MSR Reactor 1.7 Liter Stove Set High Sierra

[JWreno]

We are doing a mid September hike from Cottonwood Pass to South Lake. We will be using a stove and using personal soaker jars from LiteSmith.com for rehydrating meals. Most meals are home dried food with some store soup mixes. We want hot food because the dinner time temperatures may be cooler and my brother is a vegetarian and he wants to rehydrate beans and rice type dishes. The soaker jars can be place in a well insulated place to keep the food warm while the water is being reabsorbed.

My wife and I are in our later 60's and my brother will be 72 on this hike. My older son will be coming and he can carry the Reactor stove set. I chose this stove for its very high efficiency under windy conditions. The radiant burner is protected from the wind with the overlapping heat exchanger on the 1.7 Liter pot. We will probably boil water in the morning and evening and carry two 227 ml canisters. The stove is expensive but I had enough dividends to cover the stove with the 20% off at REI.

I haven't hiked in the higher elevation Sierras in mid September before and we wanted to have the option of enjoying warm stuff when it may be cold.

We have lighter less efficient stove/pot systems for lower elevation hiking that isn't as exposed to the wind and when resupplies are often enough that we can use 110 ml canisters. I have the SOTO Windburned and Olicamp 1 Liter XTS pot with heat exchanger for when we are not using the MSR reactor. It's a good size for two people so rehydrate food with a single boil.

[Wandering Daisy]

I am skeptical of heat exchangers, at least for solo. I cannot justify the weight for the saved fuel. Perhaps for groups this works out better. It may not be your hiking style, but I get into camp early enough that the first thing I do is fill my platypus and set it facing the sun on a black stuff sack to solar heat water. This has really cut down boil times.

I am not a vegetarian or fussy about organic or not, but with beans and rice I buy freeze-dry refried beans on the internet. How dry does the home dried pre-made meals get? Is the weight much more than freeze-dry? Just curious. I have never tried to pre-cook and dry backpack food. I know you can save money doing this.

I have also never been keen on hydrating food while walking. Seems like a lot of extra weight to carry. What is your "cost/benefit" reason for doing this? Do you think I should try it?

[freestone]

I soak while I hike but recycle and use Sprouts gusseted ziplock bags that their nuts come in. They seal reliably, durable and even use the big ones for camp water now. I dehydrate my own brown rice (because I can't stand Minute Rice!) and pinto beans, add to a basic soup mix (Been using Patagonia Provisions lately) in the morning then remove from the bag and reheat in the evening. A cup of water does the job so the weight penalty is negligible. Other foods do not rehydrate so well so I would experiment before your trip to find what works best for you. I went to the bags because they take up less room in the pack but jars work just fine. I don't do it with every meal such as mash potatoes or Momofuku Noodles but it is a nice alternative if there are diet restriction or taste issues.

[JWreno]

We lost our taste for freeze dried about 15 years ago. I can afford the price but a lot of the food seams to leave an aftertaste. We haven't eating a freeze dried meal since about 2007.

We have a good dehydrator and dry a lot of fruit, beef jerky, flaked chicken breast in broth, ground beef gravel with beef base, brown rice, spaghetti sauce leather and vegetables. We also bring a lot of nuts, bars and some crunchable carbs.

A typical dinner would be some kind of soup mix with brown rice, dried vegetables and chicken flakes added to make it more substantial. We make spaghetti with meat sauce by using the burger gravel and spaghetti leather and add very thin short pasta.

Mashed potato mixes work well with added flavor and burger. We can do the typical oatmeal in the soaker jars in the morning.

All the rehydration takes place in the soaker jars. Its easy to keep the jars insulated while rehydration and this saves fuel verses simmering. We used to have a common pot meal and put it in a cozy to keep warm for 20-30 minutes. Now each person has their meal portioned out at the size desired and the meal contents desired. The only common thing is the 1.7 litter pot boiling the water.

We have also done the complete JMT 3 times over the years in August without a stove. Works out great but when it gets colder we enjoy a some hot food. With three or four people we can justify the added weight of the 1.7 liter Reactor stove setup to have reliable low fuel consumption under high winds. My son will be with us on those trips and he can carry the extra ounces of the Reactor. The fuel can be carried by my wife and I. He is 25 years younger. I carried very heavy packs when my sons were young and not able to yet carry all their gear. I don't mind giving him a little extra load now that we are in our late 60s.

On a shorter trip with 1 or 2 people when one 110 gram canister is enough, the Reactor set is overkill. We like the SOTO Windburner because it does better in the wind than most small stoves. I also like the 1 liter Olicamp Hard Anodized XTS Pot which has a heat exchanger for very fast boil times with little fuel used but the system still will benefit from some kind of wind break.

We plan to section hike the PCT starting the first year of our retirement and finishing a couple years later. Outside the Sierras resupplies are frequent enough that a shared one liter titanium pot would be fine for my wife and I. We share a tent and stay together so there isn't a need for two independent cook systems.

[JWreno]

I have been watching a bunch of youtube video reviews regarding freeze dried. Peak Refuel seems to get good reviews compare to Mountain House. The protein levels seam to be higher on average and the meals look better.

I ordered 8 different packages of the more highly regarded Peak Refuel meals. My family will open a couple at a time for lunch and share and make notes of what we like or not. If we find we like several of these we may do a mix of home dried and freeze dried dinners.

If we use the freeze dried we will remove them from the packaging just before the trip moving the food to ziplocks in the portion size desired. My wife will probably only eat 1/2 - 2/3 of a meal so she would get two meal out of one pack or 3 meals out of two packs. The rehydration would take place in the soaking jars and the bulk and weight of the freeze dried packages would be eliminated. The used clean ziplocks would be used for use tissue and other trash.

