Another fun topic - What stove?

[erutan]

Solo I really liked my "Krueger services" tuna can stove & either 4 or 8oz HDPE bottle of denatured alcohol and my old whisperlite windscreen turned upside down. Super light and once you get used to dosing very simple. I could do a 8 day trip and use like 6 ounces of fuel and the stove didn't weigh anything - and no canisters to toss. There's no more cheap denatured alcohol in California due to LA County enforcing a ban based on (iirc 60s or 70s) listing of methanol as a VOC, and it's cheaper and easier for box stores to just carry an alternative product vs denaturing it some other way it seems. The 50/50 methanol / ethanol mix is annoying since methanol has around 2/3 the potential energy, so you'd be getting say 5000 BTUs instead of 6000. That said paying $30-40 for a gallon of pure ethanol is still cheaper than a ton of isopro containers and more environmentally friendly.

For a group hike or simplicities sake, either the soto winemaster or pocket rocket deluxe. Some like one more than the other (YouTube & reddit like the soto, BPL and outdoorgearlab the pocket rocket), but I don't think there's a major difference. MSR has seemed to have fixed the piezo issue - I've just used a lighter forever and you'd carry one as a backup anyways.

[Iriscaddis]

Hey Erutan, correct, we all carry a lighter anyway so I can care less about the igniter. They usually fail anyways over time. I saw some guy using a can and Esbit and he did not care if it tool a long time to heat water. Your solution looks interesting to me, and personally, I'd goes with a similar as you have described. My issue currently is I don't have the time to test a lot of stuff about prior to the trip. For me I would want to play around with this over the weekends. A few questions:
1. So the ethanol is from a paint supply or hardware right? That's the fuel and you're not mixing it right?
2. What on earth is the "Krueger services" tuna can stove? You just mean a tuna can?
3. What are you placing your cook stove on?

Thanks

[Silky Smooth]

Depends on the application and what you are doing. I'd go with a trail designs stove personally.

[Gogd]

..I use a Jetboil...

..If I'm being a gram weenie on a given trip, I just leave some the Jetboil components behind. The orange pot stand weighs 1 ounce and I find that I don't need it...

So I am quite into cooking. I found covering a pot has a significant impact on heating times at home. It has to be even greater, outdoors, where a breeze can readily convect heat from pot and content surfaces. I'd think twice before leaving a pot lid at home on any trip where it may result in bringing less fuel.
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I have used my pocket rocket for nearly 20 years in freezing, windy and rainy conditions. It has never failed...

Over-canister stoves are are notorious for bad performance around freezing and below, due to the different boil points when each of the various gases in the fuel mix transform from a liquid to a gaseous state. This causes the canister fuel pressure to drop when these stoves are used at and below freezing. This link explains the reason: http://bushwalkingnsw.org.au/clubsites/ ... res.htm#Up

I found I can get a meal out of an over-canister stove at these low temps but the partially consumed canister will have a profound drop in performance well before the canister is fully consumed. Remote-canister stoves can address this by inverting the canister, so a liquid fuel stream is fed to the burner, better conserving the fuel mix ratio of the liquid contents in the canister, hence minimizing the effect cold has on stove performance.

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Alcohol stoves are popular with east coast backpackers. You can buy an alcohol burning stove, but most people make one from a small canned goods can (e.g. tuna can). They are cheap, but have definite drawbacks. The heat output is difficult to control. The output is affected by the "stove" heating up and transferring heat to the fuel, which causes more alcohol to evaporate and ignite. Some stove designs incorporate a dampener to mange output but it is an acquired skill to master. Most just settle on small can stoves which have limited heat output. Thus alcohol stoves are not the best solution to group cooking. Another problem with Alcohol stoves is the fire hazard an open flammable liquid presents, should it be accidentally bumped or knocked over while in use. This hazard is amplified by the fact alcohol has a near invisible flame, so the fire hazard may not be apparent until other materials are set afire and present a visible flame.

Ed

[TurboHike]

..I use a Jetboil...

..If I'm being a gram weenie on a given trip, I just leave some the Jetboil components behind. The orange pot stand weighs 1 ounce and I find that I don't need it...

