Finally changed stoves. Should have done so decades ago.

[leghog]

About twenty years ago I bought an MSR WhisperLight International. At the time is was one of the latest and greatest lightweight compact backpacking stoves on the market so I bought it and used it. It served me well even though it isn't a fiddleless stove. Before the WhisperLight I was using an Army M-1950 squad stove made in the early 80s. Great stove but bulky.

Well the WhisperLight is now my son's stove, though he mostly uses an MSR Pocketrocket isobutane stove and alcohol stoves of his own making. I finally broke down and bought the stove I always should have used. An Optimus Svea. My sister has used one since the mid-'70s, and hers is still going strong. I recently found one new on-line for ~$82.50 shipped. This thing is bombproof and needs not be fiddled with. Easy to prime. Simple to use. Durable and always reliable. The Svea 123R only has two moving parts. No pump as no pumping is required. The design has been around for 60 years now so it is bulkier and a bit heavier than the latest and greatest gas stoves. But the design is truly iconic. Sometimes the old ways are truly the best ways, and the Svea 123 fits that category well. It really was a standard setter, and as far as I'm concerned, the design still is.

 

[LostViking]

I have one and could not agree more. Plus, I love looking at all that shiny brass.

Unless something very unusual happens. You should still be enjoying it 30 or 40 years from now!

 

[leghog]

Svea 123R

 

[kindasharp]

Looks like a top quality built stove. I never used one, just some twigs and sticks, then pile on the branches and limbs, strike with Bic and wallah, fire! That was 40 years ago, now I use a stove when I camp, it is supported by a double axle and all the amenities. :thumbup:

 

[leghog]

Looks like a top quality built stove. I never used one, just some twigs and sticks, then pile on the branches and limbs, strike with Bic and wallah, fire! That was 40 years ago, now I use a stove when I camp, it is supported by a double axle and all the amenities. :thumbup:

I quit cooking on wood decades ago. Plus many of the places I visit fires are simply not allowed.

I truly do believe in leaving no trace excepting footprints and cat holes. We've ruined too many otherwise beautiful places.

 

[Mannlicher]

I drag out the old Svea 123 stove from time to time. It works great, despite it's many years of use. Sounds like a jet engine when it gets going.
Switched to a Pocket Rocket stove three or four years ago. Just less to mess with, no liquid gasoline, no priming by setting the whole stove on fire.

 

[Thomas Linton]

The Optimus 8R is the same mechanism in a less-tippy format.

 

[leghog]

The Optimus 8R is the same mechanism in a less-tippy format.

The 8R is also bulkier and weighs more.

I drag out the old Svea 123 stove from time to time. It works great, despite it's many years of use. Sounds like a jet engine when it gets going.
Switched to a Pocket Rocket stove three or four years ago. Just less to mess with, no liquid gasoline, no priming by setting the whole stove on fire.

I seriously doubt I'll ever go the isobutane route. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[neeman]

Congrats
the perfect stove
It has a great simmer for cooking real food on a low light

I have an Optimus 99, which is the same stove but the fuel on the side in an aluminum box
Light every time without fail in all weather

I purchased it new in 77, and it has worked at -40

I have the fuel pump, but they no longer make them
Worth while to look for it on the secondary market, because it make cold weather use very easy
A liter of unleaded gasoline lasted about a week, and that was cooking real food like lentils and rice for supper

 

[pinnah]

I bought mine in 1986 on a recommendation from a friend. I've used it yearly since then and have never once had a failure with it. Not once. In the same time, I've sat shivering watching a partner try to start his fouled MSR on many an occasion and twice (not my stoves) have had to grab a flaming MSR and toss it out of a hut while the pump assembly had caught fire, was burning and melting. I too am sticking with my Svea.

Full disclosure, this past year I replaced the wick. That's the only major service I've done in 30 years. A&H Enterprises stocks parts.
http://www.packstoves.org/

Full disclosure #2: Once during my first year with the stove, I over heated it when cooking at altitude (Yellowstone). I had the windscreen too close and the safety valve did it's job. As Colin Fletcher notes, this is only slightly less dramatic than an explosion (or MSR melting fuel pump burn up) and resulted in a 3 foot flame. After doing the heebie-jeebie dance for a minute and once I was confident that a *bang* wasn't about to happen, I was able to reach in and shut the stove down. I let it cool and it started right up just fine.

The fuel cap safety valve relies on an o-ring. It's a good idea to pack a spare o-ring, or lacking that, a spare filler cap (available from A&H Enterprises). Also, good to be aware of the direction the safety valve is pointing and most importantly, learn, as I did, to simply no overheat the stove by putting a windscreen too close for too long!!!

For priming, I prefer using Mautz fire-ribbon. Lacking that, I use firestarter wood sticks cut to small cubes. I know others who cut up and use Esbit style fuel.

