I picked up two of these odd-ball Novas at a sporting goods resale shop. One was in the box, and a little more complete than the other. I pieced together some of the "missing" parts off the store shelf, and now have a mostly complete one, minus box and instructions. I did take many pics of the box and instructions before I sold it on ebay. I kept the other one for myself. These were new-old-stock, shelf display models, or returns of some type (?), as they were not used, yet showed some evidence of being put together / removed from boxes / etc. To go with it, I also picked up a new middle sized Optimus fuel bottle at the same time. It does not have a "safety cap" and was made in the EEC. What makes them odd (to me anyway), is that they seem to be a hodgepodge of early and later parts. They have the green control handle with no markings on it, black inlet pipe, shiny burner housing with black support legs, the burner plate has a "hook" and there is a slot in the burner bell for it to fit in, black metal pump, and a fuel line with CEJN fittings . There are no country of origin markings on the box, instructions, stove, etc, but the CEJN fitting on the pump is marked Sweden, as is the pip assembly on the bottom of the pump. I haven't seen any others like this in the gallery, and have only seen one or two on the bay. In speaking with another CCS member, we speculated that this was possibly an early production version after production location moved out of Sweden and they were using up old parts until stocks ran out. Anyone else have one like this? Slot in burner bell for burner plate "hook" : "Hook" helps keep burner plate from being dropped or lost during a jet change or cleaning: "Hook" on one of the burner plate tabs: Green handle, no markings: Pump. Notice black CEJN protective cover: Pump disassembled: Filter in end of fuel pick up tube. Interesting concept, but I think this will lead to poor fuel delivery: Spare parts kit and pump cup grease: Multi-tool:
I'm glad you got those, they kept staring at me every time I went in that store. Nice thread, but 'disassembled' is what @presscall does. Ken in NC
@Hazet I've got one of those but my pump is a little more scratched up than yours and mine came to me without a box. Mike
After receiving a new stove body from Katadyn/Optimus earlier this year I noticed that the cutout in the base of the stove body was different than the earlier Nova's. After reading @Hazet's post above I decided to take some pictures of my 2-Tone Nova, including one of the hole in the base of the stove body, which is a match for the stove body I just received. Mike
Yeah Ken, they kept begging me to buy them, and when the month changed and the discount went to 20% I could not resist any longer. I did a little more investigation into my odd-ball Nova. I wanted to take it apart (disassemble?) it to compare the housing to Mike's pics. In doing so, I found there was another inline filter between the fuel hose and inlet piece: I have read numerous reports of poor fuel delivery and filter clogging problems with certain fuels. Perhaps having two filters is the cause? I run my other Nova with no inline filters and have no problems. I will probably leave this white one out, and put some other kind of filter material in the pump pick up tube end. Cotton shirt material has been suggested in other threads. Mine, too, has the "D" shaped hole in the housing. And the burner assembly has a matching flat side on it: My personal thoughts on this are: this was done to help keep the burner assembly more aligned and stable in the housing. I do notice that the "round hole" type burners do become a bit loose and "floppy" in the housing and the nut requires tightening every so often. It's not a huge deal, but it is something. So in that way it is an evolution. Another thought to go with that is that this would be an easy wasy for a service center to identify "early" versus "late", country of manufacture for quality control issues, and to id stoves when replacement parts were necessary, or for warranty work. Comparison between the posts where they pass through the housing on an "early", known Swedish made Nova on left, and the odd-ball on right. I also noticed that the shape of the lower portion of the burner bell was different between the two. The "earlier" one is circular, the odd-ball is hexagonal: "Early", known Swedish version: Odd-ball version: Other things I've noticed is that the odd-ball has a slightly rougher casting where the control spindle and fuel line go, and the method of brazing and/or soldering the fuel inlet threaded piece is different. Not huge issues, jut noticeable.
