I had this issue with the XGK... I had run kerosene mainly, a bit of diesel and a mixture at one stage of diesel, kerosene and some unleaded. Once I started using unleaded only a week or so ago...I noticed it would take a minute or more to get fuel into the stove for priming...I thought well maybe I hadn't noticed this before as I primed using alcohol. The performance of the stove got worse until it was obvious that it was surging and even going to a yellow flame due to insufficient fuel flow. I cleaned the entire line several times but with no improvement...I even finally put my mouth over the end of the fuel line detached from the pump and easily blew some left over fuel through the jet so it was clear as a bell. I started to watch the video on pump maintenance and checked a few things. I got to the fuel filter replacement and I thought...'why not check this' so I detached it and I was unable to blow through or suck from the filter. I compared it with the filter in the Dragonfly which has had much more use and a variety of fuels through it and it was clear and easy to blow through so I put this filter on the XGK....it all worked fine. So...why would a brand new filter be screwed almost from brand new? I carefully filter all fuel through a coleman filter and the filter looked squeaky clean. There was no reason to suspect the filter although a blocked filter did make sense...it is just the mystery of WHY...WHY? I have an expedition service kit coming and already needing replacement parts from it and I've used the XGK for maybe 3-4 weeks...albeit every day in that time. It is just as well I can pirate parts from the Dragonfly stove. I remain puzzled...any ideas?
I would be suspicious about the mix of diesel, kero & unleaded. Maybe something coagulated and blocked the filter? I'm not a petro chemist, but that sounds like an odd thing to do.
MSR ceramic fuel filter cleaning? Like @PWDolkas , I suspect some incompatible mixture of fuel in the filter, with gelling of an additive. Could be something else, of course. Diesel bug is the common. The link above suggests adding cloth over the filter. With an XGK, older pumps often didn't have filters or had metal filters. With the XGK design you are filtering large contaminants from your fuel through the cleaning wire anyway. In push-comes-to-shove situations, remove the filter.
Wouldn't be the first time we've seen faulty parts from the factory. Could also be manufacturing debris.
I doubt if it would result from fuel mixing as they are all fully miscible hydrocarbon fuels with similar chemical and physical properties...but who knows. I am a Chemist but not a petrochemist and I got my degree many, many, many moons ago back when the periodic table consisted of many fewer elements. I have had a number of issues now with MSR stoves...some just design issues like the way you can damage the shaker needle in the XGK....but not the Dragonfly by screwing the jet in with the stove lying flat. The XGK requires you to hold the stove upside down so that the needle is inside the jet as you screw it in...hard to do. I've also had crap in stoves from new...again I can never be sure but the Dragonfly seemed to have rubbish in it from new. The XGK had a damaged jet from new. I don't believe now I damaged that by overtightening but it appeared to be damaged by overtightening...now I applied the same force to both my Dragonfly and Nova without issues so these jets appear to be very soft and easily damaged. Now the filter and I think that the filter had an issue from new but again...who knows. The filter design is strange...for something billed as user serviceable...why not use brass sintered or other materials and make it user serviceable rather than a throw away item? I've kind of suffered a learning curve with these stoves I never expected to have.... The expedition kits are damned expensive too, a very expensive way to replace a component that is damaged or faulty...some reviewers have said that they have spent a large sum of money over the years buying these expensive kits. The kits on the Nova are much cheaper too. The Optimus Nova never had any issues and the fuel filter is just a little sintered brass insert into the line which seems a much better idea than the MSR bit white thing that is a throwaway item and is stapled together.
I have encountered gelling problems with fuel, usually kerosene ish fuels are worse, but occasionally Coleman fuels when things are cold. I do not like the newer white plastic filters because they plug easily, and are not user serviceable. I have removed them and used a fine cotton rag wired on the tube as a replacement when necessary. The plastic filters leave staple holes in the pickup tube, which does not matter when using a cloth substitute,and makes it possible to fasten the cloth firmly with a piece of wire. A bit of a pain to do, but workable. MSR has not paid attention to this simple to fix problem caused by using an inferior filter that did not need improving from the old brass ones. The sintered brass filters could be burned to clean them. I still have a few, but they are long gone from available parts stocks. I still hope msr are will bring back the sintered brass
It isn't really a good idea what MSR have done. I'm surprised that they stick to something that causes problems but coincidentally helps boost sales of expedition service kits...LOL They must make a killing on the service kits. In my case, this filter looks perfect, clean but is definitely completely blocked. I should dissect it and find out why.
I agree.i tried emailing MSR to buy specific parts, which individually must be quite inexpensive. They told me to buy a parts kit, which are quite expensive. They can’t be doing that deliberately could they?
