Swiss army volcano cooker - trial use

[Elines]

I recently got a Swiss Volcano Stove from Endicott's (no more left pending new stock) and wanted to try it out.

Stability
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When first stetting it up it seemed very unstable - even when on a flat surface, let alone when used on the ground. So I had a quick search for a mod and found several possible ones. Then I found a post on this site which suggested using the bottle (filled with water) as a stabiliser - like this:
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and that certainly seems to be a good way. If you are using the bottle to actually boil some water then you could use the cup in a similar way, or perhaps a piece of timber or sticks/tent pegs stuck in the ground.
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Fuel

It looked like it would be a bit of a faff to use bits of wood as fuel, although clearly possible. So I wanted to try my existing meths burner.

This then gave the problem of how to get the meths burner to the bottom of the stove without spilling the meths, as the rectangular hole at the bottom is too small for a burner to be put in that way.
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So I made a holder from coat hanger wire:


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And used that to lower the burner (minus lid) to the bottom of the stove. It was still possible to fit the cup (or the bottle) into the top of the stove:
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I used some tin foil as a lid:
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Lit theburner:
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and after about 8 minutes had boiling water - not bad for the very cold conditions.
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It would be possible to keep the burner in the bottom of the stove when transporting and it would probably still fit in a rucksack side pocket (not tested) but it is a bit taller than without:
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In the picture above you can just see that I have curled the 'spike' of the burner holder to make it safer.



So - very pleased - a useful smaller alternative to a kelly kettle for small amounts of water eg when making short visits to a wood, or for keeping in the car for emergencies.