Lamps behave differently outdoors, and not in the ways people expect. The chimney that makes a flame steady indoors becomes a liability in gusts, and the humidity that seems harmless will quietly ruin a wick over a fortnight. If you use lamps on a terrace or take them to a pitch, it is worth knowing which conditions are merely inconvenient and which are actually dangerous.
What wind does to a flame
A draught across the top of a chimney changes the draw through the burner, and the flame either flares or gutters. Flaring means soot; guttering means a wick that chars unevenly and then burns crooked forever afterwards. Neither is dramatic, but both spoil the lamp for the rest of the season.
The gust that matters
Steady wind is manageable with a shelter or a wall. It is the sudden gust round a corner of the house that knocks a lamp over, and a lamp that goes over outdoors is still a lamp full of burning fuel. Weight the base, sit it in a recess, and accept that above a certain wind strength the answer is a battery lantern.
Rain and hot glass
A cold shower onto a chimney that has been burning for an hour will crack it, sometimes with a sharp report and a scatter of glass. This is the single most common way outdoor lamps get destroyed. Bring the lamp in before the weather arrives rather than after, since suppliers such as Lamplight sell replacement chimneys separately and you will otherwise be ordering one every summer.
Humidity and the wick
Cotton wick left in a damp shed absorbs moisture, and a damp wick draws badly, smokes and gives a low yellow flame that blackens glass. Keep spare wick in a screw-top jar, and if a lamp has been standing outdoors through a wet fortnight, expect to trim back to clean cotton before it behaves.
Salt air and metal
Coastal use is hard on burners. Brass tarnishes quickly, steel wick wheels seize, and a lamp that lived on a balcony by the sea for a season often needs the burner freeing before it will adjust. Rinsing salt off the metalwork with fresh water and drying it properly makes an obvious difference.
Sensible outdoor practice
- Stand lamps on stone, tile or metal, never on a wooden decking joint or a plastic table that can soften.
- Keep them out of walkways and well away from parasols, awnings and dry planting.
- Use only lamp oil or liquid paraffin. Garden torch fuel and citronella oil belong outdoors in torches designed for them, not in a household lamp, and never indoors at all.
- Never refill outdoors in the wind, and never while the lamp is warm.
- Extinguish before you go inside, not when you remember an hour later.
Storing between uses
Empty or full both work; half empty in a fluctuating temperature encourages condensation inside the font. Wipe the outside, since oil residue collects dust and grit which then scratches the glass when you clean it. A lamp put away dry and covered will be ready next spring with nothing more than a fresh wick.
Reading the flame
A clean flame outdoors is short, rounded and quiet. If it is tall, pointed and trailing dark smoke, the wick is too high or damp, and the fix is to turn it down rather than to shelter it further. Learning that one signal saves most of the cleaning that puts people off outdoor lamps.