How to sell my idea?

post picture?

video?

there are a lot of alcohol stoves out there so this might be a difficult market

Let’s say you’re going to sell them, normally, for $5 (plus shipping). Put some on gear deals for $4.50 (plus shipping) and ask for feedback. That’s a 10 percent break for BPL members, so it qualifies as a gear deal.

As far as causing problems – no reason it should.

Just do it. Sure there will be some haters and those that choose to make their own. But they will be the minority. A good product will sell itself.  I am interested in what you have come up with that will stand out in a crowded sea of stoves.

I don’t see a problem, go for it.

Well i will give it a shot.
Oh, Pictures.
The idea was simple. I like pressure/jet alcohol stoves. I want the primer pan to be incorporated, and i want the fill be to be simple.
So thats the little version on the left, i call her “Cuppa” and the bigger version on the right i call him “Souper”. The smaller one is as simple as possible, weighs 1/4oz plus a 1/4oz pot stand and the stand fits PERFECTLY inside the bottom rim of a fosters can/pot, making a very secure stand. The bigger has a slightly adjustable flame, based on the center screw. And it weighs 1/2 oz for the stove and about 1/3oz for the pot stand.

SO ya, i can basically ship them at cost. Souper costs $4.50 to make and Cuppa costs….well, one dollar. And i can make Cuppa plus the somewhat variable burn (the hollow center bolt) thats another dollar and adds about 1/8oz weight. Each with potstand……which is just 1/4 galvy wire for now. I’m working on stainless.

What can you tell us about performance?

Performance…. thats where i don’t want to give out a bunch of numbers, but would rather give out stoves. Because i live at 7000′, which isnt terribly high, but it does make a huge difference. Water boils cooler, alcohol boils cooler. So here it primes insanely easily, and that might just be here. My numbers are awesome, but may be deceptive. Pretty much im saying anybody can test it out at cost and i would love to hear how it does.
I think it was something like 7 years ago when i built my first BLP-inspired alcohol stove. At the time i lived here at 7000′ altitude. And i got really cocky about how badly i trounced the numbers. Its like dozens of degrees different boiling temps. So i thought quite highly of my fist alcohol stove. At sea level it seems to get a similar temp but not a boil, those last few degrees are MUCH harder to get. Thats just my experience. I will try to get a measured amount of water at a certain temperature and a boil/temp time if you can give me specifics. I have nothing but time on my hands and HEET to burn.

Hi, Stefan:

Having a bit of experience in this area, I would offer the opinion that there’s no reason to ‘play it close to the chest’ because there’s probably not going to be anything patentable or proprietary about your stove that doesn’t fall under the category ‘prior art’. In the highly unlikely event there is some truly (and legally) novel aspect to the design, it would be best to go straight to a patent attorney. In which case, the only person who will make money off your idea is your patent attorney because you will be selling a low-profit item to a very small market and spending all of the profits, and then some, on legal fees to defend your patent. In other words, don’t waste your time.

When I came up with my HX strip idea I was lucky enough to know someone who had his patent attorney (a good one, not some schmuck in a strip mall) review it — and a couple of examples of similar prior art — and he determined it was not novel. VERY few things are.

All that said, I’ve done a fair amount of stove testing and I live near sea level (~120 ft) and would be happy to test your system and do a graph of the data. PM me if interested.