armydude, I'd say it's like a a three. It makes a huge difference in terms of volume of sound. When I'm cooking with my Dragonfly using the factory installed spreader plate, I can't talk with anyone, and people move away from the stove. When I use the silent cap (Dragontamer), I can talk to the guy 5 feet away. HJ
Hi, Russ, Yes, we're talking about the preheat cycle when we say "priming." Why would anyone carry a secondary fuel? Well, it depends a bit on what fuel you're using. In the US, Coleman Fuel is popular, affordable, and available. Internationally, though, the world standard is kerosene (which is called paraffin in many countries). If you're using kero, then using alcohol (sometimes called meths or metho) to prime is a time honored practice going back probably to the late 1800's. Kero, when not vaporized, burns with a lot of soot and smoke and can be a real mess. Alcohol is easier and cleaner to prime with. Even if you're using Coleman Fuel, you can get a lot of soot built up on your stove, which can cause fouling in the jet. In order to keep a stove a) cleaner and b) in better operating condition, many people will use alcohol for priming. It's important to know how to prime a stove with Coleman Fuel in case one ever runs out of alcohol, but you'll be able to go a lot longer between maintenance sessions with alcohol. Alcohol is my primary priming agent, and Coleman Fuel is my back up. There's not much weight penalty to a backpacker by the way. The use of alcohol to prime allows one to use less Coleman Fuel, thus in terms of fuel, using alcohol to prime is practically a net zero. You do have to carry a little plastic squeeze bottle of alcohol, but those bottles are really light. HJ
I prefer to prime with meths as well although Ive noticed that useing coleman fuel what soot is produced is easily consumed by the burner by running at full noise for 5 minutes or so. Its far less exciting priming by meths with a pale flame just the right hight to heat everything but not the towering inferno that an over zealous petrol prime produces.
I do not have a dragon tamer cap but I did have a early one of Gary's midi caps. It has been well used on my omnifuel, but seeing as my dragonfly is my noisiest stove I wanted to get the cap working on that instead. This is not one of the newer caps with the stabilising legs (which are brilliant), so I decided to wire it on. The wire goes straight down through the hole in the base of the burner bell (for those not familiar with this stove, there is a hole that allows the priming meths to get to the wick). I used a dremel to reduce the diameter of the caps base so it would fit deep in the bell and allow the stove to fold. The final result works really well however the dragonfly stove has less wind protection than the onmifuel and the nova so unless you use the wind guard the wind can blow the stove out (this only happened once). This may not happen if you use Gary's dragontamer cap. Pictures below, I am sure some people will think I am off my nut tinkering with this cap, but look at it this way, as it is wired on, I will never lose it! Dan
Hi Dude, You can prime with your Coleman fuel or alcohol, i.e.- HEET (yellow bottle) generic HEET ( same stuff, but available at "Dollar General" stores for a dollar for 12 oz. ) OR "denatured alcohol" sold at Ace hardware and the paint department at Wallyworld, as "shellac thinner" and it used to say "stove fuel" on many of the cans. It's mainly ethanol with methanol added to make it undrinkable, poison. Our British cousins (and some of us now) tend to call it "meths", short for methylated alcohol) Whatever it's called, it's usually mostly ethanol with some sort of adulterant added to make it unfit for human consumption. The only common stove fuel you might not want to prime with is kerosene, as it smokes more and produces more soot. Still, even kerosene can be used to prime or "pre-heat" in a pinch. I suppose diesel would be in a similar category, but I would avoid the gasoline!!! Whoof!
