Anyone got/used an Optimus Svea 123 stove

The Glass Key

I'm looking for a small stove with a bit of power in it and have used most of the older Optimus range of stoves except this one, the Optimus Svea. I love the old 8R I have but thats too heavy. I've read loads of Svea reviews and still can't make my mind up as €100 is a fare amount of cash to splash. An older second hand one which I am lead to believe are somewhat better would be nice but not seen one yet.
Some reviews
The next option is an MSR type of stove but they aren't that much lighter (100g) when you include all the parts including the pump.

Or I could go for some sort of alcohol stove even a home made one but none of them afaik boil water quite as quickly?

Main use of the Svea 123 would be for making a quick stop brew up as well as cooking a main meal. Tangia's on the whole are two big (maybe the mini would suit), Kelly Kettles are far too big, I don't like hexi stoves except for emergencies and I don't like gas. Any suggestions welcome.

thehippychippy

The Glass Key wrote: »

I'm looking for a small stove with a bit of power in it and have used most of the older Optimus range of stoves except this one, the Optimus Svea. I love the old 8R I have but thats too heavy. I've read loads of Svea reviews and still can't make my mind up as €100 is a fare amount of cash to splash. An older second hand one which I am lead to believe are somewhat better would be nice but not seen one yet.
Some reviews
The next option is an MSR type of stove but they aren't that much lighter (100g) when you include all the parts including the pump.

Or I could go for some sort of alcohol stove even a home made one but none of them afaik boil water quite as quickly?

Main use of the Svea 123 would be for making a quick stop brew up as well as cooking a main meal. Tangia's on the whole are two big (maybe the mini would suit), Kelly Kettles are far too big, I don't like hexi stoves except for emergencies and I don't like gas. Any suggestions welcome.

how bout a small home made rocket Stove?

The Glass Key

I've just about convinced myself to give this stove a try. A rocket stove is going to be a little too slow to get going for my purpose and probably a bit large, it also falls into what I call my messy category of stove like Hexi stoves and Kelly Kettles where you have to clean up or wrap up before moving on. I really want something I can pull out of a pack and get a brew going very quickly then just as quickly pack up again.

Gas would probably be my best clean option but I really hate it as it always seems slow and I how come you run out of gas in the middle of using it?

I'm also in that category of folks that like shiny brass stuff that looks old fashioned.

There's a really nice set on ebay.co.uk atm http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Svea-123R-Stove-/191036446217 (including the sigg tourist set...<drools>) but from following them in the past that sort of set up fetches the asking price + no postage to IRL.

So http://www.amazon.co.uk/Optimus-123R-Svea-Stove/dp/B000XZ5FDY is on the cards and Optimus Terra Weekend He Cookset Panset - 0.95lt to follow if I don't find a better pan set it will all fit in.

H.O.T.A.S.

I know you mentioned you don't particularly like gas and I understand if you've ever used the blue campingaz contraptions but have you considered the Jetboil? If you are looking to boil water quickly it's perfect. Self contained unit and it can use screw gas tanks so you can choose you're butane/propane mix. The base of the pot is designed to evenly distribute the flame and also be wind proof. I've had mine for years and it boils up water quicker then my electric kettle at home.

http://www.jetboil.com/

J_A_F_A

You could sign up for a Parcel Motel account which would give you an address in the UK.

The Glass Key wrote: »

I've just about convinced myself to give this stove a
<snip>
There's a really nice set on ebay.co.uk atm http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Svea-123R-Stove-/191036446217 (including the sigg tourist set...<drools>) but from following them in the past that sort of set up fetches the asking price + no postage to IRL.
<snip>
follow if I don't find a better pan set it will all fit in.

The Glass Key

The Jet boil is essentially the modern way to go, if you check the Optimus Terra Weekend Pan Set you'll see its very similar to the jet boil pot with its heat exchanger, but I'm already well sold into "white gas/unleaded" as a fuel. I have a couple of Coleman lamps, double burner and a (heavy) single burner stove and an 8R which will all work on unleaded.

What I've done so far is go back to the 8R and I've been using that this week to make a quick brew while out to see how I get on with it with regular use. I could stick with the 8R but it is a bit of an awkward shape and leaves the pans separate to take up more room. The 8R has its problems which the 123R will also have (lighting and needing a windshield) but without much refinement in my technique I can get a brew up and going as quick as I'd expected. Not really timed it as its the whole process I'm interested in (unpacking, lighting, brewing up and packing up again) and not just the actual boil time. So I'm going to stick with the 8R for the week and then give the Army (Finnish?) version of the trangia a go for the week and see how that works out.

