MSR Simmerlite Stove question

I have never run across a fuel bottle like that which you are describing. A 16 oz bottle that fits in a one liter pot with a simmerlite and a simmerlite fuel pump right? I don't think this bottle exists either. Good luck. I usually just stow my windscreen, stove, pot grabber, lighter, tiny dropper bottle of soap, spoon, headlamp, scrap of pack towel, and small chunk o' scrubby in my pot if toting my heavy whisperlite setup. I would just leave the pump in the bottle and forget about it fitting in your pot. If you are striving for a dense load there are other possibilities for achieving this end without packing the fuel bottle inside the cookpot as I have suggested. Put other things in the pot. Hippies beware. What is your reason for wanting to fit the fuel bottle in the cookpot if I might ask?

There is an 11oz MSR fuel bottle. I don't think it'll get much smaller than that.

Jeffrey and Jack, I have an 11-oz Sigg bottle somewhere, and I'll have to find that to test the pump fit. I had only used that for an emergency fuel supply, and I've never tried to fit a pump into it.

It would be ideal to simply have the whole damned thing fit into a cook pot, including the burner, the pump, the fuel, the lighter, the windscreen, and whatever other bits and pieces there are. Just from the point of it being a compact kit, it would be nice. However, I'm guessing that a 16-oz bottle may be a more practical size, and it may have to fit outside the pot. Still, there might be some oddball fuel bottle that would work.

I could think the other way and look for a solo cook pot that is large enough to enclose the fuel bottle and everything, but that is kind of thinking in the wrong direction.

–B.G.–

Ahhhh I see. Well think of it this way. Examine the pot you are trying to fit this all in and think to yourself- if I had a fuel bottle shaped perfectly to take up 16 oz or in this case half of the volume of the pot what shape would/could it be whilst allowing the stove to fit. I think this would be a pretty significant road block. I think you would come up with an extremely odd shape that would be difficult to extrude an aluminum bottle into if you could come up with one at all in the first place. This is my theory as to why you don't see such an animal.
I really have the feeling you are looking for the holy grail.

Well, that is just it. I haven't had the time to try to fit all the pieces together to find some magic combination, so that is why I inquired here. I figured that if anybody at all knew of a way to do it, the information would be known here. The cook pot that I have currently in mind is an Evernew titanium 0.9-liter.

Besides, who said that it had to be an aluminum fuel bottle? I mean, I assume that it would be aluminum, but some people are doing some pretty strange things with titanium.

–B.G.–

Even in titanium I think the shape would be pretty unique to say the least. Remeber that a fuel bottle for use with this type of MSR stove should probably be a one piece seamless extruded jobby for safety reasons. I don't think that there is much of a market for oddly shaped 16 oz fuel bottles that fit in your 1 liter pot leaving room for your simmerlite, it's fuel pump, and windscreen.

Goodnight and goodluck with your mission.

The MSR user manual specifies performance with a 20-oz capacity MSR bottle, so that is probably close to some optimum size. The 16-oz size is probably around here.

But, you know how it goes. You purchase some product that weighs 6 oz and then you find that a 5 oz version will work just as good. Then you discover the 4 oz item that will do it also.

With some fuels such as denatured alcohol, you might store it in a small platypus. But with white gas, I don't know if that would be safe.

–B.G.–

I think storing white gas in your platy while on the trail would be relatively safe. Anyone have a definitive answer on this? Might be that carrying a platy with additonal white gas could at least let you get away with a smaller and lighter fuel bottle to operate the stove with. You could then custom mod a 11oz fuel bottle to make it even smaller in order to fit it into the pot. (My 11oz bottle does not fit into any of my one liter pots.) I am not sure if this method would really be realizing your original goals and criteria though.

Hooking that platy up to your MSR stove and fuel pump is another story altogether though. Goes without saying really. I know that you know this would not be a good thing to even attempt.

As the "20 oz must be some kind of optimum fuel bottle size" -(rough paraphrase of original quotation)- comment puzzles me I think it also important to note that the simmerlite would perform the same whether the fuel bottle would be 11oz, 22oz, or 33oz which are three standard easily found sizes of fuel bottles. Fuel bottles are also available in .4L and .6L sizes. The only aspect of performance that would change in reagards to bottle size is the total burn time of the stove as per a given size bottle which directly translates to other totals like the total number of liters you could boil or the the total number of eggs you could fry on the stove with a certain size bottle of fuel.

> I have an 11-oz Sigg bottle somewhere, and I'll have to find that to test the pump fit.

Yes, the pump will fit in that bottle.

Cheers

Hi Bob,

The shortest bottle I've seen for use with an MSR pump is the half-liter MSR Ti bottle, since discontinued. The MSR aluminum equivalent at the time was a bit longer and narrower (but about the same weight).

The Ti bottle is cleverly sized to fit snugly inside the MSR Ti cup and the pair fit inside the Titan Kettle. Of course the burner has to go elsewhere.

Cheers,

Rick

Good call Rick I forgot the MSR titanium bottles. They came in .4 L and .8 L sizes if I remember correctly. They would be a very rare find these days as they have been out of production for at least six years.

You can see from the pic that the smaller .4 L MSR Titanium bottle would have indeed loaned itself to nesting within some pot systems maybe even leaving room for you stove burner too. Again though these MSR titans are the unicorns of the fuel bottle world.

According to the Zen stoves website storing white gas in plastic bottles is a safe practice in and of itself as long as you realize the limitations of the plastic vessles. Just thought I would mention this fun fact since the question came up earlier on in this discussion.

The two smallest fuel bottles are the 11-fluid ounce MSR (325 ml), and the 250 ml Optimus (which is around 8.5 fluid ounces). In reality, the bottles are larger than that. The MSR is nearly 14 fluid ounces. However, the maximum fill line is at 11 on MSR for two reasons. #1 When you put the MSR pump inside, it will take up an ounce or two of fluid capacity. #2 When you get the pump inside, you have to pump it. If there is zero air space, you won't get much of a pressurizing effect. This agrees with old school ideas about other MSR stoves, so I can accept it.

Unfortunately, neither bottle will fit inside my cook pot. (sigh)

I also found out that I can purchase white gas at one particular mid-journey point, but it is sold in quantities of 11 ounces. Go figure.

Now all I have to do is to get rid of my new child-proof fuel cap and get one of the old fuel caps that will be lighter and simpler. I wouldn't want to have a senior moment and be unable to open the child-proof cap.

–B.G.–

or just leave the cap at home & leave your pump in the bottle like you've done before? even simpler and lighter…

I checked two fuel bottles. The 11-oz MSR and the 8.5-oz Optimus. Optimus is only a fraction of an inch shorter than MSR, and neither one of them will fit the cook pot with or without cap. So, it looks like the fuel bottle has to remain separate.

Given those similarities in dimensions and weight, I chose the MSR bottle because of the slight extra capacity.

Hmmm. I could probably buff the red paint off the MSR bottle and make it plain aluminum, but that wouldn't help weight much.

–B.G.–