Optimus Svea 8016279

This stove has been reviewed to death, so this is more a collection of thoughts based on long experience and in response to comments I've seen in other reviews.The Svea stove is an elegantly simple design with a minimum of parts. That's one of the things I love about it. Buy one. Learn to use it. Practice with it at home before you use it "out there". There are those who have used it, loved it, and trusted it for decades, and those who can't seem to figure it out. It does have a learning curve, so does everything, not a big deal.There are thousands of videos about this stove on YouTube. Watch as many of them as you can tolerate. Even the bad ones can be informative. Experienced users can get the stove up and running in under two minutes with absolutely no drama. The others will burn off their eyebrows while setting three counties on fire. Ask yourself, what are these people doing differently?Part of using this type of stove is learning to pre-heat it. Again, no big deal. I prefer to use alcohol (90% isopropyl or methanol) most of the time as it produces less soot. Those who complain about these stoves being dirty probably aren't using alcohol to pre-heat. About 1ml is usually sufficient. In really cold weather, I may use a little extra alcohol or switch to white gas. A four ounce bottle of alcohol will be more than enough to preheat the stove three times a day for a week. Use your practice sessions to determine the smallest effective amount of pre-heating fuel. I'm not a gram weenie, so I don't mind the extra weight of a 4oz, 125ml bottle of alcohol. YMMV.Use some kind of windscreen. Even the softest breeze can impair the efficiency of this, or any other portable stove. Use a terrain feature, an accessory windscreen, get behind a bush, pile up some rocks, logs, or otherwise idle camping companions. Which brings us to the "boil test" featured in so many video reviews. Enough! Stop the madness! Ignore them all! They all seem to want to run the stove full blast and clock the time to boil some quantity of water. A container of a certain size and proportion, of a certain material, will only be able to couple burner heat to the water at a certain rate. Turning the burner up beyond a certain point will not necessarily heat the water any faster, but only waste fuel while contributing to global warming. I've never seen a boil test video account for enough of the variables to report on how many grams of fuel it took to boil a certain quantity of water. That would take actual science!Here's what you do "out there" in the real world. While using a windscreen, turn the flame up until it's just short of running up the side of the pot, and that'll probably be the best you can do. Full throttle is not always best. Less can be more.Get a filter funnel. Use it every time you transfer fuel from one container to another. I've always done this and have never had a clogged jet. Just sayin! Whenever possible, try to avoid opening the stove fuel tank or re-fueling right in the middle of a sand storm.Burner noise. It's all relative and not that big of a deal, unless you want it to be. I find the sound comforting and reassuring. Maybe it's a Pavlovian response, but when I hear the burner, I know I'm about to enjoy warm food and beverages. That's a good thing. I can tell by the sound how the stove is working even if I'm not looking right at it, also good. Not always running the stove at full throttle is less noisy.The Svea has earned my trust by performing reliably, effectively, and flawlessly every time it was used. It's not as high-tech looking as others, but I know that I could recover the Svea from under ten feet of water and have it running perfectly in two minutes. It's the stove I know I'll be able to use when all the other stoves are having some kind of issue. I regret not having bought a Svea back in the 1970s when they retailed for less than $40. Even at today's prices it's still a solid value.

UPDATE: the Optimus HE Weekend Cookset is the perfect addition to your 123R! less than 26 shimoles, too!This is the sole survivor. The last of the classic camping/backpacking stoves. It isn't aluminum, doesn't have titanium components, doesn't use butane or propane, and isn't made in China. This is a classic, bombproof, maintenance-free, utilitarian stove that burns white gas and won't let you down - ever! It is made in Sweden of brass and comes with a self-cleaning jet, built-in key with maintenance tool, and unlike any other stove on the market, a cooking pot with pot lifter. This design has withstood the test of time and has bested every other stove on the market. In the late 60s this stove was an expensive US$12 but is an even better bargain at its current price. And if you don't climb mountains you can always use this stove as shelf eye-candy as it is very pretty out of the box with its shiny brass - one of the last, if not the very last classic brass camping stoves commercially available today.Update: To the person who returned the additional SVEA 123R that I subsequently purchased via Amazon's Warehouse program: Thank you! The stove was unfired, all components were in good shape, and the original box was untouched. The only problem was that the vaporizing shaft and burner was crooked - easily fixed with a little push and straightening.Interestingly, this 123R's jet has a MUCH BETTER flame pattern than my previous purchase. I will enjoy using this stove in the years to come, and will take a small bit of comfort in the fact that I was able to purchase it at a nice discount thanks to you!As most of you may know, the 123R has a self-cleaning jet; simply crank the burner control counter-clockwise before lighting to raise the internal needle to clear the jet, then fully close clockwise before priming (preferable with denatured alcohol; I wrapped a bit of fiberglass wadding around the base of the burner and enclosed it with stainless mesh - this absorbs the meths for a contained prime when priming the stove).So thank you, where ever you are. You'll also be glad to know that I'll be using the stove with a custom-made 'silent burner' cap (similar to old-style Primus and Optimus burner heads) that transforms the 123R into an ultra-quiet stove for use in the great outdoors!I really like my [somewhat]new 123R and will use both hundreds of times every year!

This is my first Svea 123R/Optimus Climber Stove: a world-class design, legendary - over 50 years in use - military, mountain climbing, and outdoor white gas (Coleman fuel) lightweight stove. Unlike my old Coleman two-burner camp stove, which used a pump to pressurize the fuel, the 123R uses a small fuel burn in a primer cup to pressurize the fuel before lighting the stove. The instructions are clear and easy to follow - FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, and you can't go wrong. The stove priming procedure takes some practice, but I learned it after a few tries. It's easy to light now.The stove produces a hot (4700 BTU) flame, and boils water fast in both hot and cold weather, and at high altitudes. According to others, a very reliable stove on the trail. The flame is adjustable - high temperature to simmer - and has full shutoff. The included aluminum cup (w/removable handle) acts as top cover for the stove when packing, and the combination valve/tool is attached by chain to the stove - so it won't get lost.Being made of brass, it is not a titanium weight stove, but the compact size, rugged and self-contained design make this a good choice to fit inside my cookset. I added a couple of extra pieces to my stove - better burner cap and stove stand - and it is working quite well. Currently trialing and testing (and learning) this stove at home before using it on the trail.P.S., I learned the stove's fuel tank gets very warm once the stove is at operating temperature for awhile (normal heat process to vaporize the fuel to burn), and it started to melt the compound plastic stove stand I first chose. I then selected a metal stove stand (MSR folding lightweight stainless steel) that is a sturdier heat-resident stand.