Question for Stove Gurus

Stephen,

There’s nothing that rules it out, but you’d want to be really careful about carbon monoxide (which isn’t really an issue unless you cook in a vestibule or something similar). If the pot is closer to the burner than it is designed, typically more carbon monoxide will be produced. Again, though, I wouldn’t be too concerned with it if I were cooking outdoors.

The heat exchanger assembly might actually elevate the pot higher than normal, depending on how your stove’s pot supports work, in which case there would be little threat of CO at all.

The only other concern might be with a Jetboil Ti Sol pot. The HX fins on a Jetboil Ti Sol pot can be a little touchy. I probably wouldn’t experiment with that particular pot with different burners.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

I think Jim covered it.

Cheers

Yeah, Jim is correct. Basically, you can use either pot on any stove. I don't think that you will bother the JetBoil, except they have an open fin design that is not conducive to setting on another stove.

CO worries are only inside a tent/vestibule. Not a concern in most three season camping. One or two meals cooked in a tent will not do noticable damage to your red blood cells for the 15 minutes you cook. If you do it as a matter of course, say for winter camping, twice a day for a week, this could become a problem.

Generally, I would go with the simplest, lightest stove. On low, they don't really produce much exhaust/lost heat. What is lost is pretty much necessary to maintain air circulation around the burner/pot. A wider pot, and a wind screen will do as well at trapping heat as a heat exchanger. Using both together does not mean you capture more heat, there isn't enough being produced to capture for the weight of either the heat exchanger or the wind screen/heat screen. After the initial heat capture by the pot, there is roughly geometric reduction of available heat to capture.
Example:
A normal stove on low will produce about 2000BTU.
A pot filled with water will capture about 2/3 (some more, some less) of the heat, by itself. 2/3 * 2000BTU = 1333.4BTU leaving 666.6BTU
A heat exchanger will trap about 2/3 of the remainder…or about 2/3 * 666.6 = 444.4BTU leaving about 222.2BTU
A heat screen will capture about 2/3 of the remainder…or about 2/3 * 222.2BTU =
148.1BTU leaving about 74.1BTU to escape.

Note that the heat screen only captured about 4% of the heat (2000BTU!) You could have carried extra weight in fuel easily for a long time before it starts to break even for the weight of both.

The problem comes about becasue both pots were specifically designed for the stoves they normally sit on. It is probably not possible to achieve the same efficiency on another stove.

There is another type of heat exchanger. Working along the same lines as a Fresnell lens, this is a series of ripples in the bottom of the pot. Not quite as efficient as a regular heat exchanger, it adds no weight. But the limit to the ripples is more defined by the ease of cleaning, ie, what you can get your fingers into to wash.

Here is a Pic:
Note the pot on the right…

Thanks for the advice! I just tried to see if my two non-Jetboil stoves would work with the Jetboil pot, but the fins won't quite align with the stove supports – which makes the pot sit at an angle, just wanting to tip over! Not good!

Perhaps the new MSR pots would work better – I may see if I can find just the pot to experiment with. If it doesn't work, I can always send it to Hikin' Jim to play with! ;)

Stephen,

One of the MSR Reactor pots actually might work better. They’re fairly flat on the bottom.

If your pot supports will span the rim, then things should be pretty good, or if your pot supports fit up inside, it might be even better. What stove are you wanting to use?

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

One is the new super light Fire Maple stove (who could resist such a light stove?!), the other is a Soto Micro Regulator. the Fire Maple might fit inside the 1 liter MSR, while the Soto might fit outside it. I won't know until I try!

Stephen,

I just tried my Soto MR with a 1.0L Reactor pot. It worked, but not very well. Two of the put supports fit into the underside of the pot, but the third hit onto the rim that goes around the base of the pot. It would work, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

I don’t have an FMS-300t. I’m a little worried about the hole clogging issue although one person very kindly offered to do the mod to it that would prevent such clogging.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving

Get yourself a SVEA 123r. The pot supports fit rather neatly, into the open fins of a JetBoil. I am guessing that other pot supports could be cut/ground-down to fit, also. The Kovea Spider for example, has a wire based support system. Order up a set of new pot supports and make the needed mods.

For the Soto, FMS300T this is likely a permanent change, since the pot supports are rivited.

Jim: What clogging issue is that with the FM 300? I remember Roger suggesting to them that the stove head needed to be removable for field cleaning, which they did, but I don't remember any other issue.

James: Hey, I started with a Svea 123 back in the very early 70s! Still have one, but the Svea by itself outweighs my entire cooking kit. I'm not inclined to carry it again – the Jetboil, even the Sumo is lighter!

What clogging issue is that with the FM 300? I remember Roger suggesting to them that the stove head needed to be removable for field cleaning, which they did, but I don’t remember any other issue.

Stephen,

There’s a sintered brass fuel filter in the base of the jet. If the filter clogs, and there are recorded cases on the internet of that happening, then there’s no way to clear it in the field. Roger has recommended drilling out the filter using a bench drill (not a hand held drill) with a particular bit (it’s in a recent thread which I don’t have right and hand just now) while having the stove clamped down in a vice. I don’t have a bench drill or a vice, nor do I have the particular drill bit, so the FMS-300t doesn’t immediately grab me. Someone on BPL has very kindly however offered to drill out the FMS-300t for me, so I may pick one up eventually. My current job ends on Tuesday, so I’ll figure out what I’m doing then. :)

HJ
Adventures in Stoving

Thanks, Jim, I'll check mine a bit more…

I believe the issue is that any gas stove can clog – not a specific problem with Fire-Maple. The task is removing the blockage. I have removed the sintered filter plugs on my Fire-Maple stoves with a hand drill. Use a smaller bit than the plug diameter and drill into the plug but not right though – the plug is about 3mm thick. You do need to be careful to get the drill bit centred. Get a small nail and place the point in the drilled hole and whack it with a hammer. The sintered filter pops out. Roger recommends putting a very small piece of toilet paper into the jet as a replacement filter that is easy to remove/replace – my own experiments with this suggest a single layer is whats needed; any thicker and you cut down the gas flow. Having a filter obviates the need to clean the jet with a pricker but raises the problem of removing the jet from the stove in order to replace the tp filter and for that you usually need a spanner. Using a pricker is easy but it tends to push the blockage back into the stove where it can be blown back into the jet again.

You also need to maintain good stove "hygene". Dust is your enemy. My stoves are either attached to a canister or are in a closed stuff sac. Similarly my canisters are either attached to a stove or have the plastic cap in place. Before attaching a stove to a canister I check that the connection is clean.

See this thread – it has full photos and instructions.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=68986&skip_to_post=653391#653391

Cheers

Hi Mark

> You also need to maintain good stove "hygene".
Definitely

Btw – what peaks are those?

Cheers

The photo was taken in the Hourquette d'Ossoue looking up at Vignemale on the HRP. Not Namadgi I'm afraid.

Hi Mark

Thought so – it matches my photos too well to be anywhere else!
Nice place.

Cheers

I use a 2 liter JB pot for melting snow, mainly on a MSR Dragonfly but also on my Caldera Cone Sidewinder in Inferno woodburning mode. I bought it specifically for that purpose.

For baking it seems to heat more evenly than just a regular 2 L. aluminum pot.
I keep the nepoprene cozy on it with both stoves EXCEPT when baking with my oven (it has an aluminized "yurt" that covers the pot and may cause the cozy to burn).

NEXT QUESTION: Would a size compatable pot W/ finned heat exchanger bottom work well in a Caldera Cone using either alky, ESBIT or wood?