Monday 10 November 2008

Stove Decisions

Since I melted my home-made windscreen on the last trip, I’ve coerced myself into thinking about what stove to take on the next trip. That being a return to Wasdale Head in the Lakes to finish what Paul and I started last time, but couldn’t finish.

It was particularly cold and windy on Yewbarrow that night and my windscreen blew in on the stove and melted whilst I was admiring the sunset. This gave way to the negative vibes about taking a canister stove over my trusty (and much loved) alcohol stoves and I vowed to have a think about what to do for next time.

When I do these trips with Paul, I don’t feel taking the alcohol stoves is appropriate most of the time as Paul takes nothing other than his one trick Jetboil which means he’s packing up and ready to rejoin the trail just as my water is starting to boil. However, I’m going to be doing a few more solo trips over the winter and I’ve decided that nothing other than an alcohol stove such as the Isofly or Blackfly 3 will make it into my pack.

This aside I have an outstanding issue then with the windscreen so I need to work out a more durable, lightweight and packable windscreen for my F1 Lite gas stove. Research required me thinks.

15 comments:

baz carter said...

What was the wind shield made from?

Marcus said...

Hi Baz,

Just made from leftovers of the pot cosy material from BPL. Knew it was prone to melting if put too close to the heat but up to that point had been perfect. I have an idea I'm going to try tonight with just some thick aluminium foil and some overlapping cuts/folds that will hook over the Mytimug handles. If it works it should be just the job as its integrated into the cook set so can't blow over.

baz carter said...

Be careful with windshields and gas stoves. If the windshield is too close it could cause the stove to expolde by overheating the cartridge!

I made one out of an Optimus wiindshield kit picked up from Costworlds. BPL do a range of products that also suit (and which are lighter).

Marcus said...

Yes, I've heard some horror stories!
My idea should be ok as it will provide enough air flow in and out of the stove and hopefully won't trap the heated air around the canister as such. My test will soon reveal if I'm right or wrong......KABOOM!

Anonymous said...

I put a couple of pics of my windshield on LFTO a couple of months ago. Basically it's just a thick aluminium foil that wraps round about 3/4 of the circ of the pot.

I made it so it wraps round my pot and doesn't take up too much space. To use I unfold it to full height, which is about 8" and then tweak it back into shape.

To prevent heat getting to the canister I also have a flat disc of aluminium (traced round a 250g canister) with a hole in the middle that fits on the canister before screwing on the F1. I got this tip from BPL.com, there are a number of articles on gas stove shields there (subscription needed), basically the recommendation is to not let the canister get too hot to touch, this heat reflector seems to acheive this ok.

Marcus said...

Hi Shuttleworth. I've seen the reflector your talking about and its not a bad idea and easy to make. Have you got the link to your pics on LFTO?

Anonymous said...

I couldn't find them, I'll post them again on Flickr tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Pictures on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shuttleworth68/sets/72157608972055541/

More to follow!!

Marcus said...

Hi shuttleworth

Thanks for the pics. This is just as I have seen done before.

Today though did see a German chap who mounted an aluminium plate on a flange on his stove - beneath the burner head. This then supported a simple aluminium screen and the net result was a windscreen that only targetted the flame area of the stove.

I tested my idea with 'spare parts' and I think I need to make few tweeks. Whilst the canister doesn't get hot after prologned use(even after indoor use) the close proximity of the aluminium screen results in degradation of the screen material. What I will try is a wider screen with more clearance and flared ends to vent the heat between the stove head and the bottom of the pot. I think this will work. Still tempted by the first option though! Must get the link for tomorrow.

baz carter said...

I'm following this with interest.

Anonymous said...

I saw something on BPL similar to what you saw.
A foil pie tray that had 3 slots for the burner arms and a circular hole for the burner head cut in it. This was dropped over the top of the stove, supporting itself where it came in contact with the stove arms (below the flame height) The rim of the pie tray is used to locate the top of the windshield, which is a second sheet of foil that is wrapped in a tube and sat on top.

Hope this makes some sense!!

baz carter said...

It does indeed - clever idea. I had a look at the flickr photies too.

Give me something to do on these long winter evening.

Marcus said...

That sounds very similar to what I saw and the concept is pretty sound. My F1 lite could do this and I'm going to order some different thickness's of ali sheets to test the idea. The ideal thickness would be enough so that it could sit on the threaded section where the burner separates from the rest of the stove body and yet be thick enough to remian rigid yet packable. I was thinking that 1.2mm would do the trick but 0.8 might also be enough. Keep you guys posted.

Anonymous said...

I just posted some related comments on Darrens blog about using the new bpl.co.uk honey stove as a gas stove windshield:

http://whitespider1066.com/?p=2484#comment-4169

the mad fisherman said...
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