Kelly kettle hacks

[haptalaon]

I have successfully spent a night out and cooked two meals and a coffee for the first time ^_^ (

Mechanically minded chapx, do you think it would be possible to make like. A rubber nozzle for the kettle. I've always thought the one feature it does not have is the ability to carry that first kettle of water inside the kettle itself. Is the rust risk just too high? Is there no way to have a removable rubber nozzle which would still be water tight? Would it be more viable to put a strap on the outside of the pack and carry my water kettle that way?

I'm also looking at the way it smokes when it's done cooking and thinking maybe a lid for the fire pit and stoppers for the holes to like, choke off the fire more effectively without dousing the embers.

And a fire shield of some kind to catch sparks (wow I am not running this thing among the conifers in summer)

And a fireproof bag to tip my charcoal into to save for another day and avoid fire risk & mess at the campsite.

And maybe a carry bag that's a little bit larger with interior pockets for cutlery and that little bit taller and more forgiving of size, maybe with a roll top because of mess.

And even an on-off lid for the chimney, to make the inner tower into a better storage compartment (for sticks or a pot of coffee)

... Give me your best ideas!

 

[Glow_worm]

The older versions had a cork which allowed water to be carried, now a daft whistle is supplied. As someone who likes to pack efficiently (small car!) I've always thought it really stupid that any kettle could possibly be designed which doesn't double as a water container.

I wonder if the move to the whistle is due to liability concerns if a user doesn't remove a bung before lighting?

Either way, my stainless Kelly kettle is either going to have a major operation soon, I will cut the screw spout from a stainless water bottle and braze it to the Kelly Kettle so I have a proper screw stopper for travelling filled.

That, or sell it and buy the Petromax version, which has a proper bung and seems an overall better design.

 

[Pattree]

Congratulations on your first camp kitchen. It’s good to hear.

Now:

What size Kelly Kettle?

Re - Trekker:
Your Kelly Kettle is no more a threat to the countryside than an open fire and in many regards less so. It’s much more efficient.

Patrick Kelly is working on a plastic bottle that fits inside the flu. You’ll be carrying the same weight whether it’s inside the Kettle or outside your pack.
I would strongly advise against corking the water jacket but it was done for many years. There were incidents when folk didn’t take it out which is why your kettle had the warning.

I’m trying to post pictures but suddenly BcUK is demanding cookies that it’s not going to get!!!!

I bought a little conical spray bottle, removed the pump and found that a Robinson squash bottle top fits fine. The conical bottle fits beautifully inside the flu.

If I have to choose between water, sticks and the Bialetti there is no contest!!!!!

I didn’t used to use the Kelly Kettle on trips that involved a bit of stealth camping. The smoke doesn’t worry me these days when wild camping any more than any fire would.

I usually carry a modified Bialetti coffee maker inside my Trekker.

A flu lid? Just work your way through your local supermarket looking for a plastic lidded product container that fits! (You’ll use all that face cream eventually )

I prefer a forage sack (folding Supermarket reusable bag) I hang it in my belt and start to pick up sticks as I travel towards evening camp - maybe the last hour of walking.

What are you burning that makes so much spark? A loosely rolled up ball of small wire mesh might sit on the flu and work as a spark catcher. No idea what it might do to the performance, you’ll have to do some homework on that.

I dump my ashes in the same hole that I dump other biodegradable waste. Have shovel, will travel. Otherwise a garden waste/rubble sack will carry it all home.

In more than 20 years of using a Kelly I have never found the problems that you describe to be significant. I’m not good at overthinking In a forest I’ll be in a clearing of some sort anyway. I don’t use it in dry bracken or near a ripening crop. I do carry a Trangia burner inside the little Trekker for those horrible mornings when it’s wet, freezing and you need to move on. It’s nothing like a quick as a fire but it does the job.

Just mess about with your Kettle as often as you can and you will shake down a routine that works for you. There will be as much advice as you need here but the best ideas are the ones that you create for yourself.
Enjoy.

One more try to attach bloody pictures!
Aha. The elves have left the clearing!

 

[Glow_worm]

I would strongly advise against corking the water jacket but it was done for many years. There were incidents when folk didn’t take it out which is why your kettle had the warning.

Both sizes of Petromax fire kettle come with a proper screw bung for transporting water, so the Germans at least still trust users to read instructions! I used one of them recently and was well impressed.

