Category Archives: Stoves

Phoebus 625 Stove Restoration Labels

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Stove fan and restorer Phillip C. was kind enough to share some labels he made. (Thanks, Phillip!) He used them on a recent restoration of his Phoebus 625 gasoline/naphtha stove. Here’s how they looked on his nicely restored stove.


The labels are presented in three ways: as pdfs, as jpgs, and as docx files. I don’t own a color printer, but, if you do, these may be very useful for you. You are on your own for formatting and the like.

PDFs
Phoebus small label
Phoebus main label

JPGs

DOCX
Phoebus 625 small label template1
Phoebus 625 main label template1
Instructions for operating the stove are found here:
https://www.berniedawg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Phoebus-625-Instructions.pdf

AND! Did you know that if you are missing the caps for the Phoebus 625 you can replace them with a BernieDawg Wide Body silent damper cap? Sure enough! Here’s a photo:

 

Juwel 34 Stove Manual and Instructions – Original German and English Translation

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Here are both the original German language manual for the popular Juwel 34 stove and my English translation of the Juwel 34 stove manual. Jpg files are first, and then, at the bottom are the links to the higher quality PDF files. You are welcome to share and distribute these files.

PDF files
Juwel 34 Stove Manual – German 1MB
Juwel 34 Manual English Translation 3MB

Heinze Geniol German Army Kocher Stove Manuals

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Down below I have some English translations of the Heinze Geniol German Army Stove manuals and box lid placard. Here are some photos of the stove I’m talking about.

I have a short video at my YouTube channel showing how to light one up with the quick lighter device: https://youtu.be/TEYuNicFRWE
The video has some links to both the storage bag and the windshield I show with the stove.

The stove comes with a multi-page pamphlet that describes operating, maintenance and repair procedures. It’s in German.

But, I’ve translated it into English. Just a couple of pages as a teaser for the PDF documents you can download below.

And, as it turns out, there are two different versions of the German language manual. I found this version one manual online here:
https://www.prela.ch/Anleitungen/bwkocher.pdf
Here’s the Version 1 in German which you can download here from my site or from the site at that link just above:
Heinze Geniol Army Kocher Manual Version 1 German
Here’s the Version 2 in German which came with one of my kochers and has some edits to create new sections and some corrections from version one:
Heinze Geniol Army Kocher Manual Version 2 German

So, I translated both versions. Here are the two smaller files that just show single pages:
Heinze Geniol Cooker Manual Ver.1 English Single page
Heinze Geniol Cooker Manual Vers.2 English Single page

For a booklet style view on your computer or device, download one or both of these slightly larger files:
Heinze Geniol Army Kocher English Manual Version 1 for viewing
Heinze Geniol Army Kocher English Manual Version 2 for viewing

For a document that you can print double-sided and get the pages located in the proper order (to make your own hard copy booklet), download one or both of these files:
Heinze Geniol Army Kocher English Manual Version 1 for booklet printing
Heinze Geniol Army Kocher English Manual Version 2 for booklet printing

There are instructions under the lid, too. They are not as good as in the manual.

Here’s the translation of those, too.

Hey! You are free to download these and even share them around. Please retain my little credit to me I put on the translated pages. It took me a lot of days to translate, so it just seems fair. Download and share them for free – it’s knowledge! Let’s be decent humans and share our knowledge and resources! (I don’t believe in trying to make money on documents that I didn’t even print or author originally. Nor do I believe in creating a silly “monopoly” on knowledge by restricting knowledge to subscribers. 🙄 Those ideas are weirdly mean-spirited and not very nice.👎)
You’re welcome, stove fans! 🥳 BD

Optimus Hiker+ Manual

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The Optimus Hiker+ stove was discontinued in 2020. Here’s the Optimus Hiker+ manual for you collectors or for anyone who needs one. Free of charge. The jpgs are below. Click on each image for the full size jpg.
Or, slide down the page farther for a link to get the PDF of better quality.

