This pump is actually from an Explorer, but appears identical to the Nova pump. Has anyone else had this happen? Any ideas on repairing it? It failed during pumping - fortunately whilst using kero with the pump facing away from the stove. The resulting fountain of fuel out the pump lid as a result of suddenly having no NRV could have been a bad scene. Luckily it only required some cleanup of the shop and a shower for kero-soaked me. On a completely different topic, but while I'm thinking of it. Don't try to burn off old JB Weld from a clients bodged repair with a torch whilst in a closed building. Do it outside. It smells horrible. Something like using old car tires to burn down a hog farm. I did so you don't have to. Cheers, Gary
I guess the bottom just flew right off. Wow. I'm glad you were using kero, Gary. That would have been disastrous. Glad you are safe. It looks like the pump is made of aluminum. Those can be welded. I have a friend that welds aluminum sprinkler pipe so I know it can be done. With what, I don't know. It looks like he's just using a hot blow torch to do similar work like what you got ahead of you. I don't think he's doing any brazing or soldering. I still can't believe the bottom just came out like that. Remind me not to use volatile fuel in my Nova! sam
Yikes Gary!!! I am your okay. I have been playing with brazing aluminum lately. Joined two pepsi cans uses a bernizomatic rod made for aluminum. Not the best metal. Jeff
After watching a welder fix some cracks on the bulkhead of my snowmobile, for aluminum, you heat up a large area to expand it, otherwise, if you only heat up the immediate area you are fixing, when it cools it cracks again.
Myself? I'd remove the NRV, roughen the two surfaces to be bonded, and use West Systems epoxy and be done with it. And being the belt-and-suspenders kinda guy I am, I'd also use at LEAST two setscrews to hold the base plug in! Murph
how did they connect it in the first place?glue?i don't see any threads.i would get hold of the maker with some photos and a stiff "this could of killed me" note.
I think Optimus already knows about the problem or flaw. The Primus Omnifuel pump top, A new nova pump in the middle and a Brunton Nova pump on the bottom. The new Nova pump is one piece or milled AL. Jeff
Hi Gary My first choice would be to try & soft solder it as this might be the easiest thing to try. Or Earlier this year i was at the London model engineering show at Alexandrea palace, while i was there i purchased some special ally welding wire developed by Rolls Royce & Landrover. You use a torch to heat up the work & put a 1/16th of an inch on the item to be joined & pull the molten wire along with a steel rod for a repair almost like soft soldering. I must admit i was a little sceptical about this process as lots of products never seem to deliver, but i used it to repair an old cast ally railway key for a friend (made in the 1950s) & although its not easy i still made a very respectable repair. I'm not sure what grade of ally you tube is made from but if you want some (a little goes a long way)i'll pop some in the post to you ,just let me know . Best regards Stu
You could probably unscrew the old pump tube, make a new one with the milled end and screw your NRV into that.
Hi Gary, This has really shaken my trust in my Nova pump...hitherto I would happily use my Nova with white gas in my tent and under my tarp. Your Explorer pump looks identical to my Nova pump with the exception of the pump knob - mine is aluminium: After your experience I will now consider purchasing a modern pump for my Nova and fit a CEJN coupler - I have a spare and Basecamp sells them. Do send your photos to Katadyn/Optimus and ask for a replacement pump. This could have been catastrophic in the wilds and has given me much food for thought! Cheers, Rob
Hi guys Thanks for the encouragement on the pump and your concern for my health/safety. I *like* the idea of checking with Optimus. I'll let you know how that goes. The pump end appears to have been secured with some sort of "solder". If you look at my rather bad closeup photo you can sorta see a discolored patch on the pump end. That seems to be a different material than the aluminum ally. And, it doesn't go all the way round the joint, which is perhaps why it failed? I'm going to have to give repairing methods some thought. No hurry on this. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions so far. I think they all have merit. I'll be looking it over and doin' some head-scratching later and whatever solution, I'll drop back in with a report. One other note. In hindsight, this really was rather a close call. I had actually had this pump in a bottle of white gas with stove running moments before when I realized the stove had the kero jet in place. So I shut it all down and swapped bottles rather than jets. Thankfully, the pump waited to let go until it was in the kero bottle. Yikes! For what it's worth, I do have four fire extinguishers in the shop and one is located within reach of both areas where I burn. Still..... Cheers, Gary
DANG. Maybe I better start swapping my kero jets in. Danged white gas is so much cheaper around here though. HJ
Nothing is more expensive on so many levels as a few months stay in your hospital's burn unit! I have first hand knowledge of the pain and anguish endured by a close family member during a 6 month stay in such a facility. It makes my blood run cold thinking of such an accident happening with white gas in a tent yet! Stan
I had reason to contact Primus by way of E mail. Concerning my Omnifuel ... weld failure ... laid it on with a trowel. They replaced the burner unit free of charge. Its always worth a try.
I still can't believe how dangerous that situation was. I've had similar with an M-1942 that sprung a leak and started spraying fuel and ignited. Luckily I had an extinguisher close by. This is one of the main reasons I'm switching as many stoves as I can in my collection to kerosene. I think the safety factor is very high, if not the highest on my list. The stoves that must use gas/petrol are well-maintained and checked carefully before use. I don't have anything against gas/petrol stoves, I like to use them a lot, but you do have to elevate the safety level and take extra precautions when you use them. Many of my gas/petrol stoves have a reasonable safe configuration, but I have a few exceptions that do not have locking check-valves and have only an NRV between the fuel vapors and me, namely my 111Bs, M-1942s, M-1950s, etc. I've had one check valve fail upon opening to pump more air into one of my Coleman stoves. I had an M-1950 spring a link from the NRV and leak fuel, luckily I was able to shut the stove off quickly. I've had an NRV fail on a 111B, but was able to pump the knob back down and turn the stove off. If any of these pump tubes or NRVs fail, it's fireball time! Plus, kerosene is cheaper than Coleman Fuel, at least for the short term.... sam
