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Corrosion (?) in an MSR Reactor

Original Post
chad · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2014 · Points: 0

Have a perplexing situation on my hands regarding my stove, a late model MSR reactor.

Backstory: used it on an overnight trip around Jan. 1st (for melting snow into water) in below-freezing temps (lows around 20F). At some point I think some liquid water may have gotten in the valve on the gas canister (Jetboil Jetpower 4 season mix) and froze, resulting in what sounded like a slow gas leak. I didn't want to try melting the ice out with a lighter (given the apparent gas leak) so I packed the stove up as usual (with the gas canister and burner inside the pot) and returned to the car later that day. When I got to the car I removed the gas canister and didn't see anything curious on/in the pot or burner. I (foolishly) let the pot and burner bounce around in the back of my car for about a month before removing them and noticing weird white-ish buildup on both the pot and burner, in addition to some chipping/flaking/disintegration of the black plastic on the burner (see photos).

I'm not sure what to make of this, since I didn't notice any problems when I removed the gas canister from the pot at the car. What's especially curious to me is that certain locations on the burner have a lot of buildup (for example, the plastic/metal interface below the valve control knob) and other areas have none (e.g., other parts of the same plastic/metal interface).

Has anyone seen anything like this before? I don't know if the gas leak is responsible. An alternate theory is that a little bit of water left in the pot could have caused some type of corrosion during the month I left the pot in the car, but is this what corrosion looks like on these materials? If it is water-related corrosion, I figure someone else has seen this before and maybe could post a photo of their situation.

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Ryan Edwards · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 5

salt water can corrode metal like that. I had some experiences where I left an aluminum bodied folding pocket knife uncleaned as a kid and the salt corroded the knife to the point that I couldn't open the blade anymore

John Braun · · Hendersonville, NC · Joined Feb 2011 · Points: 1

Cascade Designs (parent of MSR) is supposed to have great customer service. Perhaps you can call their Seattle office tomorrow.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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