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.

The AGG two-quart pot arrived and it’s a winner.

It’s hard-anodized in that attractive Calphalon grey, ultralight, and similar in construction to the Walmart grease pot, with some important improvements:

The lid is not anodized.

At $18 it can’t be beat. Anodizing is supposed to improve bend strength, a real advantage when aluminum is thin. It won’t be quite as easy to clean as non-stick, but for this pot that’s a non-issue, as boiled meals will be easy to clean out anyway. If you want to fry or roast things, that might leave some tough residue, but I think you’d need a heavier pot anyway.

I field-tested my solo cooking system in the back yard yesterday.

I made a non-field-worthy pot cozy out of Reflectix and masking tape, as a test. Rather than have the bottom free and put a cup-like cozy over the pot, I decided to make a cozy like a sack that the pot goes into. A panel of insulation is attached permanently to the pot lid and stays in place while cooking, possibly helping to improve efficiency even when the full cozy isn’t used. After boiling, mixing etc. I just put the open pot down into the cozy (since the grease pot has no handles it needs to be open so I can use my pot gripper) and then put the lid on the pot.

I decided to use a package of Trader Joe’s white cheddar mac & cheese as a test. It required eight minutes of cooking, a fairly tough test.

I used my grape-juice can stove and one ounce of alcohol. Conditions were calm but with occasional gusts, about 48 degrees F.

Three cups of water didn’t quite boil when the stove went out at ten minutes, so I put the pot in the cozy, and let the stove cool for fifteen seconds or so. Then I added another half ounce of alcohol and relit it, putting the stove back on.

In another minute or so I had a full boil. I added the macaroni, stirred and covered. The aluminum flashing potstand/windscreen weighs more than a foil windscreen, but it shows its value when you need to stir sticky macaroni over heat.

After about a minute I had a full boil again, so I started my timer and cooked the macaroni uncovered at boil for about one more minute, when the stove started to go out. That’s when I quickly stirred one last time and put it in the cozy.

At the eight minute mark the macaroni was nicely cooked. Drained, it easily melted the cheese mix and some garlic butter I added (cheating a bit, there.) Not a bad on 1.5 oz. fuel.

The cozy add about 1 ounce to the weight of the grease pot and I think it’s a winner. If you do any cooking (vs. boiling for freeze-dry) it will more than save its weight in fuel. Next step is to put together a robust version, probably with aluminum tape, and fasten the top insulation to the lid with silicone.

This might be the solution to the cookware problem:
Titanium Middle Cooker 1800 (SCS-030T)

At two quarts, it’s lighter than my stainless 1-qt pot and comes with a frypan and separate lid/plate.

I set the Cloudburst up in the garage and seam sealed it. The directions say to seal the stress point seams, and don’t mention the ridgeline, so I didn’t do that.

I used GE Silicone II sealant diluted with mineral spirits. A wooden-handled cotton Q-tip gave me great control, and I wiped all the seams with a paper towel afterward to smooth things out.

The Tarptent seems pretty roomy, not as bomb-proof as my 8+ pound Moss Stardome, but certainly adequately protective.

The SVEA seller responded to my email, he’s been busy with family business but to apologize is sending “something extra”. I’m looking forward to trying out the stove.

Currently looking into lighweight cooking gear for two. Most of the popular ultralight gear is sized for solo hikers, especially through-hikers with minimal cooking requirements. If I’m going to get Julie interested I’ll need to find something she can cook in, not just heat water for freeze dried stuff.