Sometimes, the "adventure" goes in directions which you aren't expecting. In fact, I suspect that any adventure that doesn't surprise isn't worth the time. With stoves, surprises aren’t good, but this is always a consideration when using white gas stoves, I think.
I went out this morning to test the fuel I used for the SimmerLite yesterday, and I pretty much found, I think, that at least
some of the fuel was old and probably contaminated with condensation after sitting for so long in the bottle, and that accounts, at least in part, for the "fireballs" I got when I started the SimmerLite yesterday.
I used the Primus Omnifuel, as I suggested I would in a previous post, with the MSR bottle I used previously with the SimmerLite. But I'd forgotten that I topped the MSR bottle off with fresh white gas when I finished with the SimmerLite. I also had my SVEA 123 and 123R stoves out yesterday because I'd been using them for some time without checking their fuel level, and had also topped off their little 4 oz tanks as well. This isn’t unusual for me – I use stoves pretty often, and refueling is a periodic feature of my mornings.
Note: "Topped off" is misleading AFA the SVEAs are concerned, because I
never completely fill the SVEA's small tank, mind you, only going up to the point that, after filling, I find that, with the tank stood on edge with the open filler hole at the top, that, when I slowly turn the tank in my hands to the right, I see the fuel at about 2 o'clock. That usually means the tank is about 2/3's full.
So, anyway, the fuel in the MSR bottle was a mixture of the fuel I'd used in the SimmerLite and a little more than the same amount again of fresh white gas. So the test using the Omnifuel today was flawed from the start.
The Omnifuel is normally a reliable performer, going from an alcohol prime directly to a solid blue flame. Today, it spouted a tiny bit of orange flame around the edges, though nothing like the SimmerLite’s fireballs yesterday. After about 25 seconds of running like this, it settled down to a steady blue flame, and I was able to heat my coffee water on it.
However, things didn't go as well as that sounds.Back on Monday the 20th I used the Omnifuel and the SVEA 123 (I posted about it a couple of days later on
page one of this thread.) I took the check valve retainer out and took a picture of it then, and ultimately lost the retaining spring when it bounced away onto the patio, eventually finding it when I spotted its shadow.
I probably should have pulled out the check valve
*NOTE* itself when I opened up the little "Mickey Mouse ears" retainer and its spring, because I think that, had I done that (maybe), I wouldn't have had the "adventure" I had today, though I might not have seen trouble in spite of looking at it.
Today, I'd just put the pot on the stove when I saw a dark stain on the concrete under the head of the pump. This is usually not a good sign. I watched the spot, and it didn't seem to go away as I expected it would since I figured, wrongly as it turned out, that it was just the result of some fuel leakage in my handling of the pump and bottle, though this rarely happens. I even moved the fuel bottle to see if the spot would dry, but merely succeeded in starting another smaller spot. So it was a continuing leak.
Not good.It's a good thing the water boiled as quickly as it did after I saw that second spot, because I was starting to get a bit nervous. I figured it wasn't all that big a deal because, if I did get a flame near the bottle, I could use the remainder of my water in the bottle to quench the fire, move the bottle and simply turn the stove off. But, instead, I flipped the bottle to its "off" position as usual, and the stove eventually issued a hiss from the jet, releasing the air in the bottle.
I went inside to make my coffee and eggs, but, after the stove had cooled and I came back, I disconnected everything and pulled the pump rod from the pump body.
There was gasoline almost 3/4s of the way up in the pump tube!This could mean only one thing I could think of: the check valve (which I'd failed to look at last Monday) had failed, and had allowed gasoline to flow back into the pump housing, eventually leaking out the top of the cylinder around the knurled knob just below the pump handle. Sure enough, after pouring the fuel in the pump back into the MSR bottle, reinserting the pump rod and handle into the tube and pulling the "Mickey Mouse ears" retainer, its spring, and then forcing the check valve out into my hand by pressing the pump handle down, I found that the check valve was badly coated with resins.
I later pulled the check valve from my fairly new OmniLite Ti, and here's how they looked next to each other. The OmniLite Ti check valve is the nice new-looking one on the right.
Just to make sure that I wasn't overreacting, I pulled the check valve from the pump I use on my Brunton Vapor, and it's on the left below. It's stained, but not nearly as badly as the Omnifuel's.
(200130: I zoomed this image a wee bit in order to get a closer view.)Needless to say, I had to use the pump service kit I had been so reluctant to consume only a week ago.
Then the wife and I went for our nightly 6 mile walk. We saw the rooster who lives about 2.5 miles away, and my wife fed the pig who's another 1.5 miles beyond that.
Lessons? Maybe you
should take an alcohol stove, esp. if you can't justify a WG stove for anything specific. :^D
ETA: *NOTE* After viewing a number of maintenance videos by Primus and others and reading some articles, I find that what I'm calling a "check valve" is referred to in those videos, as well as some things I read on the "Classic Camp Stoves" website as an NRV, or "non-return valve". But that's not all there is to this stuff.
There is no difference between check valve and Non Return Valve (NRV). Both are doing the function of avoiding reverse flow. If both sides of a valve is same phase, say liquid, then it is Check valve. if one is a gas vessel and inlet is liquid ,the valve is NRV and must be horizontal (for two phase its NRV).
and
NRV is used in vertical location where as check valve is used in horizontal location. Function is same for both.
control.com/forums/threads/check-valve-and-non-return-valve.23966/
God help us: we've crossed some sort of line, over which we should never have stepped.
It turns out that these sorts of valves are quite ubiquitous, and it turns out (if you can believe the internet) that the prevailing terms vary by nationality. In Great Britain, "non-return valve" reigns, in the U.S., "check valve" is the term. (Or maybe not. I find the "internets" overly treacherous.)
Just FYI.
Sorry if I sound as if I'm "addressing a mass audience" here. I am well aware that there are, at best, probably only one or two people actually taking the time to read this crap. :^D