hi all: since joining this wonderful forum i have learned a lot about "classic" stoves. however a question i have had for many years is still unanswered. initially i grew up car/tent camping with my parents and we used the suitcase style stoves. in my teens i started backpacking and tried to switch to a "classic" style light weight stove. i later spent over ten years on ski patrol search and rescue and also with the local sheriffs dept.search and rescue. this was in north central washington state in mountainous areas in heavy rain, wind snow and sub 0 temps. over about 15 years and countless backpacking trips in "extreme" adverse conditions. i never was able to cook well with a "classic" stove be it optimus,svea,primus and other similar stoves. i tried both pressurized and non. kerosene, alcohol etc with poor results. i finally got tired of cold food and switched to a ww11 coleman military stove and no matter what the weather had no more trouble.( i was given this stove by a world war two veteran who used it through the war and told me i would have no trouble with it no matter the conditions; he was right. unfortunately this stove slipped through the cracks many years ago, i wish i still had it.) i have been told through the years that i must have been using the "classic" stoves incorrectly. (in good weather i have had all these stoves work well). please tell me what was i doing wrong? do keep in mind these experiences were in "extreme" weather conditions and in many cases any sort of wind break or shelter from heavy rain or snow was not possible. thanks mike...
I wouldn't even think of using a classic in those conditions! I predominantly use a Trangia 27 in winter. It sucks up the bad weather. On longer winter trips I use a MSR GK but always have the shelter of the tent or snowhole for cooking at the ends of the day - a flask is made up for lunch.
hi, thanks for the info. the time period i spoke of was mid 60's through late 70's . was there a stove available at that time besides the coleman that could have met my needs? mike...
+1 When you have to absolutely, positively boil every noodle in the room... accept no substitutes... Check this out!!!
Not that I have any right or insight to dipute what's in the manual,....but I wonder how a two burner stove with more parts, pieces, etc, could be more reliable than the 111s? Makes me curious as to what and where the failures are.
In my personal experience, 111B stove suffered from hardened rubber gasket on the fuel cap abd the non-return valve, worn-out leather or O-ring seal on the pump rod. Other than the aspects I described, that I have never seen a malfunction--except 111C, which was brand-new, unfired, whose spindle broke at the virgin attempt to fire up. It siezed, and I broke it, trying to turn. I do not own a kero-burning 111 stove. As for the Coleman suitcase (425F), the only problem I had was the carbon-build up in the generator after 24 years of trouble free service. The original leather was still good, when I sold it (which lead to the seller's remorse, and ended up buying a few other suitcase stoves, including three burner models, which is wholely another story), because it was now too dented after moving too many times. Yes, I took care of it, so I never put a dent on it, while used it. Those movers! Other than these, I have never had problems.
hi all: the coleman military ww11 stove that i had used in the previously mentioned extreme conditions without any problems was a coleman 520. (i had forgotten the model number but just found one in the wonderful stove reference gallery) it is listed under america / military. mike... p.s.(one of the stoves i tried unsuccessfully looked like the optimus 111 mentioned in this post, it was definitely an optimus but i don't remember model number so can't say for sure if it was a 111, the time period was about 1968.) ( now days my camping is limited to car/tent camping so i primarily use suitcases stoves,(the 1926 3 burner clayton&lambert is my primary user however on occasion with a smaller group (me and "charlie" my dog, i use colemans first stove my 1923 coleman #1. both stoves are pictured on this forum.) although i did have a huge collection years ago. today these two are my only stoves. mike...
