A trick I have seen is a "cart cozy" made up of insulating material and a disposable hand-warmer packet. A few rugged individuals advocate holding the stove in your crotch until it warms, but I cannot recommended it.
understood .Much easy I think (not tested) is keeping cheap jet burner cozy (same cartrige as TEG stove ),and use it for preheat big catridge/cart heater.This is a big answer for question No.2 Cheers and applause ! Best regards !
For the same amount of fiddling and fussing around one would do with cartridge heater systems, one could just use a liquid fueled stove. This TEGstove is the only plug and play solution I've seen.
Propane would be a good option but the only propane cartriges Ive ssen here are the very heavy Coleman style 1kg ones and the benzomatics. A guess would be that propanes higher vapour pressure means a stronger cartridge is required as although you might only want to use the stuff in winter it has to be able to be stored in summer at high altitude. I can imagine the ultra light hikers swapping to 1kg propane burners when the snow starts. ( ok I cant imagine that as they use converted beer can stoves and add a few drops of petrol to the meths when it gets cold)
Wonder what a 1 burner canister-top propane stove weighs? May not come out that different than the TEGstove, although obviously one would lose the charging ability. There's no reason a propane only backpacking stove can't be built nearly as lightly as current butane offerings, just no one bothers as the fuel bottle is absurdly big/heavy for backpacking. Wonder what an aluminum propane bottle would weigh? I tried getting ahold of one the old 5.5oz Bernzomatic mapp gas cylinders for just such a project, but struck out. Actually found one, but the owner(rightly so!) elected to keep it. Sorry folks, musings probably best left to another thread.
To prevent cartridge freezing, I have seen a piece of metal attached to the cart with a hose clamp, with the end bent into the flame. This was on a winter trip above 10,000 feet elevation, with the stove sitting in snow. I was a bit nervous about too much heat transfer to the cart, but nothing bad happened, and the stove performed well. ....Arch
you convinced me - i'm getting one, i will scour yatton keynell from the post office to the muk muk and if there are none to be found i will get the bus into chippenham but i MUST HAVE A TEGGER
@Marc "For the same amount of fiddling and fussing around one would do with cartridge heater systems, one could just use a liquid fueled stove. This TEGstove is the only plug and play solution I've seen. " Yes ,but this one really need cozy place for cartridge too ,even more than stoves using "normal" cartridges because of fuel. TEG stove starting procedure for low temperature is : ? http://www.rothenberger-usa.com/en/...l-gas-mix-for-highperformance-soldering-work/ here is some quite light 750ml sturdy alu cartridge 228g empty.It's not really MAPP gas , but butane -propylene mix .Its quite expensive , only as an example of higher pressure carttridge.
Great write up John. Looks just the stove for camp chair, single burner cooking on a still day in the modern age. Looking forward to seeing your wind protection solution. Maybe something for the angler for a river or canal side brew? It's good we have folk like you have an open mind & can see merit in these new stoves. This one also has merit in not following the crowd - mostly incremental changes or knock-offs of what's already there. Not one I'll buy as I share similar Luddite tendacies to Redspeedster but I see a market for it. Curious how it'll do at that price point.
I did some research last night. MSR actually publishes their gas blend which is 20% propane and 80% isobutane. "Plain" or n-butane, has a boiling point of around 0° C. Isobutane (methylpropane) has a boiling point of around −11.7 °C. Propane has a boiling point of slightly.over -42° C - the obvious cold weather champion. As @presscall noted, boiling points do not tell the entire story, as the gasses get colder as pressure drops. (PV=nRT, as I recall.) Without repeating much high-school physics, one would be best off in winter with a large tank of gas having a low boiling point being consumed as slowly as possible. If you really want to get your geek on: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/propane-butane-mix-d_1043.html
Gas cart brought from my outside store, cold winter’s day in Northern England, snow on the ground. Cart inserted in the stove, fired up straight away, seconds later the stove fan kicks in and the initially subdued output of the burner rapidly picks up, to the point I can turn it down from max. Thanks Ross! Fair comment on the stove’s merit on the grounds of its originality and it’s possible appeal to such users as anglers. I too am curious to see how it fares commercially. Online purchases direct from China of the canister-top stoves at the cheap end of the market are one thing, but alongside the offerings of the more substantial liquid and gas-fuelled stoves in the retail outlets, the Tegstove is comparably priced. I acquired an Edelrid Hexon stove recently (and wrote about it HERE on CCS) that I see is available new at around the same price as the Tegstove. The Edelrid’s made in China (as is the Tegstove) marketed by a German company. For the sort of user you described, such stoves as the Edelrid might be less attractive than the Tegstove in terms of ease of use and assembly. Straight out of the stuff sack, legs unstowed, the Tegstove is ready to go - a compelling appeal that ensured that those early, modestly-performing butane stoves such as the Campingaz Bleuet took over the market and led to the proliferation of gas-fuelled stoves today. I know, something we’ve often bemoaned on CCS as the reason the brassie classics took a nosedive commercially! John
@Rickybob, Stay on the bus and get off in Trowbridge. Let me know when. @presscall John, forgotten I'd first highlighted it last year, although haven't gone beyond my original estimates regarding battery charging capability. But you are right the cart warming capability of it probably outweighs an inbuilt battery. Although the strap on heater mentioned by @ArchMc would seem just as effective and a whole lot cheaper. @Canuman Always had a soft spot for the Biolite, only reason I haven't bought one was not using biomass camping. The TEG charging ability was a handy by-product. I may yet change my mind after the gasifier experiment the other day. Many people now carry large capacity batteries in pockets, 30,000 mAh plus, and if you want to top up as necessary then it can be done without a battery being integral to the stove. What's needed is a simple TEG adaptable to various stove configurations with USB output.
@Marc Chinese got there before me, damn, and you bought the last one as well. You'll have to let us know how it performs.
Wasn't me! Looks like there are plenty of TEG charger options, though. https://www.rei.com/product/877622/flamestower-thermo-charger https://www.rei.com/product/877669/biolite-kettlecharge Hmm, both NLA. I think thus far it's difficult to justify a TEG pot when battery boosters are now ubiquitous and inexpensive. Just the two I had in reach. Smaller booster is about the size/weight of a phone and is good for ~2 charges from dead. The larger one is good for about eight charges from dead, or it will literally jump start a car. 500ml bottle for size comparison, it's about 1"/2.5mm thick, maybe 4x what a phone weighs. How many butane cans would it take to recharge a phone 8 times with a TEG device, and how much would that much butane weigh?
Thank you. Same as any other cartridge when near or below it's operational limits - take the cart in your sleeping bag or or warm it with your hands first. Thank you for the link to another fuel option.
