optimus climber stove (svea 123)
Andrew Schaffner
that it has ever worked properly. After preheating (burning some fuel
in the small cup on the tank) the stove lights and burns, but
invariably I cannont control the flame well. Usually it burns either
yellow and high (dirty and not hot), or blue with a *small* flame
(again, not hot enough). Could someone please describe the optimum
flame for this stove, and perhaps how they go about adjusting it. I
tried cleaning it, but that didn't seem to do the trick. Thanks.
--
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Andrew A. Schaffner......University of Washington......Department of Statistics
email: and...@stat.washington.edu
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Tim Dudley
and...@bert.stat.washington.edu writes:
>invariably I cannont control the flame well. Usually it burns either
>yellow and high (dirty and not hot), or blue with a *small* flame
>(again, not hot enough). Could someone please describe the optimum
>flame for this stove, and perhaps how they go about adjusting it. I
>tried cleaning it, but that didn't seem to do the trick. Thanks.
It sounds as if there isn't enough pressure in the tank. Yellow high
dirty flame generally means that the generator wasn't hot enough
when you lit the stove. I don't think I've ever seen a small blue
flame on a Svea. I fooled around with flammable paste and stuff
for preheating the generator, but finally got tired of it after about
a year, and bought a little hand pump. You need a special tank
cap, but it comes with the pump. It works really well - even to
the extent that you can pump the stove while it's lit. It only
takes four or five strokes to bring the pressure right up.
At full blast (and I mean blast!) the flame for the 123 is
blue, extends past the edges of the spreader, and sounds like
a baby blow torch. You can adjust the flame down to a low
simmer, but you have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't go out.
Don't leave the key on the valve while the stove is lit - it gets
hot!
I've had my Svea 123 since about 1970, and have had zero
trouble with it until just last year, when a little blue flame
appeared on top of the tank cap. I replaced the O-ring, and
haven't had any problem since. I went out and bought a
Whisperlight for a backup, but in most cases, for day trips,
I prefer the Svea.
Tim
Scott Linn
: In article <1mg73b...@shelley.u.washington.edu> Andrew Schaffner,
: and...@bert.stat.washington.edu writes:
: >invariably I cannont control the flame well. Usually it burns either
: >yellow and high (dirty and not hot), or blue with a *small* flame
: >(again, not hot enough). Could someone please describe the optimum
: >flame for this stove, and perhaps how they go about adjusting it. I
: >tried cleaning it, but that didn't seem to do the trick. Thanks.
:
: It sounds as if there isn't enough pressure in the tank.
This sounds very similar to a problem I had with an Optimus 8R stove. Check
the gasket/O-ring on the fuel tank cap. You might also try looking at the
pressure relief valve that is in the middle of the tank cap; that was my
problem.
After fooling around with my stove for a while (bad flame), and then almost
burning up my garage, I found that the pressure relief valve's rubber seal
was in sideways, so that pressure (and gas if full!) was escaping.
Putting it in correctly fixed the problem.
Scott Linn
sc...@hpcvccl.cv.hp.com
HAGBERG JR, D. J.
>I've had an optimus climber stove for several years, and I don't think
>that it has ever worked properly. After preheating (burning some fuel
>in the small cup on the tank) the stove lights and burns, but
>invariably I cannont control the flame well.
Usually it is a problem with the stove not being pressurized
properly. Check to see that your fuel cap has a proper rubber
gasket and that there is an even depression where it would be
pressing tightly against the top of the threads. I just had
my backflow walve for my mini-pump fail and experienced the
symptoms you describe.
You should normally be getting a bright blue flame that extends at
least an inch out radially from the metal flame cone. It should
make sounds like a little jet engine, and you should be able to boil
a quart of water in 4 minutes.
Optimi are notorious for being very fussy about cleaning, but
I've only cleaned mine once. You might try getting one of the
repair kits so that you can replace the needle valve. If the
fit between the needle and socket isn't very good your fuel will
either come out unatomized or in too small a quantity.
If all else fails you could give up and get a whisperlite :-) I
was about ready to chuck my Climber and do just that this past
weekend, but now I've calmed down and returned to my usual
Love/Hate relationship with the stove...
-=- D. J. Hagberg
-=- hag...@ccit.arizona.edu
Wayne Jones
Scott Linn writes:
>
>This sounds very similar to a problem I had with an Optimus 8R stove.
I had a similar problem with my Optimus when I first got it. Seemed to work
okay in warmer weather but when it got cold and wet (when I needed it the
most) it would run with a low blue flame or surge and smoke if I pumped it
up too much.
