Upright Canister Stoves – A Survey of the State of the Art

nice report, very complete, thanks

Thanks, Jim!

Thanks, guys.  I hope it’s useful.  :)  I myself like being able to scan down something in tabular form.

HJ

Thanks for all the comparisons in the table, Jim. I hiked the Colorado Trail this July/August, and was all set to take my 650 ml Sidewinder and alcohol stove. Just before starting a fire ban was issued for the first 105 mls (there was an actual fire between Breck and Copper Mtn). This ban included al stoves, so I packed my Jetboil Sol Ti instead.
However, while on the trail I got to think why not take a tiny canister stove as well as the al just for the ban sections. The 0.9 oz weight of the 3000T would be perfect here: use al where allowed and carry the 0.9 oz stove, without canister, for a minimal weight penalty. When necessary you can buy a canister too.
This would be the most efficient way, as my resupplies varied from 7 days to 3 days, where al wins out.

Personally, I’d pick one or the other, with the canister being the obvious choice where fire bans are going to be encountered.

Even if you start out using the alcohol setup and acquire a canister later, you’ll still have to carry the partial canister anyway or find some way to dispose of it. I suppose you could give it to someone who is also using a canister system, but some people might be leery of heading out on the trail with a canister with an unknown amount of fuel in it.

I would safely dispose of the part used canister at the next resupply point, or leave it in a hiker box, and buy alcohol there instead. In the CT example above I would have been able to use alcohol for 380 miles, with just a 0.9 oz penalty, or even bin the 3000T since it is so cheap.

Most of my hikes are in more obscure places without hiker boxes, but I’ve pondered if, say, a AT thru-hiker would benefit from carrying a transfer valve.

Then you could top off or combine canister contents from partially-used ones.  There are lots of caveats and practice needed to do that safely (a whole thread or article’s worth), but it would be one way to save weight, create custom fills, and split the far cheaper fuel in a 450-gram canister among multiple 220- and 110-gram canisters if you were in a group or bumped into other hikers before hitting the trail again.

And, like BobM, I’d pick one or the other.  And it would the canister stove if it’s required anywhere along the route.  “Beware the man with one gun” (because he shoots that one really well).

OTEPOH: if most of the route allows for the alcohol stove, you could plan a few days of no-cook menus to get through the no-fire zones.