Stove for the Winds…recommendations?

[Pamhikes]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I have a titanium canister stove that I’ve been happy with so far.  I’m going to the Winds in August…do I need a wind screen?  I generally cook my food rather just boiling water.   Any recommendations/advice especially for that particular area?   I’m open to any ideas as this is my first time going.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thank you!</p>

[Ben C]

Pam, I used an alcohol stove with no problems on the high route.  You can almost always find a way to shelter from the wind.  The only morning it was too windy for me to cook, it was really too cold and windy to enjoy a meal.

[Lee]

I’ve taken multiple trips to the WRR & I also use a canister stove. I used to bring a windscreen but stopped packing it the past couple of trips & haven’t missed it. IMHO it’s not worth the trouble.

[S Long]

I would always take a windscreen. It’s the WIND rivers, not the Gentle Breeze Rivers. An average windscreen will pay for itself in weight of fuel saved over long enough, plus your food will be ready faster. Unless you are able to consistently find totally wind-sheltered areas to cook, I would personally bring a windscreen. FWIW, I use a Fosters can Caldera Cone alcohol setup most of the time, but also have the BRS-3000 canister stove. The canister stove does NOT do well without a windscreen.

[Pamhikes]

Thank you Lee and Ben for your input!  I’m trying to cover anything different for this hike.  Normally I don’t use a windscreen…I have one I bought years ago but never felt the need to add the weight for its small benefit

[James Marco]

Get and use a windscreen. It accounts for almost 15-20% of fuel savings. It does more than simply blocking the wind. It also directs hot gasses to your pot, rather than letting them be blown away or even just slipping by the pot with little/no contact with the pot. About a 1/4″ gap is good, give or take. The lower flame needed for cooking/simmering will be much more consistent. You should be able to do 3 boils per ounce/~28gm on most any stove in calm 50F/10C weather.  Simmering for cooking soups/stews and other wet foods (not frying) uses very little gas…2-4gm per ~15min. Flame control is important.  Always use a lid, of course. There are some rather elaborate wind screens here for use on most any stove, and, some very simple ones. Look up “backpacking stove windscreen” on google. A 2-layer HD aluminum foil windscreen is very light and quick/easy to make.

[BlackHatGuy]

I’ve found that a sit pad can make a decent windscreen, so if you bring a sit pad it can pull double duty and you don’t need a separate windscreen.

[Michael K]

I use a soto windmaster canister stove that probably handles the wind a bit better than yours and I agree that wind takes away efficiency.  However, I don’t think a windscreen is needed……….what I always do is the following:

1.  Make my evening cooking area behind a large boulder.
2. Roll a couple rocks around 2 sides that are windier……the whole process takes a minute or 2 and no need for extra weight and space of a wind screen.  There is never a shortage of rocks :)
3. In the morning, I scatter my cooking area rocks after packing up camp and making my morning tea and/or oatmeal.

[James Marco]

You just used moved more weight that a .5oz windscreen would use all day.  Not sure it was really worth it…

[Roger Caffin]

As James pointed out, a small windscreen boosts the efficiency and performance of a canister stove by a very significant amount, and in some cases a windscreen can be the difference between boiling water and luke-warm water. I never use a stove without a windscreen.

What puzzles me though is why some people fight so hard against the idea of using a windscreen. To me, that just does not make any sense at all.

My 2c
Cheers

[Pamhikes]

Michael thank for the detail on how you do your cooking…mine has been similar but when the rocks or boulders aren’t available it poses some difficulty.

I definitely  like the idea of the sit pad as well…mine is just a cut out of 4 sections of a full pad(yellow)

may tryout the HD aluminum…I’ll try my hand at origami  Thanks so much James!

 

[James Marco]

Pam, Rodger knows about stoves. I agree totally with his statements. Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil is very easy to work with. Just a pair of household shears work well. Bending and forming is easy and just requires a good eye to fold it around the edges with you hand.  Anyway, to reiterate, a windscreen will pay for itself easily. It is usually enough to last a season or so. Drop it in the recycle bin when you are done with it.

[Roger Caffin]

Windscreen opened up a bit for the photo.

Cheers

[Michael K]

HMMMMMM…….now you guys got me thinking more about trying a windscreen.  One of the main factors that have scared me away from windscreens is that I’ve always used canister stoves with the canister directly below the stove so I’ve just thought that the risk of the windscreen causing the canister to blow up was not worth the risk.  What do people think? Are these wrap around windscreens pretty safe with stoves that screw on top of the canister?

[obx hiker]

This just popped into my head probably triggered by talk about wind in the Winds, screens/stoves and rocks (about which Michael is correct. There’s no shortage!) and it may be kind of drifty but it could come in handy and illustrates the problem.

The first thing I do when arriving at a campsite after sizing it up and before unpacking is to gather about a dozen fist sized rocks and as I unpack I place one on pretty much everything except maybe the food bag or the unpacked sleeping bag. Avoids a lot of chasing around and possibly a very chilling impromptu dip in a nearby lake. It can often be kind of breezy! Sometimes you may not need any and other times you’ll need more and bigger!

[Terry Sparks]

As long as you allow enough room between the screen and the pot for excess heat to escape to the outside and not use your stove as a blow torch like some seem to do, you’ll be good.

[Roger Caffin]

Well, I have used a windscreen around my stoves for … 40 years? Still here.

You need a gap between the pot and the windscreen – say 1/2″. I recommend a gap between the ends of the windscreen for access to the control valve as well.

You should always listen to your stove (for ‘runaway roaring’), and you should also sometimes check the temperature at the top of the canister with your finger. It’s called the ‘touch test’ and well-known here at BPL. If you can keep your finger on the canister it is below 40 C; the canister is rated (by law) to be able to handle 50 C continuous.

Happy cooking.

Cheers

[James Marco]

You might need to check it after a 2 cup boil. Otherwise, I don’t bother anymore. It is only on for a maybe 5 minutes. Using a lower flame might take this up to high fuel efficiency and maybe 8 minutes, so checking every 3 minutes or so sounds like a plan.

 

[bradmacmt]

Here’s a windscreen I made years ago for a Snowpeak Giga… it’s a snowpeak Ti Bowl ($17) modified to fit over the stove. Works great and weigh’s 1.8 oz’s. It will certainly save its weight in fuel on longer walks, and provide quicker, easier boiling.

I may try to build one for my current MSR Pocket Rocket DLX.

Easy to do, you need a tape measure, straight edge, pencil, sharpie and Dremel. I’d suggest mocking it up with paper or thin cardboard first, test it (and modify as needed), then transfer the cutouts off the mockup via sharpie to the Ti pot. Cut it out with the Dremel using a cutting wheel.

On this one I cut four additional slots (3rd photo below) because I was worried about airflow… I needn’t have done it, they’re not necessary.

 

[DAN-Y/FANCEE FEEST]

This is a windscreen I made for a Toaks Light 650:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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