Even's weblog: July 2005

I earlier decided after reading a few reviews and tests that I wanted to buy a Primus Omnifuel. The Primus is the only multifuel stove that can use various liquid and canister fuels. I was going to wait for a month before I bought it, but recently discovered that they had increased the price 20% at one store (XXL). I decided to buy it before everyone else did the same and payed the reasonable price 1000NOK for the Omnifuel.

I knew that the Omnifuel came with a simple windshield that I was not going to use. I had allready decided to buy a Trangia 25-4 with the following advantages:

Reliable and sturdy windshield/reflector even in very windy weather
Possiblity to insert an adapter to fit an Optimus Nova or a Primus Omnifuel ++
Comes with two pots, a pan and a kettle in a small package
The windshield is a stable foundation
The windshield+pot is a nice noise reducer

The only feature it is lacking is that the burner can be stored mounted inside the windshield or in the kettle. This would save valuable space (and time) when you are not bringing the alcohol burner, the original housing and the Primus windshield.

I was initially thinking of making the adapter for fitting the Omnifuel myself, but decided it was not worth the effort. I bought the original adapter for the Optimus Nova. This was easily fitted to the Omnifuel. I needed to drill a 7,8mm hole in the adapter parts and file a slightly bigger hole on the side of the Trangia windshield.

I bought three different fuels to test the setup: primus gas canister, kerosene/paraffine, and gasoline (naphta) - one fuel for each nozzle.

My conclusions for the different fuels:

Canisters: Great in the summertime. Clean and simple. Nice simmering.
Kerosene: Sooting quite a bit compared to the other two. Long preheating (40s). Nice simmering.
Gasoline: Little sooting, short preaheating (10s), difficult to simmer without extinguishing the flame.
All fuels had a frightening noise level without the windshield and a pan, but was nicely redused when included.
The use of gasoline seemed a bit scary initially, but I think this will be a good choice for winter. Arguments that "it's like sitting of on top of an exhaust pipe" (CO etc) yields for all fuels, but the gasoline will probably have less deaerator due to a cleaner burn than kerosene. Allways have in mind, though, that gasoline is like the fast variant of kerosene (heating and preheating). In vaporized form, all fuels will be explosive.

All in all I am very satisifed with my buy so far.