Hi folks, I’m wondering about experiments you all may have made with different priming fluids. For years I’ve used a solution of alcohol stove fuel saturated with white gas but then adjusted for the seasons. (This for my Optimus 99, but also for my sister’s Optimus Polaris.) Once the morning temperatures are below freezing I start adding a little extra white gas to the primer bottle in my pack, making an emulsion when shaken. The amount of extra gas depends on the expected low temperature. The undissolved white gas burns off fairly quickly giving a little jump start to the prime but then not allowing the primer flame to risk the tent wall. With this setup the stove lights easily without having to use extra primer down to say 10 deg. F. (Below that I use little extra primer.) In the heat of the summer, I don’t need a fully saturated solution. For the heck of it, I’ve recently experimented a bit. I’m now using 100 % denatured ethanol rather than the more common alcohol fuels for stoves available around here which are a mixture of ethanol and methanol. I’m not sure If I will notice any difference. I’ve tried substituting 100% anhydrous isopropyl alcohol instead of ethanol/methanol but it that didn’t seem to me to give any real advantage. In addition, isopropyl alcohol does not get saturated with gas; you can add as much as you want. For me, the saturation property makes it very handy when making up my primer stock bottle and the extra white gas as an emulsion helps a lot when it's cold. What fuels/mixtures have you tried and what was the result? Cheers,
Hi @Larry_R I find priming wicks give a more efficient and effective burn of the priming methylated spirits. Too often with an open-pool of meths, the priming liquid boils and tends to "spit". With a wick the flame front is above the liquid level in the spirit- cup and the burn is longer and more efficient. In addition the wick tends to keep the flames from the burning meths tight to the burner stem and head. You are obviously an experienced liquid stove user, but I wonder whether you have ever tried primer wicks: Making up some spirit-cup wicks. Best Regards, Kerophile.
Howdy @Larry_R , Welcome to CCS! I totally agree with what @kerophile has written above. Easy, clean, and reliable, those wicks in the spirit cup make all the experimentation a rather moot point, me thinks, George, thanks for sharing the excellent links again. Though I'm a firm believer in using the method you mentioned above, it's always good to re-visit those great links you shared! Larry, give the wicks a try, and I'm pretty sure you will immediately be a convert to using them in all stoves that require priming. No need for mixing fuels, either. Good luck, and again, glad to have you here with us! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
Thanks for the comments Doc (from a fellow doc) and Kerophile, I'm still getting used to the differences between UK and American naming but I'll get it eventually. It turns out I have experimented with a priming wick. I found some fancy ceramic insulation on Amazon and used it to make a nice wick for my sister's Optimus Polaris not long ago. That worked well so I made one for my Optimus 99 that also worked fine but in the end I decided not to use it at least for now. With the primer mixture I use it did not seem to add much and for me there was one real drawback; depending on the lighting I often did not have a good visual cue of when the primer was near finished burning. Being able to see when the primer is just about gone is important to me because knowing that, I can turn the regulating key just before the primer runs out and not have to use the lighter. (When it's really cold, sometimes the lighter does not light every time if I have not kept it in a warm spot. In that case on occasion even a re-prime can become necessary) But it's often not easy to see the level of the primer in the spirit cup; my solution has been to occasionally clean it, say in Nickle Pickle, and then apply Birchwood Casey Brass Black to the surface. The blackened surface of the spirit cup makes it easy to see the level of the primer as well as the flame right to the point the flame is about to go out. I don't mind mixing the primer; I just have to do it 2 or 3 times a year and it's just one of dozens of little tasks that keep me interested when I'm not out in the mountains. I'm not sure about spitting. The mixture I use doesn't do that however when it's really cold and I have a bit of extra white gas in the primer one can hear it sizzle for maybe 10 to 20 seconds after lighting as the undissolved gas burns off; it's typically not a very hot flame at this point but it gets things going. A