How to replace the generator in a COLEMAN FEATHER 400 STOVE 

I bought a feather 400 stove and lantern in 1991 and I had to learn this the hard way. Good video , thank you for what you do .

Very informative video.. mine works well. Picked it up at a yard sale like new in the box for 10$ but i always like to be steps ahead that's why I clicked on.. Thanks"

Nice job 😊👍🏻 I'm happy!!

Thanks. My old Feather has been languishing on the shelf downstairs for years. It gave up the ghost and I bought a new generator for it, but never got around to fitting it. I have been using a little camp stove with an adaptor to take the el cheapo, big(ish) butane cans. It works well, but no character, haha. Time to fix the wee Feather stove, Great video, Thanks.

These kinds of videos help me out a LOT!

Of course I learn something about the priming of Coleman's stoves generators and I thank you.

Great video! I love these stoves!

That's a neat, easy, process.

Thank you for sharing brother

I wish I had known about this. I really liked this stove. At some point the nut cracked on the generator. I basically give the stove away.

Best of luck

Great little stoves. I prefer the dual control 400 models, but these work fine. The flame control is a bit finicky on these. It varies from stove to stove, though. I believe this is a 400B or a 442. Big yellow flames are NOT NORMAL. This happens when you flood the generator and mixing chamber with liquid fuel. This happens when you try to baby and nurse it through warmup. If you follow the instructions by the book, you'll nearly always get a pretty clean light up. I'm not telling anyone WHAT to do. I'm explaining HOW to get the best results as the engineers who designed it intended. Will this guarantee zero yellow flames? NO. But they won't last long and you'll be cooking in about 30 seconds if you follow the procedures below. HOW and WHY THEY WORK is below the instructions. Fill it on a level surface. Pump it up 25 full strokes. Hold a lighted match or lighter to the burner. Open the valve to Hi/LIGHT. Add 30 more pumps, one stroke per second to maintain good pressure until the generator is generating gas. Adkust flame to desired level. Add pressure as needed to maintain desired flame. Nursing the valve defeats the "instant lighting" feature engineered into these. If this doesn't work as advertised, something is wrong with your stove. Theory of operation/How instant lighting works on this model. Instant lighting requires high pressure and flow through the generator when cold. This means lots of air. Pressure is your friend. Use it. The fuel/air tube on these has a metered close tolerance, tiny hole for a fuel pickup at the bottom and a larger one for air induction on top in the air space above the fuel level. While this one is square and plastic, it's still two tubes. It works by the same principle as the ones with a spring and brass plunger rod but is automatic without those two parts. When the stove is cold and you set it to HIGH/LIGHT, the pressure in the tank cannot force enough fuel up to the generator to meet the demand of the relatively large opening at the gas tip because the fuel pickup orifice is smaller. Since the little hole can supply enough volume, air forces it's way down from the bigger hole above the fuel and blasts at high velocity past the tiny fuel pickup orifice at the bottom, atomizing the fuel into a fuel air mixture (just like a tiny carburetor) This fuel air mixture rushes up the other tube and into the generator as a fine mist that will burn relatively cleanly when it sprays into the burner mixing chamber and out through the burner rings. The coil inside the generator does a few things. It slows larger droplets and liquid down, forces most of the flow to contact the inner wall of the generator and makes for a long spiral path with lots of surface area for better vaporization and heat transfer to the fuel. As the generator gets hotter, the fuel starts to vaporize in it. As the tiny liquid fuel droplets try to expand into hot gas, back pressure is created and builds inside the generator. This back pressure slows the flow rate from the tank more and more until the tiny orifice alone can supply the demand from the generator. Remember vapor is many times less dense than the liquid it came from and takes up much more volume as it expands. Since it's expanding, it will follow the path of least resistance and goes where the pressure is lowest, through the gas tip. Once at operating temperature, no more air is being sent to the generator, only liquid fuel that hits the hot generator surfaces and vaporizes almost instantly. Now you only need to add air when the fuel level drops. But this is exponentially slower than when it was forcing the fuel air mixture. Common mistakes/bad advice/myths: Open the valve just slightly so you don't flood it. WRONG Opening the valve slowly or partially will almost instantly flood the generator with liquid fuel. Wait until you hear it spit. WRONG When you hear the spit, too much liquid is already in the generator. Take your thumb off the pump hole on the up stroke. WRONG The pump cup is designed to let air pass into the pump tube on the up stroke. Keep your thumb on the hole while you tighten the pump knob. WRONG The check valve at the bottom of the pump tube take care of that for you. In fact more air is likely to leak past the pump cup this way as you aren't allowing tank pressure to seat the check ball. But IF your check valve is leaking badly, you can get by using your thumb as a manual if leaky check valve. Hope this made sense. Feel free to comment, gripe, tell me what grandpa taught you, complain, or ask questions. I want everyone to enjoy clean light ups like I do.

Great instructional video. I just bought one of these feather 400 stoves, it's model 400B it says it right on the stove). It looks exactly like yours and I wanted a spare generator. Where did you buy your generator for the Feather 400 stove?

Thanks for such detailed video, my 533 is working fine but I’ll be taking it to Baja for a long period and I can’t get White Gas, it’ll have to be unleaded. Anyone have any experience down there as to white gas? I know is a dual stove but still is best to use white gas.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Great video. Did you purchase that generator at the local Walmart. My Walmart carry very limited parts. Good video to share. Blessings brother.

Cool! Do you have a nesting pot for it?

I have one I’ve been wanting to put in my pack, but it has the stupid crimped on rubber pump cup. I have to figure out how to retrofit a leather pump cup and nesting pot for it. I cannot/will not trust a rubber pump cut. The good news is it only weighs 2 ounces more than my Svea 123 with the same amount of fuel carried.

Great video as always. Just curious , where did you buy the generator from? Cause I was thinking about the 533 for myself too. Thanks.

Good stuff you should cook outside show is what it can do :)

Can you still get them generators I live in England and cant get them ?

I have one of those 400 and it's brand new bought long ago never used. I took it out of the box and been using it but it doesn't turn off. It burns awesome, but when you turn it off the little flame just doesn't go off. My 533 goes off after 30 seconds but this one just never goes off. I have to blow it off and depressurize and empty the tank every time. What do you think the reason might be? Thank you for your help in advance!!!

I've got a 442 Feather I got used at a garage sale. 1. issue I have is I need to replace the pump valve which I did. It still doesn't want to keep pressure. 2. issue is it appears to leak fuel from around the generator on both sides plus the generator adjustment. Would you suggest replacing the generator first?

Do you know the size and type of o-ring needed for this stove?

Once the flame is good and hot you need to pump it again.

What is a good price for a used stove like this? $60?

Do a little more research buddy