Handwarmers, S01E05: Hacks: Improve Perfomance of your Zippo, Jon-e, or Peacock.
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- Опубликовано: 16 дек 2016
- In our series on Handwarmers we discussed the value and advantages for using platinum catalyst, carbon felt, and terpenes in your handwarmer. Now we go one step further and remove some of the other problems inherent to this 100 year old design. By permanently affixing the head and improving its thermal conductivity we address reliability and heat output issues. By adding an independant fill portal we make it much easier to fill while facilitating the ability to fix the head. We see how this hack is compatible throughout the entire handwarmer universe from Zippos to Chinese knock-offs, and can be done with the 6 or the 12 hour models, for mere pennies.
Update: A couple of weeks down the road and I've found that this mod does seem to make these units get incredibly hot. However, I've also found that if I squirt the naptha into the grommet too aggressively, it will soak the head in naptha. After I did that, even though I let it dry out, it did not subsequently work very well. So I removed the catalyst and it appeared to be damaged, it was all brown on the inside. Replacing it solved the problem. So now I am more carefull to fill the reservoir slowly. If you use those bottles that the vapers use for their juice, another technique that works is to insert the nozzle into the grommet, and just let the naptha gravity feed into the handwarmer. It takes a long time so you have to go away and leave it, but when you come back, the bottle has emptied, and the catalyst head is still dry. I seem to recall watching one of the handwarmer videos that recommends squirting naptha onto the head, and then lighting it: not a good idea! Especially when you consider that the head's are not 'burners'. Nothing burns, it reacts, and it is the exothermic reaction that produces the heat. 
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wow a hand warmer nerd!awesome,glad you exist.thought i was the only one.
Thanks for the ideas! But, I don't get the need for the rubber stopper when a simple 3mm hole is all that's needed since the plastic tip will make the seal. I plugged my deeper hole with an old butane match from a keychain. But a simple hole on the side could be covered by the lid and sealed with friction. I drilled 4 small holes into the top as if I were going to use screws for attachment but, then I removed the top and filled the holes with solder to increase the friction and the holes left in the lid provided centering points. I also replaced the the top cotton with silica fiber sheet. All in all you found the weak points.
There are many possibilities. I prefer the grommet because it expands when you insert the tip from the filler bottle, which ensure no spillage out the edges of the filler hole. When you remove the tip, it contracts and thus there is a smaller hole for vapors to escape. It is simply a more elegant solution, but not the only one withal.
Would you sell some heads for certain warmers
As far as filling the compact from the bottom, why not use a syringe (with the added advantage of having graduated markings on the side of said syringe, so you know how much you've put in)
Just make sure the syringe can handle petrol without dissolving!
Yes, good ideas.
do you sell the round head version they seem to be eaiser to lite than the other styles
I can't seem to source the round ones anymore, seems like they have stopped selling or perhaps manufacturing them.
hello, the grommet has a hole in, what stops the fuel coming back out the grommet, do you not need a bung plug
The same principle that precludes liquid fuel egress from the reservoir neck where you fill it: the absorbent material in the reservoir holds the liquid fuel in suspension. You do not need to plug the grommet with anything.
What kind of a lighter is that at 22:15? never seen one like that before.
Probably because they only work half the time, that model is not my favorite for that reason.
where did you get the rubber grammets
I started with the most suitable size I had in a typical grommet kit, then once I knew the right size, just bought more of that size.
Do you sell squares of the Catalyst? And if so, is it more cost efficient to replace the cat one's self or just buy the zippo replacement part? ( For a Zippo 12 Hour Hand Warmer)
I believe most people find it most cost efficient to buy one of cataylst pad/spring kits for $12.95 which will do 3 head rebuilds:
mparam.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/orderform2-handwarmer.html
Doesn't a grommet mean that the fuel is exposed to another open path to vaporize and escape from? Shouldn't hand-warmer last not as long and waste fuel that could have been catalyzed because of this? Unless you add some sort of self sealing grommet or something?
If you do a run time test on two identical hand warmers, one with grommet and one without, you'll find you cannot quantify a measurable difference in run time. However, perhaps if you had the ability to test in Lab conditions, maybe the one without the grommet could be found to burn for a second or two longer. In real life, what will define the actual burn time (and resultant heat output) is the mass and amount of platinum on the safil substrate of the catalyst material.
Instead of gluing the head on, why not just drill a small hole on each long side of the head into the body and install two small screws? That would give good metal to metal contact for head transfer and still allow easy removal of the head to replace the catalyst by simply removing the two screws? Am I missing anything here? It seems like a simple solution.
Yeah, that's not a bad idea, why didn't I think of that? Of course I don't want you to look smarter than me, so maybe I could improve on that idea if you could thread the hole with a tap, and if I could find some really small thumb screws. I see Amazon lists a bunch of them, but I'm not sure if it's possible to find ones that would be small enough.
One thing I have learned, I used too much glue on the first few tries, but just a little drop on each side and end of the catalyst head seems to work OK, and the glue remains pretty flexible so I'm finding it easy to remove and then replace the head after it is glued on.
