WRONG STOVE!

Yup. My experience exactly.

how cold was it?

German Proverb — ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.’

Same can be said of stoves, live and learn

Jon or others, would the Kovea Spider have made a difference in temps ~25C?  I’ve heard it increases the range, but how low can the temps be before you just need something like white gas or alcohol?

He wouldn’t have had any problem at 25°C. ;^)

Sorry, I realize that’s a typo, just a little Bob humor among us Bobs.

With most fairly standard butane/isobutane/propane blends and canisters in the inverted position (because there is a preheat tube) I would guess that -40C or -40F would be the lower limit for usability. Since propane would already boil at around -42 to -43. It will produce enough pressure to drive the stove, I believe.

25 F – that’s about the lower limit for upright, depends on the fuel and how full it is

One of the techniques to use at lower temp would work – “Moulder strip” or put in dish of water

I think a one foot square of aluminum foil, under canister, and folded up a little so heat reflects onto canister would also work, and weighs less and is easier to use.  Maybe I’ll find an opportunity this winter when it gets cold enough for me to prove this.

The propane vapour pressure (VP) in a butane/propane canister is diluted by the lower VP of butane. So a lower limit of about -24 C applies. See our article Temperature Effects on Gas Canisters for a full discussion, including what happens as you draw off gas from an upright canister – how the contents and the canister pressure change.

Cheers

I did one simple test with a Kovea Spider (full canister).  The canister was frozen in a block of ice and kept in a freezer for 2 days, the temperature was probably 0 F.  The full canister worked fine in the inverted mode: as the gas expands, the canister would have cooled off a bit more.  This works for the range of temperatures that I normally backpack in.

Cool video and question answered.  I did mean 25F.

The Spider is heavier than my original Snow Peak GigaPower stove, but more stable physically and better as Jon’s video shows in colder weather.  I’m sure there’s a lower limit even to this.  If it’s colder than 25F, I’m probably going to take my DragonFly – that jet engine roar says “all is well” in the snow melting department.  All of these are heavier than my newer alcohol stoves, but I would go for the faster boil times below freezing.  That 0 F – right?

25 F is -4 C. Not all that cold.
A 70/30 mix of n-butane and propane can be used down to a little below -20 C with a remote inverted canister stove.

Have a read through some of our techie articles for more details: it’s ALL there.

Cheers

A BRS-3000T operating happily at -5°F ambient on straight n-butane. The temp probe shows the canister temperature. Substantial thread on this.

Jon,  Thanks for the video. Very illustrative for the positive effect of an inverted canister.

My canister was a large Coleman “Performance Blended” butane/propane mix. I don’t know what % of propane was used but likely not enough to make it more suitable for cold weather.

Again, on this trip I wished mightily for my MSR Whisperlite Universal. From now on it goes on every hunting trip. I sold my wonderfully controllable but weighty MSR winter stove to get the lighter Whisperlite Universal.

Eric B.

Jon,  Thanks for the video. Very illustrative for the positive effect of an inverted canister.

My canister was a large Coleman “Performance Blended” butane/propane mix.  This mix is supposed to be 70% butane, 30% propane, which, according to Roger, i.e. good for -20 C when inverted. 

Again, on this trip I wished mightily for my MSR Whisperlite Universal. From now on it goes on every hunting trip. I sold my wonderfully controllable but weighty MSR winter stove to get the lighter Whisperlite Universal.

Eric B.

Jon,  Thanks for the video. Very illustrative for the positive effect of an inverted canister.

My canister was a large Coleman “Performance Blended” butane/propane mix.  This mix is supposed to be 70% butane, 30% propane, which, according to Roger, is good for -20 C when inverted. 

Again, on this trip I wished mightily for my MSR Whisperlite Universal. From now on it goes on every hunting trip. I sold my wonderfully controllable but weighty MSR Dragonfly winter stove to get the lighter Whisperlite Universal.

Eric B.