MYOG – A Winter Canister Stove using your Summer Upright Stove and the Brunton Stove Stand

[Ryan Jordan]

Companion forum thread to:

MYOG – A Winter Canister Stove using your Summer Upright Stove and the Brunton Stove Stand

[Roger Caffin]

> is it easy to disassemble the Brunton stove stand if I wanted to try making replacement legs?

Dead easy.
Grab the top and bottom parts of the central cylinder and unscrew.
Reassembly – get the legs in the right order! And include the spring washer.

Cheers

[Rod Lawlor]

Roger, do you know if anyone is stocking these down here?

[Roger Caffin]

Sorry, no idea. Check with Brunton, or do what many do: buy over the web.

Cheers

[nanook ofthenorth]

Great feature Rodger, its cool to see my question from a few months back written up into a full on feature article. Thanks!

[Mitchell Keil]

Rogger:
I know this is off topic but I could not help notice that in the picture of you on Mt Jagungal, you appear to be wearing a packa rain jacket/backpack cover. If I am right perhaps you might share with us your opinion of this unique product. I have been considering buying one but could never find anyone who's opinion I trust who owned one. Thanks for your continuing efforts in the DYI arena.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Mitchell

Yes, the poncho is similar to ThePacka unit, but the design of ours is actually my own. I guess it should be another MYOG article one day.

In addition to wearing them on Mt Jagungal here in Australia, we (my wife and I) wore these ponchos through France for 3 months, in some pretty bad weather. See http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/caffin_gear_list_revisited.html
'Bad weather' included lots of heavy rain and some snow.

However, I think the basic CedarTree Packa design is good, and very versatile. The sole deficiency is that you can't make a shelter out of it – but I much prefer a light tent anyhow.

Cheers

[jas l]

Because it looks same as the one I bought in China few years ago for under $5, at least on photo. Mine was made by an Chinese camping stove brand Huofeng. I guess this Brunton stove stand was either copied or most probably just relabeled of that Chinese product. The only difference is that Chinese version come with an additional pipe/head fitting for long "spray can" butane canister. which allow me to use cheap butane canister in summer, it so cheap you can get pack of four for $1.99 compare to the over $4 for an screw-in canister. I've seen a Hongkong store sell the stand on Ebay for $1.99.
Also Kovea have a similar stove stand.

[Patrick Young]

Roger,

How would stailess steel conduct versus the brass? Where I work we have all kinds of stainless clamps that look like they will fit and lots of stainless sheet also.

Since most of it would be prefabricated it could save me time, but I'm willing to build from brass from scratch.

[Jim Colten]

not Roger here but this gave me an excuse to look for numbers to go with the vague advice I have long heard that stainless steel is a poor heat conductor.

This Source lists stainless's thermal conductivity coefficient as 16 vs 109 for brass. So for one made of brass would conduct about 6.8 times the heat energy as an identical sized piece of stainless.

That is a big diff …. but whether or not stainless would fall short of the NEED would require an actual test.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Patrick

Jim has given you the thermal conductivity numbers (thanks Jim!). What difference it would make in practice … dunno.

EDIT Nov-2008: I doubt the SS would work. Brass is a minimum for the block. Copper is required for the fin.

I think the block of brass probably makes a better contact than a stainless clamp would. Does it matter? Dunno! But brass was easier to machine than SS. :-)

Try it and let us know?

Cheers

[Pat Comer]

I am wondering if all I would need to do to a wind pro stove from mountain safety research would be add the insert in the line. The unit already preheats the fuel tube with the burner and it would seem all one needs to do is "cut back" the liquid fuel coming through the hose and you would be cooking with less muss and fuss than this make over uses???? It is a good fix for on canister top stoves though.

[Michael Davis]

Pat,
My winter stove is an inverted MSR WindPro with no modifications (other than inverting the canister).

Works like a charm!

[Pat Comer]

Thank you! It just all looked like it would work ok. The whisperlite might have to find a new home .

[Steven Evans]

I use an inverted windpro for winter aswell, but when the temps drop really low (-20 ish) it still seems to suffer. Not sure if it is the fuel or if it is just so dang cold that it takes forever to heat the water?!

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Pat

I have used a WindPro with an inverted canister on a multi-day snow trip. The only trouble I had was some sort of gunge build-up at the valve. I do NOT know what caused this, and have never had this trouble with other stoves. I suspect it may have been too much grease around the O-rings – which wouldn't matter when the stove is being used with the canister upright of course.

