A mission to increase stove cooking speed and efficiency

I not only want my Svea which is light relative to most white gas stoves, to not only be lighter but to be faster and more efficient.

The Svea "only" outputs 4700 BTU's which is similar to a modern butane canister design, so how is it that a JetBoil, with the slightly less output(4500btu) can beat the Svea to the boil. The answer I believe was the pot.

I've been assembling a nestling cookset to increase efficiency and decrease the boil time for my main stove for extended trips lasting over 7 days. Here it is what I've cobbled together.



It is a JetBoil frying pan with the wire handles pulled off, this serves as the lid. The 2L pot is a hard anodized Esbit. The tea kettle is a modified FireMaple 1.5L kettle.

What makes all of these cook ware special to me is that they all have heat sinks.



In addition to that, despite being made by different manufacturers, the JetBoil and the Esbit nestle and store the Svea.



Another thing that is important is that each of these 3 pots interface with the Svea, encompassing all of the flame with metal radiator surface and providing additional wind protection and heat trapping.



The Firemaple kettle did not originally interface with the Svea so it had to be modified with a dremel and a siding cutter. It was a pretty jagged hack job for me, but it works as you can see.

I tested the Esbit and the Firemaple against a flat bottomed Opencountry kettle of similar size.



The conditions were 59F sheltered from the wind using 1 liter of tap water. A half windscreen was used. The time was stopped when there was a rolling boil. Location is my lab/patio at 10,200ft.

Firemaple 5:30
Esbit HE 7:15
Opencountry 7:50

The Firemaple kettle does excellent as a fast water boiler, but it looks like the Esbit HE barely does any better despite the hitech heat sink. The skillet was not tested because no one boils water in a skillet, and I do not have a similar sized skillet to test it against.

Tell me what you all think. If you have found any innovations in efficient cooking please share maybe I can improve my systems.

 

I've been farting around with my 8R and different sized pots. Once I found out which pot boiled the same water the fastest I then began mods on the pot.

Black high heat paint on the bottom, mirror polish on the sides, seems to have given me further reduced boil times.

That or I'm getting better at running my stove.
Either way, it's fun.

My best time on 1L of cold tap water on the kitchen counter with a roaring burner is 7:00 flat.
I really don't give a rip how fast it boils water. I'm in no hurry. I'm just interested in making it as efficient as possible.

 

Tis fun to experiment. Unfortunately, I never seem to get around to actual experimenting. I do have my pots wrapped with duct tape (bright orange!), in theory to keep the heat in, and it also allows me to (carefully) handle the pots wo a bulldog/potholder. And I always have some duct tape handy

Holy Toledo Batman, you're at 10k feet?? Water boils at what temp that high??

 

Have a look at this ....... Link
Heat exchanger is not a new idea. Patent on that English Kettle is 1903.

Ken in NC

 

Arson. These are called Heat Exchangers. We been using them for some time now. I just used mine today which is the Optimus Weekender sized utterly perfectly to fit the 123r or 123. Also the heat exchanger works better if it is not on the outside of the pot stand stays "Flames do not hit it as much". The Optimus weekender also encases the 123 perfectly standing up with literally no loose play or problems with stove rolling around and leaking fuel. Take a look

 

Word of warning Efficiency comes at a cost. By takeing more heat out of the flame you increase carbon monoxide generation.
There are several posts on this but basicly a 123r could run all day safely in a cabin if you dont put a pot on As soon as you put a standard pot on you need the window open a bit and 2 windows with a heat exchanger

 

Geeves a worthy bit of info.

 

Do you think you could fit a 123 inside one of these?

http://www.hawkinscookers.com/1.1.5.hawkinsconturaHA.asp

I have been looking at possible replacements for an inherited pressure cooker we use when not lightweight camping, 40's/50's vintage possibly which just has side handles. The lid is just sprung into position, while have to post an image. It also needs the rubber seal replacing, which I suspect will be a specialist job.

Simes

 

I am using a pot (1l) from Primus.


Most important for me is the packing compactness.




The plastic box is there to protect the coating of the pot, and to prevent taste of gasoline in the food.

