Hi there stove-fans. I've had another test burn on my Opti-111t and made a double helping of porridge in my old army mess-tin. My understanding is that with these pressurised "wickless" stoves, we should be aiming for an ideal fuel-air mix, and the signs this has been achieved are a light blue flame and no soot-production. The term that springs to mind from my A-Level Chemistry course is "Stochiometric" - is that right? What you see here, halfway along the top edge of the tin in this picture, is an unusual soot spot. It's unusual as the tin went on clean, and the location is well to the side of the area directly above the burner unit. Is this a sign my jet/nipple is sending it's stream of vaporized paraffin off centre? Is it a sign I have an obstruction in the way of the burner unit? The soot spot is not far from the location to the spindle-knob. And not far from the loop of paperclip wire I use to hold the silent burner cap down. Annoyingly neither is actually directly under this soot spot! Is this a sign that I need to "man-up" and stop worrying about trivia? (Probably, yes!) Any thoughts? BTW the ring of tiny flames coming out of the silent burner was clear-blue throughout my cooking.
As you said yourself Smiffy, stop worrying! We've seen worse than that! (but if you really want to know whether the cap is to blame, turn her around 180° and make yourself some more porridge... ) Best regards, Wim
One little thing. If the sooty spot bothers you,(they do me) it can be wiped off with a small amount of naptha (panel wipe, coleman fuel, et-al) on the corner of a bit of cotton cloth. In the long-ago when I was hiking in the mountains and camping a great deal I did almost all my cooking over an open fire so all my camp pots were black on the outside with carbon and soot. I left it there as my contention is that the blacking thus achieved helped absorb heat from the fire and from the stove when I used one. Now that I'm old and decrepit and my stoves and cook pots are all shelf queens, I've removed the soot with Coleman Fuel on a soft cloth. Nothing to be done about the dents and scratches, though. Especially those on the cooking gear. Gerry
This tells me that a possible cause is a small leak around the spindle. Look for a smal yellow flame where the control spindle enters the burner. This can in most cases be cured by carefully tightening the pack box nut until the flame disappears. If that isn't enough you may need a new graphite packing.
Thanks Aktopp, Is there anyone in our stove "brotherhood" selling the necessary graphite material? Knowing my luck I'll damage the existing packing investigating the situation. Smiffy
