The ultimate Swiss Volcano Stove mod (updated and picture heavy)

[mountainm]

Right, thanks to the generosity of Raikey and Capt.dunc I have put the finishing touches to my brew kit. Other people favour the crusader, and sure there are more compact options, lighter options around - the SAT has it's advantages when cooking larger portions. But for a brew for 1 or 2 I find this setup suits me perfectly. I've posted some of this before but I've been told the post was invisible and as I've updated the kit I thought I'd share again.

So with not much further ado I'll show you how I've got it set up.

First, my latest acquisition - a bag to stow it all in, this is a nice canvas jobby bought from a dodgy knife and airsoft shop in york for £4. Not sure what it was in a previous life but it's perfectly suited to the task.

It has pockets in the lid - perfect for my alpkit folding titanium cutlery

inner side pockets for fuel bottle, pot cosy and my all new lid (more on that in a bit) plus space to store a couple of boil in the bag pouches, tea bags etc.

So here it is - fits perfectly - the yellow bottle is my fuel bottle (an old aquarium dechlorinator bottle) the black cylinder thing is an ozzy "stubby holder" makes a great pot cosy.

All the bits dismantled - note the picture wire on the tatonka burner. This allows me to lower the burner into the stove ready for lighting without spilling any fuel. The ally ring makes a great finger handle - it's out of an old hard drive.

This is the burner set up in kettle mode. The bottle is a stainless steel glogg with a flat lid it replaces the ally corked one and offers a little more security plus space for another cup. Obviously the lid would be off in use. Spare cup fits on neatly inside the larger volcano cup to stash away.

In cup mode - the bottle helps steady the setup.

Cup with lid on. This is taken from a balvenie lid and now after a bit of persuasion fits perfectly. May make a little handle for it.

Cup with lid and pot cosy.

Thanks for reading, would love to see any other mods/setups.

Cheers

Mike

 

[greenwood]

nice setup buddy, i have just modded my crusader wright up soon.

 

[Toddy]

See if you're passing that shop anytime soon ? would you pick up another one of those bags please ?
Happy to cover costs, p&p, etc
It looks absolutely the bees knees for it

Neat idea on the cup lid too warthog 1981 made one for me like the ones he makes for the crusader cups; it makes a real difference to the heat loss

cheers,
Toddy

 

[mountainm]

See if you're passing that shop anytime soon ? would you pick up another one of those bags please ?
Happy to cover costs, p&p, etc
It looks absolutely the bees knees for it

cheers,
Toddy

Hi Toddy, sure - I may be in York this weekend and I'll have a look for you.

 

[Toddy]

Thank you

atb,
M

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Really nice work Mike. I particularly like the lid. Any excuse to buy another malt lol

 

[mountainm]

It was a real stroke of luck that the lid fitted... Shame in a way, think of all the single malt I could've enjoyed trying to find the perfect match.

 

[Toddy]

What did you use for your cup cosy ?
I have some really thick heavy brown felted wool that I was going to use to insulate mine. I reckoned it was safe near fire too, so an added bonus.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[mountainm]

Mine's a neoprene beer bottle holder. Bit of a stretch, not fire safe at all! :what:

 

[Toddy]

Would you like some of this wool ? I've a fair load of scraps of it.
A cup shape made of it will stand up on it's own no bother at all.

cheers,
M

 

[mountainm]

That would be marvellous, thanks!

 

[Toddy]

I'll dig it out, send me a pm with your address and I'll get it into the post

cheers,
M

 

[The_Taffinch]

Following Mountain's excellent suggestion of using a burner in combo with the Swiss Stove made in the light of Tom and my recent trip report (and with apologies for not thanking him at the time), I ordered a Trangia burner from Cotswold Outdoor using some vouchers that I had been given for my Birthday. It arrived yesterday and I today I bought some meths and retired to my shed for and experimental brew up. I have to say that the results were somewhat disconcerting.

I started by pouring a small amount of meths into the burner and lowering it into the stove. I kept the lid on to ensure there was no spillage and then reached in an unscrewed it. Upon lighting the central pool of meths ignited initially into a single central flame, but after a few seconds the burn switched to a number of 'flamelets' from the holes around the outside edge, each of 1-2 inches high. This is exactly what I had anticipated so I lowered the water bottle - which was about a quarter full - into the stove so that it rested on the bracket provided by the notch on the lowered retaining wire. And for a few seconds everything was calm an good.

