A Blast from the Past

[RIP]

'Speak for yourself' - from the not-blowing-ourselves-up POV I meant

Stu's photo looks like some onlookers standing the recommended well-back one-mile-away while Tim ignites one of his krrrazeeeeeeee stoves .

[whitestone]

Crikey, this thread was from a lot longer ago than I thought, so holy thread resurrection Batman!

I finally got round to giving the old beast a test run ...

A litre of fire juice in the bottle. Attach fuel line to fuel bottle. Pump to get pressure. Open valve and let some fuel into the preheat tray. Use the flint ignitor to set that going. That gets you to this:



A minute or so later and there’s gasifying going on so open up valve again and let it rip. Except …

It spluttered a bit. So shut everything down and waited for it to cool down (about ten minutes!), I’d got the kerosene jet fitted not the gasoline one. A quick swap over and repeat the above process and … there’s the familiar Saturn V roar of old.

About three minutes after the stove is up and running the spreader plate is starting to glow!

[benp1]

Nice Bob

There's a wonderful comforting roar coming from them

My omnilite got used on a national trust bothy trip a while back, and will be again at easter (trip with the kids, before I get judged for booking a posh bothy). It was great for cooking dinners but cor blimey, it's loud! You certainly know I'm using it. Thinking about a berniedawg silencer

EDIT - about £45 including VAT and postage! Blimey, I'll stick with the stove as is then...

[lune ranger]

Long time MSR user and fanboy here.
The roar and occasional inexplicable fireball are really evocative for me... brings back memories of adventures past and good times had.

[BigdummySteve]

That is so FREAKING COOL. I've got one of these on my shelf - an Optimus stove that burns kero. It's massive and bulky and the fuel is dreadful but I take it on caravan trips for its entertainment value. It's incredibly temperamental - spurting and spluttering - but it makes a wonderful noise once it's up and running.

‘‘Tis a lovely thing that Tim, myself and my brothers used to cook bacon and sausages on exactly the same stove, different times I can’t imagine many 8 year olds being allowed to do that nowadays, much is the shame. I think it had something to do with having a grandad from Durham

[The Cumbrian]

I had one of those blue box Optimus stoves, and the last time I used it was in a howff beneath Gardoms Edge in about 1992. It leaked a fine jet of petrol that I didn't notice until it set fire to my rucsac hipbelt. Two six foot + lads tried to make ourselves as small as possible inside a the tiny space, before I came to my senses and managed to simultaneously stamp out the flames on my hipbelt and chuck the stove out at the same time. Miraculously it didn't explode, and the damp bracken put the stove out.

[Shewie]

I’ve still got my early 90’s Whisperlite which gets used on some winter trips if there’s snow to melt.
Despite running unleaded through it for many a year it still runs like new, although I do use better fuel these days.
I’m also partial to a bit of Svea action too but mine is a recent acquisition

[Mart]

Ive got a 35year old Optimus 123 Climber - a bit like this one https://www.optimusstoves.com/us/us/200 ... timus-svea

Its not as shiny as the one on the web but can produce a very hot and cherry red burn. Can also be controlled down to a simmer
Still love it but a bit heavy for bikepacking. Winter walking and mountaineering duties is where it comes into its own

[TheBrownDog]

Mart if you ever want to sell that puppy pleeeeeeease lemme know. It's one my bucket list of retro stoves, but everything I've seen on t'interweb is lately made, and I'm really only collecting proper retro stuff

[anagallis_arvensis]

My MSR Whisperlight is still regularly used for making hot drinks at my boys rugby tournaments. Always draws a crowd and then people laugh thinking it priming is it running, then it roars into life and boils a few pints in mins..