Actually, the preheat tube on the WindPro is excessive, but the stove is simply a converted SimmerLite.

[Michael Davis]

Steve,

I'll take you word on that! Come to think of it, I don't work so well at -20 either!

[tkkn c]

I did this mod to my hanging jetboil. I need to figure out a better way to hold the fuel inverted, the tape will not work well on a 4 day trip. Also, what is the best way to minimize the flare up that occurs when you first invert the fuel. I got a fire ball the first time I used this, that singed the cozy.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Ken

> what is the best way to minimize the flare up that occurs when you first invert the fuel.
Options:
1) Start very low and let the stove warm up for 15 – 30 seconds.
2) Start with canister upright, and invert after maybe 20 seconds.
But it isn't a really good stove for doing this with anyhow as the thermal feedback is not good.

Reckon a couple of bits of light string might be fine for holding the canister instead of the tape, or even a 'hammock' of fabric off the corners of the hanger.

Cheers

[Rod Lawlor]

Has anyone ever experimented with converting a Simmerlite? I quite like the pot stability, as opposed to a PR on a Brunton, plus I already own a Simmerlite. Would it be viable to rig a block to screw onto a canister and then plug in the Simmerlite fuel line.

Roger wrote

Actually, the preheat tube on the WindPro is excessive, but the stove is simply a converted SimmerLite.

[Roger Caffin]

> Would it be viable to rig a block to screw onto a canister and then plug in the Simmerlite fuel line.
Of course.
The details are left as an exercise for the reader … :-)
(But have a look at Tony B's recent postings.)

You might need a slightly larger jet with the gas.

Cheers

[Matt Lutz]

To revive an old thread:

Is there a functional minimum temp as to what temp a modified stove can handle? Is there any qualms about using a modified can stove as a serious snowmelter? Thanks.

[Steven Evans]

Hi Matt, I left this post on page 2

"I use an inverted windpro for winter aswell, but when the temps drop really low (-20 ish) it still seems to suffer. Not sure if it is the fuel or if it is just so dang cold that it takes forever to heat the water?!"

After last winter, I am no longer going to use the inverted windpro canister as a snow melter as it just isn't performing for me. This could be the stove, perhaps temps are just too low, or maybe it's just me! I have no test data (or scientific explanation) other then when it gets real cold, -20C or so, it really struggles. It literally starts to take forever to melt snow and you can see that the flame output just isn't there.
I'm going to experiment with some wood burning stoves this season to see if I can get some decent results.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Matt and Steve

> Is there a functional minimum temp as to what temp a modified stove can handle?

Yes. A 30% propane 70% butane canister will stop emitting gas at about -26 C. Laws of physics. What Steve found was about right, especially if the canister had less than 30% propane.

However, just because this is so does NOT mean you can't use a remote inverted canister stove under far colder conditions. You certainly can do so with just a little effort.
Step 1: Warm the canister inside your jacket for a while (You will be wearing one, right?).
Step 2: Start the stove running and quickly invert with the canister.
Step 3: Quickly warm a LITTLE bit of water to LUKE-warm body temperature.
Step 4: Pour this LUKE-warm water into the bowl made by the inverted base of the canister, and insulate the canister. (If using a Coleman Powermax canister, get creative.)

What you are doing here is adding heat to the canister from the LUKE-warm water to keep the gas above 0 C. This will make the stove work just fine. The canister does not have to be at ambient, after all.

Two notes to remember:

1: Do NOT use water any warmer than LUKE-warm! I really mean this. But equally, LUKE-warm water is perfectly safe.

2: Prevent the water from cooling fast by insulating it and the canister by blocking the loss of steam or water vapour. Otherwise the water will cool down quickly and turn to ice, mainly by evaporation.

Cheers

[Steven Evans]

"2: Prevent the water from cooling fast by insulating it and the canister by blocking the loss of steam or water vapour. Otherwise the water will cool down quickly and turn to ice, mainly by evaporation."

As in wrapping the canister with sleeping pad material and covering the "bowl" with the water in it with a piece of silnylon or something?

I do remember when I used to use an upright canister that when the water would boil over and spill onto the canister, the canister would suddenly have a bolt of energy and work much better for a few seconds.

Also, I'm just curious of your experiences, but how many times would you have to replace this luke warm water? Every minute? or is it every 10 minutes…tying to figure out the PITA factor :)

Thanks Roger.

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