I just acquired a 2016 Whisperlite International with the flat stamped stainless legs. The first of this style I have used. The legs are wider, taller, and hold bigger pots better then the wire leg models in my fleet. When priming, the leg adjacent to the fuel line can allow priming fuel to run down it, and catch fire when the priming is lit. (The fuel line is held by a hook in the stamped leg.) This looks at first like a fuel line leak burning at the the join of the fuel line. Slightly alarming. Cured by carefully squirting priming fuel on the open side of the cup, not under the fuel line, so it does not run down the leg. This could over time, subject the brass coated rubber fuel line to direct flame, which is not a good thing. A failure waiting to happen if one is not careful. So be careful when priming not to allow it. I noticed that the cap holding the burner rings is fastened by a screw with a hex key socket. This is the first msr stove I have seen that does not use a Phillips head screw to hold the cap. The parts kits sold for these stoves do not include a hex key, leaving them not complete, and the stoves not fully serviceable absent an hex key. Translating my Canadian logger language first impression of this oversight, to more polite language, WTF MSR! This is beyond stupid for a stove sold as user serviceable for backcountry use, and could leave the unwary and inexperienced in a bad place. I will change this to a Phillips screw before I use use it in a serious location. In my case, one of my hex keys that fits scope rings works. By dumb luck, not by MSR planning. Both jets supplied with this stove, the g and k, have a U prefix, indicating they work in the Universal model. They work fine, just a bit confusing.
I only got a wire legged beast but ended up brazing an old classic primer cup under the little one they give you like someone else done here. Makes a better prime for kerosene and I don’t have to find steel wool or use tea bag leaves or little bits of paper with cupped hands hoping the generator gets hot enough to start and not flare up. You can have a whinge about that too if it’s supposed to burn shitty kero or such. Just saying
Thanks barabruce. I have never tried lighting a little fire under the stove to prime it. That is a good idea to remember. Which larger cup did you use for your mod? Where I live my stoves get used all year round, including cold and snowy winter conditions. Places and distances where stoves are critical gear and have to work.Everything I take gets a thorough working over so I can find potential problems and prevent them. Standardizing parts among stoves is part of this. I prefer swearing at stuff in my shop to swearing at gear out in the bush that doesn’t work. Anything new gets looked at and tried out hard. The other interesting thing is watching the kind of messes my guests can cause if I let them run stoves unsupervised. I have had them melt plastic things into the burners, like bags, tarp corners and clothing. Not to mention food like oatmeal, soup, and spaghetti sauce. I have no idea how they do it. That means I need to be able to take burners apart to clean them too often. A trick for using shitty kerosene, which is often chosen because it is cheaper and safer than white gas in some jobs, is to mix 25 per cent white gas into the kerosene. It primes more easily, and doesn’t gunk up the stove as fast as pure kero. The amount in the blend isn’t critical, but I find 25 per cent to be economical. I use methyl hydrate in squirt bottle to prime kero to keep the mess down.
I just done this. Probably pascal or someone done it. I didn’t put the wick in and the air control valve indicates I’m not using kerosene. You can see the copper Handi primer cup and std one full of metho. Straight metho and not watered down. I put the pot on and by the time the prime had burnt the water for my cuppa tea was nearly hot enough. If I use a wick wrapped around the vape tube and such…… Just hate cold start flare ups. It works well even when it’s blowing the dogs off the chains and raining. Cold….I don’t do cold. ‘I was using the upturned base of a coke can. But you have to source all these things when you need them. Your needs and mileage may very.
I like that mod. Sometimes when it is really cold the small standard cup doesn’t hold enough methyl to prime it first time. I have to fill it a second time. A big cup solves that problem
I’ve never worried about soot on my WL, let some fuel into the preheat cup, work the valve if needed for more fuel, open valve fully when there is a blue flame. Used in subzero (F) temps. Duane
Thanks Duane. I noticed this stove needing lots more priming, whether white gas or methyl, when I started using it in very cold conditions, and very cold and humid places. Anything from 15c or colder. On a salt water beach where it is very cold is the hardest.
1st prime, open valve enough to have flame. Flame continues to prime. Open valve more as flame increases. Or after 1st prime dribble fuel into spirit dish. 2nd prime.
