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Galley alcohol, gas, diesel and induction cookers/ovens

  • 25 Mar 2017 17:20
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    Reply # 4689880 on 1195343
    Anonymous member

    You can buy a Trangia-type burner quite cheaply on eBay. I have this one - it's good enough for one or two nights out in a bivouac in the Scottish highlands, but I wouldn't want to use it aboard. It will hold 50ml of alcohol, enough for one short cooking session, and its hit-and-miss controllability is acceptable when boiling a kettle or doing a rapid camping meal, but for real cooking? Not really. I think there has to be a tank, either integral or remote, that will hold 1/2 or 1 litre, and there has to be true simmering capability.
  • 25 Mar 2017 16:38
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    Reply # 4689823 on 1195343
    Anonymous member

    Has anyone tried to make something from Trangia parts? 

    I'm starting to think that the multi fuel burner may have potential. Unfortunately they are not cheap but two burners could be picked up for half the price of a Taylors.

    Peter
  • 24 Mar 2017 21:10
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    Reply # 4688599 on 1195343
    Anonymous member
    Arne Kverneland wrote: 

    BTW, today I was out in Ingeborg with a mate and we opened a can of soup and heated it on the Origo 3000. After having brought it to boil with the burner at full steam (yellow, inefficient flame), I turned the burner down to lowest setting. This was still enough to keep the soup simmering, and now the flame was nice and blue, which I conclude must be quite efficient (oxygen-rich = full combustion). Can that be so bad? I admit I haven't tried to fry a steak on it  -  is the problem that you don't get enough heat out of it?

    Arne

    (I tried to highlight this in blue, but it wouldn't work for some reason)

    I've heard it recommended that you add some water to your alcohol to stop the yellow flame.  I can't imagine that this makes it burn any hotter.
  • 24 Mar 2017 18:42
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    Reply # 4688175 on 1195343
    Deleted user
    I've just replaced both of Fantail's Maxie burners. There were two problems: the burners had suffered from dezincification and had crumbled away over time (a la Weetbix), and a 'jet' (actually more of a valve) had resolutely jammed. A minor niggle is the use of zinc plated grub screws to fasten the knobs; these had corroded to the point where they could not be used.

    An attempt to rejuvenate one burner using canabilised parts, and specifically a damaged wick, provided a brief moment of excitement when tested. Meths is capable of providing a significant flare in the right circumstances, and damaged wicks are the right circumstances. 

    Getting replacement burners from the supplier was an exercise in herding cats. Whitworths did their best, but it seems the manufacturer does very limited runs of stove parts. Six weeks of emails did result in the arrival of the only two burners to be had (I would have liked a spare). No complete stoves were available. Hopefully this was a just a case of bad timing.
  • 24 Mar 2017 15:47
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    Reply # 4687712 on 1195343
    Anonymous member
    Darren Bos wrote:
    David Tyler wrote:

     I've made a single burner cooker using a Maxie meths burner as I found this to be an excellent piece of kit in operation and efficiency - but not, as both Annie and I have found, quite so good for longevity. However, I did get several years use from a burner, with no maintenance required at all. 

    David, what parts of the Maxie wear out (burn out)?
    The holes enlarge themselves so that the flame blows back and burns within the cavity of the burner, and there is a general sloughing off of flakes of oxide. The metal is thin, and I think, because it's brass, it's losing zinc. I should say that the Taylors burner cap also fails in the same way because the holes enlarge, but at least it's a loose part that can be replaced.


  • 24 Mar 2017 08:36
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    Reply # 4687131 on 1195343
    Anonymous member
    Following Arne's suggestion and moving from Weaverbird's Refit to here.

