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Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Coleman Fyrestorm Ti Stove > Heather Oakes Palmer > Initial Report
Initial Report Coleman Fyrestorm Ti Stove
June 2, 2006
Tester Info:
Backpacking Background: I consider myself an intermediate hiker and backpacker for over five years with my longest backpacking trip being only three nights. Sadly due to time constraints, day hiking and weekend backpacking comprise most of my weekend warrior experience averaging one backpacking trip and two day hikes per month averaging between 10-15 miles (16.1- 24.2 km) per day. I tend to backpack in warm, humid climates, with a good amount of hiking in the southern Appalachian Mountains and I have rarely hiked in below freezing or snowy conditions yet. I am a lightweight backpacker and buy my gear accordingly, often splitting various objects and amounts of weight with my husband. Product Information:
Manufacturer: Coleman Weights and Measurements:
Listed Stove Weight: 7.7 oz / 218 g Description: The Fyrestorm Ti is a lightweight, one-burner, multi fuel backpacking stove. The stove is made mostly of titanium and magnesium alloy legs. A detachable fuel bottle with pump, and canister adapter allow the stove to run on either Coleman® fuel (or other white gas fuels), unleaded gasoline, or butane/propane canisters. Initial Impressions: The first thing I thought when I opened up the box containing my new stove was; that’s a lot of parts. The single burner stove is in a tripod shape with the attachment hose sticking out it. The stove has a flame control adjuster on the opposite side from the fuel hose, and the tripod legs do fold into each other. The Fyrestorm has a fuel bottle with a primer pump inside of it for use with liquid fuel (such as white gas or unleaded gasoline). The pump/fuel withdrawal system inside the bottle can be removed. The canister adapter is also of a tripod design with a line to attach the hose from the stove; its legs are also adjustable. The stove set comes with a windscreen and a circular piece of light metal to be used as a heat deflector, or if you fear burning things, a stove trivet. Both the windscreen and reflector are made of a lightweight metal similar to my homemade windscreen and disposable aluminum bakeware that could be purchased at a grocery store. A stuff sack, a cap for the fuel bottle, and a package of spare parts round out the Fyrestorm box set. I received an instruction manual in English, French, and Spanish (I can oddly enough read most or all of the manuals, go figure).
The manual is a one page map-like foldout containing pictures along with the step by step instruction, plus many warnings. After reading the manual, taking a deep breath then reading it again, I had to find some fuel to use with this stove. From the website I read that the stove could run on propane/butane and I thought, I have propane for my big Coleman stove can I use that? It is a good thing I read the manual or I would have tried it. The manual states that you can use liquid Coleman® fuel, LPG (liquid petroleum gas), or unleaded fuel. I managed to make it down to REI to get some liquid Coleman® fuel; but they were sold out already, so after much discussion with a member of staff I bought a generic liquid camp fuel made by Crown that I was told would work. Getting It To Work: The first time my husband and I tried the stove, I vehemently insisted we be on concrete instead of our wooden balcony. From reading the manual and the instructions on the fuel bottle, we had a good idea how this was supposed to work. After filling the fuel bottle, the instructions tell you to pump 40 strokes after attaching the bottle to the stove hose. From the ease of use perspective, pumping something 40 times to get the thing working does not seem easy or speedy. Plus I was supposed to put my finger over the hole in the pump, which made pumping very difficult and I feared that I would break off the little pump. Once I had pumped forty strokes my husband and I put the stove on the reflector disc, turned the fuel bottle on, the turned the flame adjuster on the stove on, then held a lighter to the stove. We got nothing the first couple of times, then I heard a little hissing noise from the stove and we lit it again. A high yellow flame shot up. In the manual, a yellow flame indicates a normal start and it will calm down into a blue flame in about a minute. A high flame indicates that the burned has flooded with fuel and I need to turn if off. Erring on the side of paranoia, I shut the thing off but the flame wouldn’t die so I dumped some water on it. With the stove off and doused in water, the flame still took a few seconds to die down. I’m not terribly clear from the manual what kind of yellow flame is too high, there is a drawing but its not to scale so I assume you need to use your best judgment or wait until it either calms down into blue flame or doesn’t. The troubleshooting section of the manual indicates that maybe I should have waited to see whether or not the high flame persisted but not being used to this kind of stove at all, I was worried so I turned it off and hit it with water. On a later mental playback of the stove debacle I wondered if: A) I had overreacted; or B) Was using the wrong fuel and was lucky I did not blow up a car. Checking into the fuel aspect first; I re-read the manual which does not explicitly state that you can use any liquid fuel other than the Coleman® fuel. Could this really be a stove that can only use the proprietary brand fuel? Next I hit the web to find out what exactly Coleman® fuel and Crown fuel are made of, and are there any other names for it? Apparently, neither the packaging on Coleman® fuel nor the packaging on the Crown liquid fuel I bought mention that these fuels can also be called white gas. Since I didn’t know what the difference between white gas and liquid fuel was; I was