Prabhat, India. Garrett-Wade sales.

Many thanks to you who have earlier posted leather pump cup conditioning suggestions. Despite this little Prabhat stove (newly bought) arriving with bone-dry, stiff as a board leather, the conditioning worked and it fired up first try.

Now I need to chase down a kerosene weep from the riser tube/tank junction.

And I'm amused that one face of the air bleed screw face reads "Primus." Prabhat was licensed by Primus at one time, I read.

 

John, welcome to the site. It looks like you have a case of stovepox starting already. unavoidable so don't fight it. Your good pics are always appreciated.
Ivan

 

Now you need to get out and enjoy field testing your new stove (before your next one arrives).

 

"Stovepox." Yes. Exactly.

 

'twill be canoe-camping in the Adirondacks, likely Forked Lake campground, for first field use.

 

remember the camera, in a dry bag of course.
Ivan

 

"Kerosene weep from riser/tank junction" - yep, I had the same problem. No amount of tightening the tube would solve it.

Sent it back to Garrett Wade.

Tom

 

@John Paul Appleyard Green

You have got yourselves a fine traditional paraffin stove there. As far as I know Prabhat is the best made these days after Manaslu. I was gifted the exact same stove about fifteen years ago. We used it as the water heating stove, while living in the boathouse and building our holiday home; this was the Summer of 2002.

I remember having the same leakage and I managed to fix it to it would seal just finger tightening. But I cannot remember exactly how I did that – or more precisely, what was wrong. This must be a traditional lead seal, so then it should be about making the sealing surfaces do just that – seal. In general this means straightening off (and removing eventual nicks) very carefully with a fine file or equal. The lead if not too happy about over tightening so a new one might be in place as a part of this process.

While writing and thinking a bit more I think straightening was the key, because I seem to remember a red marker. If so I used the marker to see what part of the riser touched the lead first when screwing down onto the tank. Another way of saying it, the sealing surfaces need to have the exact same distance between them when the riser is in the threads going down. If a part of the riser tube hangs lower it will seal poorly.

I hope this makes sense to you. And there are still some old traditional stoves out there waiting for rescue…

All the best, e

 

Mr. Tofta, that certainly makes sense and will be of guidance to me as I go about chasing down this fix. The stove came with two washers installed, which seems odd to me. I'm thinking that I could possibly smooth the bottom of the riser with a random orbital sander. Although holding it dead-on-balls flat against the face could be difficult. Red marker seems the better approach, and perhaps fine sandpaper taped to glass. 'Twould also be a decent surface for smoothing out the washers. Is there too much heat at this point to use O-rings? Hmm. More thinking to be done...

 

That and the fact that the material distorts and creates a leak. A lead washer and a wrench to tighten up the joint is a tradition born out of practicality and reliabilty for a seal made and un-made each time the stove is assembled and put away.

Two washers you say? Lead washers or fibre ones? Two lead washers would be crushed into one mass remaining in the burner mounting biss and wouldn't remain distinctly two once the joint was torqued up.

John

 

@presscall "Two washers you say? Lead washers or fibre ones? Two lead washers would be crushed into one mass remaining in the burner mounting biss and wouldn't remain distinctly two once the joint was torqued up"

I disagree, since I also found two lead washers in my Prabhat and no amount of torquing (I used a large wrench and as much leverage as I dared) would stop the weeping, and when I removed them they were two washers barely stuck together.

I tried flattening them and using one only; I flattened the base of the riser tube and smoothed out a small nick with fine sandpaper and a flat surface, all to no avail. Still weeped.

Sent it back to Garrett Wade.

Tom

 

Fair enough Tom.

 

Mine will go back to Garrett-Wade as well. I found there were three lead washers at the juncture. I sanded with fine grit, sanded the base of the riser tube, reduced the number of washers to two. With sufficient torque the six (6!) seal surfaces did hold and the weep was ended.

Then while replacing the plug on the riser tube outlet the threads (on the plug, I guess, as the tube could tighten) failed. They were not competent to closely match the female threads on the base. I've had this problem with other brass things from India. There must be large bins of parts, and little attention to compatibility. And so one gets this mismatch during the run of the mill, perhaps as cutting surfaces degrade.

Anyhow, these things, together with the fact of the riser being a couple of degrees off vertical, leaving the burner out of concentric with the plate, motivate me to make the return.

Any suggestions re. good, new pressure stove? Does Coleman make anything that burns kerosene?

ACH, fie!

 

Better a good old one. Coleman Solus is kerosene fuelled.

 

"Any suggestions re. good, new pressure stove? Does Coleman make anything that burns kerosene?"

Hi John Paul,
Enjoyed the discussion you have brought here. Manaslu makes good stoves but they are pricey and hard to find. There also a Coleman product that can be made to burn kerosene (550B), but it does not have the same apeal as the brass stoves you seem to have an eye on.

The folks here are likely to try to convince you to consider a "classic" Optimus, Primus or other good make. It is pretty clear you would appreaciate one of those and have no trouble doing the little work that might be required to get it running right. Also, for camping, if you take a look at the likes of an Optimus 00, you will see it is a better "camping" stove than the Indian stove you are currently working with. Another favorite kerosene camping stove, although a different style, around here is the Optimus 111 or 111T.

 

Itchy, I appreciate your reply. I am indeed captivated by shiny brass things that work. And will continue to read and write here.

I went ahead and ordered a Coleman Exponent - comes with a kerosene adapter and looks about right for our needs. It's not brass and not pretty but it will work, and it will burn kerosene. The safety of kerosene means much to me.

 

St Paul Mercantile has the Butterfly kero pressure stoves, #2412, seems to be of a better ilk then what comes out of India, and a Shinabro is a good stove, in my book, if NIB is what you're looking for. A&H Enterprises has the Liberty kero stoves as well, #1, 2, and 3, sized accordingly.

The idea of quality control in India is non-existant, I bought a Rekord-1 kero stove with a Gold Mohar burner in it, the threads on the burner were for crap, got a much better burner at first chance.

A few years back, there was a surplus of Monitor C11 MoD kero stoves on the market NIB, and at a decent price, so I snagged one of them before there were none to be had. You had to make your own windshield for the burner, but other than that, they were cracking good stoves right out of the gate!

Get one of those, and you'll be set for life!

Murph

 

I would have to recommend a "classic" stove as a first choice. I think Coleman stoves are fine, reliable stoves, but look to a Swedish brass stove. Easy to use, easy to fix, and well made. If you shop a little they can be had here in the US at a reasonable price. Optimus 00, Primus 210, etc. are a nice size to hike or paddle with. Good hunting and enjoy your new Coleman (not the last stove you will buy, I'll wager)
Ivan

 

@IvanN - Thank you so much for your advice. I'm likely to buy both, you know.

As I've said, "I like functional shiny brass things."

 

Ya, presscall, didn't mean to step on a reply from one who is really knowledgeable, just writing from personal experience. Thanks so much for your wisdom in your posts.

Tom