RE: [Paddlewise] Camp Stoves

Craig said on 26 October 2009

> a plethora of camping stoves available ... one of them is the new Primus

Count me an avid fan of the new Primus. I have had one and used nothing else
(when camping) for a year. Great bit of kit.

I know this sounds suspicious, after Craig's story of Paris, but I also
bought my last stove 40 years ago (a Svea, in Montreal) and it still does
the job with only a couple of new jets and seals over the many years.

However, she-who-must-be-placated became more vocal about the process of
spilling fuel onto the rim of the tank, setting fire to it to warm &
pressurise the tank and then cracking the valve to start the stove. Wouldn't
you just love to write that up for an OSH plan ;-)

So, after following the reviews of the new Jetboils and various other
company's attempts to get more usable heat out of a gas cylinder, I bought
the Primus EtaPower set. I was tempted to go for the multi-fuel version
(after all I've got all those old Sigg bottles for the petrol ;-) but they
were going to be a long time coming and expensive. So I settled for gas.

The thing is unbelievably fast, it's quiet, it can't fall over - whatever
you do or even if you kick it - and it's full of nice little ideas. PM me if
you're not sure how I feel...

I bought the second pot (1.7 L), because we like mash, rice or pasta with
our de-hi. This fits inside the standard pot and still allows you to nest
the burner, base & pot-grabber inside - so that the whole kit still zips up
into its insulated bag (a really nice touch for rice or warmed
re-hydration). I can even (when back-packing) carry a really small 100 gm
can of gas in there too - but a larger cylinder has to travel separately.
Not a big deal in the kayak and the stove sips gas.

Primus did 'stumble' on the nesting of the two pots, as the handle on the
small pot could chafe the inside (working surface) of the fry-pan (the
bigger pot's lid). If that all sounds complicated, just get a small
dishtowel ready to pack in with the pots when you first put it together and
you'll see what I mean. It's not hard to solve.

Other than that, it just works - and very well.

Best Regards
Paul Hayward, Auckland, New Zealand
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