Hey George,
I got my GW and SGW in the mail. Thanks a bunch!

Workmanship is great, no jagged edges, clean jet holes, 5 minute hard boil time with 60 degree water and 72 degree ambient temperature, and super light!

I weighed the amount of fuel the GW can take. 11 grams! That's .38 ounces of fuel to get 12 ounces of water to boil.

I do have some questions for you, and anyone else with helpful information. This is my first alcohol stove, so I've got nothing to compare to.

1. I've tried HEET and Everclear. I can't get HEET to perform nearly as well as the grain alcohol. In fact, I can consistently get 12 oz. to boil with the alcohol, and can't at all with HEET. Any insight?

2. I did notice that if the alcohol is filled right to the very top of the fill line, I do get some sporadic spurts out of the jets. Is this normal?

3. EDIT: Originally had a question about priming, but I answered my own question with a few more tests.

If there are any tips and tricks to making alcohol stoves perform to their fullest, let's hear them!

BTW, I was able to get 12 ounces of water to boil outside in the cold (20 degrees) with the SGR. The GR heated 12 ounces sufficiently enough for a hot cup of instant coffee. I did notice quite a difference using alcohol stoves in the cold versus inside! The fuel seems to act much differently.

Edited by T.L. on 02/10/2010 22:36:11 MST.

It's a little hard to tell whether these alcohol stoves met your expectations. For mild conditions and a small amount of cooking, little stoves like alcohol or Esbit are OK, and they are chosen simply because of their low weight and ease of operation. If you get into winter conditions, you will probably need at least a butane blend stove, and maybe a white gas stove. On a serious winter trip, you need a real blowtorch.

--B.G.--

Hi Bob,
My winter experiments were just for fun. I know that alcohol stoves are not really meant for winter, but I thought I'd see what happened.

The Gram Weenie is a really cool little stove, and like all new pieces of gear, takes a bit of getting used to. I'm mostly confused on the differences in performance between the fuels. I know many people use HEET, but the Everclear worked much better.

From what I can tell, this stove will do exactly what it is intended for. I can't really use bigger stoves because of my small 450 mug.

My original post was not meant to highlight shortcomings of the stove, but more my unfamiliarity with alcohol stoves--but I see your point. And George was really helpful and great to deal with!

Edited by T.L. on 02/10/2010 21:57:51 MST.

I use the BPL Trappers mug with caldera cone. I know packing is a pain, but if you did what I did and have a custom Titanium Caldera Cone made to fit inside your Trappers mug. Then Packing is not an issue, and you get the same effects of a full size cone. I just dig a hole and place my stove down deeper and place the cone over it.







Just a suggestion..

What about SomethingLikeThis

All in One, Doesn't get much simpler, But I have no personal experience with it. I made one of my own but it was flimsy and didn't last. I suspect it needs to be made out of aluminum beer bottle material (which I have yet to try).

He's got his links in there too.

----------------------------------------------------

Translated it's the "Side B Combo"

Edited by THUNDERHORSE on 02/11/2010 01:06:37 MST.

Which kind of HEET are you using? From past threads it seems like Iso-HEET in the red bottle gives generally poor results.

Travis, no problem. I take great pains to turn out a quality product. As far as your questions:

1)I've never used everclear,but I'm assuming you're using HEET in the yellow bottle. I'm guessing your 5 min. hard boil was with the everclear? Not sure.

2)The GW is very temp. sensitive. Under warm conditions the windscreen should be a little loose or as you've witnessed the stove will flare. That's b/c the stove is so small and holds so little fuel that it can overboil if the temp. starts to rise too much around it.

3)Due to #2 the stove should be primed as minimally as needed. If it is overprimed it could flare. With a little use you will find it's not as finicky as it 1st seems.

Sounds like for your purposes the SGW is probably the ticket.

+1 Konrad!

The regular Fancee Feast isn't ideally efficient for the SP 450, or even my SP 700, because of the narrow diameter, but the 2" tealite Fancee Feast is perfect!

It eliminates the need for a pot stand, and the performance is top notch, easy to make.

George, thank for that information.

I am using HEET in the yellow bottle, and my boil time was with everclear. Can't get a boil with HEET.

The tidbits on overpriming and the windscreen should help a bunch. More testing!! Yay! *said with actual enthusiasm, not sarcasm!! :)

Sounds like I need to get my hands on some everclear. I used the GW on a 4day in Maine a couple of years ago and planned all of my meals around 12oz max water, 2 meals a day. If I get the water hot enough to rehydrate my meals I'm happy.

Travis:

Have you tried the tea light 'stove' yet? You may find that's all you need for your 450ml 'pot'. And the weight and cost both can't be beat.

