hanging stoves

[letsroll]

I was up on hood this weekend and cooking any place other than inside your tent was not an option. I was unable to place my liquid fuel stove on the floor of my tent for fear of tiping it. So now for a new piece of gear. Are there liquid fuel hanging stoves? All I have seen are canister, why (would rather not buy a new stove)? Also has anybody made a hanging stove? Any other cosiderations?

[Gary_Yngve]

Personally, liquid-fuel stoves scare me in a tent. First there's priming it, which in my opinion, needs to be done outside or in a pit dug deep in the vestibule. Then there's the issue of water/soup falling on the flame and flaring it up.

 

I have no problems cooking with a canister stove in the tent. But my own protocol is I cook on my sleeping pad and I keep a hand on either the pot or the stove most of the time.

 

I believe Colin has stories to tell about holes burnt through their sleeping pads on their winter ascent of JBerg from stoves tipping.

[Jedi]

There's a couple was to make yor own.

Jedi

[letsroll]

So there are a couple of ways to make my own, well then I await your guidence oh master;)

[cj001f]

An older Climbing Gear Guide had tips for turning your Whisperlite into a hanging stove/windscreen. Buy a pot large enough to fit the stove, drill a bunch of wholes and stuff the Whisperlite in the bottom. Add wire and hang.

[rbw1966]

I have a hanging stove set up I'd sell for cheap. Its designed for a canister stove but I never cook in the tent. PM me if interested.

[Ade]

You can build a stand for a XGK or similar out of a bit of plywood and add some shock cords to it to hold the fuel bottle in place. Spray the wood with heat resistant muffler paint to stop it charring. This will make the stove a lot harder to tip and reduce the amount of heat transfered to thatever you rest it on. Note: with an XGK the underside of the wood still gets hot enough to delaminate a thermarest.

 

I've used this system on many occasions with no serious mishap. Not that I'm in any way suggesting that it's safe or that you should use it.

 

I've also seen a Dragonfly converted into a hanging stove setup but not seen it used inside a tent. Seemed like a fair bit of thin wire and some swages were all that was required.

 

Hanging a stove doesn't solve all the problems anyways. The stove can still flare, in which case hanging it puts the flames closer to the tent roof. You also have something very hot hanging in the middle of the tent waiting to melt anything that comes near it.

 

The most important thing to consider is adequate ventilation when cooking in a tent.

 

Burning your tent down would be very bad but I've not heard of anyone dying doing that, although a night out in the open could well do it. There have however been numerous fatalities from CO poisoning caused by cooking inside without adequate ventilation. I believe that liquid fuel stoves are much worse in this regard.

[IceIceBaby]

this is how I did mine

[letsroll]

Why would liquid stoves put out more CO than canister? Do canister burn more clean? Thanks for the info, ventilation would be the major consern. Might be time for a trip to the local hardware store

[Ade]

Why would liquid stoves put out more CO than canister? Do canister burn more clean? Thanks for the info, ventilation would be the major consern. Might be time for a trip to the local hardware store

 

Good point. The canister stove burns cleaner (see links).

 

This is rather old but it does suggest that different stoves and different fuels produce different levels of CO:

 

FAQ - Carbon Monoxide and Stoves

 

This is really about car exhaust but basically tells us that CO is produced when a liquid fuel doesn't burn completely cleanly.

 

Why doesn't gasoline burn cleanly?

[Big_Sky_Ry]

Rigs for hanging stoves in tents a la bibler msr markill etc are too heavy and not necessary. You need a windscreen in a tent because...? And the heat exchange benefits of a windscreen in a tent to improve efficiency don't really pan out when you're cranking btu's to try and melt snow.

 

OK, so pick a canister stove with die cut legs (MSR Pocket Rocket, Coleman F1, etc.) and drill 1/8" holes in the points of the legs (the MSR PR already has holes, just bend down/break off the little mountains in them). What goes in these holes? Tiny brass S-hooks. What goes on the S-hooks? Utility springs from the hardware store. What goes on the other end of the springs? another set of s-hooks.

 

Now pick a pot. If using an MSR PR, cut/file three equalidistanted notches in the pot rim (four if you are using a four-leg stove) about 1/4" deep and 1/8" wide - this is where the other s-hooks end up. You can notch out the pot lid too if needed so it doesn't interfere with the s's and sits on the pot good.

 

Now hook up the rig and see if the springs are tight - they gotta be tight - the stove shouldn't sag even the slightest with a 450g fuel can.

 

You need a wire pot handle, so drill 2 holes in the pot for a coat hanger or other wire. Or use a Trangia Kettle - they work great out of the box (still need to file S hook notches) but small opening is no good for melting snow. Very important: make sure the handle is balanced, and that it has an angle at the peak (not rounded). Best if the handle goes straight up, then angles upward to the peak so the lid can be removed while hanging without swinging the whole rig all over.

 

Now take a shoulder sling (dual use item) with 2 biners (dual use). one biner hooks up to the tent peak, the other to the angle on the pot.

 

Hang. Add water. Light stove.

Add snow. Add lid. Heat. Repeat.

 

This setup adds less than 4 oz to your normal cook kit and with a small can stove and 2L pot (check out the Antigravity Gear 2L pot for a lighter pot than the MSR Ti, replace stock lid with aluminum flashing with a crimped edge and use the trangia pot lifter or a homemade one out of slightly thicker bar stock) you can have a hanging stove setup that is lighter and way simpler than the MSR Ti Ascent.

 

RJ

[kweb]

Sounds like a good system. Do you have a photo of your set-up?

[Ade]

This sounds great!

 

If the burner is attached by springs to the bottom of the pot do you have to turn the stove off to empty the liquid out? Or do you scoop it out with a mug and keep melting?

[Nick]

All stoves produce deadly CO. Keep your face near a fresh air source while cooking inside a tent and DON"T go to sleep with a stove burning. In the old days they used to make tents with a little zipper door in the floor so you could have a little snow pit in the middle of the tent for cooking. It would be easy enough to add a cooking door to the floor of your tent. This would also allow you to use a traditional technique from Lapland; dig a small tunnel under the tent to bring fresh air to your cook pit so the stove can get oxygen from somewhere other than your personal space. The stove will still produce CO though!

[David_Parker]

I was comparing the two stoves and Giga actually seems to fold up smaller with same output and basic specs. But Someone said the msr pocket works with hnging stove for sure. Does Giga work for hanging. Do you have any other preference between the 2?

[Big_Sky_Ry]

Photo:

 

Yeah, there's one here:

 

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/00058/index.html

 

Also: re: Giga, the SP's work OK with these kind of hanging setups, but I prefer the security of having the S-hook hold (and pinched shut) in a drilled hole of a sheet tine (like the MSR PR) rather than slipped through an open bar tine.