Tarp Height for Stove Usage? (Gas)

[Golly G. Willikers]

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[Golly G. Willikers]

Has anyone here done or read about experiments measuring the heat at different heights above a burning camp stove, with pot/pan on top?

Anecdotally, what have you found to be a safe distance for tarp height over your stove?

I’m considering getting a zpacks rectangular tarp for non-UL backpacking/travel to function as tent porch, providing a dry, comfortable place to cook when it’s raining.

I am concerned about the heat from the stove melting or setting alight the tarp.

I know people do melt snow inside the tent when winter camping or mountaineering, but maybe the cold in those environments might help to mitigate the risk of overheating the fabric… but of course, maybe not very much. Besides, there are also cases of tents lighting on fire in those situations.

When travelling, my fuel is usually gasoline (due to easy availability) and the stove is Primus Omnilite. It can run quite hot, a lot hotter than my alcohol stove.

In my case, I think the tarp will hover about 3 to 3½ feet above the ground, if I mount it extending out from the tent (I have an idea how to rig it nicely).

Thanks for your advice and info.

[James Marco]

According to my wrist watch, I get between 60F and 120F, 16″ above my canister stove. Why the big variation?
1) I never run it flat out, always on low to mid.
2) I use canister fuel and White Gas. (Caffin Winter Stove, SVEA 123r, Simmerlite, etc )
3) Tarp can be set up in “storm” mode or “ventilated” mode. Sometimes it works as a lean-to.

Generally speaking, I do NOT prime the WG stove under the tarp. I do this all the time when raining, not that I recommend it as general practice. I hike with a 44-45″ staff. Sometimes I just use a longer found stick, close to 6′-7′. Once the stove is running, transfer it to under the tarp, usually carrying the SVEA is OK before it gets too hot to touch. It fires up, even when it is getting rained on, though, sometimes it takes two primes to dry it off.

[Franco Darioli]

I cooked (boiled water mostly) inside the vestibule of several tents not really measuring the distance but the 16″ mentioned by James sounds about right. However that is with gas stoves and the Caldera cone or similar alcohol stove set up, NOT the flamethrower type white gas stoves.
The only time I had a problem was when inside an Epic* tent I moved the switched off stove to the side melting a round inch of the fabric of the tend in doing so.
* the fabric was Epic , not the tent.

[Roger Caffin]

* the fabric was Epic , not the tent.
Sounds as though the whole incident was a bit epic …

16″ above the top of a canister stove sounds reasonable in most cases. That assumes the stove is not spitting out liquid fuel of course.

The big danger here – with any sort of stove, is how much the tent can flap. I cook in my vestibule ALL the time – that leaves me sitting down, which is nice. But I have to watch out for the loose fabric in the zip-downwards door, that it does not suddenly flap over the stove. So I usually have more than 16″ clearance just by positioning the stove away from the door.

‘Rules’ do not substitute for common sense.

Cheers

[Franco Darioli]

Epic hole…
That was a real wake up call to remind me how easy it is for stuff to go wrong when there is a flame inside a tent.
I was relaxed, sober, calm weather yet I still stuffed up. Not a big deal at all but it was a wake up call.
This might give a bit of a hint about certain comments I made about having an open flame wood burning stove inside a small tent.

[Golly G. Willikers]

Hey thanks for the replies guys. If 16″ works for you, I think I should be fine. The Ominlite burner is only a few inches off the ground, so even measuring from the pot, the clearance will still be a good two or two-and-a-half feet to the tarp. Perhaps less if I batten it down in a storm, but probably still viable.

Good point about priming. I agree that priming is best done outside, with the fairly high and uncontrolled flames that can shoot up, especially near the beginning. Plus, there is a lot of soot at this stage (unless priming with alcohol).

I would not have thought wood would make the best in-tent fuel source!

Cheers

[Roger Caffin]

It could be added that some of us (although not all of us) put white gas stoves into a similar class as big heavy leather boots. We see both as dinosaurs. But, ymmv.

Cheers

[Golly G. Willikers]

I count myself firmly in the gas stove camp. Liquid gas, though; not canisters. Gasoline.

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