The Glass Key

So after comparing the 8R and the Trangia under some really cold windy conditions I've decided the Trangia isn't up to the job from the point of view of speed. The Trangia was going for over 20 minutes at the weekend (was cold and windy) and still hadn't started to boil just 300ml of water so I've just ordered myself the 123R and will report back in due course how I get on with it.

The stove set on ebay went for more than a new stove when you include P&P but a bit less than I expected.

Granite Head

Will be interested to hear how you get on. What cookset are you intending pairing it with?

Granite Head

The Glass Key wrote: »

so I've just ordered myself the 123R and will report back in due course how I get on with it.

Interested to hear how you get on. What cookset are you intending to pair it with?

The Glass Key

Granite Head wrote: »

Interested to hear how you get on. What cookset are you intending to pair it with?

Several I'll be experimenting for a bit. I'll probably get the Optimus Terra Weekend He Cookset Panset - 0.95lt I linked to above. I've seen some youtube videos of that combination and they seem to work well with the stove fitting nicely into the pan set. Initially I want to keep it all as minimal as possible so will try it out with the built in pan to start with as all I want it for is to make a brew.

Another reason I'm not getting a cookset straight away is that I'm in the UK soon and have a few places I always go for cheap camping gear and I want to check out what they have first.

If you want any info on stoves in general have a look around http://www.spiritburner.com/ its a mine of information on these sort of stoves.

Esel

I have one and find it to be great. I also have an 8R clone, which does not burn as hot/fast as the 123.

The 123 is reliable, powerful, and fast. It is also compact and light. Expensive, though....

One drawback is stability, because of its very small footprint. Maybe someone (or you, OP) Could come up with a light, improvised base?

It is also relatively noisy (think a quiet roar), and this can be a consideration in a BO scenario.

Fuel handling is also an issue to be taken into account.

The Glass Key

One of the first things I have to come up with is a wind shield that reduces heat loss from whatever pan set I use.

Problem seems to be with the 123's is that you have to be careful that you don't reduce the airflow around the base and allow the stove to overheat and pop the safety valve. I have read the expression "Swedish Hand Grenade" used to describe what can happen.

I can see there might be a stability issue but you come up again the base overheating issue if try and increase stability by wrapping something around the base. The answer of course if you can get one is the long discontinued Sigg Tourist Cook set with the base and windshield for the 123.

I'm going to see how it works for a week or so before making any modifications, I rarely boil more than 500ml of water so I'm hoping stability won't be an issue.

Just checked and my stove has been dispatched but with iParcel

Esel

Just be sure not to ever use it 'indoors' - i.e. inside a tent or a room that is not well-ventilated. I presume the issue in these cases is carbon monoxide...

Some people say you can prime it with a little fuel in the trough under the burner, but be very careful if doing this. Just a little bit of fuel splashed on you, or close to you / close to your fuel bottle (or funnel) etc. can result in a major conflagration! I used to use an Optimus paste that came/comes in a toothpaste-like tube to prime it. Apparently petroleum jelly (Vaseline) works too, but I haven't tried it. Hand-warming the base-unit has been mentioned too - haven't tried that either.

Personally, I always use it in the open air, but it would probably be safe in a large, ventilated indoor space. I have a few other artificial cooking sources - gas, hex etc. and only carry the 123 (and Sigg fuel container and a funnel) when space/weight is at a premium.

My advice in a nutshell then: Use it outdoors; be very careful with the fuel; don't get too close to it if it does not seem to be working for some reason; don't try to light it if it is hissing fuel for a while (turn it off and wait).

Notwithstanding the above - it is a great stove!

The Glass Key

My new Svea 123R has just arrived will be trying it out later, for anyone that's interested it was £89.62 on Amazon with super saver (free) delivery and with the current exchange rate that came to €111.16. Ordered on the 27th Jan arrived 3rd of Feb allowing for the weekend that was reasonably quick.

The Glass Key

First trial over and I'm impressed , good Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) as they say. Now this isn't the first time I've used this type of stove so I did at least have a clue, one trick that worked very well on this stove was to use an eye dropper to prime it with fuel from the main tank.

So I filled the stove probably a bit more than recommend in the instructions which are here (pdf) if anyone wants a very short read and shoved it in my pack. Fuel I used was Coleman white fuel. I went out for a walk with the dogs and about 2km from home set up the stove in a sheltered(ish) spot. It wasn't windy today (not when I was out anyway) so this trial needed no extra windshield.

I opened the tank filler cap up to equalise the air pressure got an eye dropper full of fuel, replaced the filler cap and filled the priming dished area in the top of the tank. Now I've missed out the fiddly bit of taking off the built in windshield and getting the key chain from getting in the way and the key set in place but they are necessary to get at the filler cap.

A match to the primer fuel to light it and before it burnt out I had the valve open with the key (tricky to find exactly where fully open is until the stove is running well) and the stove spluttered to life. After less than a minute I had found where fully open was on the valve and the stove was going nearly full power.



