Wilcox Crittenden Sea Cook Stove

[Wayne Williams]

...just bought one for $7 at a garage sale. Its a non-gimballed two burner deal such as you'd place on a benchtop. It generally looks pretty sturdy and only about six moving parts I would guess. The pressure regulator (maybe just a gauge) appears to be stuck. Also the gasket in the hand pump is cruddy.

So...what have I got? What does it burn? And can I get spare parts for it?

WW

[Nicholas Carey]

when you say 'gasket in the pump', do you mean the pump leather?

Those are usually, just a disk of leather. If it's dried out and grotty, try pulling the pump stem with the leather attached and soaking it overnight in light oil to soften it up. If that doesn't work, you can usually get a leather punch and cut a new leather from an old belt. [things I have learned from having to do field-expedient fixes on old Coleman stoves and lanterns.]

Also, you might check out the old stove cranks at The Stove Collector (http://stovecollector.tripod.com/). They might be able to help you out.

As for spare parts, etc....here's where to find Wilcox-Crittenden Customer Service (http://wilcoxcrittenden.com/service.asp?bid=).

[ 08-04-2003, 03:13 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]

[Wayne Williams]

Thanks. Yes I mean the leather. That should be easy enough to fix.

Now just the pressure gauge. I checked the Wilcox & Crittenden website. They apparently have been in and out of business several times and no longer make stoves.

I don't suppose anyone can make an educated guess about what fuel this thing burns?

WW

[Alan D. Hyde]

Alcohol???

Alan

[Aramas]

The deal with camping stoves is that petrol (gas?) and kerosine/diesel stoves generally have some kind of fuel heating mechanism, usually just a loop in the fuel pipe that goes through the burner flame (but could be built into the burner). Alcohol stoves don't have anything like that, and seem to have bigger holes in the burner.
Can't you tell from the smell? Any kind of greasy residue in it's guts would indicate fossil fuel, carbon buildup on the burners indicates kero or diesel, and clean but oxidised to hell indicates alcohol. If there are any aluminium internal bits then it's probably not alcohol. Also, alcohol stoves tend to have either gravity feed or really tiny low pressure pumps.
Of course if it's really old, it might run on naptha or whale oil smile.gif

[Tim Sweeney]

The thing definitly runs alchohol. I have one from a 73 flicka. Last year I replaced it with a single burner butane. IMHO pressurized alchohol stoves are trouble. Last time I attempted to light it the leather washer you're talking about failed to make a good seal and ended up spraying alchohol around. I was lucky it was not lit at the time and the stove wasn't in the cabin. That being said it's a simple beast that would never wear out nor has it shown any sign of destructive corrosion on any parts really (besides discoloration of the brass piping)

[ 08-04-2003, 10:59 PM: Message edited by: Tim Sweeney ]

[Wayne Williams]

Alcohol it is. When I opened up the pump it was clean as a whistle. Somewhere I read that the burners have to be warmed first on an alcohol stove. It's not clear to me how to do this. You burn a little in a cup under the burner?

WW

P.S. I'm leaving town this morning for a week so I may not be able to post again for a little while.

[ 08-05-2003, 06:49 AM: Message edited by: Wayne Williams ]

[rbgarr]

We used an alcohol two burner on my Dad's boat when I was growing up. There was a way to pressurize the alcohol tank with a pump that was part of the fill cap, and shallow cups under each burner that needed to be partly filled with liquid alcohol and (spark or match) lit to warm up the burner units so the alcohol would vaporize on the way to the burner heads. If I remember the details of our stove correctly, when the fuel valve for each burner was turned on the cool liquid fuel would flow into the shallow warming cups. After that had been lit and burned off, reopening the fuel valves while hold ing a flame or sparking the burner head would divert the alcohol to the heated burner and it would bypass refilling the shallow cups because it had vaporized. Oftentimes my mother couldn't get the gassified fuel lit in time (before the burners cooled) and she'd have to start the 'burner warming process' again. For this reason she often had both burners going at once, even though she wasn't using them both all the time. We children were warned to stay out of the galley, or at least follow her instructions carefully because alcohol flames are hard to see.

Some things we had to keep in mind:

Always fill the tank when the stove is cool. If you run dry after cooking for a while, you should wait for the stove to cool before filling it again. It always seemed that a powerboat wake rocked the boat whenever my father was trying to fill the stove tank with a tiny funnel and a tin gallon can of 'white alcohol' from Bliss.

Alcohol flames (pale bluish, IIRC) can leap quite high. My Dad singed his eyebrows once. Keep a spritzer bottle or pan of water handy to put out any unwanted alcohol fires.

Of course, your results and stove arrangement may vary, given that I am recalling things from 40 years ago

[ 08-05-2003, 09:03 AM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Tim Sweeney]

rbgarr has got it right. Fill the cups let it burn then light once the fuel in the line is vaporized. A trick though is to go to a campint store and get some fire paste. It has toothpaste consistancy and is used to preheat camp stoves. You can squeeze some of this into the cups and preheat that way which will work better and you won't have to worry about spilling alchohol or trying to figure out if it's burned out yet or not.

[Meerkat]

The modern equivilent to fire paste are those long skinny "fire starter" disposable bic lighters (at hardware stores?). Turn up the flame and play it over the pressure manifold in the burner until it's hot and wooosh!. Also handy for lighting lamps and "seizing" plastic rope.

[Wayne Williams]

Thanks ya'll. BTW I got an e-mail back from Wilcox & Crittenden to the effect that they could offer no help or suggestions.

WW