Nova stove is sooting

[DirtBagger]

The bottom of my aluminum pot gets black soot everytime I sue my stove recently. I have have been using brand new Coleman fuel. Someimes I simmer and sometimes its a full blast flame. How do I explain this- the valve will open way post optimum flame and the instructions say not to do that because it will not produce more heat, but will waste fuel-- I am careful not to allow that to happen. The instructions say not to over pump the fuel bottle or it will cause yellow flame - I have never had that happen so I must be pumping it correctly. I have never noticed a yellow flame - which it what will usually cause sooting.
The stove has not been used enough to need cleaning, fuel is new, I think I am operating it correctly.

This is not an alcohol question. I don't use alcohol in the winter, even though it works great year round.

So what do you think the issue is?

[Feral Bill]

You are not burning all your carbon in the fuel. Since you are operating by the book I would guess you have a defective sample, or the stove was ill designed in the first place. I would return it and get a different stove.

Bill

[buz]

We have these stoves in our scout troop, and they have been great performers. The only time we had sooting was with yellow flames present at least a little, and the problem was bad gas from Philmont Scout ranch. But you may want to disassemble the on/off brass stalk that goes into the stove and look it over carefully, and clean it in mineral spirits. We did that after the bad gas situation and the problem went away with new, good gas.

The only other thing I could think of is that your fuel line may have a tiny leak in it, allowing air in, which would mess up the gas/air ratio. But that would mean it would need pumping a lot, and you likely would have a fuel leak, so I think you would have noticed that already.

Also, just fyi, if your washer/oring holding the fuel pump to the bottle is a flat design, in our experience, those are crappy material. Look at those carefully for cracks, which lead to leaky bottles. We have replaced all ours with MSR o ring seals from their big size fuel bottles, a perfect fit.

[DirtBagger]

Thanks Buz -
Your pm got me to thinking - air in the fuel line?? You were right. It was a small leak at the "open/close" valve. I bought the stove from campsaver - now I have to jump hoops to get it replaced. They are going to send me the Contact info for Optimus and let me deal directly with them. Thanks. The thing that scares me about that is that one review I read when looking stoves was a guy that had issues with the Nova pump on a new stove - he sent the pump back to Optimus and got a refurbished pump - he said the refurbushed pump looked "very used" but worked. I hope they do not try to send me a used stove to replace a three week old stove - that would not cut the mustard. I'll report back when I get this issue resolved. Wish me luck.

[buz]

Well, good on you for finding it. Small issues with stoves are sometimes hard to figure out, but usually fall into categories you just have to troubleshoot out.

For dealing with any warranty return with any company, I would recommend: Get to the warranty department directcly if possible. Get the person's name or badge number, whatever. Usually they estabilish a case number or RGA #, get that as well. Send your part back some traceable way, to a real person or dept. Follow up and ask if they did a warranty evaluation on the part. Get the new part and make sure it works, lol.

[DirtBagger]

CAMPSAVER S_U_C_K_S a big fatty. I called them - they did not want to offer assistance -
So I went directly to the manufacturer (by phone)and they said they would send me new pump and I could return the old one (3 week old) to them.
The stove arrived three weeks ago from campsaver - used twice - pump leaks.
When I called campsaver they were all -- hmmm, huh, not sure, never heard of that, don't send it here, let me look something up, well, ohhh, I will email you the manufacturers contact info, good luck, bye bye now.

An email has still not come campsaver - that Friday - today is Monday. Are you on dial up or something.