Super Cat stoves

> I'm just wondering if the standard Super Cat can be adapted for narrow pots.

IMHO, only the Heine/Fosters (or other very thin AL) cans would be suitable for any side-burner. You could of course, use a smaller dia stove can also to help, but then you'll start running into stability issues.

FYI, the 24 oz Heine keg can, which sadly is no longer being produced in the States, does not sit very well on a "normal" SuperCat. The only can I've found that works well with it is a SPAM can INVERTED. It has a slight indent around the bottom of the can that fits the Heine just perfect. Thus, you have to cut a hole in the bottom to remove the meat.

Paul-

Thanks for including a picture! That makes it much easier to compare with my own set-up. When I'm back home I'm going to throw up a photo of my own and get some critiques.

Also, how much fuel did you have in the stove when you got that 4+ min boil time?

supercat doesnt work well with small pot, cat can covers most of the bottom, too much flame is lost up sides, more flame than the small pot can use. Some have built smaller sideburner stoves that work better than the 3oz can for small pots.

Tealight works about best IMO with small pot. Not especially fast, but very efficient. Heat the whole pot bottom when you get the distance adjusted right. Full rolling boil for 2 cups on 0.66 oz (20ml) reliably, with some remaining boil time afterwards.

I find the supercat fast for a larger pot, but still too fast, its inneficient because of that. A larger tealight works better IMO, but a lot slower, for 4 cups in grease pot.

I use super cats with a Halulite Minimalist (~3.5" diameter) and have tested them with Heini cans (~3" diameter.) I agree that a super cat and even an upside down Heini is not a good combo stability wise :). Flames roll up the sides like mad on both of these pots, yet I get consistant sub 6 minute pint of cold tapwater boil times with both. Go figure. My experience suggests that the OP is not getting optimal performance…
Have fun,
Steve

I wasted an evening doing some comparative tests using a Heini pot.
1 with the same super cat as the earlier test with the 5" pot. Bloomed in 1 minute, rolling boil in 7min 30 sec.
2 pot on a 5 row wire stand, running as a chimney stove rather than side burner 4 min 20 sec

3 modified to a two can chimney stove see
http://www.kruegerservices.com/fritz/osp/tuna-can.html

fastest boil time – 4min 00 sec.

Paul, I see your two can chimney stove here. Can anything be done to minimize the amount of hardware cloth that you've used here as a pot support?

–B.G.–

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

Below is my set-up with Titan Kettle, oven pan lid & halfwindscreen, and basic Supercat stove. 2 cups cool tap water, ~5:30 min boil time in the kitchen.
Used the fill-full-and-snuff-out technique and recovered ~.5 of 1 ounces DNA used.

Tyler,
Nice Job! You're there.

But if you want to get better….especially outdoors…

Make sure you have a windscreen that will wrap all the way around.
Cut some inverted "V"s in the bottom for inflow.
Hold the cylinder together with a bobby pin.

That way tiny little vortexes sneaking past the edges can't suck away the flame and heat.

Breezes Will be an issue.

I read on the jwbasecamp.com site that placing the bottom row of holes closer to the bottom of the stove (around 1/2" or so from the bottom) keeps the alcohol hotter and reduces problems in cold weather. Does anyone have experiences or data which suggests placing the bottom row of holes lower affects the stove performance in any other way?

Does anyone have experiences or data which suggests placing the bottom row of holes lower affects the stove performance in any other way?

I sure don't claim expertude here but I think the balance is between heating the fuel and fuel capacity. A bit of spill resistance is a good thing…

Does anyone have experiences or data which suggests placing the bottom row of holes lower affects the stove performance in any other way?

I tried making one following a template (that places the holes closer to the center median) and was a little disappointed. I picked up another can today to try it again with the holes closer to the top as above.

Just wanted to add that Tyler and Paul's pics above look like the best match for pot diameter + stove. I followed Skurka's instructions and even use a REI/Evernew .9 Ti pot like him because he has certainly already done the homework for matching the stove + pot.

My windscreen is an old MSR one, with holes punched along the lower perimeter of the screen for air and a cut-out on the top to fit the pot handles. I roll it when not in use and attach it with a small clip when it is set-up to keep it from opening.

I don't mean to dig up a (somewhat) old thread, but I thought this might be relevant to anyone who may be interested. I stumbled upon this video, which gives viewers a good comparison of what type of alcohol stove to use depending on the size of their pot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc_YOSTtNns

This is not my video, just something I came across while doing some research into which stove I should use (I'm new to light backpacking).

Ive spent the last couple hours tonight researching these achys, all I can say is goodnight at this point.