Hiking stoves

Thanks ST, informative article.

I also still use the camping gaz stove, and have shared your experience, although not to the extent that the stove died, in colder conditions. I began to think I should have heeded all the warnings about gas at altitude and in cold conditions etc, and should dig out my liquid fuel stove, when somebody tipped me off to keep the cylinder warm. Now I better understand the chemistry and physics behind this!

No problem. The info was all new to me, as I have never really looked into the chemistry of it, or how these things actually work. Were it not for a couple of the comments on this thread, I would still not be any the wiser about the physics and chemistry of the humble burner.

I would strongly advise against playing around with modifying to an inverted gas system. The valve is just not made for liquid and problems may only arise in the long-term. Read, high up on the mountain in the freezing cold, watching your tent and kit burn down while attending to your serious burn wounds.
I must say, these ultra light sites are a constant source of:
Useful hints and tips, Mild amusement, shock and horror, head shaking.
My personal approach to the mountain is one of respect, she expects you to be well prepared and she punishes those who are not. Imagine being camped at 3000m and depending on a stove made from an old coke tin and some folded tinfoil ( But it weighs nothing mate), and if you are that cheap, don't tell me that you invested in a descent fuel container, so, methylated spirits soaked dog biscuits anyone. Kind of negates the need for a stove.

There we go ST, from geek to preacher to BOF (No, not boffin, rather Boring Old Fart)

@geordie - nothing wrong with being a safe boring old fart . I would agree 150%, I would far rather buy a properly designed system that has gone through all the research than a jury rigged system. With my cameras, I am prepared to do a bit of my own tinkering with certain things, but with fire producing apparatus I will leave it to the experts, especially when in a tent at 3000m. I think that a correctly engineered and commercially available inverted system certainly makes sense for high altitude and cold conditions.

I think with everything on the internet and on this current article, there is information that we can use to educate ourselves and there is info that is interesting but does not have to be implemented. I certainly was not going to take the time and effort to copy and paste only the bits that were information based.

Not a Berg story this one, but the thread did remind me. We did a trip to SW Egypt (Jebel Uweinat on the Libya, Sudan, Egypt triple point) a few years ago. Egyptian red tape meant we used Egyptian cars which always come with their own drivers. All 3 cars were hard to start in the frosty mornings - in fact only one would fire up reliably off its own battery. And to get that one going, there was a morning routine which began by putting the gas cylinder on the gas burner and lighting the gas burner (flames would then heat the cylinder) - presumably to take care of the chem and physics we've discussed. After about 5 minutes of cooking the gas cylinder, the burner would go under the sump of vehicle nr 1 to heat the sump oil. Precious water was used every day to douse the burning oil leaks. Jebel Uweinat is quite remote, each car had 600L of fuel in it. I used to view all this from a 'safe' distance of about 1km, with a bag of water and a satellite phone in case the chem/phys got overcooked as it were.

Climbing Jebel Uweinat wasn't the hardest part of that trip!

Viva free access to information viva, those sites I mentioned have taught me a lot and dare I say it, helped to shave off some of those grams.
They do insist however, that everything taken along, must have a dual or multi purpose which raises the question. What else do I do with my trusty old jet boil other than, well, boil ,I guess. Will spend the weekend pondering that one.

Enjoy.

@Boerkie

Last year July my group had a Campingaz CV270 canister with a Lumostar lantern attached that exploded in Ledgers cave sending shrapnel and melted plastic all over the place.

When the lantern was lit a flame started spouting from the area where the two connect, We couldn’t extinguish the flame or handle the lantern to turn of the valve.

Makes for a pretty loud bang!

Wow graemeka! I was beginning to think these stoves don't blow up and maybe they don't seeing that yours was a lantern. I think in the case you mention the lantern was not properly fixed to the canister or the o-ring was worn out. Either way I always do a double check before lighting a stove or lantern by 1. Listening for gas 2. Smelling for gas. Where did the melted plastic come from? I'm sure the bang made a couple of smugglers *&^% their pants

F.Y.I the sharp smell of gas is not it's natural smell but artificially added as a safety feature.

Seems like plenty of guys on this site is using gas canister stoves and not the liquid ones, thought it would be the other way around. I was once told that gas canister stoves would not work on a berg winter hike but it now seems do-able.

It also seems common practice to use the stove inside the tent???? You sure have more guts than I do. I'll use it in the vestibule in emergencies but with plenty of ventilation.

@boerkie

On one of my first trips in my new treklite 3 it was pouring outside and the vestibule was overcrowded by 3 backpacks, so I made ready for making boiling water in the tent. Now I've got one of those gas canisters with the "lighter switch", well sometimes (actually most times) the thing only lights the stove after like the 5th or 6th click, so eventualy when the thing caught flame, the flame from the fumes were big enough to make a nice big hole in my mesh in the one side.

Fixed it after the trip, and still got patch there right above the sign that says "WARNING do not use open flame inside the tent!"

@Boerkie,
You are right; a proper inspection of the equipment would have prevented the incident. The melted plastic came from the base of the lantern; I am rather embarrassed to say that the flame burnt for 3-4 minutes before the canister exploded.
From my experience, lighting gas stoves are always more predictable than the fuel ones. But only in the vestibule, not brave enough to cook in the tent.