I have had little experience with stoves other than Coleman to this point (that will change), and my Colemans have always worked pretty well in cooler weather for me fwiw, BUT, if I may say... ...the Field Manual is interesting reading! Looking at the intro pages, it is apparently the '...6th edition (2001-02 field season) of the Field Manual', so it is relatively recent. The stove would be in Barrel 2 (of 3) of the Palmer Station Survival Cache, according to Appendix G of the manual (just in case you need to know!). bark2much wrote:"...ended up buying a few other suitcase stoves, including three burner models, which is wholely another story..." A story you must tell, please! MichaelR [|*|]
eskerlakes, it is not much of a story. When you sell a stove that you realize later that you should not have, then you tend to buy more than you need, dictated by the psychological need of compensation: You end up buying 3 or 4 of the kind you parted with. In my case, it turned out to be over a dozen. NO ONE needs more than a dozen Coleman suitcases! Nope, no more than a dozen. I give, however, that one needs at least a dozen. They are neatly stored in the garage. One thing about the stove collection is the satisfaction you get, when you look at the used "junks (according to my domestic boss, SWMBO)" occupying the shelves rather neatly (to me they do look neat, at least). Another thing is this tremendous desire to stack these green suitcases in the garage or any other suitabel spaces. If you find an empty space, you just want to fill it with a stove... Does anyone suffer from this symptom? I think its scientific name is Holophobia. The fear of a hole. You have to get rid of it. It is well documented, unwittingly, by a few members, when they carelessly revealed with pictures how their inner garage ambience looks like. Anyway, 425F was replaced, then, after a 425E was added, 425 and 425B followed the suit. Who could resist those cylindrical fuel tanks? Of course, you have to see how those dual fuel jobbies work. So get one of those 422s. Hmm. These new Colemans don't feel as good as the old ones. Okay, no more new ones. Hey, what about those larger-bodied 413s? Of course, just to be democratic and politically correct, I allowed diversity and pluralism in my collection. So I have 2 413Ds. Well you have to have other earlier models, just to be metrostovial. You can be a stovie, but you cannot be a stovist, can you? So you add other lettered models. Well, what do you have against three-burner models, you ask yourself, after having all these two-burner suitcases. Does the three burner size intimidate me? Heck, No! Am I a stovist? I'm no stovist! So you add three burner specimen. Who needs three 3-burner Coleman suitcases? I do. I have to fill that hole on the shelf. And why do I ogle other three burner stoves, when they show up on eBay? I do not know. Maybe I need more shelves. That is my story.
Coleman two burners breed like rabbits. You buy one, then two and before you realize it you have a sizable stack. 3 burners breed as well, only more slowly.
Stoves in general breed like rabbits. And they are totaly indiscriminate as to what they breed with. I've never seen the ones in my collection ingaging in intimate contact but i'm fairly sure they do it when i have turned out the lights in the basement. I learned to leave the night light on and this seems to have stopped any intense intimate contact between the various breeds, and makes and models. lance
Yes, although not a cure in itself, this will offer some slight relief from the suffering. I wish you well.
Hahahahaha, it,s all sooooooo true. Stoves breed. It,s been a busy week, scored an Optimus8R at a 2nd hand shop Also (thanks Yellowdog)a 1943 Primus #5 and an Optimus 8 which will be fun to work on. This wasnt enough alas, as I happened to be in a tramping (thats hiking in NZ English) shop and saw the Primus Omni fuel and Eta pots. 5 seconds later, I was out the door with them. That is my best combination at the present for any outdoor mish. Bloody amazing. It supposedly burns almost anything, and Ive tried kero, white spirits and meths, although I didnt know which nipple would be best. any ideas??? ThosePrimus Eta pots look great too. they are much more fuel/heat efficient. I boiled 1.8 liters of water outside in the wind in 10 minutes. As for classic stoves, Im all in on Sveas. Mine has done some extreme missions, and never let me down.
Many years ago, I wrote to Primus, and I was advised that Omni is not designed to burn alcohol. I drilled the jet progressively with larger diameter bits, and tried out. The result is that Omni burns for a while, and then call it quits. There is just too much air supplied to the burner as the design stands. Ian, I think, experimented with Omni or Nova by wrapping alu foil around the burner bell, and successfully burned alcohol in it. There is a link, if you care to search.
