Saturday, November 6, 2010

Oh Oh Oh O-O-h-h, Little China Stove

Apologies to David Bowie notwithstanding, I recently added an interesting multi-fuel camp stove to my collection. Normally, these remote fuel bottle stoves go for about $150 at reputable outdoor vultures stores. After reading lots on these Chinese knockoffs, I had to have one. Got it on Ebay for $29, but the total was closer to $60 by the time I had it in my grimy paws. First, a couple of photos:
The Box, Notice the spelling mistakes :)
Pump, Burner, Wrench, Fuel Bottle
Ready to roll
The orange fuel bottle will take white gas, car gas, kerosene, etc and will burn with varying degrees of success. The first drawback is the horrific blasting noise the thing makes. Look at this video to see/hear what I mean:

One of it's strong points is in the choice of fuel. If none of the liquid varieties suits your fancy, it easily attaches to most of those overpriced iso-butane canisters:
attached to $7 rip-off canister
I don't like the above canisters, but only because of their cost. The tightwad in me prefers the cheap "4 for $10 butane cans from Home Hardware". With an appropriate adapter they can be used, and are the choice if you don't want to mess with liquids. Adapter set-up below:
Cheaper option...
Close-up of adapter gizmo

Overall, I'm pleased with this little gem. With White Gas, it will boil a litre of water in under 3 minutes. It is also of a pretty simple design, and it comes with a wrench that can dismantle the burner, clean the nozzle/jet etc. Again, you get what you pay for (YMMV)...
Field Repair Wrench

IVECO...

 This beauty has been roaming around Central Newfoundland lately. I just grabbed some photos of it for fun...

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