I actually wouldn't mind getting a reactor just to experiment with, but for $159.95 (REI.com), I can wait. I do see it for $125 at Altrec, but either way, pretty expensive. HJ
Wow! $159? Might as well get one of the other high-end ones like the XGK or Nova or Primus Omnifuel. OR, get a cheaper one and wait the extra 3 minutes, like with my Crux and WalMart aluminum grease pot! sam
Exactly, Sam, exactly. I'd much rather have a Nova for that kind of money. Still, in a year or two, they'll come down, and used ones will come onto the market. HJ
Lance, I took your steps and have demonstrated 'How to work a stove.' Usually you want to perform the following actions outside. I'm doing this inside since it is warmer inside. Second, I trust this stove. Third, it's burning kerosene, which is a lot safer than more volatile fuels such as gasoline or Coleman fuel. Fourth, I trust myself. Fifth, I have a fire extinguisher off camera. 1. Fill with fuel Using my portable fuel supply, I fill the classic Radius 43 with silent burner with kerosene, or paraffin for those on the other side of the pond. Other stoves may require different fuels than kerosene. Check instructions, ask an expert or ask the manufacturer for the fuel to be used. This step is critical, first and foremost in the name of safety. Put the wrong fuel in and you could have a bomb on your hands. Putting gasoline in this stove would be quite hazardous. Secondary to that is the maintenance of the stove and its life. The correct fuel will keep it clean and running for a long time. Use good quality, clean fuel. Once done filling the tank, replace the filler cap. If the cap has a faulty seal, the stove will perform less than optimally or not at all; a seal is required to pressurize the tank. If filler cap is faulty, replace seal or replace the entire cap if possible. Most stove burner performance problems are due to bad filler cap seals. 2. Pressureize fount: All pressurized, liquid fuel stoves require pressure in the tank, which forces fuel out of it and into the burner. The oiled leather pump cup will force air down a tube and through a Non-Return-Valve (NRV), which will allow air to pass one way into the tank and not backward. A faulty NRV, will allow air and fuel to pass back up the pump tube and onto your beautiful red oak table. When the stove is pressurized and the pump handle comes back up or fuel dumps out the pump itself, this is evidence of a faulty NRV. (Note: Some stoves have a positive locking check valve that require a counter-clockwise turn to open the valve, pump air, and then a clock-wise turn to close it. Faulty check-valves will have similar problems.) If the NRV is faulty, do not use the stove at this point, especially when using volatile fuels. Replace NRV and start the steps over. I made sure the flame control valve was shut off so that I didn't spray liquid fuel all over the stove. Spilling fuel everywhere makes starting the stove difficult and also produces unwanted smoke and soot in the area. Other stove types have no flame control valve on the burner so require releasing the tank pressure release valve. What this means is that tank pressurization occurs after the pre-heat process. If you pre-heat with the pressure release valve closed, liquid fuel will spray out the burner and all over the stove. Still other stoves do not have a pump to pressurize the stove and rely on the preheat process to do this. 3. Apply preheat fuel if appropriate: Since this stove uses kerosene, it is required to pre-heat or, the more familiar, prime the stove. Kerosene burners can't prime themselves nor can you use kerosene to prime a stove. It produces way too much smoke and it is difficult to light with a match at room temperature. Other fuels may or may not require this step. Check instructions. There's a spirit cup usually located beneath the burner that is filled completely with meths (other names are methyl alcohol, methylated spirits, denatured alcohol.) One letter shorter and this would be illegal. Meths burn clean, leaving no mess behind after stove gets going. There are pastes that can be used, but they leave residues or ash behind that is a nuisance. Fill the cup completely because it usually takes the entire meths content to prime the burner to required levels. 4. Light match: I didn't have a match, but instead used a Bernzomatic long-reach lighter, which is very reliable. Lighters come in various shapes and sizes, find one that suits your needs. You can use simple matches or windproof lighters, take your pick. 5. Apply match to preheat fuel, or; Using a torch with a long reach makes it easy to light the meths. A match or small lighter gets your hand up close and personal and hairless. These are bit bulky on a backpack trip but are very useful on car campouts and in your garage laboratory. I still take mine on backpacking trips because of the reliability factor. Other similar types have varying degrees of quality. Again, take your pick. The idea is to start the meths on fire. The burner on full pre-heat burn: This literally sets the burner on fire and heats it up. We're trying to get the burner tubes hot enough to vaporize the fuel as it enters in from the tank, which will eventually exit through the burner jet (nipple). If this is the type of stove with no flame control at the burner, close the pressure release valve, and pressurize the tank and then proceed immediately to the next step, while the burner is hot. If your stove has no pump, your tank is now pressurized