    Peter - and all those like you and me who are desperate for a decent metho/alcohol cooker.  I contacted 'John at Taylors' and suggested they go back to making/sourcing alcohol burners and offering them as an alternative to kero.  It's getting increasingly difficult to get good quality kero, but alcohol is more readily available.  If the burners are interchangeable, one could even swop over, if the one fuel became cheap/available and the other became expensive/unavailable (although the tank would need a good clean.)  If sufficient people do likewise and we could get through to him, this would be the answer to our prayers.  Hot, clean and efficient: just what we want in a cooker.
  • 29 May 2016 00:23
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    Reply # 4045375 on 4044924
    Anonymous member
    Arne Kverneland wrote:Luckily I am good at adapting to second-best solutions, so my Origo 3000 stove  -  simple as an anvil  -  will serve me just fine.

    Cheers, Arne

    It's always a lot easier to shape your dreams to your reality than to shape your reality to your dreams!
  • 28 May 2016 14:45
    Quote
    Reply # 4044924 on 1195343
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The idea of designing and developing a DIY-friendly, cleanly-burning  alcohol burner, which is safe and powerful, and which can be turned low for simmering, is of course quite attractive.

    However, I have a life to live and a boat to rig (..the 2-part mast for Ingeborg has just been assembled...), so that burner has been put on the back burner  -  on my maybe-some-day list. Luckily I am good at adapting to second-best solutions, so my Origo 3000 stove  -  simple as an anvil  -  will serve me just fine.

    Cheers, Arne

     

    Last modified: 28 May 2016 14:46 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 27 May 2016 05:11
    Quote
    Reply # 4041876 on 1195343
    Deleted user

    I think the Maxie is vaporizing the fuel just before the supply line reaches the burner and that the purpose of the little plate on the supply tube is to transfer heat and thus vaporize the fuel.  This is probably also the reason for the extra hole in the burner that directs a small flame at that plate on the supply tube in order to keep it hot.  One of the interesting things about the stove is that you can hear the fuel in the supply tank bubble on shutdown.  I think this happens because the liquid fuel can travel past the "heating plate" and into the section of tube that runs through the burner where it vaporizes, expands, and burps back into the tank.  This wouldn't happen if you already had liquid fuel in this section. 

    I think this also explains why raising your supply tank turbo-charges the burner.  Raising the pressure head doesn't just increase the fluid pressure of the alcohol, it would also create a higher pressure in the vaporized alcohol after the heating plate.  A higher gas pressure would exit the aperture after the valve at a greater velocity and thus entrain more air and oxygen.  So it really is a bit like a turbo.

    Looks like the valve we would need is called an "angle needle valve"  they seem to come in fluid and gas varieties.   I think the difference may be a finer taper on the gas variety to provide finer control over the flow.  Of course anyone who has a Maxie could probably reuse the valves when making new burners.
  • 26 May 2016 22:23
    Quote
    Reply # 4041397 on 4040218
    Anonymous member
    David Tyler wrote:

    Doing a little more research, I find that there used to be another Australian-made alcohol stove, the Ravia, with a burner designed on the same principle as, but not quite  identical to, the Maxie burner. There are some good photos on this forum thread. I wonder how long ago these were made, and what the burners were made from, and all sorts of other questions.


    That stove looks so like a Maxie, that you can't help wondering if they didn't buy out Ravia.  I hope, by the by, that you noticed the instructions, David, and the one about re-filling the cooker when it's lit?  By the way, later down on the same thread there is someone raving about the Origo and saying it's a lot faster than the Maxie!  It just shows how preconceptions and/or preferences can distort the facts.

    Another wondrous source for arcane information about stoves of all types is the Classic Camp Stove forum.  These guys are nutters and enthusiasts of a calibre that make junkies look indifferent!  I gather that they even have their equivalent of junkets where they all discuss burners and spindles and heaven knows what else.  Some of the stoves even get lit!  Unfortunately, they seem intent on collecting them rather than reproducing them.  They have an online store which I have occasionally visited in the hope of finding alcohol burners.  It's a jolly good browse if you have a spare half hour or so, which alas I don't.
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

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