 

With all due respect re: the CO warning, we are talking about cooking a meal, not heating a room overnight. And cooking outside. I must be living dangerous, I use my 8r all the time inside to make coffee..

 

I do too, but I crack the window. My wife has a super sensitive nose and doesn't like the smell. I'm like, "What smell?"

 

Thanks for the replies! I have been aware that many have been using them here and that other burners in the past hundred years have been too, but I wanted to make my own system for my own purposes.

Let me clarify and add some information. I do enjoy my time in the outdoors, but there are a few circumstances that I am specifically looking for increased efficiency and boil times, like on my alpine trips on mountains. I enjoy every moment on the mountain, but at the same time I have a very short weather window and limited supplies available to make a summit happen. A fast melted pot of snow after a longs days march, fast cooking the evening before the summit, and reduced fuel weight for such a trip in this case decreases my stress and doubles the enjoyment!

I was looking specifically to put the heat exchangers around the flame rather than have the flame shoot up from underneath and into the ring. I have to a little hypothesis that having the fins around the burner would deflect strong winds and also increase the contact the flame has with the exchangers.

I will run another trial run soon with the fins propped up on the feet rather than surrounding the burner like I had tested it originally and see the difference.

Carbon monoxide is a concern for me with any pot occasionally I have burned this Svea inside a tent, always with the vents open as far as the weather allows.

Thanks for sharing the pictures of your Primus pot, Afton. It fits the svea rather perfectly, and I will have to look into a set up like that for a solo outing.

 

My Svea/Sigg cooks most efficiently, morning and night, as is!

But then, I'm not climbing mountains, either....

 

"With all due respect re: the CO warning, we are talking about cooking a meal, not heating a room overnight. And cooking outside. I must be living dangerous, I use my 8r all the time inside to make coffee.. "

Its more a case of being sensible. With adequate ventilation its fine. On more than one occasion Ive had up to 3 stoves running in a tramping hut to cook dinner but always with a window wide open and not when people are sleeping. Usual rules on filling outside still apply.
I will even run a lpg fridge in my large camping tent but not the small one. If I have to use the fridge and the small tent the fridge lives under a tree

 

Warnings are always good, but methinks the danger of Co, while certainly real, is overblown. I have two Co meters in my house (small, old house) and ofter run several Perfection Kero heaters and have yet to see the numbers on the CO meters budge. A member of another forum did some experiments in a closed bathroom, w a towel under door, I don't recall just what appliances he used, maybe a lantern, a stove and a heater, he really had to get extreme to get any real CO in his closed up bathroom.
Just keeping it real.

 

When melting snow in a small tent, CO can become a real danger. The pot is much colder than when cooking, and the room is small. I do not use this type of pot when melting snow, and I do vent as best I can. I even sit with my face in the opening of the tent, so I am sure I get fresh air.

 

Would be fun to see some real tests. Methinks I saw one on web somewhere about tents and stove. Tents, all of em I have are fairly well vented. If they are not, it turns into wet miserable mess inside tent, there has to be some air flow. Again, tis good to be careful, but I really don't see......

 

Quickly found this:

We hear less about CO risks away from home. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that some campers have fallen asleep and never awakened after pulling propane stoves or charcoal grills into their tents to cook or keep warm

"Charcoal grills"????? Really?? Inside a tent??

Notice it said "propane stoves"
Will look some more

 

All this has been discussed before, tests have been posted here (or links to articles ) dealing with CO poisoning in tents.
There is tons of proof available for those that want to find it. For me it is rather simple; I don't cook inside a (closed) tent. When to cold, put on more cloths or get a better sleeping bag. Be properly prepared. And most importantly, use your brains! Using ones brains also means one listens to other people and accepts their good advice.

All the best,

Wim

 

Accepting ones good advice is not always good advice. Lots and lots of good, well intentioned advice that is way off the mark. If I accepted everyones good advice I would stay out of the woods, stay out of the dark, and not play with fire so much. Pretty boring life if you ask me.

Did find a BUNCH of stuff on Co in tents. Might do some reading. I still think those bringing charcoal grills into tents should be removed from the gene pool anyway.