[JWreno]

I saw a video of a guy who measure stove burn rate per minute, fuel consumption and water degree change per minute using a scale that could accurately measure to 0.01 of a gram. Wind of course can be a huge variable but he found that with most pot setups it was much more efficient not to burn at the highest rates because so much heat went up the side of the pot not impacting the water as much as the heat at the bottom. The heat exchanger help capture more of this heat that reached close to the edge of the bottom of the pot. He also noted that pots that were almost full were more efficient than pots that were half full.

He also noticed that the starting water temperature had a much greater impact on the fuel required to reach boiling vs the ambient air temperature. He also recommended getting the water out of the cold stream and letting it sit for a while in the afternoon sun. This would be a big advantage when in August when the late day sun is very warm.

I have done tests with my Olycamp 1 Liter XTS stove vs a same diameter non head exchanger pot. At the same stove settings I found much more heated air reaching the top outer edge of the pot on the non-heat exchanger version. I felt very little heat at the top outer edge on the heat exchanger versions. Boil times were much faster with the Olycamp XTS. Since I will be hiking with my wife at a minimum on the planed trips I think the Olycamp is worth the 6.9 ounces vs the 3.7 ounces of the 750 ml Toak Titinum pot. I can boil the 1 liter volume in the Olycamp faster than I can boil the 750 ml volume in the Toak. A single boil of the Olycamp will be enough for my wife and I to rehydrate our dinner.

None of this maters much if you are going on a short trip where one 110 gram canister will be more than plenty as long as your system is protected well from the wind.

[Gogd]

I saw a video of a guy who measure stove burn rate per minute, fuel consumption and water degree change per minute using a scale that could accurately measure to 0.01 of a gram. Wind of course can be a huge variable but he found that with most pot setups it was much more efficient not to burn at the highest rates because so much heat went up the side of the pot not impacting the water as much as the heat at the bottom. The heat exchanger help capture more of this heat that reached close to the edge of the bottom of the pot. He also noted that pots that were almost full were more efficient than pots that were half full.

He also noticed that the starting water temperature had a much greater impact on the fuel required to reach boiling vs the ambient air temperature. He also recommended getting the water out of the cold stream and letting it sit for a while in the afternoon sun. This would be a big advantage when in August when the late day sun is very warm.

I have done tests with my Olycamp 1 Liter XTS stove vs a same diameter non head exchanger pot. At the same stove settings I found much more heated air reaching the top outer edge of the pot on the non-heat exchanger version. I felt very little heat at the top outer edge on the heat exchanger versions. Boil times were much faster with the Olycamp XTS. Since I will be hiking with my wife at a minimum on the planed trips I think the Olycamp is worth the 6.9 ounces vs the 3.7 ounces of the 750 ml Toak Titinum pot. I can boil the 1 liter volume in the Olycamp faster than I can boil the 750 ml volume in the Toak. A single boil of the Olycamp will be enough for my wife and I to rehydrate our dinner.

None of this maters much if you are going on a short trip where one 110 gram canister will be more than plenty as long as your system is protected well from the wind.

• Introduce a gentle breeze and all this laboratory style testing becomes academic. A well designed/deployed windscreen is more effective whenever a breeze is present, than cookware with heat exchange fins, etc
• Pots with bases that are relatively wide are more efficient, heat wise, than pots that are relatively tall.
• Titanium is a poor heat conductor, compared to aluminum and SS.
• Starting with warm water indeed will conserve fuel: it requires 1 calorie of energy (fuel) to raise 1 CC of water 1 degree Celsius.
• And indeed lower flame setting are more efficient with fuel than higher flame settings.
• It requires 10 calories of energy to transform 1 CC of water from a solid to liquid state, and 10 calories to transform 1 CC of water from a liquid to vapor state. Therefore if you avoid melting snow for water and avoid boiling water, you will save 10 calories of energy (fuel) for each CC of water being heated that otherwise is consumed by the process of changing the physical states of water.
• Hedge your estimates. Weather and other contingencies can significantly alter fuel requirements. I usually pad multi day fuel estimate by 20%.

Ed

[Snowtrout]

The peak refuel meals are tasty and I believe their biscuits and gravy and chili Mac are better than those made by MH. Their other meals have also been very good (looking forward to trying the special release of elk ragu). Besides taste, their portions actual are two servings, unlike MH.

You said you are using soaker jars but for reference, a single peak meal package with water added fill up my 1.75l pot pretty good.

Fuel usage is always tough to gauge but as another said, you will burn more than you’re testing at home. My olicamp remote with foil windscreen usually burns .5-.75oz a day while cooking for two, depending on meals (breakfast and dinner) and temp. It burns over an ounce a day when cooking pancakes or frying fish. For us, a 220g/8oz tank usually lasts 6 days safely.

[freestone]

What to preheat the water to save fuel? Use a solar heater. Wrap the water bag in something black, that works too.

[JWreno]

We take one of our Bearikade Expeditions and fill it full of water. Let it sit for an hour in the sunshine or so near some flat rock far away from a stream or lake. We use a lightweight dipping cup and personal handiwipe and each take turns dipping clean water with the cup and wetting the clothe with a drop of soap to have a nice sponge bath. Only takes about 5-10 minutes each and one bear can of water is enough for all of us.

It's nice to get the suntan lotion off at the end of the day along with the sweat and dirt. My wife's skin will break out if she doesn't wash up at the end of each day. Once clean I put my evening camp clothes to keep warm while eating and getting ready to go to bed.