Would one of these have any place on a boat?

[Kelpie]

I cook on a paraffin cooker which uses Taylors burners, and live in constant fear of having to replace the burners at a cost of £90 a time.
Any campers amongst you might be aware of MSR camping stoves, which are highly regarded for those travelling off the beaten track. They are rugged, powerful, and able to run on a wide variety of fuels. In principle, they are an updated version of the old primus, which itself is basically the same as a Taylors burner.
The Chinese are now producing their own version of this camping stove, at about £30, and the reviews are generally good. e.g:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Multi-Fue...Portable-/151037885102?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

Would it be safe and/or practical to use these burners instead of Taylors? Or even just cannibalise an old boat cooker to use a pair of these stoves in place of gas burners?

 

[rbmatthews]

I used to have one of the first of these in my mountaineering days (~30 years ago, and in fact still have it in the garage somewhere). It certainly was an excellent stove, never let me down once, and could burn a number of fuels, even groundnut oil (with the appropriate jet)! I used paraffin mostly. The heat was fierce, especially with the windshield in place, and with snow packed all around it.

The only annoying thing I remember was that to turn it off you had to blow the flame out first, then turn the fuel off, so that the little bit of unburnt fuel flowing out would keep the jet clean. If instead you turned the fuel off first and allowed the flame to burn out, you would get particles of soot in the jet, and you couldn't start it next time without taking it out and using the little pr1cker supplied to clean it. The fresh fuel coming out onto the hot jet meant that you got quite a few paraffin fumes inside the tent. Otherwise it worked fine. I don't know if this was just my one, or whether they were all like that.

They were quite light and flimsy, ideal if you had to carry it in a backpack, but maybe not all that suitable for a boat, where you might want a more fixed installation.

However, I have no idea what the current ones are like, maybe they are quite different.

Robin.

 

[Kelpie]

What I've read is that you turn the fuel bottle onto its back, and this starves the fuel supply. So it doesn't sound as though you need to worry about sooting up these days. Maybe a blowtorch on hand to burn off any soot as you turn off the fuel supply?

If flimsiness is an issue, I was also wondering about the Coleman style stoves with integral tank. A pair of them hooked up to a gimballed frame with pan clamps on top could be the biz.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/portable-...692?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33845bf74c

 

[Kelpie]

Very interesting, thank you. Could you elaborate on what aspect of the burner is 'adjustable'? I think the cheap stoves can be throttled back by a valve on the fuel flow- is this a different mechanism to how the Taylors burners work?

P.S. I may have to pick your brains about disassembling and refurbishing these burners at some point

 

[Cymrogwyllt]

trangia served me well for many years. Only point to watch out for is to fill it before lighting. Trying to re fill it when hot leads to tears.

 

[Kelpie]

Thanks. I should have mentioned I actually use an Optimus stove, the burners are the same s Taylors though (I think?) and I referred to Taylors in my OP because more people have heard of em... Does this make a difference?

 

[Spuddy]

Thanks Vonasi - useful tips and two links.

 

[skipper681]

I was hoping this thread was going to show a Blonde and a Brunette when I clicked it