Tentipi Eldfell Pro Stove

[DaveS]

Dave, Now that I have my eldfell, I would be grateful for a bit of advice.

The instructions say to "Roll the mosquito net roof up and fix it in place along the edge of the tent fabric" I am struggling to work out what that means, and in your picture I can't see the mosquito net at all. Can you explain how this works.

How do you manage the opening to take the chimney. Do you keep it velcroed and open it up before pitching the tent. If so what do you do if you decide to set up the fire afterwards, or conversely if it's really bad weather and you need to take the chimney down, how do you close up the velcro.

I'ts incredibly high up, and I need a small step ladder to reach the mosquito netting and chimney opening. Do you do everything by dropping the canvas some how, or do you actually take step ladder.

I also discovered that you can't set up the stove at the side of the pole (because of the chimney angle, and it needs set up at an angle or the way you have it in your pics. I was sure I had seen pictures with it set up facing the door. I'm guessing that you have decided that parallel to the door works best. Obviously I will need to experiment with the position, but the netting is the immediate issue.

Thanks,

Graham

Hi Graham.
You can't really set up the stove any other way than in front of the pole. It's the only way it goes due to the pole, the legs and the chimney slot.
As to the mosquito netting, the only netting we have is at the door and I guess its possible that if it was flapping it could possibly touch the chimney or stove. We never use the netting anyway and its always fully zipped in or tied back with the door, so its never going to be a problem for us.
As to opening the chimney up, we always fit the stove and the flap gets opened up at the time that the Tipi is pitched. I've never had to open or close it when the Tipi is pitched even in bad weather. Yes you get rain dripping down but it normally gets vapourised by the chimney anyway.
However to do this you'd need to, slacken off the buckles and lower the top by pulling the pole back so that it was a comfortable height..... but of a pain, but not that difficult.
It's a little easier for me to reach up there as I'm 6' 1" and I can stand on top of the stove box.... we built a lid that sits on top of the stove box to make it in to a strong seat.

[myotis]

Hi Graham.
You can't really set up the stove any other way than in front of the pole. It's the only way it goes due to the pole, the legs and the chimney slot.
As to the mosquito netting, the only netting we have is at the door and I guess its possible that if it was flapping it could possibly touch the chimney or stove. We never use the netting anyway and its always fully zipped in or tied back with the door, so its never going to be a problem for us.
As to opening the chimney up, we always fit the stove and the flap gets opened up at the time that the Tipi is pitched. I've never had to open or close it when the Tipi is pitched even in bad weather. Yes you get rain dripping down but it normally gets vapourised by the chimney anyway.
However to do this you'd need to, slacken off the buckles and lower the top by pulling the pole back so that it was a comfortable height..... but of a pain, but not that difficult.
It's a little easier for me to reach up there as I'm 6' 1" and I can stand on top of the stove box.... we built a lid that sits on top of the stove box to make it in to a strong seat.

Thanks Dave,

Yes, I have kind of come to the conclusion that this is the only place for the stove.

I have a ring of mosquito netting just under the top hat, with a draw string that pulls it tight to the pole. This lets you open the top hat but still keep the mosquitos out, but it hangs down like a skirt from the bottom edge of the top hat, and reaches just below the chimney heat shield.

It looks as if you always put the stove up anyway, so the problem I was describing isn't really a problem to you. Maybe I should just do the same.

I've already gone through the slackening off and dropping the pole as I had the lines to adjust the top hat twisted, but I was hoping to avoid this.

For a simple tent, there is a lot to learn :-)

Graham

[DaveS]

I have a ring of mosquito netting just under the top hat, with a draw string that pulls it tight to the pole. This lets you open the top hat but still keep the mosquitoes out, but it hangs down like a skirt from the bottom edge of the top hat, and reaches just below the chimney heat shield.

Ahh yes we have that but don't have any way to pull it in at all. We have controls for the top hat and the very tip top hat but nothing else. May be they improved the model as ours is a couple of years old now.