related but important issue is how long it takes from lighting the primer to getting a nice clean flame from the burner. In fiddling with the wick and different primers and doing a little timing in the shop, without the wick and using my regular primer, I'm finding that enough primer to burn for 1min 35 seconds (a six second squeeze of my Nalgene dropper bottle) and 1 to 2 pumps on the mini-pump consistently gives me a good strong flame when turn the stove on. Anyone else with some numbers / air temperatures? I guess I might add that for many, these issues are totally unimportant. However I have had quite severe Reynaud's Disease for a long time where if my hands get cold they go pure white and I loose all circulation. Without my stove working as I know it can, it would never have been safe for me to go out. It just has to work right every trip, even in the summer higher up. Cheers,
I keep forgetting to obtain some wick material so still release some gas into the priming dish on my pressurized stoves, but still use denatured alcohol for my kero stoves, even when snow camping. My isobutane stoves of course don't get preheated. Duane
@Larry_R , Doc, I am not a physician, but rather a serious student of medicine, surgery, and apothecary from the 18th century. As a Living History reenactor, I offer seminars on the history of medicine from that time period. I own every major medical book, beginning in 1617, through the 18th century, and up to 1832, and have read them all. The President Ronald Reagan Library used to hire me to do my presentations there, in an effort to educate the general public, and most especially, the young folks. I was the Keynote Speaker for the San Bernardino County Medical Society some years back, and afterwards was asked to become a non-voting member, of that Society, which I was for five year period. I learned a ton from those wonderful doctors, and they were endlessly supportive in what I was trying to do in the realm of education. The nickname, "Doc Mark" was bestowed upon me many years before that, and when I was a member of the Society, they continued to call me that, which was very kind of them. By the way, my surgical kit is mostly comprised of original implements from the 18th century, and I use those implements when discussing amputation, Trepanation, suturing, Lithotomy, Obstetrics, bloodletting, cautery, and other assorted medical procedures. I've learned a ton, but know that I've really only scratched the surface of what is left to learn, and that I'll never be able to learn it all. Hence, I assume, the phrase, "practicing medicine". One thing you might find humorous, but when I was asked to talk to the SBC Medical Society, I was very worried about presenting my seminar for around 400+ REAL doctors and nurses! But, in truth, they were the best audience I've ever had! After I was finished, and done with the question and answer portion, a doctor of Obstetrics came up and complimented me on how much I had learned, and also having assembled such a large kit, of mostly original implements. Before he left, however, he whispered, "By the way, you were holding the Obstetric forceps upside down." Having never DONE any of the procedures I discuss, I had missed that part, in my studies! I am still grateful that that thoughtful Gentleman did not mention that during my actual seminar! Instead, he educated me, as I was trying to do with my regular audiences! I'd love to hear more about your own medical specialties, and if you are still practicing, or retired. Thanks, by the way, for undertaking such a tedious profession as medicine. I know that, sometimes, you Guys and Gals don't get half the credit you truly deserve!! Thanks, again, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Ye Olde Doc Mark
I'd try adding some acetone to your alcohol to lower the flash point for cold weather priming. In theory it should work but it never gets down to freezing in Santa Barbara, CA where I live so I haven't tried it myself. Ben
@Doc Mark Thanks much for your explanation and the work you do. I was an ER doc, burned out and retired a long time ago. Larry
Hi @Larry_R Also a warm welcome from me. As suggested above - I can certainly recommend using either a Fiberglass wick in the priming cup - or even better a piece of Carbon Felt cut to fit the spirit cup. I use Carbon Felt now with good succes in both my stoves and my Lanterns. It gives a more steady heat-up and you avoid the boiling and dripping of alcohol. It also works during winter time - so you rarely (if at all) need to preheat twice. An example of Carbon Felt can be seen here (Amazing material). Carbon Fiber Welding Blanket torch shield plumbing heat sink slag fire felt30*30 | eBay
