It appears to me that the main challenge with both heaters and cookers is to get a reliable, steady and adjustable flow of fuel. Drip-drip-drip, just like that, steady.
The drip regulator on my first Taylor Diesel heater was a disaster, almost literally: Only luck and the fact that I had copper-covered all walls around the heater prevented it from burning down Malena and the rest of Haugesund (jazz festival) when the ‘regulator’ ran away.
The next, a Taylor kerosene heater (in Johanna) with an Optimus/Primus burner, was a bit better, but here the opposite happened: As it got hot, is gradually turned itself off. It kind of choked itself although the pressure was fine.
Then there is the Reflex heater.
This has a delicate regulator that works magnificently until some tiny imperfection in the diesel fuel makes it cock up. And then, just a look in the instruction manual and the ‘exploded view’ of its internals makes one back away: It is about as complicated as a WWII Norden bombsight.
The improved alcohol burners which David Tyler has told us about, sound interesting, but even these are not really easy for anyone to fit and make work.
What if:
A few years back I spent a few days nose-up in a hospital bed. The driprate of the drip (salt water?) I got in my arm was adjusted about as on my Taylor heater. Its rate also depended on my position. Even if I lifted the arm only a little, the driprate dropped noticeably. Then there was another toy connected, called a ‘pain pump’, adding to the fun. This thing was electric with an internal battery, and it provided a calibrated driprate, completely independent of how I moved.
Now, that is what we could use: A tiny, calibrated, battery-driven pump. With such a device, replacing all sorts of mechanical fuel regulators, we could even put the tank below the stove, which in my view is safer. Such a pump would transform care-needy and downright unsafe heaters and stoves into our best friends.
Where do we find such pumps - without raiding the nearest hospital?
Arne