The grill kit for the large Kelly is not quite the same as the Thermette's cook on top aspect.

After you remove the Kelly from the fire pan you can place the grill and then use the residual coals to grill something or possibly place a small mug on it. The main issue is the size of the firepan....only a small pot can be set upon the grill or the coals will be smothered. I think the primary utility of the grill kit is to toast a sandwich or grill a kabob or something along that line.

The Thermette cook top can support a reasonably sized pot...say of soup while the water is coming to a boil.

The main problem as I see it is feeding the Thermette. It is possible to poke sticks through the large oval entry in the fire base, but otherwise the cook pot would have to be removed from the top quite often to drop stick into the cone.

Both are nice options...grill kit and cooktop for the respective devices but both present functional issues.

I have not bought the grill kit for my large Kelly, and likely will not.

I will likely add a 1.5 quart pot to my Thermette kit to prepare soup etc on the cooktop.

As to being made in China....well I have to admit I was a bit dissapointed as I thought it was made in New Zealand. However there is certainly nothing wrong with the device and that fact would not affect my decision to purchase a Thermette for my intended use.

Garrett Wade is a nice catalog eh? Both Lee Valley and Garrett Wade have nice tools and excellent service. There is another kettle available in the Lehman catalog. They call it a Storm Kettle made my Eydon. It is very similar to the Kelly's with slightly different sizes. I do not have any Eydon's.

I really think that one of these type kettles ought to be in just about anyone's emergency kit. In any natural disaster scenario the ability to boil nearly endless supplies of water using wood....low quality wood, damp wood, paper, cones, bark, really just about anything that will burn is just a superb option. A small gas fired stove or even the larger Coleman type burners are superb for ease of use and multi use, but for rapidly boiling water with found fuels these Kelly type kettles excel.

I am with ya...these are a bit of a hard sell, but they are damn functional devices.

How did the hurricanes hit you over the past few years....any power outages or worse evacuations.

It took me several years but I finally got my wife thinking along the same lines as me. In 1991 we had a moderate earthquake here...my worksite was badly damaged...hers was just fine. Communications were a mess between us. She found our local CERT classes (which I highly recommend) and in the course of several years we just keep adding to our prep. She got her HAM license, we volunteer at our community EOC for communications, have shelter management training, etc.

I highly recommend CERT training not for the actual skills learned, but for the entry point they make in family discussions and prep. CERT and any subsequent training opens up the ability to plan, prepare, and yes spend on some of the things that you mutually agree would be valuable.

Now a few 5gal bottles of water in the basement, 24 packs of batteries, a gallon or two of coleman fuel, a decent stove, tarp, rope, cord, sleeping bags, decent boots, tools....well you name it no longer has to have an immediate and daily use. Buying a few things for a kit that hopefully will never be used is hard to do, but CERT or similar training at least opens up the discussion.

I do love these Kettles for their very unique and fun abilities. I bought my first 1-pint Kelly for the fun of it and learned quite quickly just how nice they can be for more dire needs.

$100 on a wood fired water boiler seems high....and likely would not be my first emergency expeduture....but as part of an overall plan I do highly recommend it as a discussion item at least.

They are fun too

I have a Thermette and I love it (other then the wire handles) it really boils water fast. I was surprised how little wood it takes to get boiling hot water. I have done some cooking with it and it works ok cooking, but it excels at boiling water.

Welcome to the forum Bob.

I forgot to post a link of a review I wrote for it. I wrote the review about a month after I got the Thermette.

Here’s the link
http://www.thebackpacker.com/gear/stoves/thermettte_north_america_thermette.php



PS I just found this site earlier today, lots of great info here. Bob

Welcome to the ETS Forum BobS and Thanks for the link to "The Backpacker" I spent an hour checking out the gear reviews!

Mike

Nice review Bob...and welcome here also.

The handles have been a concern for me for a long time. It is probably why it took me so long to buy a Thermette.

I will look at the site and see what the original handles looked like and rework mine too.

Thermette makes a big deal out of being able to lift the kettle one-handed rather than using the bail and chain of a Kelly, but the close oval handles just look like a nasty burn to me. Lifting the Kelly with the bail horizontal is something I learned right quick.

What wire did you use to redo your handles?

Just a brief tip on how to clean things that have a small opening and maybe 'shoulders' that you can't get a brush or anything into: Fill the container about 1/4 full with soapy water and add some regular rice (instant doesn't work too well). For a quart container, I add about 1/2 cup of rice. Shake enthusiastically. The rice beats the junk off the inside surfaces of the container. Sometimes soaking first is a good idea, depending on what kind of gunk you've got inside. I've also used unpopped corn as the beating agent.

Sue

I made the new handle for my Thermette out of an old metal detector handle (not wire) that bit the dust years ago and I parted it out and saved the parts years ago (you should see all the junk I have saved.) I also made a handle for the one I bought my brother out of stainless steel bar stock and the handle from a auto window scraper.

I took the junk wires off it (they about fell of with no effort) I opened up the opening a bit. And then slid a piece of stainless bar stock 1/8 inch by 5/8 inch. 4 ¼ inches long (same length as the handle for it) I drilled & tapped 3 10x32 holes in it. I installed 2 studs (thread locked & pined them with a spring loaded center punch) and a 10x32 bolt on the bottom to keep the handle from slipping up. It sticks out kinda far and does not fold like the original handle. But It was extremely hard to use with the original handles without them bending and me getting burnt/ the new handle is very functional and strong.

Here is the address of some pictures I uploaded of the Thermette, some before the handle mod, and some after. A good place to find ready-made handles is to go to the Goodwill or Salvation Army stores and look for pots & pans you can part out.

ftp://members.toast.net/photos/Thermette/





As far as it being made in china, I tried (for over an hour of searching) to find them from New Zeeland, I could not, at one time they may have been a New Zeeland product, but not any more. I believe they are now an American company with the product made in China.

It does look crude and unfinished, but I’m interested in results more then the look. But it would have been nice if it had a better looking finish.


The soldered seam is not an issue, as it doesn’t get hot enough to melt the solder. But if you ran it without water (dry) I could easily seeing the solder melting, not an issue as I’m not going to use it with no water with the Thermette on the fire base. Why would you?

It is big, but not really that heavy.

The more I use it, the more I love it.

That link may not work, if not Go here.

http://photos.toast.net/slideshow.asp?us...&PictDisp=0


Sorry for the problem. But I have never up loaded pictures before today and am not good at it yet.