Better quality PDF copy of the manual (about 486KB):
Optimus Hiker+ Manual

Svea 123 or 123R Spindle Key Uses

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The Swedish-made Svea 123R is a great stove. The “R” means it has a built-in cleaning needle. The spindle key that comes with the vintage stoves has several cut-outs in the key. The purpose of the cut-outs is to lighten the spindle key, to allow the key to dissipate heat and to serve as useful tools for the stove in the field. Here is a quick explanation of the functions of the tool cutouts in the spindle key.

Swedish-made Svea 123R with spindle key

Spindle key detail

Svea 123R – Loosen fuel cap

Svea 123R – Adjust spindle nut and tighten graphite packing

Svea 123R – loosen/tighten jet

The predecessor of the Svea 123R is the Svea 123 (it has no “R” in the stove name.) The spindle key that was bundled with Svea 123R stoves also had cutouts for this earlier version, the Svea 123. The keys were used interchangeably during the years that both types of stoves were co-produced.

Svea 123R stove on right. Svea 123 (no R) on the left.

The spindle nut is smaller on the Svea 123, and the opening in the photo below is used to tighten or loosen the spindle nut. Usually used to tighten the nut as the graphite packing in the spindle wears with use.

This part of the tool is for the spindle nut on the Svea 123 (no R)

This part of the tool is for the smaller jet on the Svea 123 (no R)

The cheaply made and low quality Optimus Svea 123R stoves now coming out of Taiwan still feature a spindle key that includes the opening for the Svea 123 spindle nut even though the Taiwanese never made that stove and that stove stopped being produced in Sweden pre-1970.

Some people, new to these sorts of stoves, or with little background on these stoves, will claim that the Taiwan stoves are of equal quality. But, sadly, those people have never had a genuine Swedish-made Svea in their hands. It is fairly well documented on social discussion forums about stoves that the Taiwanese Svea 123R stoves are of lesser fit and finish than the original Swedish made stoves. There have been quite a few reports about failures to positively shut-off straight out of the box. In my own work repairing stoves I have had a half dozen brand new Taiwanese Svea 123Rs sent to me in just the last year for failures to positively shut-off. The spindle seats are often poorly formed and the brand new stoves will leak right out of the box. If you are considering the purchase of a Svea 123R, PLEASE buy a used vintage one. There are lots of them around and they are much better made than the poor quality Taiwan stoves.

Primus Stove, Lantern and Appliance Dating Chart

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Primus paraffin stoves, lanterns and blow lamps (blowtorches) are stamped with a letter code starting in 1911. The letter code can be found on the bottom of the tanks of these liquid fuel pressure appliances. The letters Q and AQ are not used in the coding system. Starting in 1955, the code method changed and a six-digit code was used. The last two digits of the six-digit code correspond to the year of production. The six-digit code can often be found on the leg of the stove or on the burner riser of the stove. Toward the end of the last years of Primus production, the code was no longer stamped on the stove but was found on the carton the stove shipped in.
There is often an additional number or letter stamped on the tank. It is unclear what this was for, but it is possible it was a production line identifier, or lot batch number.

Primus is the only liquid-fueled pressure appliance company of which I am aware that dated their offerings with a date code. Other manufacturers appliances must be dated by examining the features of the appliance and comparing them to catalog drawings, photos, illustrations and known dated appliances of the type.

You are welcome to freely copy and distribute this dating chart, link to the dating chart, or link to this webpage. Click on the chart or the photos below for larger and higher resolution images. While I made this chart from scratch, I am not the originator of the chart. For the record, I only published my homemade chart here after I saw that the original chart (found on a popular and well-known social discussion forum requiring a membership and/or subscription fee) has been published in full resolution far and wide all over Pinterest. So, the horse has already escaped the barn. I do not believe knowledge should be held ransom behind a subscription fee. Apparently a lot of Pinterest users agree, and you should agree, too. 👍

Here are some examples:

1920 Primus #100 Stove – marked “J”

1920 Primus #100 Stove – marked “J”

1936 Primus #100 Stove – marked “AA”

1936 Primus #100 Stove – marked “AA”

1946 Primus #71 Stove – marked “AK”

1946 Primus #71 Stove – marked “AK”