[at-l] Svea 123 question

[psjones at fastmail.fm (Philip Jones)]

My parents gave me their old Svea 123 a few years ago.  I love it and have
never owned any other stove until recently.  I am trying out Tin Man's stove
now because it's so much lighter.  Here are some observations/suggestions
about the Svea:
 
1. The gasket in the fuel cap eventually got so hard (it was the original,
probably 30 years old) that it didn't form a good seal and the fuel tank
wouldn't pressurize, so it stopped working.  This happened in Death Valley,
but luckily my friend had brought a stove too.  Back home, I just picked at
the gasket for a while with an x-acto knife until I got it all out, then
went to the hardware store and found another hard black rubber gasket /of
the same thickness/, and used the x-acto knife to cut the hole and outside
diameter to size.  Just poke it back in with a paper clip.  It's worked fine
so far since, and it cost like 15 cents to fix.
 
2. I also get a flame coming out of the cap sometimes.  (My stove doesn't
have the pump adapter.)  Once it did have an awesome/scary 2-foot flame-up.
That was the only time, though.  In warmer weather, it's easy for the tank
to overpressurize after a while just because of the heat.  Ways to keep this
from happening are: Don't use a windscreen once you get the stove going,
because that reflects the heat back and just makes the tank hotter.  (I
think that's why the flare-up happened...also, that was with the old
gasket.)  Leave some room in the tank when you fill it.  Also, I've found
that when I do get a flaming cap, one way to keep it from happening again
(after blowing it out) is to turn the key to open the valve more and get a
bigger cooking flame.  This seems to be a good way to relieve some of the
pressure long enough to finish what I'm doing, which is usually boiling
water.  I should probably just get a new cap.
 
All in all, despite my fondness for the Svea, this is a good argument for
using a low-pressure alcohol stove, if you're just boiling water anyway...
 
Phil
 
 
<<You have one of these, don't you?  Does yours have packing material, like
cotton IN the fuel tank.  Is it safe to take this out ?  What purpose does
it serve ?
 
Also, when I burn Coleman fuel in it, there is a small flame which comes
from the screw-on fuel cap (right in the center).  It has the pump adapter
screw lid.  How for the life of me, does one replace the gasket ?  It's as
hard as a rock.??>>
 
I had one years ago. What I think should be in the fuel tank is a wick to
get the fuel from the bottom of the tank to the burner.
 
Next: STOP USING THAT CAP AND GET A NEW ONE!!!
Now that I have your attention, that part of the screw on cap is the safety
valve, which appears to be getting ready to let go. When it does you're
going to have three feet of flame coming out of the side of your stove.
And when you buy a new cap it will have the gasket in it so you won't have
to replace it...
 
skeeter