hi Everyone. First things first. I´ve been reading this forum for quite some time now and yesterday I decided to register. I guess that makes me a stoveholic. i live in Argentina and got hooked on stoves while trekking in Northern Patagonia a couple of years ago. A friend of mine took an MSR Dragonfly and ever since then i´ve been interested in stoves. First i bought a Primus Gravity MFII which runs very well and after reading so much about the SVEA 123 in this forum i decided i had to have one. I finally bought one three weeks ago via Amazon and a relative of mine brought it from the USA. Since white gas is almost imposible to find here i´ve been running it on "solvente" and recently started using unleaded low octane car gasoline. i am aware of all the warnings in this site on clogging and noxius fumes but it seems to run ok. The most amazing thing is how easy it is to start! Much easier than the Primus MFII, plus the cleaning needle is very clever! and the noise is a plus! i now agree with all the rave reviews in CCS! Now the question to the wise stove people in the fettling forum is the following: The stove runs FINE....BUT...the flame is not simmetrical. One of the four sides of the flame is too long and the one in the opposite side is too short. The other two on the sides are simmetrical. The longer flame has yellow tips. The problem seems to be some kind of misalignment between the jet and the spreader plate + burner bell. The only inconvenience seems to be that pots qet a small smudge of soot. What would be correct way to correct this? thanks and best regards Martin
Welcome Martin, I do not believe the burner bell or flame spreader is the problem here but the jet itself as even a miniscule particle can affect the flame pattern. Likewise, problem with the jet not being a perfect circle. If the flame length is not that high compared to the other two even, you should be fine. Otherwise, you may want to get some spare jets. Welcome to CCS. Some other members may give more authorative opinion. RON
do you get any change when you use the cleaning needle?..if the stove had been used it might take a few tanks of fuel to clear carbon out of the jet,or the fuel you are using now might be acting as a cleaner and pulling gunk from the tank and valve. i would not do anything drastic like a repair or re-build but just keep using the stove and see what happens---and Welcome!!
I had a similar problem with a bran-new Svea 123r. (see past posts 123 vs 123r) I tried everything I could think of and everything suggested on the forum and came to the conclusion that the jet was drilled out of alignment. I bought a new jet from Base Camp and it works perfectly.
Hi Martin, Welcome on board. We here much like photos rather than long explanations. Why don't you show us some picture of your stove????
I had this problem with a NEW out of the box 123R. Don't bend things around(burner plate), it won't help! I contacted Optimus explaining the problem and they sent a new jet as a replacement. http://www.optimusstoves.com/seen/technical-support/customer-service/ Problem solved. AR
Wow, that was quick! Thanks for the advice. First I´ll use the SVEA a bit more and see what happens. If that doesn`t work i´ll try obtaining a new jet. I checked the spreader plate and it looks ok. I´ll also post a picture in the next few days. Thank you all! Rgds Martin
altering the flame plate has worked for me on several used stoves, try turning the flame down until it's like a candle flame (small and yellow ) and check if the flame is coming out of the jet straight or off to one side, if it's coming out straight then i doubt changing the jet will help, tweaking the burner plate will even it out 9 times out of ten if you get it with an even flame that's tipped with yellow try unscrewing the burner a turn or two as this will raise the flame plate and allow a better air fuel mix if this stops the yellow tips you can then make a copper ring out of a strand of electrical cable and use that under the burner bell as a spacer or you can bend the tabs the plate has to lift the flame plate but bending always carries a risk of breakage, don't worry about the copper looking odd after a couple of primes you'd have a job spotting it
The problem that I had with the offset flame could be seen by looking up into the burner bell from below. Start the stove on a picnic table and run it without the windscreen. Look up into the underside of the burner plate. Look at the vortex of fuel and the circular pattern on the surface. If the jet is blowing the proper pattern, it will be centered on the burner plate. Adjusting burner plate height may correct the flame dispersion problem. If the pattern is offset to one side there is only one cure. I'll try to get some pics. Hope this helps, AR
if the burner bell is distorted/out of alignment and many are you will either need to straighten it (a pig of a job) replace it (pricey) or offset the flame plate to compensate well imo you need to first make sure the jet is firing in a straight line upwards if not replace the jet, but if it is firing straight up then it must be either the plate isn't set right, lower on one side will mean the fuel stream isn't hitting the centre of the plate resulting in a lopsided flame or if the burner plate is set evenly and it's still off then the burner bell could be to blame/out of true resulting in a lopsided flame changing jets only works if it's the jet that's at fault and they aren't always the culprit on used stoves, if it's a new stove then the burner bell should be straight it's only my opinion but i have replaced jets and still had the same symptoms, so i had to try out other remedies atb Bill
