Fuel Cannisters

You won’t have any trouble getting fuel canisters on the AT. Or alcohol for that matter.  The majority of hikers I encountered this year were using Jetboils and had no problems getting fuel.  As to foam pads, the majority of foam pad users were carrying Thermarest Z Lite Sols.

You wont have any problem finding canisters, but since this is BPL, I will say that a one pound cook system is overkill.  A Caldera Cone or other alcohol stove makes a lot of since as you will be resupplying every few days.

As for foam mats, the Thermarest Ridgerest is the best, but it is bulkier than the ZLite.

I agree, for thru hiking, the Windburner is major overkill.  You really just need something to boil water. Another good option for a canister stove is the BRS stove combined with the Toaks 650 for a sub 6oz cook system for half the price and half the weight. By the time I made it to NJ, over half the hikers had sent their stove home and were deli blazing or bringing a full bag of McD’s cheeseburgers out of town with them.

My suggestion would be to take that $70 difference and put it towards a UL quilt or tent.

I had to look it up.  Windburner is sort of like a Jetboil – stove, pot, heat exchanger in one unit.  The 1 liter Windburner weighs 15 ounces..

You can get a regular upright stove that weighs 3 ounces (Pocket Rocket from MSR for example).  Pot maybe weighs 6 ounces.  You need a windscreen that maybe weighs 2 ounces.  11 ounces total.  Windburner weighs 4 ounces more, but the heat exchanger provides a little fuel efficiency so you save a little on fuel.

If you already have the Windburner and you’re happy with it, and you don’t care that it weighs a couple ounces more, then don’t worry about it.

If you really want to shave every ounce off your kit, then it’s not the best.  You’ll never notice 2 ounces, but if you can save 2 ounces here, and some more ounces other places, maybe you can cut a pound from your pack which will be (barely) noticeable.

The AT is well forested, thus you don’t need a wind protected “Windburner” stove. I can recommend Oware’s foam pads. They’re nice if you want something wider than a narrow 20in pad.

If the alternative is a Jetboil then go for the Windburner. My experience is that it’s better with negligible weight difference. The benefit of these systems over the lighter stoves is fuel efficiency over time.

On the other hand you can go much lighter and you should have plenty of opportunities to refuel which means you’re unlikely to be carrying more than one cannister very often.

From all the vblogs from thru hikers on the AT and their mid and post gear reviews, they begin with alcohol stoves and then ditch them for canister style stoves, mostly the Jetboil. They all say the same thing: they get into camp tired and hungry and want water boiled fast.

They all say the same thing: they get into camp tired and hungry and want water boiled fast

I’m not a thru hiker but speed/simplicity is why I have gone back to a canister stove. I really liked the caldera setup and used it for a year, but it was slow and there were more parts to deal with.  Moved on to Esbit…what is simpler than that? But dealing with the soot and gunk on my pot meant the entire operation wasn’t clean or simple.

I will happily accept a 2-3oz penalty for the 20 second setup, 1.75 minute boil, 20 second breakdown and zero cleanup of a canister stove.

+1 on a canister stove.  Specifically the BRS-3000T for $11 to $13 and 25 grams of weight (yeah, less than an ounce!) and less volume than your thumb.

I used white gas longer than I should have because cutting my teeth on backpacking in the 1970’s the light-weight option started and ended with the Svea 123 and then in the early 1980’s the various MSR options were so much easier to use and ideal for expeditionary uses, why consider the more expensive per BTU butane stoves?  Yeah, I knew isobutane and butane-propane mixes wouldn’t be so sensitive to cold as the old French Bluet stoves, but there’d been a lot of to hate about the Bluet stoves.

Weight of stove – goes to the BRS-3000T

Weight of fuel container – There’s somewhat more steel around the butane than around white gas, but not by a lot and the instant-on, instant-off, no-priming means you use less butane than WG, especially in a heat – let soak – reheat mode.

Safety – I’ve never gotten a faceful of flames from a canister stove.  WG stoves can get exciting if you carelessly use a cold-start procedure on a warm stove, etc.

I’ll grant that alcohol set up can be a little less total weight, but even watching someone very experienced with alcohol futz with it, I realize I want to relax more than that when I’m on the trail.

And to go as extreme as Esbit with the soot and residue?  I can see that on a SUL trip, but on those I usually just go no-cook.

To that BRS-3000T, add a 3-ounce pot if you want to go very UL.  If you want to reduce fuel consumption and boil times, the Olicamp XTS heat-exchanger pot at $30 and 6.7 ounces will do that.

The only negative about the BRS-3000T is that some people report quality problems.

If you get one, maybe take it apart before using and make sure there aren’t metal particles inside it.  Test it at home to make sure it works.

.Best Backpacking Stove System – Trail Designs Caldera vs. JetBoil .

@leadfoot I would disagree that thru hikers bail on their alcohol setups for Jetboils. They bail on them for pocket rockets, BRS-3000’s, etc. I’ve hung in the midst of AT thru hikers the past two summers. Most start out with ridiculous stoves (being a thru hiker doesn’t make you an expert on “the best,) then go to small canister or cold cook. Will Wood of Youtube fame finally bailed on his jetboil in a recent vid.

A note on thru hikers, most make sub optimal equipment choices.

People usually ditch alcohol because they have the wrong stove. If you can get one that works/lights at 0F at sea level and that doesn’t need priming, you have a good stove that will never give you problems. I have very good luck with the pepsi stove. Mechanic Mike makes these on eBay. It’s nice:

1. not to have any moving parts.
2. Don’t have to worry about “how much fuel is left in the canister”. “I better take a 2nd canister just in case”
3. Not to worry about expensive canisters.
4. to store alcy in cheap plastic containers.
5. If alcy leaks, it just cleans your pack instead of eating your pack
6. I wait the 6 minutes for boiling while putting up my tent, pad, and bedding.

If you like foam mats, the Zlite SOL mentioned above is good. Since I’m in my 6th decade of life, I like a little more comfort. However, I do sleep well on the regular size Zlite when folded in half. It becomes a very comfy torso mat. I then put the feet on top of my backpack. I don’t take the Zlite too often because of its bulk. But it’s nice not to worry about a pad leak :)

-Barry

-The mountains were made for Tevas

@Matthew…I was just mentioning the Jetboil as a choice, but not saying they all use them. So, yes, I agree with your comment.  Also several end up going no cook towards the end of their thru in Maine only because they get tired of cooking.  As in any backpacking trip, its all personal preference and end up shedding or exchanging items that work.  In talking to a few as they pass here thru Va, they are pretty dialed in with their gear and tell me that the majority use canister stoves.