Super Cat stove musings

i tried out the HEAVY GSI Dualist pot i use with my son and that worked out very well. boil in just over 6 minutes.

i've now entered into the world of diminishing returns… the GSI Dualist i use with my son, 4 oz of fuel, and the stove weight 16.30 oz, the Snowpeak 700mL, Gigastove, and canister with about 4oz of fuel remaining weighs 9.80 oz.

time to look at some other stove options. but hey, i'm having fun :)

> 1. Your boiling pot is too large for the burner. So, heat is lost from the top of it almost as fast as heat is going into the bottom.

1a. Your boiling pot is too small for the burner, and huge gouts of flame are passing uselessly up the side of the pan.

1a is quite likely if you use that many holes; your burner is too powerful for the pan, and the heat isn't transferred efficiently.

[edit]
d'oh! just seen the 'observations' post…

i was just on the patio and was watching the flames now that the sun has started to set. the 700mL Snowpeak pot might be the issue, the flames come out of the stove and go right around the pot and heat the air between the pot and windscreen perfectly, never touching the bottom of the pot.

I had the same frustration with a 780ml SP pot and a super cat. Side jet stoves work a lot better with a wider pot. I’ve found a 1 liter pot is fairly good.

I eventually moved away from side jet stoves for this very reason and went with top burners.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

When I was testing my penny stoves, it was instantly obvious that the bottom, which creates an air layer that heats up and insulates actual stove from ground, even at 60 to 70 degrees F, was critical. Remove it, and the burn was much weaker, visibly so.

However, I should also add that I dumped the cat stove after a few days of testing in favor of the penny design, which I found to be much more efficient. 2 cups boil at around 2/3 oz, give or take, at 60,70F.

Also note that Jim Wood uses a wide pot, and doesn't focus so much on that in his instructions, but I found that 4" or so minimum width was required to get a decent boil time. And with a penny stove, for narrower pots, 5 of the 6 holes have to point in, not out.