Let's talk STOVE Safety

I have tested putting out burning alcohol with water and it works fine.  It doesn’t take much water at all to drop the alcohol percentage low enough to extinguish a flame.

Thank you Jon.

Cheers

I hadn’t used my Dragonfly in a number of years (for reasons which are probably obvious here) but I was going on a car camping trip and figured it would be a nice addition for the trip. I decided to test it first, on our wood porch. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the oring seals had gone bad in the interim. When I lit it up, pretty much everything caught on fire, not just the pan of fuel. I got it put out before it caught the porch on fire. From now on, tests will occur on the asphalt driveway, haha. With a fire extinguisher handy.

Perhaps one should check the O-rings each year – and replace them if there is any doubt. The cost of new O-rings is trivial compared to the hazards.

Incidentally, a safer test is to start with an EMPTY fuel tank, pressurise it, and submerge the lot (including the stove) in a bucket of water. Look for bubbles. This also works with all canister stoves.

Cheers

MSR recommends annual maintenance and sells an Annual Maintenance Kit.

My Svea 123 really doesn’t require much maintenance. For the past 45 years I have replaced the fill cap gasket each year — just in case…

If anyone wants one of those o-rings for a white gas fuel bottle PM me.  I only needed a couple but I had to buy 100.

“Hikin Jim was kind enough to demonstrate the massive fireball priming technique at one GGG. Light up half an acre. Like a miniature sun ☀️.”

“Nor should one condemn a stove because the user had an IQ in the low 2-digit range. Basically, I am all for Darwin: the world is over-populated anyhow. Some culling would not go amiss.”

Hmmm, seems like Hiking Jim has been tagged by Roger :-)

I’m trying to think of a time I had a problem with a stove that wasn’t caused by the operator’s poor usage or poor maintenance…

Nope, can’t think of any.

I do believe, however, that the over-priming fireball with WG is the most over-represented hyperbole in all of stovedom. Even then, the only issue is the big flame and as long as the priming fuel remains in the cup as it burns off there will be no problem.

Way back when a 22-year-old version of me bought this first backpacking stove: The Whisperlite.

To me, it was exotic.  No one I knew had one.  And we did not go camping growing up so the idea of “white gas” was not known to me at all.  The operation was black magic to me.

But I was intelligent enough to use the stove for the first time on the back patio made of concrete.

So being the diligent person I am, I primed the cup. Lit the stove and….FWOOOOOOOOSH!

A smidge too much fuel in the priming cup… :O

Luckily my very thick eyebrows did not become charred.

But the family dog ran away in fright. :)

I am pleased to say that when I used the stove for the first time in the field, I did not burn down the White Mountain National Forest.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Make your mistakes at home first. And try not to scare the elderly family pet in the process.

Never had or saw a stove accident. (Knock on wood.)

BUT…

SCENE: Inside an XC ski lodge

AUDIENCE: Nordic Ski Patrollers taking NSPS mountaineering course

IDIOT INSTRUCTOR: Arrogant old alpine patroller demonstrating white gas stove AND lighting it.

ME: So surprised he actually lit the stove.  I grabbed a kitchen fire extinguisher and stood nearby in the instructor’s full view. He did not like my message but screw him.

NEVER light a white gas or kerosene stove indoors. And be very careful of canister stoves if it absolutely must be done. Keep an ABC rated fire extinguisher at hand.

Esbit Flare Up…..

I know to blow out Esbit with a forceful breath but recently I learned it can be a fun post-boil, pre-dinner fireworks show.  I had just finished boiling water and the tri-wing esbit burner only had the slightest amount of flame visible as the accumulated esbit residue continued burning  (for some reason I decided to let it keep burning) I then accidentally spilled a single drop of coffee onto the little burner and whoop! A 12 to 18″ flame shot up ever so briefly, much to my surprise. So I tried it a few more times for entertainment, and wondered, what would happen if an entire esbit cube, fully engulfed in flame, were carefully ‘placed’ in a body of water?  Pyrotechnics show or not?   Anybody know?

