[pct-l] SVEA-123 Adventures

Mon Jan 21 09:48:53 CST 2013

Good morning,

I don’t think Ned’s story is really about the peculiarities of a little gas
stove, I believe it's a superior example of why one should not use a stove
in the tent.  From this, and other writings over the years, Ned seems to
approve of using a stove in the tent, while I do not.  We all get to decide
for ourselves.

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/

On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 11:09 PM, Ned Tibbits <ned at mountaineducation.org>wrote:

> All in all, there's nothing like a hot meal on a cold day in the woods!
>
> My Svea lasted forever and still runs great, though we don't do any hiking
> with it anymore, just teaching our students what stoves did "in the old
> days!"
>
> Part of the morning's joys were to see if you could start the stove. I
> didn't try any of the "crotch-cuddling" that Chuck spoke of, but rather
> used a plastic eye dropper to place fuel in the basin on top of the tank,
> light it with a BIC lighter, and pray that it was enough to get the "little
> engine that could" going!
>
> Loved that noise, too, Scott! There were times when you couldn't hear your
> friend talking to you from the next tent over because of the stove roar.
> Outstanding fun.
>
> Only had one disaster with the little stove and found out that you can't
> cook for too many guests one after the other on the same running stove. The
> problem with the Svea was that the burner was attached to the tank. The
> hotter and longer the burner ran, the hotter the tank got...to the point of
> explosion!
>
> I wasn't in the tent at the time (had to step out for a minute), but those
> running the stove said that a little flame appeared coming out of the
> pressure-relief valve in the gas cap while the stove was running. They
> yelled out to me the situation and I yelled back (it was snowing at the
> time) to throw the stove out of the tent immediately!
>
> Unfortunately, they shut the stove off, then threw it out the door into
> the snow whereupon the pressure grew even more and the fireball outside the
> tent must have been 8 feet in diameter!
>
> Needless to say, we couldn't use the stove until we got to the next town
> and found a way (in southern New Mexico) to replace the cap!
>
>
>
> Ned Tibbits, Director
> Mountain Education
> www.mountaineducation.org
> -----Original Message----- From: Scott Williams
> Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2013 8:52 PM
> To: CHUCK CHELIN
> Cc: PCT listserve
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] SVEA-123 Adventures
>
>
> There's some memories.  I've still got my original Primus Stove from about
> 1959 or so, brass tank and little tin box it all sat in as a pot stand.  If
> you couldn't get your freezing hands to warm it up enough to force some gas
> out into the little cup at the top, we'd all stand around it and light a
> match and hold that under the gas tank to build up the pressure.  Then if
> it still didn't send up any gas you realized the nozzle was jammed and you
> had a very fine stiff wire attached to a little piece of sheet metal which
> could be used to clean out the nozzle.
>
> So then you finally got some gas in the cup and lit it, and it sputtered
> and started to heat and pressurize the tank.  As it did so at first it
> would send out a jet of pure, unvaporized white gas which would always
> splatter a bit, not good for white gas.  Then quickly enough that
> sputtering liquid would heat the nozzle  enough to vaporize the following
> gas, and it would set up its miniature steam engine, staccato clamor, a
> signature sound in the wilderness in those days, and start to heat your
> food.
>
> I just Googled vintage Primus and discovered that it was based on the hand
> held blowtorches of the 1890s.  Well, it sure sounded like one, and you
> could probably weld steal with one.  It didn't shut down when you had it on
> its side.  If you took off the little brass plate on the top it would have
> had a straight jet of flame.
>
> Those were the days.  I guess.  I can still hear that stutter in the woods.
>
> Shroomer
>
> On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 10:30 AM, CHUCK CHELIN <steeleye at wildblue.net
> >wrote:
>
>  Good morning,
>>
>> Regular users of the SVEA-123 are correct when they responded that under
>> average conditions the stove really isn’t all that difficult to start,