[myotis]

Ahh yes we have that but don't have any way to pull it in at all. We have controls for the top hat and the very tip top hat but nothing else. May be they improved the model as ours is a couple of years old now.

I just mean a draw string on the mosquito netting itself, nothing fancy , but I still can't work out how to "Roll the mosquito net roof up and fix it in place along the edge of the tent fabric" which I thought you must have done as I cannot see the mosquito netting at all in the photograph of your top hat.

Graham

[DaveS]

I just mean a draw string on the mosquito netting itself, nothing fancy , but I still can't work out how to "Roll the mosquito net roof up and fix it in place along the edge of the tent fabric" which I thought you must have done as I cannot see the mosquito netting at all in the photograph of your top hat.

Graham

There is some netting there but it can't be moved. The very tip top hat covers it and only when that is raised do you see it. I can't do anything to move it. The shield on the chimney stops anything from burning so I have no idea what they are on about. I guess you should ask Taunton Leisure.

[myotis]

There is some netting there but it can't be moved. The very tip top hat covers it and only when that is raised do you see it. I can't do anything to move it. The shield on the chimney stops anything from burning so I have no idea what they are on about. I guess you should ask Taunton Leisure.

Thanks Dave, you obviously don't have the same netting, I know the netting you mean, but mine hangs loose below the top hat, and below the chimney shield, so it could rub against the bare chimney. I will have another look, there are toggles up there but there doesn't appear to be any loops to attach them to.

I didn't realise this was a new feature.

Graham

P.S. on further inspection there are in fact loops for the toggles, but were hidden behind the fibreglass support struts. All fixed now :-)

[OwenR]

Have just ordered the Eldfell comfort for our Safir 7cp. Should be here in a week or so. Looking forward to trying it out, my wife is ALWAYS complaining she's too cold in the night and now we've got a baby we thought it was time to take the plunge.

Dave, apologies if this has been covered and I've missed it, but how long, roughly, will this stay lit?

Also, someone above mentioned about campsites not allowing these? Is that a problem you've come across lots?

[DaveS]

Have just ordered the Eldfell comfort for our Safir 7cp. Should be here in a week or so. Looking forward to trying it out, my wife is ALWAYS complaining she's too cold in the night and now we've got a baby we thought it was time to take the plunge.

Dave, apologies if this has been covered and I've missed it, but how long, roughly, will this stay lit?

Also, someone above mentioned about campsites not allowing these? Is that a problem you've come across lots?

Well as to how long it stays lit depends on the wood really. I think well seasoned oak is the best from memory, but we never really know what we're burning.
We can nearly get ours running over night if we load it up at say 11pm, shut it down, and then chuck some in around 6am. This may need to be kindling to get it going again quickly.
Sometimes if the wood is poor it could be running out around 3am.

As to the campsites, we generally always ask first before booking and we are very careful to explain that the fire sits on two matts, in our case, and on the groundsheet before it will burn any grass, which is generally what they are worried about. Some will still say no, like the Camping and Caravanning Club but generally places are fine. We have built up quite a list now of people that will take us.

Lastly be really really careful with a little un and the fire... it gets ferociously hot and will burn very very badly if touched even for just a second. Obviously the flue gets very hot as well, that's where most people catch themselves. You may need to fashion a guard of some sort.

[myotis]

As to the campsites, we generally always ask first before booking and we are very careful to explain that the fire sits on two matts, in our case, and on the groundsheet before it will burn any grass, which is generally what they are worried about.

Although, I haven't used mine for real yet, I have a welding blanket for it to sit on. It came as 1m x 2m piece and designed to take molten metal up to 1000 degrees C, and I have it doubled up to give me a metre square of material. A search on ebay for welding blanket will find several options.

I reckoned that "welding blanket" "molten metal" and "1000 degrees centigrade" were all good buzz words to convince a camp site owner I was taking the idea of protecting their grass seriously.

Graham