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Kovea’s vice chairman Yoo Keun Kang
envisions the company “getting away
from conventional fuel sources, some-
thing that will really limit your footprint
when the products are being used.“
Three months later, Park once again
was showing another proof-of-concept
at the 2016 Outdoor Retailer Summer
Market show in Salt Lake City. Regard-
ing this ground-breaking technology,
Park remarks, “Kovea is putting a lot of
effort in trying to make the outdoor ex-
perience enjoyable by integrating both
the technology aspect of what Korea
is known for, with the outdoors. Korea
is probably the most wired country in
the world, so it’s always good to keep
those comforts within reach. This gives
the customer the choice to stay on or
off the grid.” Clearly, this technology is
on the vanguard of just that.
To really appreciate the why behind
this new technology, a look at the func-
tion of any canister gas or liquid fuel
stove will remind us of where we have
settled with these specific technologies.
For the eco-conscious, outdoor recre-
ation sector, it has been a necessary evil
and the list of evils, or inconveniences
anyway, are many. The compromises
principally lie in safety, transportation
and operating environments.
For instance, burning petroleum-
based fuels with an open flame have
the following drawbacks, of which we
largely have grown complacent. To
start, stove operation is not an instant-
on process. Depending on design and
fuels used, stove burners require a
period of time before reaching the best
possible operational conditions. Some
designs require priming, which can
result in accidental flare-ups due to ig-
niting excess fuel. Priming alone has
been the death knell of many melted
tents and singed eyebrows. As the
fuel is consumed, canister or liquid
fuel stoves require constant re-pres-
surization to keep a consistent flame.
That means adjusting the gas supply
valve or manually pumping the liquid
fuel reservoir every so often. Liquid
fuels often leave a layer of soot on the
bottom of cookware, an unwelcomed
byproduct of incomplete combustion
during start-up – which is another
reason why using a stove inside a
tent is ill advised. At higher altitudes,
the flame begins to compete with the
tent’s occupants for valuable oxygen.
When the O2 is not sufficient to run it
efficiently, it produces partially burnt
hydrocarbons such as carbon mon-
oxide and others, similar to a car’s
emissions. Similar to your car, those
fumes, when inhaled, are deadly.
Operationally, when the stove is
running, there is no exact way to dial
in the temperature, making it difficult
for those who actually cook and not
just boil water. Mechanically, the metal
parts exposed to the flame are built
to take repeated heating and cool-
ing and are mostly robust in design.
Because of that, it takes more time for
those parts to safely cool-to-the-touch.
Finally, the stove’s flame has to be pro-
tected from gusts of wind or spritzes of
rain to keep it from blowing out. Wind
screens solve this issue, but it means
one more item that adds weight and
cost to the gear list, and screens typi-
cally are a bit fragile.
On the fuel side, additional consid-
erations need to be made for safety
and transportation. Most liquid fuels
vary in their volatility or ability to turn
Inside
Outdoor
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Fall
2016
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