Improving a kettle?

[Stew]

I was gifted a kettle a year or so back. Unfortunately it's not the most efficient at heating as I suspect the base is steel (I haven't tried to check).

While itay be wise to swap for a more efficient kettle, I feel it would be too rude (and obvious) to do so as it was a gift. I did get wondering if I put a lump of copper underneath if that would make a more efficient use of the stove or make no difference or possibly make it worse at boilin as its taking heat from the kettle as well?

please educate me!

 

[Goatboy]

How are you heating it? Gas flame, open fire?
I think sticking a lump of copper below would do little bar acting as a heat sink. Spreading it out would help but unless you had good metal on metal contact then conduction wouldn't be very efficient.
Have you tried a heat exchanger? Worked out the fuel/weight balance years ago for my pots and MSR stove meant that if the trip was longer than two days it was worth taking along for fuel saved. It did make the pots boil quicker too. Depending on your kettle size the MSR one may fit.
It could be your stove too, distance of flame to pot, whether heat is being wasted up the sides (heat exchanger would fix that), heat being blown away by wind (wind shield will fix) all sorts of stuff.
A bit more info/pictures may help.
Hope I've been of help,
GB.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Alan 13~7]

just a passing thought maybe not relevant, I not sure about the relationship between steel & copper... I was wondering like with steel & aluminium would sacrificial corrosion occur with steel & copper.

 

[Stew]

How are you heating it? Gas flame, open fire?
I think sticking a lump of copper below would do little bar acting as a heat sink. Spreading it out would help but unless you had good metal on metal contact then conduction wouldn't be very efficient.
Have you tried a heat exchanger? Worked out the fuel/weight balance years ago for my pots and MSR stove meant that if the trip was longer than two days it was worth taking along for fuel saved. It did make the pots boil quicker too. Depending on your kettle size the MSR one may fit.
It could be your stove too, distance of flame to pot, whether heat is being wasted up the sides (heat exchanger would fix that), heat being blown away by wind (wind shield will fix) all sorts of stuff.
A bit more info/pictures may help.
Hope I've been of help,
GB.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

Gas flame on a coleman stove.

Yes, distance may be a factor. It's definitely not an excess of flame up the sides as I keep the flame low (read a while back about a smaller flame can be more efficient) not wind issues.

I wouldn't go a heat exchange route as again, too obvious though it would be nice. Ideally I would just switch the kettle to one built in!

It was just idle musing so wondered what the thoughts were. I'm not too worried and I suppose I can just give it a try and see anyhow.

For small single person trips I use a wee Ti pot for water heating. This isn't that - family camping!

 

[Mesquite]

just a passing thought maybe not relevant, I not sure about the relationship between steel & copper... I was wondering like with steel & aluminium would sacrificial corrosion occur with steel & copper.

Nope, I've got saucepans with decent copper coated bottoms albeit for the kitchen but they do make them for camp cookware as well.

The sacrificial corrosion thing you refer to regarding ali and steel occurs mainly in salt water so shouldn't be an issue for saucepans. I think they even make frying pans with a thick layer of ali sandwiched in them as it's a better conductor of heat