But then after less than a minute things began to change. The first thing I noticed was a distinct increase in the noise of the burner followed by a noxious smell which made my eyes sting. Flames were coming out from the upper holes in the stove and something was clearly amiss. At this point I removed the flask from the stove and the flames were now about 6in to a foot above the rim of the stove. Looking down from a height (the stove was on the floor) I could see the meths boiling in the burner. This didn't seem right so I attempted to extinguish the burner by dropping in the simmer ring. Unfortunately, it flipped over as I dropped it and didn't land squarely on the burner with the result on the flames and I later found out that the coating on the simmer flap was burnt off. Flames were now jetting almost horizontally from the upper burner holes and things were in danger of getting out of control so I carefully wrapped the stove in a fire blanket which I always keep handy, and the whole thing was extinguished in seconds.

My shed has a concrete floor (on which the stove was placed), it is well ventilated, and I keep the fire blanket ready plus I have a bucket of sand in case of extreme problems, so it was a fairly controlled environment but it really worried me about what would happen if I was using this outdoors or in a more enclosed space.

When the burner had cooled, I lit again but this time out of the stove. The burn this time was much more controlled, especially with the simmer ring fitted, although the flames did rise to 4-6in. on a couple of occasions.

I reckon that a couple of things are going on here. Firstly, the air draw is too much in the stove creating a turbo jet effect, and possibly the stove gets so hot that it heats the burner, vaporising the meths so that it burns from the central resevoir pool rather the ring of small ports.

When I get chance, I will try a further experiment where I will place some sort of insulating part under the burner to see if this prevents it heating up too much and check my theory.

This is the first time I've used a spirit burner so the above might be quite normal - please let me know if so - but it didn't feel right and I for one will be wary of using a burner in the Swiss Army stove for now. I will be sticking to sticks and twigs for a bit.

Kind regards,
Matt.

 

[Toddy]

Ah, kind of scary that :yikes:

I believe the stoves were intended to be used with a disposable gel burner. Those of us who bought the stoves years ago got hold of greenheat gel sachets instead.
They work out kind of expensive but you can buy big cans of chaffing gel and decant it into something suitable (works in a wide holed squirty bottle for instance)

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Mike8472]

I have used both a trangia burner and vargo triad in my rocket stove and never experienced what you have described in your shed. Although I have only used mine whilst out camping and mainly on the hills and mainly use the cup for heating water rather than the flask.

Maybe the temperature of the environment and lack of breeze/wind and the cup sealing the top when in use are big mitigating factors

 

[mountainm]

very odd, I regularly use my tatonka, a pop can stove and a monkey boy stove in mine with no odd side effects.

 

[ged]

... I ordered a Trangia burner ... retired to my shed for and experimental brew up. I have to say that the results were somewhat disconcerting.

Although in the event you seem to have had it covered I wouldn't recommend do any experiment of this nature in a shed. Nor anywhere indoors, in fact.

The Trangia burner and the Tatonka burner are very different animals. The Trangia is brass, a good heat conductor, while the Tatonka burner is stainless steel, a relatively poor conductor.

Trangia burners can and do get a bit carried away if you put them in an enclosure not designed for them. I was once very impressed by the performance in an Aldi drainer, and I'm a semi-pro pyromaniac.

If you look at the Trangia 25 and 27 setups you'll see that there's a lot of air flow around the burner. Any setup without that air flow is more likely to overheat the fuel in the Trangia burner and I'm not sure it will be safe.

Having said that I'm not convinced that the OP's setup is beyond question. As Mary says these things are intended for use with a different fuel, but I'm sure we'll hear more about it in time and I'll keep an open mind about it. Might even experiment myself, but the volcano stove is one I've never (yet) owned.

 

[The_Taffinch]

Thanks both.

Maybe I've got a dodgy burner. I'll have another tinker tomorrow.

I saw some chaffing gel in my local hardware store today. So I might try some of that. I guess you can just squirt some directly onto the bottom of the stove and light it?

 

[mountainm]

There wasn't something on the bottom of the bottle burning off was there? Tar maybe?

 

[The_Taffinch]

No, I don't think so. The bottom of the flask was a little discoloured, but I think this was due to the burner rather than anything on the bottle itself.

The annoying thing was that it heated the water nicely, but I never got the chance to enjoy my brew.