Newbie Question?

You should be able to boil that much water with one boil session, so one alcohol dose of about one-half ounce.

–B.G.–

I carry a variation of the caldera keg-F and I budget 20ml per 2cup boil. For me 15ml is never enough (it does get the water hot though), 17ml usually does the job, and with 20ml you can count on having enough.

Mark, 1/2 oz usually works perfect for me (1.5-2.0 cups). Being that it is December and your first time out I would take 3/4 oz per cook planned. You will be fine with this. In December I add just a small amount over 1/2 oz and it usually gets to a rolling boil for 1.5 cups.

Jamie

uhhhh….
One night out…
… and the discussion is what fraction of an ounce to take?

Please tell me this is a multi-night trip and the discussion is whether to take 4 or 8 ounces… ;.)

The original poster asked how much it take to boil 1.5 – 2.0 cups of water. The number of nights is arbitrary. The question is how many boils do you need. And yes I assume the original poster needs multiple boils to accomplish his trip.

Jamie

It's a 3 night trip and the stove will be used by two people for hot meals and drinks. Again I'm looking to see how much to put in the can. The overall weight of 8-? ounces isn't a major concern. Thanks

It's best to test how much you need by boiling several typical pots of water (make sure the water is cold; I put mine in the refrigerator for a day) at home on the back patio.

I won't take any piece of new gear until I have practiced a lot with it at home!

Amen to Mary. I too test all my gear in the back yard. The trail is no place to learn how to light a stove, setup a tarp or figure out how your quilt works with your pad.

Jamie

You might also want to budget a little to pour into a primer pan and to be used up by the stove before it blooms (blooms take longer in the cold).

We had a cat can stove and penny stove out this weekend, and the above 2 factors equated to about .2 oz extra per boil / session. Both usually take around .4-.5 oz per boil. The boil itself seemed to also take longer and may have accounted for some of the extra fuel use – but I didn't time it, so I'm not sure. The extra boil time seemed to be minimized by putting extra fuel in the priming pan too, so I suspect the fuel usage is pretty temperature sensitive.

John, This is a great point. One of the reasons I suggested take 3/4 oz per boil in winter was just that…you need more fuel to prime. In summer time you can dump in 1/2 oz then toss on 1.5 cups of 75 degree water even as the night cools to 60 degrees and cook with little priming. The caldera is one impressive stove but I still find it needs some alcohol in the pan to prime it when the temp is below freezing. No its not 1/4 an once but more like 1/8 ounce.

So here is my 3 day fuel usage in winter.

Day one = dinner (1.5 cup rolling boil) + tea (1 cup hot)
Day one alcohol = 3/4 oz + 1/2 oz = 1.25 oz

Day two = breakfast of oatmeal and coffee (1.5 cups rolling boil) + Dinner (1.5 cups rolling) + tea (1 cup hot)
Day 2 alcohol = 3/4 oz + 3/4 oz + 1/2 oz = 2 oz

Day three = breakfast of grits and coffee (1.5 cups rolling)
Day three alcohol = 3/4 oz

This is a total of 4 oz with a bit of extra for mistakes. For 2 people I would take 8 ounces for this amount of cooking. In summer I can back this done to about 3 oz/person. I've gone with as little as 2 oz for 3 day trip, but this leaves no room for mistakes.

Jamie

Thanks a mill. I guess what I figured would be about right. Been practicing in my backyard last couple of days in the NE. Working out well. People who live in my building are a little weirded-out but what the hay.