and you may now quickly proceed to the next step. 6. Open valve, if applicable, to admit fuel to burner; apply lighted match to burner: I used the long-reach lighter to ignite the burner after admitting fuel to the burner. Should produce a nice blue flame. A blue flame is evidence of a complete combustion process. Pat yourself on the back if you've reached this point. If burner is spraying liquid fuel, or burns yellow, and is using kerosene, start the above pre-heat steps all over until you get a blue flame. Other stoves with different fuels will behave differently, so consult the manual for proper operation. Since some stoves do not require a manual pre-heat process, the flame will probably burn yellow at first and eventually turn the desired blue. 7. Add pressure to fount if necessary. Didn't need to for this exercise, but may be required for yours, while other stoves require starting the process over. I would further pressurize the tank to produce more flames. A lot of times, the tank isn't pressurized enough during step 2 above and will require extra pressure to operate the burner at maximum throughput. And still other types of stoves will require pressurization since there are is no pressure to begin with after priming. Add pressure as needed. 8. Cook meal. This is the goal of the whole operation. I'm warming up some oil to cook an egg. I lowered the burner to a low simmer so that I would not burn the cooking food. Some stoves don't allow simmering and only produce a high-heat flame. Other stoves require a release of tank pressure to lower the burn rate. Here's the egg cooking: With the excellent simmering capability of the Radius 43, the delicate operation of frying an egg occurred with simplicity. As an added step, turn the stove off when done. This may require turning the flame control to the off position, while other stoves require releasing the tank pressure to reduce and eventually put out the flame. Once cooled down and no flames are present, slowly open filler cap to release tank pressure on those stoves that hold pressure in the off position. Replace filler cap. Back at ya Lance! sam
Excellent work Sam!!! I want breakfast now! You also made that 500 in the pictures look "small" Nice work! Cheers, Jeff
I've just had my bacon & eggs for breackfast! Sam, very nice pictorial! But you forgot to mention something my friend, "fifth, ...fire extinguisher..." should be followed by:"and sixth, I've used a rock steady, build like a tank, undestructable etc. platform to do the test on" ! Regards, Wim (for those that scratch their hair, not knowing what I mean, it's a N°3 underneath Sam's Radius.)
So it would seem i have it correct, as making a stove perform work is what it is all about. And as it is working (cooking your egg) thus you have confirmed my synopsis of the way backpacking stoves work. Thank you. Being able to shut it off is an added bonus to the workings of a backpacking stove i should think. Or one can do the popcan cycle and just allow the fuel to burn away, which would be a waste of fuel in the larger fount stoves. Unless, of course, one was to know exactly or nearly so just how much fuel one needed to perform the cooking chores of ones meal. lance
I've enjoyed the insights into flame propagation and combustion theory. Now, back to basics, what's inherently wrong with the application of those principles in that Coleman military spec lantern with the quadrant globe, which I believe is a model with a notoriously poor light output? (Fine looking lantern though). John
Hi John, glad you commented on the lantern. Yes, upon receiving this lantern and all of the others I have like it (Coleman 252 Military) none of them have worked properly upon arrival, even new looking lanterns. The design flaw is the generator and the fact there is no nipple cleaner as can be found in just about every other lantern. The generator on this model contains a cotton filling that is easily caramelized upon use, especially with petrol/gasoline (I use coleman fuel). It can be fixed easily by removing the cotton filling, as it is usually a cotton mop string stuffed in there, replace with new cotton mop string and you are off to the races. The cotton filling serves several purposes: one it acts as a wick to draw fuel up into the generator, two it disperses the fuel to vaporize easier than if it were solid liquid in the generator and three it acts as a filter for dirty fuel, since there is no nipple cleaner in this model. Another design flaw is the nipple aperture. Since there is no cleaning needle, the aperture is very small and can clog very easily. I go through much pain to keep the generator clean after replacing the cotton filling. Even microscopic debris can clog it. I pump the fount full of pressure and allow fuel to flow freely with out the nipple in place to clean out the generator and then replace the nipple. Works every time. These lanterns are very delicate and not easy to maintain but once they are up to snuff, they work really well. They are able to produce a bright light and can last 10 hours or more on a single pumping and topped off with fuel (Coleman). The pictures below show the lantern in action. As has been quoted, a government committee is the worst way to design something, especially something that has to be used in military combat conditions. Ok, so here is the lantern in action: Here it is on my deck... Here it is after burning all night long, still burning bright, but then the daylight is washing it out...
