Upgrade From Jetboil – Questions on Fuel Efficiency and Packing

When using a canister stove, I prefer a wide/short pot with a simple aluminum foil windscreen that only wraps maybe 200° around the pot. I fold it up and put it in the pot and then unfold and form over my thigh when it is time to cook. I used this setup on the JMT this summer with a Gigapower stove and Evernew 1.3 pot. I usually boiled about 3.5 – 4 cups at dinner and made about six dinners with a small 110 gram canister. There was still plenty of fuel (close to 50%? Just a guess) left at each resupply so I'm not sure how many boils we could actually do per cannister… And we were up at higher altitude… You mention an interest in alcohol stoves. I think the general consensus is that wider pots work better with many alcohol stoves so you might think about that if you will be exploring that side of cooking.

That's not bad at all if you think you only used 50% of the fuel. Do you mind uploading a picture of the windscreen? I read up on how some people made them with foil or beer cans but I'm a little nervous to make my own with the thought that overheating the canister can lead to an explosion.

Give the BRS-3000T stove a try. 25 grams and about $12! I recently switched to this stove and have found it to be a good performer in addition to crazy light and dirt cheap. A bit more fragile than the gigapower it replaced. Use a windscreen with a normal pot and stove. This will have a bigger impact than using a heat exchanger pot like the jetboil. For estimating fuel, I use Roger C's rule of thumb: 15 grams of fuel per person per day. This has a little bit of margin built in already. This summer, I used about 12 grams per person per day over about 35ish nights. I am conscious of how much water I boil but not miserly. If 15 grams means I am just barely into an extra canister, I round down and throw in another no-cook meal or am a bit more careful with hot water.

Here’s the only photo I could find from our trip. The windscreen has been recycled since then. I’d check the canister every now and then and it never got hot. photo here

I have not tried that Snow Peak stove, but when I tested various canister stoves last summer, the Jetboil was the most efficient by a very wide margin. Even the Coleman F1 Ultralight, which did well in BPL testing a few years ago, lost much of its efficiency in very light wind. (All my testing was using a 900ml Snow Peak pot/mug.) I think the Jetboil fins not only transfer heat better but also block a lot of wind. So we've been carrying the Jetboil (with the 800ml Ti pot) ever since. Not having to carry a spare canister is great. The only downside for us is the pot size – going from 900ml to 800ml doesn't sound like much, but it's just enough that cooking for two can be tricky. And we do cook in the pot – noodles, chicken, that sort of thing. Cooking for one is easy. If you want maximum weight efficiency, the numbers that I've seen here suggest that Esbit tabs are the lightest (if you have the tiny little tablet stove) for up to two weeks. No empty canister weight, bring just enough for the trip, a tight wind screen keeps the heat on your pot. I didn't like the residue nor the occasional chore of lighting them on a windy day. If it were me, I would just carry the Jetboil. :)

Have you thought about buying the modified setup here? It'll shed some weight and still boil efficiently. http://www.rutalocura.com/BRS_3000T.html More info here http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=106814&skip_to_post=899683#899683

Hey guys, great feedback here, I toyed with picking up the brs3000 but hesitated due to the shipping time varying so greatly. I was close to pulling the trigger on the litemax or gigapower but then I started reading more on alcohol stoves. They really didn't seem too difficult after all. So long story short, I now own a Caldera ti tri with 900ml pot. I boiled several times with it yesterday and plan to practice a bit more until my trip. Honestly, I love it. It's so nice being able to see how much fuel I have and the thing seems very efficient. I was caught off guard by how you can't even see the flames in daylight! Lighting it in the wind is a tad trickier but I just dabbed a twig in the alcohol and got it started after a few attempts.

The easiest way I've found to light with a caldera cone in the wind is use UCO stormproof matches. They're easy to light, won't go out, and once lit I just drop them onto the stove and put the pot on and it's done. The problem with alcohol stoves in daylight is it's hard to see if it's started, but if the match is on top it'll light. If it's not windy I'll use a mini-Bic. K

Have fun with the Caldera. Brilliant piece of kit. I own a Sidewinder with a 900 ml pot and Zelph's Starlyte Stove. It's probably the most wonderful gear in my pack. Very light, efficient and packable.

Use a light my fire (firesteel) to light the stove. Hold the striker steady and pull back on the rod. With practice, you can shoot a shower of sparks into the stove.

