High Sierra Topix

hikin_jim wrote:

AlmostThere wrote:use a stove with a wick to address decreased performance in cold - you can make a Supercat or any other stove a wick stove by epoxy-ing a few wraps of wicking around the circumference of it.

Interesting. Makes sense.

Trangia sells a little "winter kit" with their burners. You basically have a little pan you put under the stove. You pour alcohol in the pan and light it on fire. The "priming" alcohol gets the alcohol in the burner warm enough that the burner works properly.

HJ

Yup, I have one of those. I use it with the White Box.

Hmm... think I have a lot of stoves or something.

Ha ha ha! My math or vision was not doing too well last night! On my Trangia I am use to seeing the flames go up the side a bit so leave it to me to ask the dumb questions! Your cannister will indeed give you more cooking time on less weight on longer trips. Shorter trips, a different menu, and cooking style then it could be a different story. I use Alcohol because it is so reliable. My previous canister stove really struggled on cold mornings above 10,500 ft (or 3200 meters!). Previous to that I used the Svea 123r and that was very noisy and somewhat temperamental. They are all good, I guess it "boils" down to personal style and choice.

If you decide you would like to get rid of that Seva, let me know??
All the stoves have quirks.

Somebody say Whitebox?



I'm just about ready to make this my go-to stove over my canister stove. Since I almost exclusively eat Mountain House type stuff or make my own Freezer Bag Cooking meals I use the Primus Litech Kettle:



I guess my final hurdle is fuel consumption. I use hardware store denatured alcochol and haven't quite got my boil times down vs. how much fuel to use. To be on the safe side I figure about an ounce to boil 2 cups of water for most conditions. The water boils before the fuel is gone and the fire burns another minute or two. Is it best to err on the side of caution and just bring more fuel than is really needed?

That Whitebox looks very interesting. Does it need a pot stand?

My Trangia consumes 3/4 of an ounce per 2 cups of water. I drink a lot of coffee, so I use 3 ounces of hardware store denatured alcohol a day. Without the coffee, I would consume only one ounce a day. The weight difference between cannister and alcohol stoves is not much really, except that you can find the alcohol almost anywhere in the world, and as you use up the alcohol, you only have to carry out a reusable plastic bottle, instead of a dead metallic cannister. Alcohol is greener.

The Whitebox is the pot stand.

You can also stand on it. I appreciate things that survive me.

AlmostThere, what kind of fuel consumption do you figure for just boiling water?

For the White Box? About 1.25 - 1.5 ounces for a rolling boil, if you get the windscreen gapped properly and are boiling about a liter of water. I usually take the GSI kettle (not the Ketalist, mine is the .9 liter version) or the Evernew .9 liter titanium pot with the WhiteBox. Less water, less fuel. White Box is made for larger pots, more water, holds up to 2 oz of fuel.

Frediver wrote:

If you decide you would like to get rid of that Seva, let me know??

Don't want to get off topic or hijack the thread but my Svea does not have the stock windscreen, but rather the aluminum Optimus as a cookset. I fired it up last night and boiled two cups with 40 mL of white gas using a Trangia 25 teapot in just under 5 minutes. I was a bit rusty in using it, but it all came back including the priming ritual. Definitely old school stuff but a minimalist could stay out for many days on one liter of fuel. The down side is unused gas can not be stored in the stove when packed and I much prefer the aroma and handling properties of alcohol compared to white gas.

frediver wrote:Good to know, thanks.
What type of "flip" bottle are you using, the measure bottle with "flipper"
I got with my stove leak's, are you removing the "flipper" between uses?

Most recently, I've been using a Boston Round that I bought from REI. The trick with the flip top bottles is to test them before you leave the store. I close the flip top and squeeze. If air comes out, that bottle goes back on the shelf. I try a few until I find one that's air tight. Works for me.

HJ