Every hunter knows that your rifle hit exactly where you aim it(more or less). Most misses are operator induced is what I'm saying. How does this effect stove? If your target moves and you shoot straight, you miss. I think this is where Parra was going... What if your sights are off or you bang the heck out of your scope? Gun shoots straight at a stationary target and .... miss. The only way to zero your stove is to fix or replace the jet. Eye-ball the burner bell. If it looks ok, it probably is. If not, use Parra's advice. notice the round pattern on the burner plate created by the fuel vortex Blue Halo centered on the conical burner plate notice the round pattern on the burner plate created by the fuel vortex inspect old jets for debris or surface damage that could obscure the orifice If you can see this Blue Halo centered on the conical burner plate and the flame is lopsided, take Parra's advice and try to adjust the burner plate height. Hope this helps, AR
HI everyone i did my homework 1) Blue flame circle is off center. Burn and soot circle is also off center. 2)I turned it down to a candle to take a closer look inside and the flame hits the spreader plate offcenter. 3)I tried rotating the burner bell 360 with no noticeable effect. 4) rising the bell showed some improvement on the yellow tips. 5) Checked the outlet of the jet with a magnifyng glass and it looks ok. 6) Following anlrolfe´s advice I wrote Optimus/Katadyn. I´ll let you know if there´s any news. I still owe you some pictures!! Thanks Martin
I've still got my defective jet. I was expecting Katadyn the send an envelope to return the defective part. I guess that produce quality and ISO certification isn't as important as I thought. I considered trying to take some pics w/ the bad jet but it's awful had to see let alone photograph. If you understand the concept and what to look for, I guess that's whats important. Glad to help, AR
Hi AR, Agree with your last comments. My cynical opinion is that ISO Quality Certification is not worth the paper it's written on. The certification is a measure of how closely processes are followed. It doesn't check that processes are correct, just followed. Therefore if you had a car manufacturer that had a process that determined the rear offside wheel was manufactured square instead of round, as long as every car was produced with a square rear offside wheel then the manufacturer would still be meeting the requirements of their ISO Quality Certification despite the fact that they consistantly manufacture an unusable product. In the Optimus case, if their processes that are assessed for certification do not contain tolerances, or even define that a faulty component is returned for inspection then they are still fully meeting their certification. There is a difference between Quality Control and Quality Assurance. QC is basically a philosophy of rejection during manufacture (usually based on sampling) coupled with replace after the event if found to be faulty due to it not being the item in a batch that was subject to inspection. QA is the philosophy of constant improvement through going back and redefining the manufacturing process if problems occur. Many companies employ minimum levels of QC to gain certification, others employ QA to ensure their products are a cut above the rest. Another step beyond QC/QA is Total Quality Management as defined by Deming, a US statistician, that IIRC came out of his work as being part of a US team that was involved in Japanese recontruction after WWII. Once back on it's feet, it is why Japanese products suddenly leapt in quality with the rest of the world taking a couple of decades to react. It was an American, using American funds, that helped educate Japanese manufacturers to compete with American manufacturers. Apparently he'd been touting his ideas around the US for years previously but no one would listen I dabbled in this stuff for a couple of years when working for a Management Consultancy earlier in my career. Crushingly boring though...... Cheers, Graham.
Graham, well said. No wonder there are fewer recalls on Japanese products and runs forever. It does irk you when you buy an item out of the box and does not work properly having paid good money for it. Then again supposedly you have a 30 day satisfaction guarranttee or money back. If its a used item, it does not work its buyers beware I guess. If it does work, its like winning a mini-lottery. Cheers
Hi everyone this was the situation yesterday I got this letter (with brand new jet) from Michael at Katadyn Switzerland I installed it and......problem solved nice blue flame no yellow pointy flames. and Thanks to everyone at CCS (specially anlrolfe who suggested I email Optimus) and Michael at Katadyn CH. I really like this stove!!!....and the customer service from Katadyn. Rgds Eternauta
Wow what customer service!!! and story. I am glad it worked. They must be having a problem with making "true" jets. Jeff