Ok, so now onto more nitty gritty detail stuff. In my initial post, I mentioned that I saw no identifying marks on the stove other than the CEJN fitting and pip. After much closer scrutiny, and after thinking that the markings I saw on the handle were just scratches to the paint, I saw the "OPTIMUS NOVA PAT.NO. 9801895-5 MADE IN SWEDEN" and the - [triangle] + stampings on the control handle. These are the same stampings as are found on the known Swedish Novas I have. On the odd-ball, they are, of course, buried under the layers of green paint that are on the handle, but they are there, barely visible. They can be seen under the right angle of light. I took some marker to make them more visible, but taking pictures to show the markings was very difficult. So, to me, this adds to the mystery of where this was actually made, although it does give some credence to the thought that these were made after production moved (bought by Katadyn?) and that they were using up old parts at the same time of putting new style parts into the production line. Perhaps the thick paint was, in part, to "hide" the "made in Sweden" markings before new handles were introduced. I do not have any newer Novas to compare, as I've only really had (or wanted) the early Swedis CEJN versions. Spindles are the same. Two o-rings, odd-ball has green o-rings: MADE IN SWEDEN stamping under green paint: OPTIMUS NOVA PAT.NO. 9801895-5 stamping under paint. You can also see the boxed - toward the tab: Triangle shaped stamping and the +, for showing which way to turn the handle for differing flame intensity: Comparison between the two:
@Hazet I believe the problems started after they switched over to stoves that came in boxes that looked like these. and had a pump that looked like this. Whether the problem was from Taiwan or China or both I don't know because I've never had the desire to fire mine up. If I could only find 3 CEJN connectors to retrofit my newer pumps I'd be happy, since I still have 3 old fuel lines. And now we have the Polaris Optifuel which does away with the bayonet style connector. Mike
And a lot of other 'problems' as well - I'm surprised they even bother to market/ manufacture the older Nova versions when they have the Polaris. /Odd
I'm just trying to document what could be (is?) a short-time production stove. To me, the oddity is the newer looking stove in conjunction with the older original CEJN fuel line, rather than the newer style stove with the next version fuel line connector which had the o-ring sealing/tearing issues that I think propmted the recall. The percentage I see of this particular version compared to any other Nova version is very small. Personally, I like the combination. My biggest "hang up" right now is whether to use it or not. Here is another that I saw on eBay several months ago.
I know this is an old thread, but as I have some answers to the questions then why not share… All versions of Nova and Nova+ with Cejn connectors were made in Sweden, irrespective of color scheme and other detail changes. The new green/black theme was introduced approximately 2006. Also during the Swedish production era, some components were sourced from over seas. One strong reason to keep the Nova alongside Polaris is that appliances running on gas are subject to certification (CE in Europe, CSA in North America, AGA in Australia etc). Primarily in some Asian countries, certification procedures are very protective and prohibitively expensive to pass. Liquid fuel only stoves (like the Nova) are typically not subject to certifications, so on markets with difficult certifications it is possible to sell the Nova but not the Polaris.
Hi Staffan - thanks for the info but mainly welcome to CCS. I know you are no stranger but it's an honour to have you aboard as a member. For those who may have missed Staffan credited on articles here, he was the owner of Optimus for many years & has been a good friend to CCS.
Steffan you are most welcome here. You will be able to shed light on many of the later Optimus stoves.
Hi Ross, thank you very much for the warm welcome! I guess I should have joined earlier... Being a serf of Optimus in various - and changing - capacities since 1991 I hope to be able to contribute with some insights. I do also have an archive of scattered corporate documentation that I have not really had the time to go through previously. Gradually, and at a slow pace, I'll be happy to post things here on CCS.
It is honor to have you join us. Thank you Ross for letting us know. Sometimes we do not know the person in the room is more than they appear to be.
@Staffan Rönn , A hearty welcome to you, Sir, for joining our happy band of Stove Pyros!! For us, here at CCS, factual information is just as important, as the stoves we all know and love, and maybe even more so!! I have already loved some of the things you've shared thus far, and very much look forward to having you join in on any and all topics about which you can shed some great information!!! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
Belated greetings @Staffan Rönn. This thread has answered a few questions that I had regarding your posts with wonderful documentation. I really should have started my unread post reading at a much earlier date to catch up.