Thomas, that is not a bad choice at all. TD sidewinder/caldera is good stuff. I’ve tried just about everything (fuels, not systems) and have settled upon Esbit for 3-season and canister for the 4th season, but if I were doing a really long hike I think I’d go with alcohol due to its wide availability — think HEET, lol. Esbit did not appeal to me at first, but being a logical, number-cognizant kinda person (if not immediately, alas, eventually), I got around to actually looking at the length of trips I do… many overnight quickies, a bunch of 2 day trips, occasional 4-6 day trips… and realized that very rarely will alcohol and canister beat Esbit weight-wise for the trips I do. There are fairly frequent complaints on BPL about the smell, soot etc with Esbit, but I’m one of those lucky savages who is bothered by none of that — like Lt Col Kilgore in “Apocalypse Now”, I love the smell of napalm in the morning. However, being a certified stoveaholic I have become fluent in the use of all combustibles and have kits ready to go for wood, white gas, alcohol, canister and Esbit. But I doubt I will ever use WG again for backpacking. But don’t sell your JB just yet. It can be a really good winter stove system. All MVHO,

Hold the striker steady and pull back on the rod Simple things I never though of. (Yeah, that's a long list.) Could've used that a couple of days ago!

Yep, if you push the striker forward you have a higher chance of knocking over the stove. By pulling back on the rod it moves your hands away from the stove (more better). Additionally, the source of the spark is in the same position (since the striker is stationary).

I have both, Snowpeak Litemax and Jetboil Ti. I use the Snowpeak with Evernew titanium pot. I am not too happy with the Snowpeak Litemax system. With no wind at all, the Jetboil uses twice as little fuel (measured carefully). With any wind, I guess it's more like x5 or x10. I am still not quite ready to give up on a regular canister stove solution, but specifically the Snowpeak has issues: 1. The stove base gets hot. Very hot. So hot that I am afraid it's going to explode. None of the other stoves I have tried is ever as hot as whole. There's some sort of a thermal design flaw that lets the heat transfer from the burner to the stem and the cube shaped base. 2. Recently I have been having trouble using MSR canisters. The thread on the stove is not deep enough, so the valve in the on the canister does not get pressed sufficiently to open the flow of gas. It may work initially, but as the stove heats up, the gas stops flowing. I am having to put on gloves and screw on the stove as tight as I can (I climb a little and I have fairly strong hands). This is pretty bad. I am guessing, the stove violates the common specification somehow and is barely compatible with the most common canister sold (MSR). Imagine going into the outdoors, having a full canister, a working stove and not being able to use it!

Do you have a windscreen? Like a sheet of foil that goes most of the way around and from the ground to pot level. Upright canister stoves require this unless it's windless. That's weird there's a thread tolerance problem. Make sure and try it at home in case a canister doesn't work. Rarely I find a canister or stove with a problem, like all the fuel leaks out. I've had canisters that slowed down as I used it so I had to screw it tighter. Seems like it was one particular canister on a Soto or Pocket Rocket stove. Stove was hot but I didn't need gloves. Does the canister itself get hot? If you can put your hand on the side of the canister where the fuel is and it's hot, then you have a problem. Canister can explode. Turn off immediately. Maybe you can use it at a slower speed. Maybe quit using Snow Peak and use Jetboil instead?

I noticed a similar issue of stoves not quite working with MSR canisters. It has been several years, so I forget some of the details. I came to the conclusion that MSR's canister stoves were quite compatible with a MSR fuel canister, but that not all of my other stoves worked well with the MSR canisters unless screwed on rather tightly. I don't know if the difference relates to the length of the pins of the stoves, or if is the design of the the MSR canister valve. Every stove I have works well with the Snow Peak canisters. Maybe also the JB canisters, although I don't buy them often (10% less fuel for the same price, for the small canisters). Speaking of canisters, here's a bit of thread-drift: Optimus has the cheapest fuel canisters around here–$4 for the the 110 g. canister. They used to be 25% propane/75% butane (boo). In the past year they changed their gas percentages and content to 25% propane/25% isobutane/50% butane. I'm not a fan of butane at all, but it looks like the current mixture is an improvement. I picked up a bunch of them yesterday, to get ready for the testing of my "Bob Moulder copper heat exchangers" once we get our first 0* F cold snap. $4 vs. $5 for testing purposes. I actually wish they still had 75% butane, as that would be a true test of the heat exchangers' efficiency.

I have the Vargo Jet-Ti stove (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/vargo_jet_ti_stove.html#.VgV2zPlVhBc) and it works fine with MSR canisters. I have tried probably 5 or 6 different brands of canisters and they all work perfectly. :^)