I would like to hear different ideas & experiences of preparing one's kerosene stove to work, especially in colder weather. Do you use alcohol, purified gas (like Zippo benzin) or perhaps some kind of butane gas lighter, and what kind of experiences do you have? I was very surprised when I didn't get anything else but an yellow flame two weeks ago when I tried to flame my old and reliable Primus 210. At the moment I blame fuel, but I am not sure - I had bought some new fuel that promised that it could be used both in oil lamps and stoves. For some reason it didn't with my stove. Last winter I succeeded in minus 15 degrees tempereratures with no problem. In both cases I used alcohol to pre-heat the burner. I guess that there is huge variation between liquids sold as "kerosene" or "lamp oil" - with my Aladdin lamps I have never had any problems regarding to fuels, but with old pressure stoves it seems different. Perhaps I should get an old XGK which burns anything. Or could there be some other explanation why my stove didn't lit well? (I didn't overfill etc., jet was almost new etc.)
I have a couple us users, a 111 and a no name no brand. For both preheat is done with a campingaz blow torch. Yes, it's not a mountain camp prectice, but in backyard is perfect. By the way, the no name no brand kerosene roarer is unsurpased to get my steak skillet hot uniformly and hot enough.
@pivo I use alcohol to prime. What’s crucial though is good wind shielding. The wind-chill effect of a cold breeze on an un-shielded burner is enough to prevent vapourisation. @kerophile is an advocate of lining the priming cup with a heat-proof wick, which prevents the alcohol from boiling and burning up too rapidly. The priming duration for the same amount of alcohol is thereby extended and is more effective at getting the burner thoroughly heated. Water in fuel (condensation in the fuel container or the stove tank) inevitably sinks to the bottom of the tank, entering the pickup tube at the outset. Of course, it won’t burn!
Some of my old MSR stoves burn anything, my Cobra burner stoves will only run on undyed, 1-K kero, they will not run correctly with the dye. Sometimes in below freezing temps I will prime with petro from the petro stove itself, but my kero stoves are always primed with denatured alcohol. Duane
Hi @pivo I would suspect that the poor running could be it be due to dodgy fuel. We have had reports in the past of poor performance of kerosene pressure stoves when fuelled with "Lamp oil" a petroleum-based product formulated for use in wick lamps. It is possible that the fuel does not vaporise as readily as standard kerosene. Best Regards, Kerophile.
