How many days can you get out of an 8 oz canister of fuel?

[Will Rietveld]

Hi Everyone, I’m doing a cooking system carry weight project that will be published at BPL, and I need your help.

How many days can you get out an 8 oz canister of fuel? This is for summer conditions.

In your answer, please mention what model canister stove you have, how many pints of water you boil per day, what weather conditions are normal for you, and how many days you can get out of an 8 oz canister?

To start things out, I normally boil 3-4 pints/day, mountain conditions are variable but not too much wind, and I can squeeze 6 days out of a canister for 1 person.

Thanks for your help!!

Will Rietveld

[Ron Moak]

Will,

I normaly use alcohol, but a few years ago I was planning on a CDT thru-hike. Fire conditions in Colorado eliminated the use of the alcohol so I had to fall back to my Snow Peak stove.

I generally take the smaller of the two canisters, but don’t know what its weight is.

Before leaving I calculated that boiling 1 pint of water per day I could get about a month of trail hiking per canister. This assumes that every 4 to 5 days would be a town stop and I’d be eating in town, thus not cooking a meal.

Even though I didn’t complete the hike, I was able to achieve that level of fuel consumption.

My cooking involves:

1) Boiling water and shutting down stove.
2) Mixing with the food.
3) Let it rehydrated as needed.
4) Eat

I don’t simmer, make hot drinks or cook more than one meal per day.

Ron

Note: I apply different rules to cooking during winter or group camping.

[EndoftheTrail]

with Snow Peak GigaPower canister – small size:

Full weight – 7 oz.
Fuel weight – 3.9
Empty can wt. – 3.1

Burn time – 42 minutes:

MSR PocketRocket at full blast
Snow Peak Trek 700 ti pot
Spring time in Pasadena, California

Boil time – 2.25 min for 8 oz of water and 4.5 min for 16 oz. of water

I boil an average of 24 oz. of water per day, so the canister will last me about 6 days — similar to your experience.

[Inaki Diaz de Etura]

I’ve been using gas for years but just recently I started taking exact measures of fuel consumption.

My typical use is boiling 1 pint for dinner. That’s been taking 6-7 grams of gas. If I also boil 1 cup for breakfast, it’s around 10 grs. of gas gone per day so it seems consistent. Cooking for two (and thus doubling water quantities) gas consumption doubles too.

Most of the time I was using a stove of unknown brand (I got it on a trip and didn’t keep any packaging). Later I switched to a Coleman F1. The results are similar (just the Coleman is considerably lighter).

I just boil the water and switch the stove off. I’ve been using a windscreen/heat reflector that encloses the burner and pot bottom and if it was windy I sheltered the whole set somehow.

The conditions have been always very mild temperature wise but the water was usually cold from the mountain streams.

I always set the flame to low.

The target canister is not exhausted yet but I’d say I’d get around 20 days out of a canister if I boil water also for breakfast, around 30 if I only do dinner.

I must say the windscreen, cozy and use of a low flame have been relevant factors for increased efficiency. I wasn’t taking measures before but a rough estimate is it was taking twice the fuel it takes now for the task.

[Author]

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