I dunno Kevin but I’ll soon be testing my Sidewinder Caldera Cone ESBIT setup for boiling times with a digital thermometer. I’ll try this water-on-ESBIT experiment on my last boil to see what happens.

But thanks for the heads up on this problem. I’m going to submit video to the USFS and BLM to see if, with a Caldera Cone system, they would allow ESBIT to be used in a “no open fires” area. This would mean using a base sheet under the cone and a TRAY of the Brien Green style to hold the ESBIT tablet(s), not just the Gram Cracker holder alone.

Hi Eric

indoors. And be very careful of canister stoves if it absolutely must be done. Keep an ABC rated fire extinguisher at hand.
I agree about the hazards of white gas (I do NOT trust it myself), but as far as canister stoves go – there is no difference between an upright canister stove and a conventional kitchen gas range. I doubt many kitchens have a fire extinguisher handy …

Cheers

Be cautious with alcohol stoves ;)

I can see why alcohol stoves are banned during fire season

I can see why she should be  alcohol stoves are banned during fire season.  Pour alcohol into a hot burning stove?  That’s a Darwin Award winner there.  It is pretty simple to tell if a stove is burning, wave the back of your hand over the stove and feel for the heat rising up from the stove.  Better yet, pick up the stove with your hands, if it’s too hot to hold, it’s to hot to refill.  My 2 cents

good point : )

maybe it would be better to see if there are actual forest fires started by alcohol stove users vs canister stove users

internet videos aren’t statistically valid

In my Whisperlight days I could manage just fine in the evening, but it just wasn’t a breakfast stove! In retrospect it’s clear to me that a stove that was left out in the cold overnight probably needs a different touch with the priming timing than one that’s had a chance to come to daytime temperature.

So, I was still car camping then. Impressed my fiancee lighting the stove at dinner. In the morning he wanted me to teach him how. And I got the classic big out of control flame. And I had made a really bad decision to do this on top of the fire pit grill, which placed the fuel tank–with it’s OFF control–too close. Couldn’t reach it.

We were standing there dumbfounded. Then a kindly French-Canadian man (this was Nova Scotia) come over, used his frying pan as a shield, and turns it off.

That evening we stayed at my favorite car camping site yet: Meat Cove at the tip of Cape Bretton island. We got the last spot, in an area with four sites grouped together and a shared fit pit. As my pyro husband-to-be was starting a campfire we hear a French-Canadian accent ask us “What time will the fireshow start tonight?”

Funny, up here in snow country, don’t hear of gas or kerosene explosions, but usually hear about propane explosions.  I believe the culprit may be gas line from the tank gets crushed under heavy snow, or if leaking, finally meets a flame source, kaboom!  So much for gas being unsafe.

Duane

Hi Duane

Are you distinguishing between ‘small p/b canisters’ and larger propane bottles?
If so, one might consider the (likely) relative skills of the different users.

Cheers

That first video of the scouts is concerning.  When I taught my scouts to use the whisperlight stove I made them walk over to the A.T shelter we were camped next to and look at the burn rings on the floor. My troop requires adult supervision when lighting backpacking stoves and treating water. It helps if the adult is not an idiot.

It helps if the adult is not an idiot.
Ah – that limits the number of suitable adults. The not-idiots all make themselves scarce.

Cheers

For a long time I’ve used a canister stove and a pocket rocket with a windscreen. Idiot proof–that is, wet, tired and hungry backpacker proof. But then I always carry my own food and cookset. Never ever had an incident. Canister with a windscreen is pretty darned efficient.

Thanks for the clips Dan….LMAO with my wife over my shoulder doing the same. Geez, never ceases to amaze me how inept the general public can be. Thanks Mom for not raising me up a dumb ass : )

+1 on the IQ thing, the not blaming the stove thing and for the Darwin thing cleaning up the gene pool.

Stove play should be left to the experts :-)