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Montgomery Kettle (now the Backcountry Boiler)
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Home › Forums › Commerce › Gear Deals › Montgomery Kettle (now the Backcountry Boiler)
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Dec 4, 2010 at 2:15 pm #1670823
A wonderfully designed boiler made by one of our own. Exciting!
Feb 5, 2011 at 3:15 am #1692729What about a gasifier kettle? Tos save even more fuel?
Feb 5, 2011 at 5:01 am #1692736Somehow, I must have missed the posts before this. I'm glad the site didn't implode. And thanks for the kind words, Jeff!
I think you just blew my mind, Alan. :) I haven't run any tests to determine how complete the combustion is with the Boiler. It's kind of a chaotic system in there and conditions change based on the state of the fuel used as well how densely packed it is in the chimney. On one hand, you can break up some twigs very small and batch load it like is done with gasifiers, on the other, you can also break them up into larger pieces and add them as you go – that flexibility is something I think is a real advantage.
But getting back to your point, more complete combustion would increase efficiency, so would doing something like making the chimney another several inches taller. The latter would actually both aid in combustion by increasing the internal draft as well as catching more of the exhaust heat.
In the tests I did perform, though, I found that it took just about 2 oz (a decent-sized handful) to boil 20 oz (so a bit less for the now-recommended 16). The thing to remember about wood stoves is that since you don't have to carry the fuel, it's environmental impact rather than pack weight that drives you towards efficiency. Given how small this already impact is, and that almost any measure to increase efficiency would add weight or complexity, I went the way I did.
But would I like to see a gasifier kettle? Heck yes. I bet you could just toss the kettle on top of a Bushbuddy…
Feb 12, 2011 at 12:44 am #1695715Is the outside of the water vessel double walled?
Feb 12, 2011 at 3:10 pm #1695934It's kinda double wall in that the water is held by an outside wall and an inside wall. But I think you are asking if the outside wall itself is double wall, in which case it's just single wall. The neoprene cozy allows you to pick it up when water is boiling and probably helps reduce heat loss to some extent. If you google "chimney kettle" and look at the images you can see the basic layout.
Feb 13, 2011 at 3:57 pm #1696247Like:
Outside air:Neoprene:Metal:Air Gap:Metal:WaterDoes that make sense?
Feb 13, 2011 at 4:31 pm #1696263Ourtside air : Neoprene : Metal : Water (or air if the water is low) : Metal : Air (burn chamber)
Jun 10, 2011 at 11:33 am #1747517Nine hours to go! Good luck Devin.
Jun 10, 2011 at 1:56 pm #1747555Thanks, Steve! I hope you and some of the other really early guys know that if you hadn't been there to say "yeah, that's cool," this probably wouldn't have gotten past the aluminum bottle stage.
Oh, and it is soooo close to 60K! It's not even about the small number of extra sales it takes to get there. I just want a nice round number. :)
Jun 10, 2011 at 5:35 pm #1747623Glad I saw this thread in time! Very inspiring to see the progression of your idea. Had to order the Signature model to do my part to get you up to that 60k mark. Good luck!
Jun 11, 2011 at 5:12 am #1747777$60,642…amazing.
Devin came to my house the day (or maybe day after? can't recall now) he posted his project on kickstarter and I was blown away that he was at ~9K, you can imagine how impressive this is now…something tells me you're gonna be quite busy over the next little while!
Good luck man, and a big congratulations.
Jun 11, 2011 at 8:07 am #1747821Thanks Steve! How wild is that? I will have my work cut out for me over the next several weeks. Dinner's on me next time I'm up there. :)
Jun 12, 2011 at 7:33 pm #1748387missed out due to lack of funds. when will these be for sale again? looks great!
Jun 13, 2011 at 4:53 am #1748471I'd like to get one of these as well…………
Al
Jun 13, 2011 at 5:48 am #1748482+1 on wishing I had the funds at the time to get one of these. (stupid unexpected moving expenses) I even did the math and when used aa a canteen it would've only been about a 1-2oz weight penalty over my current alchohol stove + trapper mug set up.
Just have to wait till they're available in stores, I guess.
Jun 13, 2011 at 6:18 am #1748492Hey guys – thanks for the interest!
So part of what the Kickstarter funding will allow me to do is have an inventory for the first time (sweet!), and there won't be all this waiting around for the Boilers in the future.
For those who want get one right after the Kickstarter backers do, I'll be setting up the ability to pre-order one through my website (www.theboilerwerks.com) in the near future. I'll throw in free shipping or something like that for those who want to pre-order, but they'll also be available once they come in.
Edit: And just because I can't help myself – Once you throw in the weight of fuel for a few days, Jim, it should save you weight. And be more fun. :)
Jun 13, 2011 at 7:46 am #1748515don't need another stove, don't need another stove, don't need another stove…..oh, poo that thing is just too cool….. I will also be keeping a lookout for the pre-order option on your website :)
Jun 14, 2011 at 12:49 am #1748926Big congrats Devin!
And remember – biochar is a great natural fertilizer and actually helps new 'wood' to grow where you picked it up from.
Jun 14, 2011 at 1:51 am #1748928If anyone is interested in using alcohol with the Backcountry Kettle…
I is possible that some could benefit from being able to use alcohol hiking through areas where wood is not available or there are fire restrictions in place.So I did a few experiments.
My aim was to boil 500ml consistently with 2/3ds of an ounce of alcohol.
No success so far but I can do it with 1 oz with either the White Box stove (avoiding the huge flame it usually produces without a pot on top) or a very simple soda can stove I made for it.
If anyone is interested , let me know ..
FrancoJun 14, 2011 at 10:17 am #1749065I frequently wind up camping in no-fire zones, so I'm definitely interested… my current plan is to use a Zelph Companion stove with mine (when I get my BCB :)
Jun 14, 2011 at 10:23 am #1749068Have you tried isopropanol? It might be better suited to this boiled because of its slower burn rate. It creates soot, but I can't imagine that'd be an issue in a wood burning stove.
Jun 14, 2011 at 10:48 am #1749076I haven't, so far. I've been using the Crown denatured fuel alcohol that REI carries (largely because it's so inexpensive and easy to get). It does burn pretty hot, and when I put my Companion stove in a Kelly kettle, it produced a flame that reached the pot on TOP of the kettle (and with 3 oz of fuel it still burned for over 20 minutes).
Jun 14, 2011 at 11:10 am #1749088I'm interested as well. One of the things that gave me pause about getting one(before the moving expenses) was that I aspire to camp in places that often don't allow wood burning. For example, you can't burn wood in Desolation Wilderness, so if you were hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail, there be a stretch where you'd have to spend a least 1 night without cooking. Not the end of the world, but not ideal to not be able to use your stove, either.
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