Yup, hot enough to hydrate is just what I need. I just used boiling point as a gauge. I do like that the GR is sized just so that there is almost exactly the right amount of fuel. No waiting for it to burn out, which also means less mess, since the fuel is gone!

I almost always hit the trail with my girlfriend, and with the way we use water, my initial testing suggests that with your stove, we'll be able to eat breakfast (instant oatmeal) each have a sizable cup of coffee, and each rehydrate a freeze dried dinner, all for 2 ounces of fuel. We're leaning toward no-cook lunches since we don't like the hassle of getting out the cooking gear and doing dishes on the trail.

So, for two people on an 4 day trip, thats 8 ounces of fuel. Looks good to me, George!

Edit: Ben, I haven't gotten to the tea light stove yet. Busy playing with my Weenie.

Edited by T.L. on 02/11/2010 11:52:07 MST.

The yellow heet seems to work great in some stoves, and really poorly compared to EC in others..

zelph has great luck with a number of his stoves using yellow heet, I've always seen better results by pretty noticeable amounts, using everclear. It's just cost prohibitive as a primary fuel source, perfect as a backup fuel/disinfectant/engine-degreaser/gut-rotter.

Javan,
Good to know I'm not the only one getting mixed results with HEET. Everclear, on the other hand, has been performing great with the Gram Weenie stove.

I highly recommend T's stove Side BB.

http://ts-stove.dust.jp/ts-stove/pg152.html

It is specifically designed to work with pots with small diameters such as SnowPeak 450/600.

It can hold only up to 20ml fuel but boils 400ml water in less 7min, with 15ml fuel at room temp 17 centigrade.

T's stove also sells titanium lids for SnowPeak450/600.

http://ts-stove.dust.jp/ts-stove/pg168.html

You'll have to pay extra charge for international shipping and you may find the instruction not good enough as we are non-English speakers.

But to use his stove is very self-explanatory and there's lot of video on Youtube.

Sincerely from Tokyo, Omatsu

I like the "Side B" stove also, but it's darn expensive...http://www.antigravitygear.com/proddetail.php?prod=TKTSST&cat=40
GW (left) and "Side B" (right)


GW inside the "Side B"


The "Side B" blooms faster, is a bit more stable with pot on, and a bit lighter (9g vs. the GW's 11).

Bailey

Edited by pugslie on 03/01/2010 14:50:45 MST.

Yup, I checked antigravity gear site and am surprised. $29!!! It's only 1900 yen in Japan, at current rate $21. So I hope it includes very good English manual.

I've done a little comparison test.

Side B boils 300ml water in SP450 at 15 temp/ room 20 temp centigrade in 6.5 minutes. Took 40 sec to blossom.

MBD Atomic boils 300ml water in SP450 at 15 temp/ room 20 temp centigrade in 5.22 minutes. Took 30 sec to blossom but with pot on.

I used T's stove Titanium pot stand with Atomic, 2000 yen.

http://ts-stove.dust.jp/ts-stove/pg130.html

You can see that Side B makes very beautiful flame that fits nicely to SP450 bottom.

Some may think Mini Atomic would produce better flame. But Atomic's bigger diameter centralize flame better and does not make handle too hot but boils water efficiently for SP450.

Sincerely from Tokyo, omatsu

Edited by omatsu123 on 02/22/2010 10:24:18 MST.

FYI - George also sent me a SGW. I boiled 16 oz of tap water in ~8 minutes in an MSR TiKettle in my kitchen (the pot is perfect width for the flame) and the stove had plenty of alcohol left in it for more. Sorry, didn't measure water temp or get a good count of the amount of alcohol used (I did use too much because some boiled out the jets and on to the pan).

Look for more testing on my blog in the coming days, crazyrunerguy.blogspot.com.

English manual...just a small sheet of paper with instructions:


Would the $21 include shipping to USA?

BTW, the "Side B" will hold ~1oz of fuel...to the bottom of the air holes. At optimal conditions, this will bring 32ozs of water (wide pot) to a boil with a few seconds of flame left.

Bailey

Edited by pugslie on 02/22/2010 11:04:46 MST.

I don't believe $21 includes shipping to US, I'm sorry to say. It includes shipping within Japan. And I don't think T's Stove would want to ship to US as he already got a distributer in US.

And it looks like antigravitygear provides good English manual. I cannot read the JPG image but it looks detailed as much as Japanese version. So it maybe better for US guys to buy this from antigravitygear than T's stove.

Anyway, T's stove Side B advantage is, it's small, its blooming time is short and it's easy to carry with. It's got a 2oz fuel bottle that fits inside the stove and a nice wind screen.

BTW, minibulldesign's QMH cooking system lid fits perfectly to SP 450 mug as you can see in the picture. And QMH pot stand fits nicely to SP 600. It looks like Tinny has an eye for SnowPeak market.

Sincerely from Tokyo, omatsu