Yes, Thanks Wim!!! The N°3 is a great platform to do cooking on! Shows its versatility. I'm sure the military used the N°3s to do bomb testing on too!!!
That was a really excellent tutorial on the mil-spec Coleman lantern, Sam, and something that'll go in my folder of saved favourite posts as a guide to getting it running well when I eventually lay my hands on one! Much appreciated, John
Bravo! Excellent "how to use a stove" write up, Sam. On item #3, perhaps (see what you think) a slight correction. Meths usually refers to ethyl alcohol (aka "ethanol") with a dash of methyl alcohol (aka "methanol") thrown in. Meths is also referred to as "Methylated Spirts" since, when you throw in the dash of methyl alchol you are "methylating" the spirits, spirits being another name for ethyl alcohol. The reason the adding the methyl alcohol is to "denature" the alcohol, that is to render it undrinkable. Methyl alcohol makes an excellent denaturing agent since its characteristics are similar to those of ethyl alcohol; adding a small percentage of methyl alcohol to ethyl alcohol doesn't ruin it's burning, thinning, or cleaning properties. In the US, unfortunately, denatured alcohol isn't just ethanol with a dash of methanol. Instead, in the US, just about anything, including nasty Methyl Ethyl Ketone is used. There are little or no regulations governing denatured alcohol in the US. Some denatured "alcohol" is actually less than 50% ethanol. Pretty minor distinction I realize, but for what it's worth, there you have it. HJ
HJ, Thanks for the correction and elaboration. It will definitely help people decide and/or identify what priming fuel to use by your explanation. Some new stovie should be able to look at a store shelf, read the labeling, find one or more words that you've listed in your description, and purchase a correct priming fuel. Probably don't want to use rubbing alcohol since, when burned, it creates black soot. I'm sure there are others that are NOT preferable and others that are. What you've brought up is a slight correction but a really important one that will help much, especially where safety and cleanliness are concerned. As for the basic 8 step program above, what I was referring to is what people generally call that part of the process: priming with meths. In my own little world, it means using some form of clean burning alcohol to prime the stove. Whether it is methyl or ethyl that all depends on what side of the world you are riding on and what you decide to purchase or what you have access to. To add to that, I've heard and read where people use the terms you and I listed to describe the use of alcohol in the priming process interchangeably with the generic term 'meths' or others. Example: 'prime with meths' and you see a can of denatured in the background or a can of Heet or a bottle of methylated spirits, etc. What it boils down to is nomenclature for the process as opposed to technical descriptions of what is used. My goal above was to describe alcohol usage vs. paste and attempt to describe the process. If you can tell, I like alcohol better than paste. Paste always leave something behind, which I don't like to clean up afterward, sometimes it even gets into the burner and slightly disrupts the flame. I also like using the word 'meths' because I believe that people on both sides of the pond understand that term more universally on this list. As for the technical information, thank you. More corrections and/or additions are welcome, sam