So I am quite into cooking. I found covering a pot has a significant impact on heating times at home. It has to be even greater, outdoors, where a breeze can readily convect heat from pot and content surfaces. I'd think twice before leaving a pot lid at home on any trip where it may result in bringing less fuel.
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I don't cook, I just boil water to rehydrate food, freezer bag style. Maybe I should have mentioned this in my previous post.

[Wandering Daisy]

Be aware that during wildfire season any "open flame" stove without a shut-off valve is illegal. The tuna-can stove may be not allowed, but I am not sure if alcohol as a fuel per-se is illegal. Sterno stoves probably also would be illegal. Some regulations specifically do not allow alcohol stoves. Likely you would want both an alcohol stove and cannister stove depending on what you cook and where you go.

I use an old Snow Peak titanium stove without internal lighter. It is very old and has lasted forever. A friend made a wind-screen for it from a recycled candle reflector. You can buy the Snow Peak wind screen. The stove has good heat regulation- I can actually simmer. But you have to watch it 100% when actually cooking stuff and stir a lot. I have spilled food on the burner - just had to poke the holes with a needle and it worked again.

I totally agree that a lid is needed. It weighs so little anyway.

If you really want to be a UL hiker, just go without a stove. I have done overnight or 3-day trips with no stove. I do miss my hot coffee! On a CDT journal, a fellow went 30 days without a stove. He said you get used to it.

[LMBSGV]

I also use an old Snow Peak stove (Gigapower 2.0 is the current version). I have also never had a single issue with it. I just use a match or lighter to get it going. As WD said, it simmers quite well. I take a single sheet of aluminum foil to use as a windscreen, though I've only used it once in about ten years. The tiny stove and the matches fit inside the cooking pot so it doesn't take up any space and the matches stay dry.

[Snowtrout]

My wife and I have been using the Olicamp Xcelerator TI for 8-9 years. It's very light, simmers great, wide burner and very stable. Another nice thing about this remote canister stove is the ability to use an aluminum foil wind shield. Protects the flame and saves fuel. Depending on use (morning breakfast/coffee and dinner), fuel usage is about 3/4-1oz a day when boiling/cooking for two people.

To me, choice of a stove gets down to whether you need it to boil, simmer, fry and/or size of your pot. Small burners seem great for boiling but not the best for simmering or frying and can be very tippy with pots 1.5 or larger. Large burners seem great for simmering and frying but are heavier and take up more space. Sit on top burners are small and light but are prone to wind and some are very tippy with larger pots. Remote burners are great against wind and very supportive but are usually heavier take up more space and have more parts that could break (plus very few models are made). Personally, we like using a fry pan and use a 1.5l pot so a wide burner head and large supports would be most important if we needed to find a new stove.

[phoenix2000]

I used an Esbit stove of 5 years. It had its advantages. It was small, lightweight, 1 tablet would boil enough water for your typical freeze-dried meal, you can store up to 4 tablets inside the stove and you don't have to worry about liquid fuel leaking. The main disadvantage was that the fuel tablets smelled like rotten fish. Even while sealed up in their individual plastic containers. I didn't want to touch them with my fingers. I would find 2 sticks, then I would first use one to cut the foil on the back of the fuel tablet container then I would use both sticks like chopsticks to take the tablet out and put it on the stove. I also didn't want to put them in my bear cannister with my food. I ended up leaving them out and hoping that a bear wouldn't come a long and eat them like candy.

I eventually bought a Jet Boil stove and I love it. Everything packs into the mug and so it takes up about the same space as my esbit stove, tablets and pot. It's easy to light and boils water super quick. The only thing I don't like about it is at the time I purchased it the only color REI had left was navy blue with a neon green streaking pattern on it.

[JayOtheMountains]

I also use an old Snow Peak stove (Gigapower 2.0 is the current version). I have also never had a single issue with it. I just use a match or lighter to get it going. As WD said, it simmers quite well. I take a single sheet of aluminum foil to use as a windscreen, though I've only used it once in about ten years. The tiny stove and the matches fit inside the cooking pot so it doesn't take up any space and the matches stay dry.

Same. I've been using this setup for ~18 years with no issues.

For cold or winter efforts I carry my trusted Whisperlite.

Stoves I own/tried: Jetboil, Snow Peak gigathing, Chineese Ti gigathing knockoff, Pocketrocket, whisperlite international, penny stove, esbit.

My go-to for stoves is the Gigapower.