Hey, Parra, Glad you're going to give the Sigg some more time. Personally, I have several of the 88 kits, and while they are good, they are just too small for the type of cooking I do, most of the time. They are also far more fragile than the Sigg kit, so dents, and such are more common with the 88's. Never seen a Meta kis in the flesh, but have heard they are nice. In any case, best of luck on the Sigg, and try it in various situations, with many types of cooking. I'm still thinking you may come 'round to liking it. 8) Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
hi Doc i have been lucky enough to pick up a few Meta 50 sets at very good prices, one i traded witn Nick and another i have promised to another ccs member but haven't sent it yet as i have a back log of stoves to send out . i'll keep my eyes open for a good priced one and grab it for you if you like (the last one i paid 12 euro's unused + shipping from France) and your dead right on the 88's they are a bit fragile but they are spot on for me when i am out solo as they pack down really small and are ample for my needs,no good for more than one person though well not if your both hungry i will give the Sigg another proper crack as it is a nicely made bit of kit and you all can't be wrong about them, also it wouldn't be the first time i bought something and didn't appreciate it until i'd had it a while, some thing's are better when you learn their quirks and get used to working within what at first you think are their limitations atb Bill
To be honest I give up with the SVEA123 it can go back to the suppliers I have tried deep cleaning all the works and have tried another jet and still it pulsates very badly so won't give a reliable flame I can only assume that I have a duffer. The two 8Rs I have which are very similar in operation give superb controlable burns but not this 123. having had a moan I have had a couple of nice scores on the dreaded fleabay this weekend with a burmos 21 coming to me for a tenner inc postage and a burmos96 coming to me for under £25 inc postage! In a moment od weakness I have bought a nearly new looking Russian made pressure stove for a tad under £20 inc postage
Morning, Bill, Thanks, very much, for the kind offer. If you do see one, please give me a shout. But, I may be "resting" from stove buying, for at least a little bit. We just paid a fairly tidy sum to have five huge trees removed from up against our home, and next we have a crew coming in to deep clean, sand, and refinish our three decks. That will set us back just about as much as the tree removal. But, we needed to do all this before Winter hits up here in our mountains, and so we did it. I do appreciate your offer, though it might be a while before I can accept your kindness. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
To the original poster... Maybe I was lucky, but I happened onto a Radius 43B a few years ago and it has become the standard against which I judge all other stoves. With its unique clam-shell design, it is completely self-contained. Yes, it does burn petrol (gasoline) along with about anything else that you can feed it, but with a full tank of fuel you can easily run the stove continuously for well over an hour at a gentle simmer along with a few full throttle sessions to make a pot of tea. When I want to travel light, I fill up the tank before leaving home, put a small bottle of Methylated Spirits for the pre-heat inside the stove, and I am good for several days of cups of tea. Apparently the Radius 43B is not common... so maybe I was just lucky. P. Lynn Miller Sydney, Australia
Hi, Randy, Did you ever identify that stove? I have an Italian stove that looks about like what your describing. HJ
Nope, never did Jim. I passed on it, as it was a gassie, even though it was cool with it's little ignition system. No idea if cannisters for it could be found and gassies aren't much my thing. ATB, Randy
If its made in Italy probably a camping gaz brand as I've seen a few on ebay and yes the newer ones did come with piezo lighters.
I'll try to remember to post a pic of mine. It's a puncture type canister gassie, but I can't figure out how to open it. It came to me unlatched. I slide the latch closed, and now it's stuck as stuck can be. It's plastic, so I don't want to use too much force. Dangdest thing. It should have some way to unlatch. Oh, well, I only paid $7.00 for it. HJ
HJ, if its the puncture type, the burner top could be unscrewed. Just make sure the tank is empty or empty it outdoors away from fire. My other case, the bottom latch has to be depressed and then turned anti clockwise to release the bottom. The later might be what you can do. Ron
Ron, There's actually no canister attached. I just attached the base as though there were a canister and closed the latch. Now, I can't get the latch back open. Argh. I'm sure that if I could get the latch open, a counter clockwise turn would take the base off of the stove. HJ
Hi Jim, its the same with my camping gaz oriental it requires me to press down the the round latch and turned cc a bit hard. Only thing with mine is its made of metal so I don't really have a problem with breaking it. My fingers might break before it does. I sometimes use a pliers if it becomes too difficult. You do get some strange collections don't you?