Pan was new so I put half an inch of water in it to clean it out and that boiled up in less than 30 seconds. So having rinsed the pan I boiled a full pan of water (probably 250ml) in about 2 minutes, again I dumped that and boiled another pan full and finally made a brew.

Last test for today was to see how low I could get a simmer in this stove and it went reasonably low perhaps as low as half power and ran well enough at that setting during my short test. It is a complaint of the R versions of the 123 that they don't simmer as well as the original version which doesn't have pricker built into the control valve.

The pan you get with the stove is just a little too small so I will definitely get a pan set for it, but will use the little pan until I do.

Stability is and isn't an issue??? I had no problem with the stove falling over with a pot on it but I did have a problem with stability when turning the key to turn the stove off or reduce the heat setting. All of the stove gets hot so you can't really go grabbing hold of it when you turn the valve key. The valve does seem a bit stiff so I'm hoping that will wear off.

Primary conclusion is that the Svea 123R will be stopping in my day bag for the foreseeable future. Only niggles are getting to the filler cap is a bit fiddly with wind shield, the key chain and key, the valve is a bit stiff, plus the stove stays hot for quite a while after you have turned it off so you need to wait for it to cool before packing it up again.



Next test has to be in some really poor conditions cold wet and windy and I doubt I'll have to wait long for that.

One more thing I want to try is lighting the stove with a fire steel, the reason being the trickiest part of getting a stove going can be lighting a match or lighter in a wind.

Tips. Both pot handle and the valve key get hot so remove then and use them only when needed unless you remember to use a cloth to handle them. Priming with an eye dropper works a treat.

tbh I'm relieved it worked so well as I had read that the newer stoves (made in china they don't say made in Sweden on them any more) were nothing like as good as the ones made a few years ago which or course aren't as good as the ones made in the 60's :rolleyes: Flame wasn't a perfect blue but it did the job a stove should do and I've plenty of time to mess around with it to try and get it 100%.

The Glass Key

So today's windy weather update.....

Went out to the same location as yesterday and set up to make a brew. Second time around because of the practice yesterday the stove lit like a dream and was up and running in no time. It is all a bit fiddly but you get used to it. The eye dropper priming method worked a dream again and despite the wind the stove lit and fired up from one match (the 8R normally uses at least 5 matches when its windy).

I did pick a sheltered spot but the flame was shooting around indicating a good bit of wind and I didn't use a wind shield (not got one yet) as I wan't to see if I could use the stove in less than ideal condition without it. Boil time was slow about 250mls took about 6-7 minutes but the chill factor on the aluminium pot was quite extreme in the wind and in similar conditions with no wind shield the 8R failed to boil the same amount of water in 20 minutes. The 123R does of course have a built in windshield that the 8R doesn't have but I will still get a folding wind shield for the 123R as not only does one speed up boiling time it saves on fuel.

Next consideration is a pot set, I really might go cheap on that and on Amazon.co.uk I've noticed at least 5 sets exactly the same as this one Travelling Cooking Set 1-2 people DS-201 all with different names but as thats the cheapest I might give it a go. The picture below gives the sizes and the stove is just less than 10cm diameter and 13cm high with including the small pot.



The Colman Sole Cook Set also looks good and both sets have 2 sets of pots so I can take just one set solo and the others for a two man trip? If it wasn't so expensive the Solo Pot 900 would be on my list as its all I really need, but I'm also put off it as the lid won't fit with the stove in it. The other expensive option is the Optimus Terra Weekend Heat Exchanger Pan set I mentioned before.

Tabnabs

One of these has just literally arrived in the post to me today; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tatonka-Stainless-Steel-Camp-Large/dp/B000G4XJ1W

Good for a one to two person setup. Light and pretty compact.

wolfeye

I've my eye on the MSR Titan Kettle.
But i'm trying to resist and wait to see if i can get it for a better price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Msr-321158-MSR-Titan-Kettle/dp/B000FBSZF6/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1391603881&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=msg+titanium

The Glass Key

wolfeye wrote: »

I've my eye on the MSR Titan Kettle.
But i'm trying to resist and wait to see if i can get it for a better price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Msr-321158-MSR-Titan-Kettle/dp/B000FBSZF6/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1391603881&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=msg+titanium

If that was another 0.5cm taller it would be on my watch list.

I really only need a single large pot/kettle for boiling water but it would be nice to get one that the stove fitted into and had a lid.

A large titanium mug is well up near the top of my current wants list.

The Glass Key

Tabnabs wrote: »

One of these has just literally arrived in the post to me today; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tatonka-Stainless-Steel-Camp-Large/dp/B000G4XJ1W

Good for a one to two person setup. Light and pretty compact.

