Greetings, Mates, and Fellow Stovies, All! This year, and in fact, the last several years, have been filled more with work, than stoves. Glad to have the work, but really miss having time to play with stoves, spend time here at CCS, and enjoy being with my Fellow Stovies at events, and online!! But, on a recent work trip, which entailed 4,830 miles of driving, I found some stoves. Well, in truth, Sweet Bride found the one I'm about to share with you! But, I did "see" some stoves, too, and also some thing that I hoped will be a stove!! Along the way, Sweet Bride found this stove, which was labeled "Vintage Petromax Stove". As the stove has NO markings on it, whatsoever, and as several other things did not seem "right", to me, I do not believe that this was made, or marketed by Petromax, nor that it is "vintage". The weight of this thing is fairly substantial, and it's nice and shiny, and actually has some fuel inside it. but, as I was hesitant to try and open the fuel cap/pressure gauge, I am not certain what fuel might be inside. The priming torch looked very interesting to me, but seemed flimsy, compared to others I have, and the pot support/stand, seemed less than robust, and rather haphazard in design. My thoughts were that this stove setup was probably made in China, or India, and not Germany. And, I seem to recall that someone else found/bought one of these in the past, and shared it here, though I cannot find that post now, if there was, indeed, such a thing. What say you, Lads, and Lasses?? Who made it, and when, and is it worth having? From the flame marks on the burner, it has been fired up, at least a few times. But, check out the poor brazing on the burner tube connections. They do not fill me with confidence, I must admit. In another place, along our way, I saw what, from a distance, appeared that it might be an Optimus #9!! Was it?? Sadly, no....., but it was a nice thermos, which was stuffed into a plastic duck decoy. And, just for fun, whilst driving from one job, to another, I spied an older truck and camper, which piqued my interest. Obviously, the owner had arrived at an interesting, and quite workable way to have his cooking stove easily at hand. Here is his solution: And, a closer look: Hilarious, yet quite workable!! This trip offered very little time for stove hunting, as our driving mileage was long each day, between jobs, and once setup, which always takes a huge amount of time and energy, our days usually ran like this: up at 5-am, work, back to bed around 12:30 to 1am!! YIKES!! The actual work days were long enough, but we also had evening meetings with our clients, vendors, and suppliers, all of which made for long nights, and short sleep. All part of the job, though, and again, we're glad to have the work. Hopefully, we will get some time for fun in the mid-Fall time, though we will see how that turns out. We both looking forward to doing another CASG event, but will very probably miss the event that Flivver is setting up for mid-September. Bummer!!! Maybe we can do a camp later in the Fall. Thanks for reading, Friends, and I hope to see you all again soon. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc P.S. I am still hoping to get time to reply to the PT's I've received over the past months. Thank you all for your patience and understanding on all this, and I look forward to talking to you soon as I can make it happen.
Nice to hear from you as you catch your breath, Doc. That stove looks like one of those Britelite jobs that came out in the early days of CCS. I seem to remember that Bear1 (Bob Brubach) looked into them, and found them seriously wanting. There was interest at first because it seemed like someone was undertaking to make a modern version of a brass classic. I also seem to remember that Britelite had something to do with Petromax.
Good to hear from you Doc. I think a very similar stove was sold by BriteLyt in the States. The owner/seller sold stoves and lanterns. He had a few youtube videos showing a similar stove running on diesel, it smoked like crazy from leaking seals and valves; and when I asked about the smoke he denied there was any smoke. He also has a video of running a petromax lantern on automobile gasoline and claimed that was totally safe (despite many who pointed out that he was wrong to claim so). Ed was quicker.
Hi Doc, great to hear from you. Britelyte I fear: https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/a-modern-classic.12196/#post-116455 https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/britelyte-new-stove-design.1582/#post-5216 https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/apb-on-this-seller.2291/#post-10983 Best Regards, Kerophile.
Hi, I recall that Britelyte had the USA Agency for Geniol, Hipolto and perhaps Petromax in the late 1990s/ early 2000s. In the latter years of the 1970s-1990 Hipolito was building Geniol and Petromax lanterns and stoves, under license, alongside their own Hipolito products in Portugal. A lot of the output was brand engineered, with the same or very similar items appearing under different brand names. I bought an unused Geniol stove from an ebay seller USA, and some of the accompanying instructions were Britlyte, who were based in Florida at that time. https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/geniol-no-1-stove-un-used.17385/ https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/geniol-stove.11441/ Best Regards, Kerophile.
The view of these stoves as junk goes way back: https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/britelyt-stoves-multi-fuel.1967/#post-8310
That stove has same parts as in those mentioned lanterns from those years: -Quick lighter -Pump -Tank cap -Generator seems to be made from lantern's Preston loop -U shape tube after Preston loop seems to be from lantern
my $.02, interesting concept. use parts already on the shelf from whatever will fit the purpose, but alas poor workmanship and unusebale stove. makes you appreciate the classics for their safe reliable design and longevity... not knowing much about these weird stoves i would've been tempted to go for it if i found it on the shelf of the local antique mall. glad for the experts observations. buzz
I have a Petromax lantern that I bought from Sportsmans Guide which was distributed by Britelite and made in China. Very pretty chromey, hefty thing. At first glance it appears to be a Petromax lantern assembled in China with Petromax marked parts. In general the components were hefty but closer looks show poor brazing on the piping. Mine has a tiny fuel leak in the tubing which sometimes has a tiny flame. Also, it seems to take forever to pump up the pressure to the proper level. I suspect the pump is not as effective as a genuine Petromax. Using the blowtorch like preheater, rapidly drops the pressure so that to maintain operation of the lantern you have to laboriously pump it up again. I MUCH prefer my American made Colemans, do they still make them here? Kind of follows on my philosopy on Chinese made goods... "Looks like the real thing but it aint". I have used the lantern on both Coleman fuel and kero. It makes me nervous using Coleman. Seems like the roar is a bit louder and that is when I had tiny fuel leaks. BTW the instructions do say kero and Coleman. Good Luck with your new stove, Jim Henderson
Good Morning, Friends! Thanks for all the excellent responses and comments about the "bastige" stove I saw. Whilst I was tempted to buy it, at first, upon closer inspection I saw too much that just did not seem right, and left the stove for someone else to find. It always pays to seek out those who have already learned about such things, most of time, to avoid headaches and problems down the line. The old adage, "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is", comes to mind. Thanks, also, for the nice comments of welcome and friendship, too, Mates! Much appreciated! These past few years have brought us more, and more work, and as our's is an "art-based" business, it could evaporate tomorrow. So, Sweet Bride is booking almost every job that seeks us out, and we continue to work hard to pay off all our debts, both business, and personal. We are, "making hay, whilst the sun shines", as it were! For us, there is no retirement, so we'll work until we either reach a place where we are debt-free and have moved to a place that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to live, or we an no longer do what we have to do today to keep our business up and running. Then, it's Social Security, maybe a little music, or..... who knows?!?? In any case, all that work has left us little time for fun, and that includes stoves, camping, time on the internet, and hiking. It's good to be able to join you all, once again, and I look forward to more of that happening. Talk to you all later, and until then, God Bless you and yours!! Every Good Wish, Doc