Hi Cypryphrenia, You said “I have been fishing of all varieties for more years than I would care to own up to”… Presumably, with an alias of Cypryphrenia you fish mainly for species like this: And this: And this: and this: O.K. back to the stove, your 123R should give you a flame like this: As Bill has mentioned even a new and unused jet can be duff. I would get another two jets from BASECAMP. I would also remove the “self cleaning jet pricker”… I will bet that you will see a significant improvement when you do. I’ll digress a moment: ( All my stoves that did have a self cleaning jet pricker I removed and they work much better.) You stated: “and to me luxury is a nice fresh cup of tea brewed up on the bank.” And therefore you main criteria is for a quick boil…A 123R should fit the bill admirably. As you want stove that you can fill at home and thus have taint free hands to obviate bait contamination any type of liquid fuel would be O.K. If you do end up using the 123R do not run it on “petrol” as you are a Brit do use Aspen 4T as it is virtually odourless….as is Coleman Fuel but you don’t ant to use that at £6.00 for 500 ml. ”More recently I have acquired a couple of Optimus 8Rs these are showing some promise and will be good car stoves.” Keep them in the car!!! Now there could be howls of disagreement – but I think this is one of the most useless stoves ever made for outdoor use! I had several including copies and sold them all. All worked better when I removed the self cleaning jet pricker. I did replace them when I sold them. Forget the silly little pan that comes with the 123R stove. Get yourself a 1 litre ETA pot and your stove will fit inside it as you can see from this photo: And this photo: You said: "I am hoping that the 123R will finally be that stove......" ”However I am open to any suggestions for other stoves that might fulfil my requirements.” ”Then I can concentrate on the paraffin stoves that I have started to collect since I discovered this site.” If you want reliability in all weathers and the 123R does not suit you then take a 1 pint paraffin stove with you, doesn’t matter whether it is made by Optimus, Primus, SVEA, Radius, Burmos, Veritas or one of the Mansulu stoves from BASECAMP…it should suit your needs. As a coarse fisherman you will have a brolly – a fantastic windshield…a one pint stove (Optimus 00) was the first proper stove I bought when I was a youngster and it came with me on my fishing trips. I still have it. If on the other hand you do persevere with the 123R do remember to keep the stove base insulated from the ground in cold weather. A piece from an old kip mat is ideal as in this photo of mine: As for the title of your original post – A Holy Grail – it does not exist. Everyone will have different ideas and different needs. A SVEA 123 would continue to be my favourite stove but the fact that my one and only supplier in the NE of Scotland of Aspen 4T has decided not to stock in future as most people are apparently unwilling to pay the price. I hope to find another supplier. However I have my paraffin fallback – my 96 Specials, of which I have three, one 96 with a 2 pint roarer, another with a 2 pint silent and one with a one pint roarer. Best of luck in your search for your ideal fishing brew stove!
Try a Exponent like this - similiar in size to the 123R but this coleman needs no wind screen, lights without pre-heat and will withstand almost any wind conditions without failure ! I love 'em Tom
Hello Snowgoose the Cypryhrenia tag is a bit of a laugh really yes I do a bit of this. This one went 46lb 4oz. I also do a fair bit of this as well This one went a tad over 11lb. Most of all I do a great deal of this That trout went just over 4 1/2 lb and was one of my best for last season and for the record was returned unharmed. I am mainly a game angler who is a tad handy with a centerpin as well I demonstrate casting with them at local game fairs and the like. I can't find any of my salmon pics at the moment as I changed computers a while ago. To update this thread a bit the SVEA123R that was giving me the grief was just what we used to call a friday afternoon one! A new jet had been tried along with a clean out of all the swafe that had been left in from mannufacture and didn't make a bit of difference so it went back to the shop. I now do have a couple of SVEA123s one an R model, and one a non R which I bought from Bill (Parramethrol) both of which peform very well both are quick boilers and both will simmer reasonably as well which is nice. I have ignored the little pan that comes with them and on the one I bought from Bill I use a GSI pot which is a perfect friction fit on the stove and delivers the goods, I also aquired a set of the camping gas globetrotter pans that also fit the stove and do a good job as well. The other day I aquired a colman mini set that looks like it will do an even better job as three of the four pans are usable and once again the stove fits inside. All of these changes I have made have been based on information I have gathered from this site. I have taken on board your tips on the Nova starting pad and on the use of a spot of insulation twixt stove and ground following my thread of the other week when I was in Wales grayling fishing. The combination of my search for my holy grail and my finding this site means that I now own a significant number of stoves of various types......Can't imagine how that has happened! There is a military No2 that has permenant residence in the back of my van and my choice for my on the bank brews tend to be either the SVEAs or my Optimus 8rs though for summer use I have recently aquired a white box alcohol stove as it seems to work very well and weighs very little and takes up virtually no room. I take your point about the use of Parafin stoves and may start to give my little Optimus 96 a run out or two in the (Hopefully) near future. For on the bank cooking I look towards a Coleman 440 and I plan to do more of that this summer as I have managed to find an e-bay seller from whom I have just bought a GSI 9" wok who didn't rip me off on the postage I am as I type this awaiting it's arrival in the next few days and I'm excited at this prospect. As for a holy grail ....Like you said there isn't one though it has been great fun looking for it!
Oh come on now guys, your making me go out and do some fishing again. The last one I caught took me 30 minutes to land see how bent my rod was This was what I was fighting with The biggest striper I got was in 2007 I guess its time to get my yearly fishing license. Ron
