Estimating fuel needed??

This excellent article by Will Rietveld should help you answer your questions:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/comparative_fuel_efficiency_and_weight_of_stoves_pt2.html

Andrew

My estimate would be for about 25% more fuel than what it takes in your own backyard at home.

Without knowing your wind shielding, initial water temperature, air temperature, and a few other factors, nobody can estimate much.

With a typical canister stove, I used to estimate that I could get 45 minutes of flame out of a 8 ounce (net) canister of butane blend.

–B.G.–

Mallory,

When I go with bigger groups (Boy Scouts) we have a similar estimate for hot water needs. Our troop uses JetBoil stoves (PCS, GCS, Sol) with 100g canisters. The JetBoil website states that you can boil 12 l per 100 g canister. Our scouts are a little wasteful (for example they don't turn the stove off right when it is boiling). I have them mark the bottom of the canisters for every cup of water they boil. That way they first found out how often they can cook with a canister and now they always know how many more meals they can cook with a given canister. They manage 22 meals (44 cups of water) per 100 g canister. I assume you will take the 230g canister for your Helios. The JetBoil website states 24 liter for the Helios with that canister. If your group cooks like our scouts you should most likely calculate with 22 liter.

Do you have a kitchen scale that measures g (or 1/10 oz)? You might want to get a brand new canister for each of the stoves, weigh them, bring a pot of water to a boil with each stove and then weigh the canisters again. It will tell you how much gas you use and you can calculate for each stove how many liters of water you can boil with a given canister.

Have fun out there,

Manfred

We use 30 g of fuel per day for the two of us, in 3-season stuff. That works for W/E trips and for month-long trips. Snow use can almost double that, depending on access to water.

cheers