Thanks much for the comments everyone. I may have to get some carbon felt just to have around the shop. Might be handy when silver soldering etc. Speaking of silver soldering and hoping the experts here won’t laugh too loudly, here are the results of a little (failed) experiment I did related to priming, tried mostly because I could do it. With the idea of helping the heat transfer to the areas that needed it, I made something like a miniature multi-pointed star shaped cookie cutter from 13 mil sheet sterling silver. (Silver is very good at conducting heat.) The hole in the center was reamed so that the thing was a spring fit over the extension nut above the sprit cup as shown in the pic. When I made it, I also hoped that it might speed the cooling of the stove in cold weather meaning less time needed to wait after I turned the stove off until I could put it in my pack. Because of my Reynaud’s, that’s a big deal for me. It seemed to work quite well in the heat of this last summer, keeping the flame more to where it does some good. But as it’s gotten colder at night in the Cascades now (as low as 29 deg F. last trip) the flame from my regular primer mix became rather weak. So in the end I’ve counted this as a failed experiment. But it was fun to make. Cheers,
@Larry_R Just a stray thought regarding your Reynauds - If you need a quick and safe option for always being ready to heat up your fingers - I would cut a piece of that Carbon Felt to fit inside your lid on your 99. When in need - put the felt inside that lid and give it a small dash of alcohol/Meth and light it - that will give you a lightweight, durable and speedy heat source in a controlled matter in a few seconds. I don’t foresee this getting hot enough to damage the Alu - but I haven’t tried it. You could use an IR-thermometer to check that in the first run(?). You can let it burn out - or just use the pot grabber and turn it around and by that removing the oxygene from the felt. Both parts will cool of quickly. Just merely a thought…
Hi, @Larry_R, Thank you for your kind words, and also for letting me know your own experience as an ER doctor! Regarding ER medical folks, I was in a very nasty, high-speed, head-on collision with a work truck, some years ago, and my left leg sustained a very deep gash, all the way to the bone. Thanks to a passing nurse, who took my clean handkerchief, knotted it, then used it to help stop the copious bleeding from that wound, my wife was able to pick me up, and take me down the mountain to the ER of St. Bernadine's Hospital. When I limped into the ER, with blood-soaked jeans leg, socks, and boot, I was seen immediately. In the end, the doctor there told me that, what I had sustained was very much like a combat wound, and that no one on staff that night had any experience with suturing something like that. Instead, one nurse-practitioner had just returned from a combat tour overseas,as a Medic, and he was chosen to suture up my wound. Though I wanted, desperately, to sit up where I could see what he was doing, he would not allow it, and instead, my wife got to watch the entire thing, which she relayed to me later. He did two layers of stitches, one in the muscles above the bone, and one to pull the wound together at the top. And, he left a small drain hole on one end of the wound. He wasn't sure it would heal very well, but it did, indeed, and today, I have full feeling in that area! So, I am VERY thankful for ER doctors and nurses, and will remain so for all my days!! Here's a shot of that wound, after the initial irrigation: I was blessed many times that night: 1- surviving the collision. 2- The passing nurse who helped stop my bleeding. 3- getting down to the ER so soon. 4- the excellent ER doctors, and that nurse-practitioner/Veteran Medic who was able to suture my gaping wound! So, when I say, "Thank you, very much, for the work you did in the ER", I mean that with all my heart! Oh, and by the way, the nice experiment on your star-shaped silver device was a good idea, even if it didn't work out quite as well as you wanted when the temps fell. Good luck with the Reynaud’s. Dealing with that does not look like something I'd want. Hopefully, you can make it less troublesome, one of these days. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc M.
I was in a headon crash driving to the prison in Monroe Washington where I volunteered once, or more, a month for 10 years. A helicopter flight to Harborview. I broke my nose, sternum, and ribs. I had too much morphine to remember the events of the hospital staff. But, I am extremely grateful to any ER staff member. Thank you sir for your service (care). Ken