Category Archives: Gear

2004 in England

A week in England, including two days of hiking in England’s Lake District, which is actually also as close as England gets to a Mountain District.

I bought a big umbrella at Cotswolds in London. It was heavy as a walking stick, but its shelter was welcome more than once. It survived blasts of wind that crumpled the “windproof” umbrella I bought at REI.

Two good hikes, one on a day of hard rain and blustery winds.

There’s always lots of water in the Lake District.

The second day was as fine as anyone could ask for – temperature in the 60’s, mild breezes, partly cloudy with just a few minutes of haze in mid-afternoon.

We started from the tiny village of Seathwaite and climbed to the peak of Great Gable.

It is a marvellous hike up a steep trail, along an isolated glacial valley, and up to the peak of Green Gable and a stirring traverse across Windy Gap with incredible views of the bold rock face of Great Gable. Then a steep scramble to the peak.

We came down a different route through a valley with a large tarn giving out into a swift-running stream.

Reflectix cozy

I made a simple pot cozy for the Walmart Grease Pot. It’s just a cylinder of Reflectix insulation and aluminum tape the height of the sides of the pot, with a circular piece for the bottom. A second short cylinder and circular top cover the pot’s lid.

Here is the result of a kitchen test:

Test 1, with cozy:

Temp 61 deg. F
1 pint water to rolling boil, placed in cozy and covered.
45 minutes, T = 158 deg. F

Temp 59 deg. F
1 pint water to rolling boil, covered and let stand on folded kitchen towel.
45 minutes, T = 135 deg. F

After 45 minutes, the pot in the cozy was still at almost a cooking temperature (160 degrees is a good sterilizing temperature) while the non-cozy pot was much cooler. The difference would probably be much larger outdoors, where wind would cool the uncovered pot faster.

Cozy

Working on a cozy for the Grease Pot.

I’m using Reflectix, just a cylinder as tall as the pot and sized to fit the pot up to its rim. A circle of Reflectix for the base, and another short cylinder (an inch or so) for the top, also with a circular piece of Reflectix. Aluminum foil tape holds it all together, and it is light, effective, and easy to use (I can eat out of the pot with the pot in the bottom part, which helps keep the food hot).

It is kind of flimsy, but unlikely to get damaged because the pot will give it an endoskeleton, even in my pack. Plus it is not truly essential gear, if it’s damaged I’ll just use more fuel.

Sleeping bags

This weekend we slept out two nights on Michael’s boat. Julie and I were pretty comfortable – too warm, in fact- with a fleece blanket and the old North Face Chrysalis opened up as a comforter. We slept in the forward saloon, and I kept the main hatch wide open both nights.

The key thing was that the fleece blanket had enough friction to not slide off, and its fuzzy surface was warm and comfortable compared to the slippery nylon of a lightweight sleeping bag. Maybe a down comforter in lightweight materials with an attachable liner of fleece or some other flannel-like synthetic would be a good choice for couple camping.

More on SVEA

I tested the two SVEAs last night, boiling a quart of water and weighing to measure fuel usage. I’ll update later with the actual numbers, but the two stoves used 0.6-0.7 oz. weight of fuel to bring a quart of water to a full rolling boil, then simmer for a moment (I was also testing simmer capability).

I primed with about half a plastic eyedropper of stove fuel from the tank so that I’d include the weight of priming fuel in my total. It took two tries with the 123R, which also doesn’t simmer as easily. In short, the original 123 is lighter, lights easier, simmers better, and seems to be just as efficient. The only downsides I can see are the lack of a built-in cleaning needle and the crummy substitute control key. It’s a 123R key with the end bent to sort of fit.

It seems, by the way, that the old 123 doesn’t really need a rebuild at all. When I started to unscrew the burner what looks like a brand new wick came into view in the tank, so I just tunred it back in and left it as is. Too bad I spent the money on the rebuild kit and wick.

SVEA update

This is a repost, because WordPress ate the original when I tried to delete a test comment.

In a test last night, The SVEA 123R used 0.5 oz. (weight) of fuel to boil a quart of water in eight minutes.

Starting was balky and difficult though – warming by hand didn’t work, and I had to prime it twice with rubbing alcohol before it started. I need to test it more. There must be something wrong with my technique, or maybe rubbing alcohol doesn’t burn hot enough. An eyedropper of fuel technique might work better, or perhaps denatured instead of rubbing alcohol.

More SVEA thoughts

The SVEA 123 is pretty light but not maximally efficient. The burner alone weighs under ten ounces; adding the windscreen/pot support and the cup/cover brings it up to nearly double that.

It seems to me that a simple potstand to go over the burner could save five or six ounces, yet add a bit of wind protection. You wouldn’t want to be too protective (as in a surrounding windscreen) because you could reflect too much heat back to the burner and make it blow its pressure-relief valve.

One idea would be to make a circle-type stand of skeletonized flashing, leaving alternate quadrants at the top solid for wind protection, and paint the inside black using stove paint to absorb instead of reflecting heat.

Second SVEA

The nice lady at A&H told me that it might be possible to bend the burner of the damaged SVEA back in line. The danger, she says, is that it might leak at the entrance to the tank, and if it does, it can’t be fixed.

So I held the tank firmly down on my desk, looped three fingers around the burner, and pulled. Two or three good pulls and the burner was more or less in line. It still looks slightly tilted, but I don’t want to tempt fate by bending it back and forth for perfection.

It boiled a quart of water, then simmered for about ten minutes with no sign of leakage. I held a lighter flame next to the joint between the tank and burner but detected no sign of leakage. So now it looks like I have two SVEAs, a 123R and an original 123, all for $23.50 plus shipping from eBay.

The older stove seems to need a rebuild though. I can see no sign of a wick in it, and I’ve learned that you should never let a SVEA burn dry, as that can scorch the wick. This leads to inefficient burning – I thought it burned out too fast the first time I tried it. I have a wick on order along with the rebuild kit and replacement key from A&H.