Given the increased momentum of avoiding keeping drinking water in plastic bottles, and avoiding plastic goods in general, manufacturing a plastic bottle to fit inside the flue rather than using the already-existing water jacket like Petromax seems a bit desperate, not to mention extremely messy in terms of soot!

 

[Pattree]

pee ess

THIS


ALL FITS THUS

 

[Pattree]

@Glow_worm I strongly suggest that you buy a Petromax.

 

[Glow_worm]

I probably will, less effort than modifying a Kelly to suit my needs!

 

[chas brookes]

Re snuffing fire I use a cheap camping mug from charity shop. Knocks the fire down, embers keep glowing and you can nearly always blow them back to life for a coffee top up

 

[Pattree]

I really like the mug idea.

As an alternative look what I’ve just stumbled across:

This is the closure from a 70mm Post Office document tube. It clips on perfectly upside down.

I wouldn’t do it myself but if you want to, there you go.

Obviously this is for your stick carrying not snuffing the fire.

 

[Pattree]

Thanks @chas brookes . I’ll try that with the Zebra pot tray!

 

[ijohnson]

There is a chap on eBay who sells waxed cotton canvas bags for kettles (mine is a Ghillie). If I can find the link I'll add it.

edit to add : https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/kerrykezvharvey80

In terms of the sparks and the fire after the kettle has boiled. I think the trick is in the fuelling. Keep fuel use to a minimum to avoid the fire roaring too much and producing sparks, and it has the added benefit of the fire being very low on fuel once the kettle is boiled so it burns out quickly. Allows a much quicker pack-up I find. It does take a bit of practice. I have once or twice used too little fuel and had the fire go out before the kettle has boiled. That is a pain you can do without, but like most things, practice makes perfect.

 

[Pattree]

Fuel adjustment is indeed an art but as I normally cook after I’ve boiled a Kettle full the only adjustment that I need is when to stop using long sticks and start dropping shorter chunks. (So I don’t spill burning twigs out of the fire base). It gets to be a habit.

This is my home made Trekker bag. It holds the Trekker sitting in a 14cm Zebra pot.


And it opens out to be a kneeling mat/ sit mat.



Or a ”table cloth“.

 

[Jared]

Eydon have replacement corks

STORM™ Kettle Replacement Cork - Eydon Kettle Company

The Large cork is ONLY for the “Original” Kettle

eydonkettle.co.uk

No idea if it'd fit, but tapered nature of them helps.

 

[Pattree]

I do not recommend the hack below!
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

I cannot see the need.

600ml of water in a 120gm plastic or aluminium bottle it’s an insignificant weight gain over a full Kettle and no one loads so tight that 650cc of added volume is significant in the pack.
It’s only your first mugfull. You’ll be carrying or foraging much more than that anyway.

But:
While I was putting that Post Office tube cap away where it should be, found another one.

It’s approximately 36mm dia. again from a standard Post Office document tube.
It fits perfectly.
It’s not very tight.
The plastic is thin enough that I think it would soften and not build up a huge pressure if you forgot to remove it.


I just wish it had some sort of flag to warn you that it was still in position.

Lightbulb - you could eye bolt (plus rubber washer) and chain the two white caps together. That way you’d remove them together.

I’m just off out of the door to go on a camp in the Welsh hills or I would do it as a demo.

 

[Bert]

I don't think you should worry.
By the time the pressure mount, the plastic would be so warm that it pops off, or maybe makes a nice "airballoon"?

 

[Hammock_man]

I would have thought it would soften, deform then fall in the water chamber !!!
By all means its a good idea to save spills on way back from a tap but to cart around in a pack; not for me.
Mind you I do like the Mat / Case a few posts back.

 

[Pattree]

The whole idea is that you don’t leave it in!!!

 

[Hammock_man]

The whole idea is that you don’t leave it in!!!

Whole idea yes... real world...Oh Bug%er

 

[Falstaff]

Not having seen one in action, but why in both makes is the burn chamber smaller than the diameter of the kettle? I see the Petromax has stabilising legs, but having a smaller chamber at the bottom on both seems to make everything unnecessarily unstable?

 

[Pattree]

They all have legs if you want legs but I find that they are a bloody nuisance.

They all have pot rests for the flu but of very little use because the kettle boils so quickly and you have to stop. Also the extra height of the pot stand and cooking pot, together with the extra weight above the top of the flu affects stability with or without legs.
That’s why Kelly produced the Hobo.

Not having seen one in action, but why in both makes is the burn chamber smaller than the diameter of the kettle?

It isn’t. The flu is conical inside the water jacket and it accelerates the flu gases.