I am going off MSR a bit. If they make a change, in this case filters, if it produces more problems for customers and, importantly, cost, then they should remedy this otherwise they might be accused of putting money ahead of everything else...surely not? I think my Optimus Nova is better designed. It also has a much cheaper service kit and it comes with two spare brass sintered fuel filters. I did however have an issue with a bottle o-ring and the leather pump cup which are sorted. I guess no device is perfect and also problems can be caused by users also. A service kit cost me $80 for the XGK. If I get another blocked filter that is another $80 unless i fashion my own filter from cloth, as you have done. A Dragonfly service kit is $92. I think the Optimus Nova service kit was $62...all prices are AUD. I guess stove people will have their opinions on this...
I pulled apart the blocked filter but no clues. It looks fine but it is blocked. My best guess is this is a manufacturing defect…probably due to some sort of heat treatment that has decreased porosity. Still shocked to have had so many issues with such a simple device.
I found that my "luck" with stoves, and with my 617 swapped Toyota pickup in particular, improved dramatically when I stopped trying to run fuels they weren't meant to run. Yes the 617 will burn most anything, from paint thinner to school lunch gravy, but it really is happiest on diesel fuel. No surprise, that's what it was designed for. Would have saved myself a lot of headache and hassle chasing issues had I just run diesel and quit trying to use it as a garbage disposal for anything flammable that pours. You might try dumping your strange mix, putting in a fresh filter, and running only kerosene and priming with only alcohol for awhile. See how it does.
I blame MSR filters...honestly how difficult is it to use sintered brass filters which give very few problems? It is just another point of failure in these stoves I hadn't considered and honestly shouldn't have to. You may be right though about the action to take but that doesn't make it right.
I am past making excuses for the XGK... A few reasons. Some of it is just the single valve design. It is just very messy unless you prime with alcohol and then invert the bottle (good luck when it is full) to turn it off. This is just the nature of the design and it is designed to be robust rather than clean. I get it but yeah I have had enough of the soot even though it is less messy than a whisperlite. I've just had too many issues and I'm not the first to complain about these sintered white filters. A filter should be able to be cleaned and it just needs to do the job well enough to protect the stove but it really doesn't need to be too fine. I could be unlucky with the filter but maybe not, maybe it does just clog very easily when multiple fuels or mixtures are used. I am very careful to filter fuels and even my mix bottle containing kerosene, diesel and unleaded is perfectly clear to look at. I store it in clear plastic bottles. Everything in and out of fuel bottles gets filtered via my coleman filter funnel. The Dragonfly is a much better stove including the fact that the jets seem harder and more resilient and you can't squash the shaker jet as you can on the XGK if you don't hold the stove upside down while screwing the jet back into the stove. We will see. I almost want to ruin a second filter just to confirm or hopefully otherwise whether this was just a filter made broken or whether it is just very easy to clog.
I've had and used an XGK since the early 1980s for winter mountaineering, and also on long backpacking trips where resupply of specialty stove fuel was not to be expected and so relied on automobile gasoline. I've never had a problem with that stove, or with any other of the XGK family I've acquired since. I do periodic maintenance/cleaning (sometimes during trips), and certainly did while using the auto gas and after the few times I've used kerosene. What I haven't done is to purposely use crap fuels and mixtures. I might do so in an emergency, but then I would expect to do more frequent maintenance, and to have to deal with things like clogged fuel filters. The problems described by the OP just don't seem like a mystery to me. ....Arch
The blocked filter was definitely NOT caused by fuel. It is always nice when you can prove to yourself what the cause of something is. In this case I'd done a number of boil tests using different fuels. The diesel test was done about the second day I owned the stove and it was squeaky clean then...diesel was a mystery to me then why it didn't burn anywhere near as hot as I thought. Once I swapped the fuel filter, diesel was better than shellite and close to kerosene in burn power. I got a knife out and took off bits of the blocked filter until flow seemed to be restored. I put the Dragonfly filter I had been using back into the dragonfly and the hacked at filter I put back into the XGK. I did that today and I have kerosene back in as the fuel and ran it a few times. MSR stoves have more manufacturing issues than they should
If I were to burn diesel extensively in the MSR XGK Ex I think an algaecide and some form of fuel polishing with a filter may be needed before use . The source tank of the fuel may be the issue . Abrading the filter as described would indeed take care of the surface of the filter in regards of plugging . I don't have an EX but older shaker jet XGKII . The pumps supplied with this stove had no filter on the line whatsoever and never raised an issue . I have since exchanged all of my older pumps with new factory pumps due to all the documented troubles of pump quality . Jet clogging if it is going to happen is most likely to be caused by generator coking do to the design not sub micro particles in the fuel . Try running your stove without the filter and see if you still have problems I doubt you will . Just My $.02
I can't go back in time and rule fuel out 100% but the fuel was fresh and it was not performing well on diesel right from the start when it burnt OK but boil times...after 14 minutes it didn't push out enough energy to make the kettle whistle. I thought it was just diesel being diesel. Once I changed the filter it works great. I had also cleaned out the fuel container thoroughly before putting diesel in it and I always filter any fuel going into the stove. I've put through a few litres of diesel now with no issues and I'm back on kerosene. Kerosene burns hotter than diesel and takes a bit less priming.