>> however my situation was a bit different:  I didn’t use it under average
>> conditions.  In the late-50’s and through the 60’s I mostly used a tiny
>> campfire to heat food in a modified, traditional Sierra Cup – by modified
>> I
>> mean the wire handle had been re-bent to allow the end of a stick to be
>> inserted for security over a fire.  The fire was seldom fed with sticks
>> larger than a pencil.  That worked well except that during three of the
>> four seasons here in the Pacific NW -- autumn rain, winter snow, and
>> spring
>> rain -- the little sticks are wet.
>>
>> That’s when I got the SVEA-123.  When conditions were right it started OK,
>> but there was none of this modern-day turn-the-knob and touch-a-match
>> business.   It was first necessary to put some fuel in the little recessed
>> channel at the top of the tank which, when lit, would simultaneously heat
>> the tank so fuel would be slightly pressurized and available to the valve,
>> plus it would get the burner hot enough to vaporize the gas when the valve
>> was opened.  Simple…sort of.
>>
>> One problem was, it was difficult to pour the correct amount of fuel into
>> the little recess.  Too little fuel wouldn’t hack it, and too much would
>> run out and all around the tank so it was necessary to wait for it to
>> evaporate before lighting, else there would be a nice fireball.
>>
>> Some people carried a separate little squeeze bottle of fuel which was OK,
>> but it was just one more thing to fuss with, and there was a risk having
>> it
>> leak all over the pack.
>>
>> A more typical plan was to warm the stove tank with the hands, thereby
>> creating just enough pressure inside to blow a small amount of fuel out of
>> the valve when it is cracked slightly open; fuel which then ran down the
>> stem to fill the little recess.  When the recess was full the valve was
>> closed for lighting.  In theory that works OK, except for two things: When
>> the stove was shut off the evening before the tank was sealed.  The next
>> morning when the tank was very cold a small vacuum had probably been
>> created inside, and my hands couldn’t provide enough heat to overcome it
>> unless I first remembered to briefly open the valve to “let the vacuum
>>  out”
>> before closing it again for hand-heating.  If I didn’t do all that in the
>> correct order, and usually even if I did, the tank wouldn’t blow like it
>> was supposed to, it sucked -- both literally and figuratively.
>>
>> In the cold conditions when I used the stove I didn’t want to fiddle
>> around
>> seemingly-forever trying to get the stove started, and my hands got cold
>> faster than the stove got warm so when the valve was opened nothing
>> happened.
>>
>> The next step was to find some greater source of body heat for the tank
>> but, believe me boys and girls, on a frosty morning I didn’t really like
>> having to spend several minutes crotch-cuddling a 1-pound chunk of
>> ice-cold
>> brass.
>>
>> One solution was to retrofit the stove with a little pump by changing to a
>> tank cap that had a check valve to accept the pump.  Problem solved ---
>> maybe:  Push on the pump, give it a few strokes to increase the tank
>> pressure, crack open the valve, and then watch as fuel is quickly blown
>> out
>> to enclose the outside of the tank and soak my glove.  It worked
>> eventually, but I had to remember to remove the pump adapter cap after the
>> stove was shut off, and replace it with the standard cap – assuming I
>> didn’t forget to bring it – because the check valve was notorious for
>> leaking fuel into my pack.
>>
>> None of that addresses the regular need to field-strip the stove to find
>> plugged orifices or leaky o-rings.  Oops, I didn’t really drop that tiny
>> o-ring in the gravel, did I?
>>
>> The solution for all of those problems was to retire the SVEA-123 to the
>> back of the gear locker and begin using solid fuel in bad weather in just
>> the same way I used a little wood fire in good weather.
>>
>> All of this eventually lead to the current method of not jacking-around
>> with a stove at all, but eating cold chow instead.
>>
>> Quite often the “good old days”, weren’t.
>>
>> Steel-Eye
>>
>> -Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965
>>
>> http://www.trailjournals.com/**steel-eye<http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye>
>> http://www.trailjournals.com/**SteelEye09/<http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/>
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