[Jard]

I have a butterfly kerosene stove and oven

the oven sits ontop of the stove.

The problem is that I can't keep the thing from smoking and giving a very bad odor. I've set it up and ran it for nearly a day, thinking it just needs to burn off any chems that may have been left on it, but it made no differance. I'm using new wicks, made sure to let the wick soak up kerosene before lighting and other tips that I found on how to setup a new stove. I was hoping you guys may have some tips for me. I'm using K1 kerosene.

Also, any good info on baking in the oven? I'm having a hard time getting it hot enough to do anything with, but people seem to think these stoves and ovens are great. I want to know how to use them before I have to use them.

 

[Jard]

I wanted to add that the stove smokes with or without the oven on it. The paint on the inside of the oven burned off already.

 

[Jard]

Okay, so if not kerosene, how are you guys planning on baking?

I found a link that has some good info on my stove
http://www.endtimesreport.com/BF_2418.html

 

[Survival Helper]

Honestly I have been pondering this for the better part of two days, and the only things I can see being a cause for black sooty smoke and low heat output are these:

1) Wick height, too high and it will burn terribly sooty and actually produce less heat than when properly adjusted.

2) Fuel contamination, or out of specification fuel. This stove may require the use of non dyed Kerosene or camp fuel.

3) Fuel regulation problem (too much fuel being introduced).

4) Not enough airflow around burners

5) High humidity in the ambient air will cause a situation similar to a rich fuel condition.

All these directly relate to a rich fuel condition, which is most likely the cause for the low heat output and black smoke. You need to find a method or fuel etc. that leans the fuel out, it needs to burn less fuel, or include more oxygen when burning. This should take care of poor heat output and all black smoke. On a side note Kerosene that is just started or just shut off should smoke a little but clear up in a matter of less than 10 seconds of running the stove, if not, consider the burn condition to be rich, Kerosene will not smoke when lean burned hot, so anytime Kerosene is actively smoking it is burning incompletely due to rich conditions and low flame temperature.

 

[Survival Helper]

It depends on what I have available, I honestly do not want to use any fossil fuels that aren't necessary. For true times of hardship or in a real "event" I plan to use alcohol for everything including fuel for my truck. It is completely renewable both large scale and small scale, burns super clean, burns safely indoors, and best of all you can make it yourself. This is the real fuel for the future, you can run your lights, stoves, heaters, cars and trucks, small engines, near everything from one fuel source. I choose alcohol, but some choose others. I don't like wood because of the grow time of the trees, it takes too long to grow a single tree back after you burn it . Where methanol or ethanol or Isopropyl are a short season renewable, it only takes one season to create the exact same amount of alcohol next year, whereas trees and long season plants take years to renew. For the smaller homesteader it is imperative to have fuel and energy that is constantly available, hence my choice. Sometimes you can double plant crops and get two to three yields in a single season. Hope that helps

 

[eeyore]

Okay, so if not kerosene, how are you guys planning on baking?

I did an article a little over a year ago about the butterfly oven, i used it on a coleman stove. Cooked a cake, muffins and cookies worked great. It was in the articles section of the old site. Don't think it made it here. If i can find it i will see about uploading it.

I agree, thinking about baking is a very important, especailly if you are storing wheat and have a grinder. I was on a job that had a lot of clay and researched a lot about clay ovens. That is a option also.

 

[ken]

Two ideas to try

Two ideas to try.

While I don't have a kerosene cook stove, I do have kerosene space heaters, so the fume part may be similar. Assuming you have your wicks trimmed, and all that try the following. It may not be convenient, but try lighting and extinguishing the stove outside, as it will eliminate most of the odor, since that is when they smoke the most. I try to move my heater outside to shut it down, it really helps. While it would not work for a cook stove, some people put their kerosene space heaters on small carts, or wheels, so they can simply roll them outside for lighting or shutdown, maybe you can figure out a way to safely move it and try it as an experiment.

The other method that will surely work is to use one of the highly refined fuels like "Clearlite", made by Exxon Mobile or other companies. Those are a super high grade of kerosene, with the sulfur and other stuff removed, read that as no more smell. That fuel is stocked by Lowes, Home Depot and others, but is a seasonal product. The Clearlite fuel, has absolutely no odor, and I can not detect any smell from my heaters while using the fuel. The highly refined fuels are expensive, but so is kerosene these days. Hope this helps. Good luck, and keep us posted. I might like to get one since i already keep the kerosene for the heaters.

 

[thejamtin]

We'll be mostly using solar cookers over here. The one thing we're not short of in my part of Australia is sunshine. I guess there has to be one advantage to never seeing rainclouds! Not sure what kind of weather you have there but you can always enlarge collectors and do your cooking in the day. No fuels needed and no telltale smoke columns either. http://www.solarcookers.org/basics/how.html

 

[Maurepas]

I use a dutch oven to bake. Wood is my fuel source. It is readily available where I am and quickly renews. My part of Louisiana is darn near tropical.

 

[eeyore]

I went ahead and found the article and reposted it (without pictures)

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?p=98289#post98289

I like dutch-oven cooking also. I would have several sources or ways to bake and cook.

 

[Jard]

Hey, thanks for all of the tips guys. It did turn out that the wick wasn't seated correctly, and once I had that resolved it worked a lot better. I also learned to keep the wick on my heater turned down after lighting it and that made a big difference as well.