Another stove question

[Mark H]

I hate to bring it up, but I want everyone’s input.  I’m not a particular lightweight backpacker, but am now trying.  This past April my nephew and I got caught in a blizzard in northern Michigan and had 24″ of snow fall on us in less than 24 hours. We snowshoe’d out, but it took us 8 hours of non-stop hiking and my complete pack weighed 37 lbs! Now that was including everything….food, water, fuel etc… Needless to say that our hike out would have been much more enjoyable if my pack were in the 20 lb range instead.

Lessons learned is that I didn’t need all the food that I brought. I didn’t need all the GORP that I brought and I most certainly didn’t need all the extra fuel I brought.  I only eat freeze dried meals and typically have a cup of tea with breakfast and dinner.  My “trips” are short, no more than 3 days total so that would only be like 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners. I GORP lunch.

What would you suggest I use for a stove?  Most of my trips aren’t in the snow either.

[Bob Shuff]

When you say most of your meals are freeze dried and you also like a cup of tea, that leads me to a few conclusions – you don’t need a stove/pot setup to cook-in, and you generally want to have minimal fuss and clean-up.  You probably want enough capacity to heat water for 2 meals/tea since you were hiking with your nephew.  Correct me if I’m wrong.

I’ve tried a lot of different stoves – too many to list for any meaningful use.  Most have a fuss or fiddle factor.  If you want to go easy, look at the MSR Windburner line (my favorite) or a Jetboil that others seem to like for whatever reason (I think the MSR is better).  It cooks superfast and efficiently, and you can get their original version that nests with a small canister in their 1 L pot.  It even includes a bowl.  The newer versions have a remote canister setup and can take larger pots.

Want to go lighter, consider a smaller pot of  your choice with a basic canister stove.  Soto Amicus or the ever popular but I hear less reliable BSR3000T from Amazon.  the BSR in particular won’t work as well in Wind.  The Soto (and many others like it) will perform better in wind, but none of them will work as well as the MSR Windburners.  They will be lighter and smaller to pack.

Want to go lighter, consider an Alcohol setup like a Trail Design Caldera cone – I like the sidewinder models that work with the Evernew wide pots (.6, .9 or 1.3L).  Flat Cat Snow Leopard is also a great choice.  There’s hundreds of choices.  You can DIY a Fancee Feest and windscreen or buy one from Zelph at Woodgaz-stoves.com  Most of these setups also have a solid fuel (esbit) option that are even simpler to use.

that’s more than $0.02 from me, and completely disregards wood-burning stoves.  Interested to hear other’s favorites as well.

[Mark H]

Yes, my cooking consists of boiling 2 cups of water and I only cook for myself. My nephew is 30, so he’s on his own.  I have several gas stoves from snow peak, msr and kovea.  I’m kind of leaning in that direction just because it’s such an easy system. May not be the lightest or is it?  I’m totally in to getting my pack as light as possible by adding/changing gear. Some things I won’t compromise on like my hammock because I have a bad back, but I’m up for changing just about anything else.

 

[Jerry Adams]

any 3 ounce canister stove

Soto Windmaster is okay

canister stoves are so convenient

[Bruce Tolley]

@ Mark If your trips are just 2 or 3 nights, I doubt that the efficiency of the Jetboil would make up for its extra weight. I would start just by buying a digital kitchen scale and weighing all the stoves and << 1000 ml pots that you already own and just use the lightest combination. A scale is probably the most important piece of gear for lightening your pack. I was surprised when I started the journey to lightweight backpacking that the lightest bowl I owned was the one I purchased in 1980.

You might also be taking too much food if you are bringing it back home at the end of the trip. At the end of my meal planning and packaging, I always weigh my food and see where I stand over against the rule of thumb of 1.5 lbs per person per day.  I repackage my food to conserve space and re-hydrate it in a container. I also just take one long wooden spoon (from Gossamer Gear) and use the 16 oz zip lock container with screw top and cozy (you can make your own or see AntiGravityGear) as my combination coffee cup and bowl.

[Matthew / BPL]

Lots of good advice in this thread already…

A Windburner/Jetboil is definitley not the lightest option. The lightest option will likely be a an alcohol/Esbit system. I don’t have any knowledge about the suitability of those solutions for much below freezing or in the snow.

The best solution for summer may not be the best solution for winter and the best solution for a weekend trip may not be the best solution for a two week trip. There are lots of variables at play when answering these questions. BPL member Hikin’ Jim has an extremely useful site that goes through many of these options at adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com. He focuses largely on isobutane stoves but talks in detail about comparisons between those and alcohol/Esbit based setups.

If you want to lighten up your pack and you aren’t going out for long trips or in super-extreme weather and you are just boiling water you might try an alcohol/Esbit setup. This could be a DIY setup built around a 10 or 12cm Imusa mug and cost less than $10. These are fun to make, work really well above freezing, compact and can weigh in around well under 1/2 pound. My Toaks 550/Zelph/Caldera Cone setup weighs 3.6 ounces and burns 6 or 8 grams of fuel per boil. I also put together an Imusa based setup that weighs a little over 4 ounces, is slightly less efficient and cost maybe $30 rather than $100.

[J R]

Trail Designs Keg-F setup with Starlyte stove. Works great, ultralight, very fuel efficient, cheap.

[Joe B]

+1 matthew k, different tools for different jobs.

As a Michigander, I use a homemade cat can alcohol stove with roasting pan wind screen in summer. Occasionally I’ll swap out for a Snowpeak LiteMax ti or similar canister top stove if I expect windy conditions or want added convenience on shorter trips. In my experience, the adaptable nature of pot + canister outweighs the merits of a Jetboil. During the colder months, the MSR Whisperlite is my go to if snow is the main source of water.

Honestly, after paring down lots of gear, I’ve found that the stove I choose to carry now makes little difference with regard to comfort of my pack. It tends to be the extra little things that add up…and of course food.

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