Just got an optimus 111, the little blue box jobbie that Ian fettled and painted so wonerfully. How do I tell what I've got? a 111, 111B, 111B or 111T The tank smelled of petrol, but I put paraffin in and it lit ok, although the flame was a bit yellow one side. New jet needed?? Help
The 111T has the silent burner - this was the triple fuel version. The 111C comes in a black box with the flame control knob on the left and is also a silent burner. This is also a triple fuel version. Now for the hard part. To me the 111 and 111B look the same, although I've never looked at the burners closely for differences. Some boxes have the model number embossed into the metal. I love my 111's. They are some of my favorite stoves.
For the past few weeks I've been running my 111 on diesel, just to see. It's a bit sooty but it seems to honk the therms out good style.
Hello, I bet Ross can straighten this out again. I remember something to do with the burner shape. I cannot remember off hand. I just burned both the petrol and the paraffin and the one that gave me yellow sooty flames was the wrong fuel. Turned out that mine is white gas / unleaded petrol. You can see in the photo I have attached, that there is a U Burner and a hole in the top of the burner to add spirits. I have removed the flame spreader and burner / spirit cup cover for the photo. Chuck |imgRemoved|
Hi, Although I believe that the one from whom you received the stove would be able to give you the most direct answer, it appears that you have 111 Triple Fuel. 111B has the two tubes with a hole on top of the roarer burner head. 111 that burns paraffin has 4 tubes as the classic brass roarer stoves. I have one that behaves just like yours. It burns petrol well, but have trouble with paraffin. 111T comes with 2 sleeves, or restrictors, that you place inside the burner tube. The factory instruction that came with the stove indicated that one is for the use with alcohol and the other is for the use with paraffin, or kerosene. Use the restrictor only with alcohol. They should be left out for the use with petroleum-based fuel. I had learned that from other good stovies here at this site. I think the jet that works well with petrol does not have the correct-sized orifice for the paraffin. It may help to find one that is made for the use with paraffin, if you want to use paraffin. Because my 111T performs exceptionally with petrol (1 liter to a rolling boil under 4 minutes), I just limit the fuel for my 111T to petrol. I just use petrol, or white gas, as it is known in the US.
Ian, Interesting that you're using diesel in your 111. That's something I've been meaning to try so that when driving around I can use the same fuel as I put in the car. ( The 111 is my stove of choice for the car). I guess that for a clean burn you'd need a smaller jet ? I think the one fitted to the 8R is of the same style and would have a smaller orifice though would no doubt reduce the output. What do you think ? In due course I'll give it a try and let you know the outcome - unless you beat me to it ! I guess there must be other jets that would fit and may improve the burn but I'm not sure what. Colin.
The soot isn't that much of a problem as I was expecting it after seeing it metioned in previous posts. I now routinely work the cleaning needle on start-up and then again directly before shut-down and so far haven't needed to do it at any other time. I don't have more nipples than stoves so I'll stick with the one the 111 came with for the time being as I don't want to leave one of the other stoves incomplete if I can help it. I am thinking in line with you re. car stove but whilst fuel uniformity did come to mind it's academic really whether you have a can of diesel or a can of paraffin in the back of the car as either fuel will do either job at a pinch. (doesn't work with petrol cars).
|imgRemoved| |imgRemoved| Compare these two burners; both have the tube with the hole at the top for priming but Chuck's (upper pic.), which is a petrol roarer, only has one other tube,which appears to be merely for support, whereas mine (lower pics.) is a paraffin roarer and has three tubes besides the priming tube. The petrol will vapourise straight out of the jet without extra heating, whilst the paraffin (or as I have been using lately, diesel (hence the soot))goes through all 3 tubes so that it is hot enough to vapourise by the time it exits the nipple. This is how I see it.
Ian I can work out on your burner where the fuel flows. It goes up two tubes and down the far side tube though the tap and into the jet. Now you can see this by looking at the top of the burner. now with Chuck's burner If there is only one tube going up then how can the fuel get back down to the jet? Looking at the top of this burner it has the same T section on top. There has to be a way for fuel to flow to the jet from that point. I wish I hade one to look at.
On the face of it, Albert, what you say appears to be true, but if the tube without the hole on the petrol burner (ie, the non-priming tube) is blocked off so that fuel can't get up it to the top of the burner there is no need for a way to be found for the fuel to get back down to the nipple. The stove should still burn ok if the valve controls the fuel flow from the tank directly to the nipple. Other petrol stoves work perfectly well without the need for extra fuel heating in the burner. Look at the Primus 71 or the Svea 123, even a stove with a remote tank similar to the 111, the 8R doesn't need the extra heating. Once the priming has heated the burner up there is enough heat there for the petrol to vapourise and as soon as the stove lights, the burning fuel keeps everything hot enough. I reckon that the 'spare' tube on the 111B is not anything to do with the combustion but serves only to hold the top of burner and the flame ring in position along with the other 'priming tube'. Optimus possibly thought that this was a better idea than just putting an 8R-type burner with on the 111 . At the end of the day isn't a petrol 111 just a big 8R? Adi posed the same question as you just have a few weeks ago but at that time I didn't have a nice picture of a petrol 111 burner like Chuck's to look at and what I knew from memory wasn't enough for me to express the above view with any confidence, but now I've seen the picture I would lay a pound to a penny that if Adi or Chuck or any other petrol 111 owner was to take the burner off they would find that the 'spare' tube is a 'dead end'.
Ian If you look at a burner for a Primus # 5 and such likes you will see on the top of it is a type of + cross section. Under this cross sectionis a top layer of brass and a bottom payer of brass forming chenals. 2 opperset ends goes to the tank and the other 2 ends goes to a U shape pipe with the jet in the bottom of the bend. Now this image above has a T not a + (cross section). So looking at the image above perticulary the one on the right you will see the makers name ect of the burner. Where the name starts and ends is 2 pipes below it. This is the 2 feed pipes from the tank. In the center of this is a chennal going away from the position you are viewing. below this at the end is a tube that goes down to the tap. then inturn goes to the jet. Being a petrol stove it will not require heating as much as a Kerosene stove so one tube to go to the jet will be good enough. Where the 4th tube would be on this had it been a traditional kero burner is open at the top and will alow fuel into the preheat bowl. I hope you can follow my discripion.
What we need at this time, Albert, is someone who has one of the burners in question to take it off the stove and check out what happens to anything which goes up the non-priming tube . Perhaps with an eye dropper or fine oil can they could get a small amount of liquid into the tube and try to find out where it goes, if anywhere. Maybe Chuck or Adi will oblige. We'll see.
Hey there! Okay, I did a search in the old forum. I remember that I had the same problem when I recieved mine. What fuel does it burn? Ross had posted this reply in one of his posts. I also remember reading that the single U doesn't do anything but support the top of the burner. Stick with the kero jet for white gas. The later triple fuel model used 2 jets: 2509 (white gas & kero) & 2508 for alcohol. The earlier 111B petrol variant used jet 2510 (white gas & gasoline) & the kero version, the 111, used jet 2509 - the stove was primarily designed for kero but white gas could also be used. Gasoline was not recommended. you can use white gas in any 111 without changing the jet. You can tell which version you have - the later triple fuel version had a silent burner & the earlier 111 & 111B had roarer burners. The 111 had the conventional double "U" while the 111B just had a single "U
Chuck wrote: "I also remember reading that the single U doesn't do anything but support the top of the burner. " This is what I was trying to get at. Thank you.