Handy size and weight I always think that SS is better than Ally if you have to cook over an open wood fire.

Tabnabs

The Glass Key wrote: »

Handy size and weight I always think that SS is better than Ally if you have to cook over an open wood fire.

That's why I got it, flexibility and a good quality brand.

The Glass Key

Couldn't wait any longer, so ordered the Optimus Terra Weekend He Cookset Panset - 0.95lt. I'll let you know how I get on with it when it arrives. All the cheap pots I wanted kept coming up as won't deliver to Ireland so gave up on them.

wolfeye

Use parcel motel.
Delivered for 3.50 Euro.

www.parcelmotel.com


Thats the way i get around that.

The Glass Key

wolfeye wrote: »

Use parcel motel.
Delivered for 3.50 Euro.

www.parcelmotel.com


Thats the way i get around that.

Should use it but just not got around to it. I can probably get a cheap set and try the fit when I'm in a bricks and mortar shop in the UK.

wolfeye

All the same it looks like a nice pan set you got.
I like the design where lid doubles as a pan.
Evernew have a similar pan set with a 0.9 l deep pot in titanium where the pan also works as a lid for the pot.
But unfortunately its expensive enough at about 80euro including postage on e bay..

The Glass Key

Believe it or not the pan set from an old Camping Gaz Globe Trotter set (and the newer version they made of it for a while) is a near perfect fit for that stove, so thats another item to add to my Car boot sale and charity shop list.

The Glass Key

I know its a bit too obvious really but I tried the lighting the 123R with a fire steel and it worked like a dream, no more need to carry matches around. Don't really know why I thought it would be hard to light petrol with a spark?

The Glass Key

First outing today with my new Optimus Terra Weekend HE which arrived yesterday.



Obviously the first thing I did was see how well the Svea 123R fitted into it. Well I'd say the 123R is a perfect fit, I always carry a "cooking cloth" that I use for drying pans, wiping out pots and cleaning any soot of both stove and pans and with the pound shop microfiber cloth I used for that wrapped around the stove its a perfect fit.

So todays lunch was an extravagant feast consisting of a 20cent packet of Lidls noodles with curry flavour. 250ml of water boiled in about than 2 minutes (second lot as I'd already boiled a pan full to clean out any newness) and you can see that the heat exchanger does something because the bubbles start to appear around the edge of the pot where the heat exchanger is attached as the water boils. It was very windy today and with no wind shield around the pot my experince is that I'd have expected the boil time to be much longer so I'm convinced the Heat Exchanger helps.

Now all you Cordon Bleu noodle Chefs will know that Lidl noodles need simmering for about 3 minutes and this is where the Svea 123R has a bit of an issue because it doesn't do a gentle simmer. You can turn it down a good bit but you need to be really careful and keep the contents of the pot moving or you'll have a difficult cleaning job on your hands. Once you know that you can just move the pot on and off the heat to keep the temperature up for the required time.

The Terra Weekend HE dosesn't really look like it fits on the stove very well, whichever way you turn the pot supports they only align with half of the Heat Exchanger. That doesn't seem to be a problem and I didn't have a stability issue. When I'm on the beach I put a mound of wet sand under the stove base to level it up and inland I do the same with soil. Another reason I carry a cloth to clean the stove off after use because while brass is very durable salt in the sand would probably damage it over time.

The jurry is definitly out on the "frying pan lid", it completes the set by providing a lid for the pot and a cover for the stove when packed but I really don't see myself frying with it but as I have a few tins of bacon grill getting close to the BBD I must give it a try. Noodles with fried bacon grill sounds good to me.

No problems with burnt fingers on the handles as the silicon rubber tube works well. The pot is a good size for one person and heplfully has some useful graduated measuments stamped into the side. I'm not sure what to call this cook set because the way its likely to be used and because its designed to more like a kettle for boiling water than a pot to cook things in. One thing is for sure it isn't going to be ideal on an open log campfire but thats not what I bought it for. For its intended purpose of heating water for a brew and heating water for dried food it works well.

With a two or more person group I'd also want to take a Trangia and use the Trangia for a breakfast fry up and simmering while using the 123R and Terra set for boiling water for drinks.



A picture showing the eye dropper used for priming



The stove while preheating with Coleman Fuel.

The Glass Key

Sorry missed out the obvious picture of the way the stove and pan set fit together.



Then pan set also comes with a draw sting mess bag to hold the two parts together.

Stove specs which I also missed earlier are:

Fuel: White gas
Burning time: up to 50 minutes at full output and one filling (with 0.12 l fuel)
Boiling time: For 1 l water approx. 7 minutes
Output: Watt: 1400 (4400 btu)
Weight: 550 g
Dimensions: a tad less than 10 cm diameter x 13 cm high