For winter, I use a circular section of thin plywood as a) a more stable base and b) more importantly to prevent snow or cold ground from drawing the prime out of the stove.

More thoughts on the priming ritual here:
http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/DirtbagPinner/priming.txt

Full disclosure #3: My summer trips have gotten lighter and lighter and after discovering Batchstovez, my Svea has been relegated to cold weather use. I hope to get out later this month and often see snow by mid/late October. I'll probably take the Svea then.

Here's mine....

Svea 123 by Pinnah, on Flickr

Note 2 things... The MSR windscreen works great. Just don't get it too close for too long.

Also, note that the key is *NOT* attached to the stove. Never leave the key on the stove when it is running. Always take it off and put it back on to adjust the stove. Otherwise, you'll get a distinctive blister pattern on your fingers known only to Optimus stove owners.


Lastly, your post reminds me of Colin Fletcher's great advise to "Choose your stove wisely as it is often harder for a person to change religions than change stoves." Enjoy your new stove!!

 

[AreBeeBee]

I agree with all of Pinnah's points about the Svea 123 — it's a grand little machine. A long time ago, a friend had the Optimus 8R, and both Thomas Linton and Leghog are right: it's more stable but bigger and heavier. I also found that the 8R tended to get quite hot rather easily, and although I never had a blowout with it, that always worried me. My wife and I got the Svea back in the late 70s under influence of Colin Fletcher's book. No problems with it and always reliable even today, from sea level to ~10,000 foot elevations.

For priming, I've never used the Mautz fire ribbon, however. And to avoid Fletcher's burn-some-paper-to-prime-the-tank, we got the little air pump that fits on the fuelcap & safety valve. One pump is almost always enough to get an adequate squirt of fuel out for priming. But you won't need it the first time to light the stove after going up in elevation — the air pressure difference squirts out the priming gas nicely.

But note this well: before you fire it up, you do need to pay close attention to details — what it's sitting on, where the fuelcap/safety valve is pointing, using a windscreen (we have the 3-panel aluminum folding one) not too close, the fuel bottle is well away from the stove, and so on.

Love its cheerful little roar.

 

[Zoomie517]

Interesting. I too have run a Pocket Rocket set up for years and love it.

How efficient is this thing on fuel? Dragging around a new liquid fails to blow my dress up.

 

[leghog]

Interesting. I too have run a Pocket Rocket set up for years and love it.

How efficient is this thing on fuel? Dragging around a new liquid fails to blow my dress up.

Fuel efficiency:

Regarding the efficiency of stoves, keep in mind that other than the Snow Peak Giga, I know of no other top mounted canister stove for which you can use a wind screen without danger of the canister exploding.


You should also consider fuel costs:

Costs are a greater concern in cold whether where you end up at home with partially filled butane containers that would not flow in the cold. The gas is still in the canister but wasn't useable in the field so you not only didn't get the burn time from the canister you'd have gotten in warm weather thus having to take more canisters in the field, you also end up with a stock of partially filled canisters at home. Will you take multiples of those partially filled canisters with you next time you're out in warm weather?

Different strokes for different folks. Canister stoves just aren't my cup of tea.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Great design, but a bit heavy. Keep an eye on the fuel cap... if/when the gasket gets worn, it can spit flame back at you, which is discomfiting. Loved my Whisperlite, especially in the winter. Most often now I go with a MSR Pocket Rocket for convenience and light weight.

 

[Zoomie517]

Big thanks for the schooling, Leghog !

 

[Raymond1000]

In my salad days an old timer told me;

“Some people swear by their stoves. Some people swear at their stoves. I swear by the Svea 123.”

He got that right.

 

[LostViking]

Temperature and Altitude,

Camp on flat ground, at sea level, on a warm day, the Svea 123 is a great stove. Camp on the side of a mountain above 8,000 feet, in sub-zero temperatures. The Svea is a really great stove.

 

[AreBeeBee]

Temperature and Altitude,

Camp on flat ground, at sea level, on a warm day, the Svea 123 is a great stove. Camp on the side of a mountain above 8,000 feet, in sub-zero temperatures. The Svea is a really great stove.

Very true! And i would add, Camp at sea level on a hot day, and make sure the relief valve points in a safe direction. (Should anyway.)

No, never had an "experience," but then I've always been careful not to let the little roaring beast overheat.

 

[upnorth]

Interesting thread. :thumbup:

 

[The Zieg]

I, too use the Svea, growing up on the words and drawings of The Complete Walker 1st ed. I've used others, including the MSR XGK, which was a monster originally designed just to melt snow and ice for mountaineering expeditions, but did well for weeks in the Alaskan bush. But I always come back to the Svea. Bought in '70s, same one still runs like a top.

Zieg