understandably concerned that I had put a very bad thing into the nice stove. The manual tells you that a yellow flame can mean either bad or good depending on what happens in the space of a minute. Since I didn’t exactly measure the flame height, I could have overreacted and turned off the valve before allowing the flame time to settle into the blue cooking flame. The last possibility is that the burner was flooded but I wouldn’t really know that unless I waited and watched the flame. The next time I tested the stove, I vowed that I would keep trying until I got a nice blue flame and boiling water. The next test began with no pumping of the fuel bottle, and I had no fire. After pumping the line less than the suggested 40 times the line hissed with fuel and produced a high yellow flame, so I turned off the fuel bottle after watching it with no signs of it reducing it height. Once the height was reduced, I turned the fuel line on slowly as I watched how the flame would react. The fuel seemed to drip below the stove and accumulate onto the deflector plate causing an even bigger flame. Again, I turned the fuel off until the flame was smaller. The final time I turned the fuel on, the flame settle into a sputtering blue flame with occasional flashes of yellow. I put the pot on to boil and as I watched the flame, I felt that its inconsistency was not optimal and that I should try to get a better flame out of it. No amount of turning the flame adjuster on the stove reduced the sputtering; it only changed the flame size thereby changing the sputtering size as well. When I turned the fuel bottle off the flame died out immediately, all other times I had turned the fuel off it had taken a while for the flame to shrink and die down. Trying to get a better flame consistency, I turned on the fuel again to light the stove. My matches kept going out due to wind and the third match was the one that lit the stove. Fuel had dripped down under the stove and began to run off onto the concrete when I lit the stove causing the high yellow flame to spread slightly following the run off. This really did not look good. I was very nervous about the flame getting close to the fuel bottle, but the fuel burned up and did not spread. As I was still pretty freaked out about the big ball of fire, I still turned the fuel off until the flame was smaller and the fuel under the stove had burned off. Without further pumping I relit the stove immediately after turning the fuel line on again and I was rewarded with a perfect, consistent blue flame. Overall I feel that I am going to have to practice with this stove and modify the directions slightly before I feel comfortable taking this into the woods. I’m not sold on the idea that you really need to pump the line forty times before using it every time, when I pump it that much I always get a big yellow flame. I also have to be very fast with lighting the stove once I’ve turned the fuel on or I get fuel under the stove which can spread onto the disk and ground. I think in the future I’ll need to tweak the amount of fuel going in, and maybe clean the generator tip more by turning the flame adjusted back and forth. I am also concerned about fuel leakage; the instructions note that some signs of leakage include wet appearance of fuel on surfaces and a “hiss of escaping gas”. The manual does not tell you where this hiss is supposed to come from but every time I have successfully lit the stove for better or worse, a hiss has accompanied it. I am also keen on using the propane/butane canister method of cooking with this stove, hopefully it will be easier for me to use and it fuel won’t pool under the stove causing me to freak out. I’ll also note that each time I’ve tested the stove has been on a concrete driveway at dusk with decent to low lighting. Field Conditions: I will be testing the stove during car camping, overnight backpacking trips, and day hikes in the Georgia and North Carolina Mountains. My husband and I tend to back pack or car camp at least once a month, and we day hike every other weekend. As the days get longer, we cover more distance on our day hikes and would like a nice treat of a warm meal from time to time. The average elevations I will be hiking in will range from 2000 – 5500 ft (610-1676 m). The temperature could be anywhere from high 90’s F to 60’s F (high 30’s C to 16 C) during the day and could drop to 50 F (10 C) at night, the humidity will probably suck at 80% or higher. I will also likely be testing the stove while I am in Florida over the course of the next few months. The temperature will range from high 90’s F to low 70’s F (high 30’s to low 20’s C) during the day and could drop to the 60’s F (high teens C) at night if I’m very lucky, and the relative humidity could go over 100% in swampy parts. Test Plan: Now that I know basic stove fuel information; I plan on using the Crown brand fuel, Coleman® fuel, and propane/butane canister fuel at least once each so I can record the difference in boil times.
Durability:
Ease of Use: I would really love to try cooking food that requires more than ‘boil water’; can I reduce the heat to simmer, and if so, how? Will it be easy for me to use my old pot with the stove, or even use my car-camping frying pan? Could I bake with this thing? How easy will the windscreen be to use? What is the tripod canister adapter for, and how do I use it? How easy will it be to wash, will it come with instruction so I don’t inadvertently clog up something?
The Technical Stuff: I am used to a very simplistic and lightweight stove, will the added features of this stove make up for the added weight? How heavy will it be when carried with fuel and/or tripod adapter? How much room will it take up in my food bag? How much use would I get out of one fuel bottle, or canister of fuel?
Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Coleman Fyrestorm Ti Stove > Heather Oakes Palmer > Initial Report | |||
