Arne Kverneland wrote:

David,
thanks for a most interesting line of photos of the Maxie burner. A very clever device, indeed. So the thin jet of evaporated alcohol just drags enough air with it into the bigger hole of the burner to get «lean» burning?!

Yes. I should have said that the 10mm hole is actually a short length of tube.

PS: Can the Maxie be set to low heat without misbehaving?

 Yes. I can bring a pan to the boil, and then turn the burner down to simmering heat without misbehaving - unlike a pressure kero burner, that will choke with carbon if the heat is too low, there is no tiny jet to block up. The only misbehaviour I found in three or four years of full-time use is that when the burner is getting old, the flame holes become enlarged, and then you can get a backfire and hear the combustion going on within the chamber.

When I ordered the knob, I hadn't realised that it was made of thermoplastic. I've now ordered a phenolic resin (thermoset) knob with grubscrew fastening, which should be fine.

Gimbal in two axes? It's enough work to gimbal in one! And the second isn't really necessary.

The needle valve is no longer leaking with the tank at high level, so either it's bedded in, or a foreign body has been flushed through. Nevertheless, 12cm head of pressure is plenty to make the burner work at maximum output.

By this morning, all the components had arrived, so I rolled up my sleeves, went to the workbench and built myself a cooker. The result is in my photo album.

By the end of the afternoon, it was ready for trials, and I cooked my first meal on it.

Problems:

The gimballing is not very good. Although the pivots are 6cm above the pan supports, so that they are near the free surface of the liquid in the pan, the centre of gravity of the whole assemblage is still not far enough below the pan, and the cooker is not heavy enough. This shows up in a way that I hadn't anticipated: A pan with a heavy handle, like my Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, has its CG quite far out from the centre of the pan itself. The cooker will tilt, under this influence, and the pan will slide to one side, increasing the effect. Even my kettle, which is symmetrical and has no handle out to one side, will cause the cooker to tilt if it is not exactly central, even though it can move only 1cm. The only cure would seem to be a large lump of lead bonded to the bottom of the cooker.

The tank cannot be much higher than the built-in tank in the Maxie cooker, or the needle valve cannot close off the flow completely. It cannot be particularly well made. If the tank was higher, there was a fiercer flame than I thought was good for for the burner.

The knob softened in the heat transmitted along the spindle, and would not turn the spindle at the end of cooking. I was glad of the on/off valve near the tank. I will have to find a more heat-resistant knob.

All in all, though, I think the concept is viable. At least I have a cooker that is safe enough, is easy to light and adjust, is fast, is easy to refill and will retain a pan in a rough sea.

David Tyler wrote:

The problems are fivefold, I think:

• I don't know of a model that's made from marine grade non-corrodible materials, that would last long enough to be worth installing.
• I don't know of a model that is able to work in a heeling, rolling, pitching boat. They all have loose parts and rely on being in a static environment.
• They are tall - there's the tank, then the burner, then the flame modifying device that makes it burn hot and clean.
• At the beginning and end of burning, there's always some part-burnt fuel and vapour released. You would have to live with darkened paint around the galley.
• When not in use, there's always a small amount of evaporation of fuel. The cabin - and you - would smell of kero.

Everything can be fixed, if you are a skilled sheet metalworker and can design and make your own cooker, but I don't know of any commercial model of marine wick-burner cooker having been made.

This is good information.  There is an aluminum model, the Butterfly A822 14k BTU 22-Wick Kerosene Aluminum Cook Stove which I think would address #1.  I do have a brother that is semi-retired and is a skilled sheet metal worker that can make just about anything out of metal.  Maybe we need to come up with a cooker design similar to what was done with SibLim that would meet our needs.  I like the simplicity of the Origo but find the fuel difficult.  I like kerosene but find the Taylor stoves expensive to buy and maintain.  Maybe the Maxie is the answer and maybe it is not as fussy about the quality of alcohol but I am not sure how I would ever get to see one in the United States.

I've solved the problem of finding a gravity feed tank for an alcohol cooker. First, I asked Tek-Tanks for a quotation for a custom tank. Let's just say that the price was more than an entire Origo Two. I declined to proceed.

So off I went to eBay, and found that there is a gravity feed fuel tank intended for use when working on a motorcycle engine with the fuel tank removed for easier access - the 1 litre Sealey MS029 tank. It's widely available at under £17, including a hose, on/off valve and hose tail.