Darren Bos wrote:If you haven't bought a little kettle yet David, I bought a 1.5L Fire Maple kettle from Amazon with a heat exchanger on it (similar to the BruPot Mark was talking about). It reduces the time to boil a litre of water by about a minute. I can't imagine anyone so desperate for a cup of tea it would matter, but the fuel savings are nice.
I still think the Origo is a nice stove, and I can't imagine anything safer (the Maxie will continue to leak fuel if the burner goes out).
I did consider these kettles with extra heat absorption devices, but they make the kettle higher, which is not so good on a gimballed cooker.
I can think of something
as safe - the wick burner with rack-and-pinion adjustment and a perforated metal chimney. But it's beyond my powers to make one.
Arne Kverneland wrote:
Interesting, Darren.
The natural follow-up question is then; is the flame on the Maxie vulnerable to be blown out by draft/wind? If the flame is robust against being blown out ( and the feeder tank is kept small), the lack of automatic shut-off may not be such a big deal. Unlike with kerosene, if one spills alcohol, one may just wash it off with plenty of water.
Arne
The Maxie burner flame is as robust as a LPG or pressure kero flame, and I've settled on a one litre tank. I think this is a setup that's safe enough.
One litre of spilled alcohol is a nuisance, but not a disaster. Even if it catches fire, a frightened man with a bucket will deal with it quickly and safely - water both extinguishes the fire, and dilutes the alcohol so that it will no longer burn.
One litre of kero is a mess. It would be difficult to make it catch fire, but if it does, a dry powder extinguisher will be needed, making more mess. A frightened man with a bucket will spread droplets of burning kero around the cabin.
One litre of spilled LPG, expanding to several cubic metres of gas, is a Red Alert. if it catches fire, my hypothetical man won't live long enough to be frightened.