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.

The cleaning wire for an old-style SVEA 123 mics at .010 inch.

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.

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.

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.

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.