What I'm working on now is the idea of placing a vapour tube down through the middle of the packing material to help vent the fumes up to the catalyst, and that same tube would function as a filler pipe as well.
Instead of tapping threads into such thin material, I would recommend small self tapping sheet metal screws. Drill hole, install screw, done.
Also, Is there some specific reason to install a grommet into the hole for filling? Why not just drill a small hole, just big enough to accommodate the filler tube on the squeeze bottle? This would allow a small hole in the top of the small hand warmers where space would not allow for a grommet. Thank you very much for taking the time to make these very educational videos and explain to us how these devices work, how to use them properly, how to rebuild them and how not to abuse them so you get the maximum life and heat. I have learned a lot from your research.
For your vent tube how about a metal pipe with many holes drilled into it all the way around it throughout the length of it? Or stainless steel screen rolled into a tube shape? You could hold the tube in place as you pack the carbon felt into the body. This would increase the surface area for evaporation of fumes.
A good question for your friend who manufactures the catalyst would be, "How much surface area is needed for the amount of catalyst in one of these heads?" If there is too much surface area would uncatalyzed vapors pass through the head, wasting fuel? Another way to get more surface are for evaporation would be to simply not pack the carbon felt all the way to the top. Leave a quarter inch space between the top of the felt and the top of the base. You then would have the entire top layer of felt to evaporate vapors, without the need for a tube. When filling, the space would allow fuel to run across and soak into the entire top layer of felt.
deasley2 replied:
Instead of tapping threads into such thin material, I would recommend small self tapping sheet metal screws. Drill hole, install screw, done. Also, Is there some specific reason to install a grommet into the hole for filling? Why not just drill a small hole, just big enough to accommodate the filler tube on the squeeze bottle? This would allow a small hole in the top of the small hand warmers where space would not allow for a grommet. Thank you very much for taking the time to make these very educational...
mparam:
I went with the grommet because the filler tube seems to spread the rubber apart and then allows it to reseal when you extract it. Seemed like a more elegant fix that only costs a few pennies. The rubber also creates a good seal around the filler tube which leads to less spillage. For example if you had some leakage around the filler hole subsequent to filling and extracting the filler snorkel, you might have an inconvenient flame-up around the filler hole when you activate the catalyst with an open flame. I found that when you use the right sized drill bit that is matched to the grommet, it is not a problem to insert the grommet and achieve a good fit. I basically imitated the system that that UK brand of handwarmer uses.
You're both missing something! I've been using these things for over 50 years, all you have to do is squeeze the sides of the burner a little to keep it on. Besides that if you glue the burner on, you can't shut the warmer off. All you have to do to shut the warmer off is take the top off and carefully pry the burner off with the edge of the top!!!
where did u get the catalyst sheet?
We have them manufactured for us in large squares, and then cut them into the pad sizes we need with a guillotine cutter.
No the sheets are very expensive and I doubt many people would buy them online. In fact we worked for 2 years to find a way to get them made up for us. If someone wanted larger quantity such as a 6x6" piece I could formulate a price. If you're going to make a 'mega burner', then I suspect the way to do it would be use big springs and stuff them with catalyst. That would be an interesting project.
I actually don't have any science to support the better wicking theory, that's subjective based on observing carbon felt's role in alcohol stoves. I actually tried to make lighter wicks a few years ago from it, and realized that She Who Must Be Obeyed is right in that I'm an idiot when of course it did not work very well. So it's a good thing that hand warmers do not need to wick fuel, they just need to hold it while it evaporates. Given the proliferation of 'Buddy' style heaters over the years, I'm assuming there's are reason the large heaters don't just have a giant catalyst head on them. I'm going to have to ask our catalyst engineer friend Jordan about that.
I did some digging and ask Jordan about the feasability of building a giant naptha based catalytic heater. I won't be able to give his explanation proper justice, but I'll try and sum it up. If I understood correctly, it would be possible by using a bunch of expensive technology. This is because the 'space velocity' phenomena would not allow you to use a big resevoir of naptha without the ability to control the flow of the fumes to the catalyst. This is why the propane based catalytic heaters are feasible, because the gas is under pressure you can control the flow. I think he mentioned something to the effect that the hydrocarbon chain of naptha does support a more efficient exothermic reaction than a methane-hydrocarbon chain like you get from a propane based catalytic heater. But unless your DIY could figure out how to capture the naptha fumes in a pressurized vessel so you could control the output to the catalyst, sounds like you'd be wasting your time and money as well.
Could you make me a new head for a John-e standard size hand warmer I’d be willing to pay top dollor
I need a new head for a John e standard hand warmer I’d pay top dolor
Can I buy some catalyst from you or something. I cannot find it anywhere.
It is on our website:
mparam.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/orderform2-handwarmer.html
You sound like Adam West. 😉
He was smarter, and much better looking.
Why not solder for a better connection of heat
You could, probably have to etch the metal and apply flux to get the solder to stick, but then a hassle when you need to remove the head to replace catalyst.