Thread: All about gas stoves.

Part 6 - Safety.

I know, I know. Remember though, this is an open forum that anyone with access to the internet can see. I spent a lot of time when I was young eagerly browsing the forums sponging information. I need to put this in here. What may be blindingly obvious to you may not be to others with less experience.

I'm not going to list every DO NOT, there's enough of that in the manual for your stove. I'll just say a few things which sometimes aren't in there (directly mentioned anyway).

Connecting/disconnecting gas canisters.
Be careful/thoughtful when you are doing this in a hut. That Lindal valve I showed you in Part 1 has been known to get stuck in the open position before. Think candle lit hut and that canister pouring a massive amount of vapour out. Happens quicker than you can react. Be wise where you are connecting/disconnecting your stove.

Windshields.
Placing a metallic windshield around a cansiter can cause the canister to overheat and explode. The blue flame is in the vicinity of 1900C.

Oversize pots/pans
For similar reasons to windshields oversized pots and pans can reflect heat down onto a canister causing it to overheat and explode. This is a common cause of explosions with those benchtop type camping stoves that take the hairspray looking canisters.


Read your manual. Be sensible about how you use your gas stove and if you put some of this information into practice you'll get the most out of your stove not be left wondering what the hell is going on when things aren't working.