One day I took the burner apart for cleaning and discovered that the pinion
gear teeth on the needle had been engaged to the teeth on the control shaft
at the wrong point, allowing insufficient travel of the needle. I reassembled
it to give maximum needle travel and it has worked great ever since.
>After fooling around with my stove for a while (bad flame), and then almost
>burning up my garage, I found that the pressure relief valve's rubber seal
>was in sideways, so that pressure (and gas if full!) was escaping.
>
>Putting it in correctly fixed the problem.
Think they have a quality control problem?
>Scott Linn
>sc...@hpcvccl.cv.hp.com
Wayne Jones jo...@sunspot.noao.edu
Scott Linn
:
: >After fooling around with my stove for a while (bad flame), and then almost
: >burning up my garage, I found that the pressure relief valve's rubber seal
: >was in sideways, so that pressure (and gas if full!) was escaping.
: >
: >Putting it in correctly fixed the problem.
:
: Think they have a quality control problem?
Naw; my father found the stove at Goodwill for fifty cents. It was probably
there because someone fooled with it and couldn't figure out how to fix it.
Scott Linn
sc...@hpcvccl.cv.hp.com
Kathy Lankford
REI and some other outdoor shops have pocket
stove repair services, and you might try there.
Mine runs hot, and according to the Colin Fletcher
stove tests in _The Complete Walker_, they should
boil a quart of water faster than most stoves.
They do roar, though, and my camp buddies often
complain. Maybe they're just jealous that I'm
slurping coffee while they're still heating :-)
Eugene N. Miya
(Joe Ehrlich) writes:
>I am going to try hammering (!) on the stove to push it's bottom back in.
Does the term: "metal fatigue" mean anything to you?
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eug...@orville.nas.nasa.gov
Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
{uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
Second Favorite email message: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 3 days
A Ref: Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, vol. 1, G. Polya
Frederick Lee Burghardt
|> Went camping with my beloved Svea 123 (the old kind - without the self
|> cleaner) and was using it under an Outback Oven..Poor thing overheated and
|> nearly blew up. You know the concave bottom? It swoll up and now has a
|> rounded bottom, kinda of like one of those Bozo the Clown punching bags.
|> ....
|> I am going to try hammering (!) on the stove to push it's bottom back in.
|> Best damn stove I've ever had.
|>
A few days ago I posted a sorta tongue-in-cheek comment on this thread about
my Svea 123 being completely non-temperamental until it blew up on me.
Actually, I agree with most of the posters that it's a great little stove, and, in
my experience, is much superior to a Whisperlight in all important ways.
Now, in light of Joes post above, I should probably explain that the stove
exploded because of some damage done to the filler hole seal and was not
due to a flaw in the stove itself. Nevertheless, I do not plan to use the stove
again (I'll get another Svea 123) and would not recommend trying to repair
any backpacking stove by hammering, grinding, sanding, drilling... in
your home workshop. The price of a new stove is nothing compared to
the disaster of a truly powerful explosion in the backcountry.
Lee Burghardt
Eric Peterson
>Went camping with my beloved Svea 123 (the old kind - without the self
>cleaner) and was using it under an Outback Oven..Poor thing overheated and
>nearly blew up. You know the concave bottom? It swoll up and now has a
>rounded bottom, kinda of like one of those Bozo the Clown punching bags.
>(after three tries) and carried it away from camp. I stayed calm during
>all of this. I don't need people getting excited just because I was ready
>to spray them with droplets of ignited white gas...
Or chunks of brass shrapnel...
>I am going to try hammering (!) on the stove to push it's bottom back in.
>If that doesn't work I have a spare base off one of the newer kinds.
>Best damn stove I've ever had.
>
Eeeks! If you do this, next time it _will_ explode! Just pitch it and
get a new tank. My Primus has a pressure relief valve built into the
fuel filler cap; one trip I overprimed it (I was trying to get more
power out of it in cold weather) and this valve gave loose - I'm glad I
wasn't standing there! It looked like a fountain about 5 feet high of
flame. Needless to say, I recommend using the pressure relief
valve.
After everything cooled off, the stove fired right back up. This stove
is 35 years old (my dad used it on _his_ trips), and it has never
failed. One thing I like about it over the Svea 123 is the fuel tank
is almost twice the size (but I haven't seen the Primus stoves for
sale, currently the Svea is the closest thing to it).
Eric
--
Eric Peterson WB6PYK [44.6.0.133] N2429K @ SMO
Tekelec - (818) 880-7710 er...@tekelec.com, uunet!gecko!eric