What’s the Best Gas Stove?

Hikin' Jim,

Love your stove tech expertise and always find your post enlightening. Thanks

I took a Jet Boil Sol Ti on the JMT in August, and was amazed with its frugal use of gas. I got 31 brews from one canister of Snow Peak Gigapower, 110 gms. All brews were 500 ml, mostly to 75'C, with evening meals to boiling.

For me, that was ten day's worth of fuel, and meant I only needed to carry the one canister, with no spare, until resupply. Any other stove would have required a second canister at about 8 ozs.

It is also fast – 500 ml to 75'C took only 1.5 mins, and to boiling 2.2 mins.

John,

That’s an excellent point. If a more efficient stove allows one to use a smaller sized canister or leave a second canister at home, that’s a significant weight savings. Add to that the Sol’s cold weather capability (see the BPL article by Will Rietveld on the subject) and it’s innate wind resistance, and you’ve very nearly justified it’s weight over a regular upright canister stove.

The convenience of Jetboil is beyond dispute.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

" …you've very nearly justified it's weight over a regular upright canister stove. "

Actually it's better than that. Because the Jetboil Sol is so quick (see above), you don't need the lid, you'll be looking in at the water to judge when to switch off after only a few seconds anyway. Also, if you pack carefully, you can leave the protective cup behind too. This now gives you a stove and pot (with cosy) at 8 ozs. (Ti version)

A regular stove needs a pot and lid, and my 750 ml pot and lid weighs 5 ozs, add on 3 ozs for the stove = 8 ozs. Same weight as the Sol Ti. After that it's only win win with the Sol.

The Sol with its regulator had no dribble finish as the gas ran out either. One second it was at full power, next it had stopped.

Now consider alcohol. The weight for a 4 day trip , 3 brews a day, of 500 ml each, with my original Al Caldera Cone, same pan, Zippo container, Brasslite stove, fuel bottle, fuel, came out at 17 ozs. 4 days for the Sol is 13 ozs (new canister with a bit bled off). For 9 days the alcohol set up starts off at a huge 25 ozs, and the Jetboil 15 ozs (new 110gm/4oz canister).

For an Esbit set up, I would start 4 days with 12 ozs, 9 days with 18 ozs. Assuming a bit less than one half oz tablet per brew.

Even using a Bushbuddy wood stove, with one of my 3 brews a day using Esbit as backup for wet weather, fire restriction etc, 4 days comes out at 12.5 ozs, 9 days at 15 ozs.

Looks like we can throw away all our other stoves now.

I know someone will come up with a lighter solution using half a Fosters can or something, and only one brew a day for a bag meal, but I don't think that would work for me.

All bit approximate, but I hope it makes sense.

I think you are making the wrong point, John.

Any stove use will burn fuel. We always need to transport a heating device (stove) and fuel to where we are camping. How MUCH fuel we use is dependent on how much water we need to boil. Wether for cooking, drinking coffe or tea, or, just as a heat source for bathing. The quantity of fuel will vary from person to person. There are those that don't use any stove, hence don't cary any fuel. 0oz in weight. There are others, more like me, that use the stove morning and night: breakfast (usually 2 cups of oatmeal/cocoa and two cups of coffee), supper is often a rice or pasta dish often requiring up to 15 minutes of preperation/cooking and a cup of cocoa. Some people use the stove for three meals, adding a lunch of soup and sandwitch. The usage is very difficult to compare.

The only real thing is the amount of heat a fuel produces.
Methanol/Ethanol blends are about 10500 BTU
Butane/Propane blends are about 21000 BTU
White gas (whatever blend) is about 19500 BTU

To carry it to the heater we have:
Alcohol: 1oz (soda bottle)
~4oz Cannister: ~4oz (can)
WG: 1oz (soda bottle)

The density of the liquid fuels is about .8 or so.

