Paraffin heater questions

[styleruk]

I just won a paraffin heater on ebay and had a couple of questions about it.

It's a twin 'funnel', heater and each funnel has a container with two wicks, so that's 4 wicks in all. It has a removable tray above the funnels that looks like it would hold water, I'm not sure it's just for holding water, maybe its for seeding or something...Can anyone throw some light on this?

Also, I do not want to pay the high price for paraffin, I've read that diesel is ok. What are your opinions on this, will it smoke too much?

Regards
Simon

[Burgerboy]

I would imagine from your description that the tray on top is a heat exchange which helps stop the hot air just passing straight up. I wouldn't have thought it would run on diesel especially as during cold weather it will go more viscous,but I could be wrong. Locally I can buy parrafin at 80p a litre compared to diesel at £1.08 so i wouldn't be swapping.

[styleruk]

I think the tray is for humidity, I've read it in a few places. I've also ran it with red diesel which is legal to use so long as it's not on the road. A local farmer gets it for 40p a litre and it does smoke a tiny ammount but only when you have the flame higher.
I also had some old-old diesel that did smoke, I've read that the newer diesels burn much cleaner than older diesels. So it all works fine at the moment, not sure why I would want to put more humidity into the greenhouse though, that would cause mould and rot, besides, these fuel burners create humidity anyway.

Regards
Simon