Hi there,

My Primus Omnifuel got wet and it disintegrated the priming pad. I'm currently out in Peru with no plans to return to Europe any time soon. My question is what is the priming pad made from and is it, or some alternative - available and easily found in a standard hardware store? I was even thinking of cutting down a metal scouring pad down to size... But not sure? Any ideas?

Cheers!
RTW

I had a primus a few years back and it fell a part too.. horrible things.

I replaced my priming (it was a net not a pad but same concept) with kevlar wick from a oil lantern.

(it did not make the rest of the stove work any better btw.. I still have to clean the jet after every 15minutes of use. )

Good luck

__________________
2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

The 8R is an old favourite of mine. The wick is just a cotton material with a wire down the middle. This chap says strands cut off a mop head works


Optimus No:8R First Steps: Filler Cap & Wick | Classic Camp Stoves

Had to rebuilt my 8R copy as the box went rusty



Edit: Just spotted its an omnifuel. The pad is basically felt.

The trick with them all is to get them hot every use. You want the burner glowing cherry red to burn the soot.

Andy

It was a good job I forgot I left the Primus in my pannier and brought out a Whisperlite from home. Been burning white gas - runs like a champ, shame can't simmer. Tried to sell the Primus off to trekking agency and bloke wouldn't buy for same reason you stated Xander...

We had one of those 8R's way back, running it on two star or whatever we put into the bikes. It was an upgrade from the old Camping Gaz stoves that always seemed to run out half way through cooking a meal and you could never get the correct cartridges for.

I've had a Whisperlight for about 20yrs. The idea was that the 1ltr fuel bottle might act as a real last ditch fuel reserve for the bike if I was really caught out but in reversal of the 8R practice its mostly been run on Coleman fuel to stop the thing clogging up. Anyone tried running their bike on Coleman fuel? Does it mix, do you need to dilute it? If I'm stuck a mile or two from a fuel station (I do run things tight sometimes) will I make things worse by tipping a litre of Coleman fuel into the tank?

Just to go completely back to the (my) beginning I've been using a couple of £10 Vango branded single burner gas stoves for the last couple of years. They just screw onto the ubiquitous £5 butane/propane mix cartridges and that's it. No faffing around with pre heating and the thing flaring up in your face. Three season use only so far but very simple and, unlike the Whisperlight, controllable.

Given the acres of retail space given over to regular kitchen gadgets designed to turn every ten thumbs cook into a Michelin starred chef I'm surprised with the lack of aftermarket bits and pieces for camp cooking. The only innovations seem to be in shaving a few grams off the weight - something that's not of critical importance on a bike. Chuck it all in one pot, heat it up with a £500 stove made of aerogel and powered by fairy dust, then eat it out of the pot with a Spork seems to be about as sophisticated as it gets. Anyone managed to turn their petrol stove into a bbq or a griddle or a toaster or an pizza oven or even a microwave?

I'm not sure gadgets exactly covers this but if, in your sidecar you carry the 8R, its big brother, a pressure cooker and an ammunition box it takes about 4 hours to prepare:

Fresh bread ( from a mix, but from scratch if you fancy )
Moules Marinere
Coq au van and roast veggies

The Chardonnay was nicely chilled as it was snowing, which may explain why I was ****Ed before the starter. The port, cheese and cigars guaranteed a very late start next day.

Andy

Check out the Biolite stove. Used it in hunting camp and worked great. Burns dry little sticks and charges batteries.


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found the hexamine stove the easiest to use and less chance to give you problems, if you can,t get the tablets, just use good ol firelighters do the same job ,cheers

I have tried a few different things and my "cooker" of choice is the same, a 20+ year old single burner that screws to a gaz cannister. Clean, quick to deploy, will simmer and does me for 2-3 weeks. As I always carry a spare cannister is no problem and the spare is smaller than the omnifuel fuel bottle. available in nearly every fuel station and supermarket throughout the EEC. If I were to venture further afield might have to buy a local one but that is cheaper than servicing the omnifuel.

I've been using a Coleman Duel Fuel 533 stove for years. its a good reliable cooker, I clean and change the generator pipe regularly. For me this is the best on the market and as a bonus I can fill it from my bikes tank.

__________________
Do the best you can with what you have,
A stranger in a strange land now heading North South East West to.....

I am like oldbmw on this one. I use a a very small MSR stove I screw onto a propane cylinder. The smallest cylinder lasts for a very long time (4 weeks) and are cheap and readily available. Have looked at other stoves but have stuck with this setup for over 15 years as it is efficient, simple to setup and inexpensive.

Had my 533 for years of service while in the forces dropped out of choppers freefalled from planes stompped on in trucks etc. Got stolen before i left the army.
Got a new one once back in uk

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__________________
We are the Pilgrims, Master, we shall go Always a little further: it may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow, Across that angry or that glimmering sea.

Not sure whether I should have posted this on April 1st or not but the future of "just heat it up and eat it" cooking seems to have arrived:

Product — Heat food, anywhere.

Just shove your food inside, press a button and the magic happens automatically. Presumably it's safe enough to use inside a tent without burning it down or cooking your ankle (or worse) when the rays escape.

Just recharge it from the bike as you go along and that's it, you can forget about trying to remember how to get your petrol stove going in the morning through the fog of a hangover or finding the gas cylinder empty five minutes after the shops have shut.

Or is it just another camping gadget that'll fall by the wayside in a few months?