For a 16oz bottle of fuel(alcohol or WG,)has about 12oz of fuel in them. (16*.8=12.8, but I leave a little expansion space in them.)
For a canister, it weighs 7.62oz on my scale (varies a bit from one to another.) Three of these will make up the 12oz of fuel for comparison. (Note that one 8oz can weighs about 5.8oz empty and would make things a bit better.)

About 12oz of alcohol gives us 12*10500=126000 at about 13oz counting the bottle, or, ~9692 BTU per carried ounce (for comparison.)
For canisters we get 12*21000=252000 at about 22.9oz, or, ~11004 BTU per carried ounce (for comparison.)
For an 8oz and a 4oz we get 12*2100=252000 at about 21.4oz, or, ~11776 BTU per carried ounce (for comparison.)
For WG we get 12*19500=234000 at about 13oz counting the bottle, or, 18000 BTU per carried ounce (for comparison.)

However we use the heat, be it a caldera cone, jet-boil, HX pot on a gas stove, is totally independent of these numbers. As is the type of stove used to generate the heat.

Anyway, looking at the weight of stoves and the efficiency of transfering heat to the water often becomes the deciding factor. WG is the clear winner for fuel alone. The downside is that this involves fairly heavy stoves and/or complicated pumping mechanisms and pressure containing containers for the fuel. Alcohol is often the lightest near the end of a trip, often weighing in at 3-4oz for a complete cooking setup when all the fuel is consumed. Canisters are somewhere between these. But again, so much depends on individual usage that you really cannot say for sure.

What is the BEST stove?? Well, I wouldn't attempt to guess on that one. I have used all of them at different times. Every one has their place.

Note that the OP, Hiker Jim, didn't pose either the question or answer to, "what is the best stove?". He defined canister stoves as "gas stoves" and rhetorically asked which is the best of THOSE.

Personally, I don't own his highest-rated stoves, but I sure as heck appreciate the reviews and perspective regarding the variety of canister stoves out there. For my uses, alcohol stoves are out and I don't plan to use my WG stove(s) again, other than maybe for demonstrations. I am a cheerful convert to these darn canisters, if only for how fast and well the stoves work –and I'm not even using a best-rated!

John,

If you’d like to shed a bit of weight with the Jetboil Sol, you might consider leaving the cozy behind. The cozy doesn’t buy you much in terms of heating efficiency whereas the lid does. You’ll be eroding some of your fuel economy if you leave the lid behind. The cozy is actually slightly heavier than the lid.

I follow your math, and of course your example is valid for your equipment. However, one could go with lighter equipment which might make an interesting comparison. Consider for example the use of a Snow Peak LiteMax stove (54g) and a Snow Peak 780ml pot (132g), for a total of 186g or 6.6 oz. Even if you shed the cozy, you’re still about an ounce and a half heavier with the Sol Ti or about two and a half ounces heavier with the Sol Al.

One can go lighter still by getting an FMS-116T (48g), sometimes sold under the name Monatauk Gnat or Olicamp Kinetic Ultra, and an Evernew 900ml pot (115g), for a total of 163g or 5.7 oz. In this example, the Sol Ti is 2.3 oz heavier and the Sol Al is 3.4 oz heavier.

Not to contradict you completely, but I think examples using lighter stoves and pots are relevant.

You are quite correct in terms of your bottom line though: The new Jetboil Sol line is light enough to be competitive with conventional lightweight upright canister stoves. There’s still a bit of a weight penalty for carrying a Sol, but in return for that extra weight, one receives greater efficiency, better wind resistance, and better cold weather functionality.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving

HJ,

There are some really light stoves in your collection. Can you do some more lab work to tell us how much gas they burn to heat 500 ml to 75'c and 100'c, and in how long?

John,

I have quite the collection of stoves, don’t I? Time is rather short, particularly since I commute 160km per day to my work in heavy Los Angeles traffic. If I can, I will, but I have so many things that I want to write about. Time spent on a bench testing stoves isn’t my first pick in terms of how to spend what free time I have. Much more fun to be out there and hike or do field testing.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving