and we didn't like that. There is an overhead electrical light in there, but it doesn't light up the boxwoods, just the recessed door entry. You can see the setup and the lantern base in the photo below.

Most people put these lights down where the driveway and public sidewalk intersect. We put our lantern where the driveway and front walk leading off the driveway is.At night the boxwoods and entire door recess is lit up like it's daytime. Nothing can be hidden in here without us seeing it.

 

[whirlcool]

Here is a photo of the actual lantern.

When I grew up lot of people had various kinds of lanterns & gas light fixtures either in front of their house or on their house. In fact, the city of Riverside, IL still uses the same gas lanterns for street lighting that they used back in the 1870's! IMHO, nothing can replace the ambiance of natural gas light.

Now my neighbors across the street have an electric lantern, more of a Early American style than ours. What they did was put in one of those "flickering" electric light bulbs with a wattage of around 40W. It's so dim it really doesn't light up much but you sure can see the "flickering" of the light. IMHO, I think it's rather tacky. But to each their own.

I've often wondered why so many of these gas lights have fallen into disrepair. I've also thought that it would make a nice niche job for someone to go around offering to repair these lamps.

 

[tomturbomatic]

During the first years of the energy crisis, there was a company that advertised in the Atlanta paper installing conversion kits to change the gas lights to electric with mantle-shaped low-watage bulbs. My folks did not explore it before I moved so I don't know more about it.

 

[whirlcool]

There is only a few things that could go wrong with a gas lantern.

Glass panels get broken ($20.00 for a complete set of 4)

Mantels get damaged from things hitting the base, such as lawnmowers. ($10.00/2 sets)

Something breaks the line between the gas main and the light fixture.

That's about it.

We had a problem with ours and our dogs. The line was plastic 1/4" gas line. It went all the way around the house before it got to the light because the company that installed it didn't want to dig under our doublewide driveway. In the back where it curves underground from east/west to north/south the dogs would dig 2 feet down and chew up the line. After 6 or 7 times of doing that, I just had the line replaced with 1/2" Kevlar. It was only about $180.00 for 125 ft of line, installed. I also had them move it out around 4 ft away from the path the original line made. Dogs didn't seem to be interested in it, so I thought I was fine.

A year later the dogs start digging exactly in the new place where the line was.
And it was in the same place in the gas line. But with this being Kevlar they couldn't chew through it or puncture it. I called the gas company that installed it and they said that sometimes gas in a gas line will "gurgle" and it could be that your dogs can hear it and are attracted to it. My solution was to take a piece of sheet metal 3'x 3' and bury it about a foot underground right over the curve in the line. So far the dogs have left it alone. I think the line was gurgling right in the middle of the curve where it changed directions.

 

[davey7]

The posh building at the end of my block replaced their gas mantles with custom made copper armatures within the old gas lanterns. I didn't even notice for a couple weeks. They'd had a lot of trouble with theirs, problems with leaks and failures. If they mantles don't get replaces eventually they disintegrate and you just get gas flow and smells.

Don't the actual mantles which are made of treated fabric, just essentially burn off after a few minutes after lighting and what is left is the chemical structure left from the impregnation (more or less, in my clumsy way of describing it).

 

[whirlcool]

The mantles are made of a kind of soft cottony material that feels like the material used in some men's stockings. They are very soft & flexible. You install them in the lantern then use a match to ignite them. After a few minutes they stop burning and are in their final shape. And then they are very brittle. Even though they form a shape if you even very lightly touch one, it'll disintegrate. Then you turn on the gas and hold a flame under them and they will light up.

We only have to change the mantels about once a year. Usually they go out when someone bumps into the pole really hard with a lawnmower. Because of this several different lantern manufacturers recommend you put up a plastic edging barrier around the base of the lamp (1 ft wide) and fill it with gravel or decorative stone. This keeps the mowers away from the poles. If the pole or fixture isn't disturbed they last a long, long time. And they are only $10.00 for two sets of mantels. [this post was last edited: 3/31/2014-16:53]

 

[davey7]

I didn't realize they were that cheap - then all those condo associations near me are just plain cheap!

 

[whirlcool]

It could be the amount of mantels they have to replace and the manpower needed to do it. To replace ours the gas has to be off for at least 30 minutes to let the fixture cool down so you don't burn yourself. Those fixtures get very hot while operating.
In fact when it comes time to repaint them you can't use regular paint, it'll just burn away. I use a black auto engine exhaust manifold spray paint. It lasts a long time. And I use Rustoleum satin oil base paint on the pole. This operation needs to be done every three to four years. Usually what happens is that down here in the sun belt the sun fades the paint rather than the paint starts peeling, etc.

 

[polkanut]

Allen,

Does your lantern stay on 24/7 for the most part? 

 

[davey7]

BTW the Bug makes the shot look like the mid-late 60's!

 

[whirlcool]

Yes, the lantern stays on 24 hours a day. It costs about $11.00 per month to run. They do make a device that fits between the lantern and the base that has an electric eye and will turn the gas on and light the lantern and turn it off at daybreak. The device looks rather unattractive and is priced well over $100. so we didn't opt for that. The savings in gas would take years to recover.

Yup, that's my 70 VW bug. I've had it for 7 years now. It is driven mostly in the winter time because it isn't air conditioned. I bought it from the original owner in SFO back in 2007, and it's totally rust free.