The Stove Conundrum - Observations & Thoughts

[Bushman5]

aaaaaaaaaah hiking gear - love it, love to buy and test gear, love to see what works and what doesn't. Its a never ending process, and can lead to conflicts.....such as staring at the great cabinet of gear at 0400 hours pondering what gear to take.

take stoves for example:

I have a few. A big arse twin burner naptha snorting Coleman, an iso/butane MSR Reactor that sounds like a jet engine, alcohol stoves, wood burning hobo stove, multi fuel burning Kelly Kettle.

all have their pros and cons.......and this must weighed upon when selecting one for the days hike.

Coleman:

PROS: burns HOT, is the most stable for cooking big pots on, can handle the weight of a dutch oven and stew, nothing beats the sound and smell of it on a cold morning.

CONS: heavy, BIG/BULKY, not backpackable, needs to be pressurized, naptha can be deadly in the hands of rookies....

Alky stoves:

PROS: wiegh nothing, tiny, silent, no visible flame, stealthy, cheap

CONS: takes forever to boil a big pot, hard to see flames - easy to burn hands

MSR Reactor:

PROS: freaking nuclear hot power, fast boil times, awesome sound, no visible flame, hidden burner for max wind protection, FAST boiling times.

CONS: can burn food if not watched, LOUD, big pot to pack, heavyish with back up fuel canister

KELLY KETTLE:

PROS: Light, most effiecent design in its class, can burn ANYTHING from wood, leaves grass, charcoal, alky, diesel placed into sand, oil, paper, candles esbit etc. Super simple design

CONS: big to pack, visible smoke, soot if not packed into a stuffsack, can only boil water in it without optional cooking kit for the top.

so as i stand here at 0425 hours, looking at my stoves, debating which one to take on todays woods ramble, growing ever tired, pulling one stove out, then the other, putting it back and thinking, no need fuel canister for that one, hows about this one, no need alky for it., on and on and on...choice is one thing, but sometimes its a pain in the proverbial s

aaaaaanyways, finally decided to the kelly kettle for todays woods ramble...........




now to figure out which knife to take.......

oh gawd :grumpy:

 

[Rockywolf]

Your threads are a great mix of education and hilarity. Thanks for the mornings laugh!

 

[hikeeba]

Jeepers... All I can say, Bushman5, is


You need more stoves!

aaaaaaaaaah hiking gear - love it, love to buy and test gear, love to see what works and what doesn't. Its a never ending process...

This statement fits me like a glove... and a mitten!

 

[PayetteRucker]

aaaaaaaaaah hiking gear - love it, love to buy and test gear, love to see what works and what doesn't. Its a never ending process, and can lead to conflicts.....such as staring at the great cabinet of gear at 0400 hours pondering what gear to take.

take stoves for example:

I have a few. A big arse twin burner naptha snorting Coleman, an iso/butane MSR Reactor that sounds like a jet engine, alcohol stoves, wood burning hobo stove, multi fuel burning Kelly Kettle.

all have their pros and cons.......and this must weighed upon when selecting one for the days hike.

Coleman:

PROS: burns HOT, is the most stable for cooking big pots on, can handle the weight of a dutch oven and stew, nothing beats the sound and smell of it on a cold morning.

CONS: heavy, BIG/BULKY, not backpackable, needs to be pressurized, naptha can be deadly in the hands of rookies....

Alky stoves:

PROS: wiegh nothing, tiny, silent, no visible flame, stealthy, cheap

CONS: takes forever to boil a big pot, hard to see flames - easy to burn hands

MSR Reactor:

PROS: freaking nuclear hot power, fast boil times, awesome sound, no visible flame, hidden burner for max wind protection, FAST boiling times.

CONS: can burn food if not watched, LOUD, big pot to pack, heavyish with back up fuel canister

KELLY KETTLE:

PROS: Light, most effiecent design in its class, can burn ANYTHING from wood, leaves grass, charcoal, alky, diesel placed into sand, oil, paper, candles esbit etc. Super simple design

CONS: big to pack, visible smoke, soot if not packed into a stuffsack, can only boil water in it without optional cooking kit for the top.

so as i stand here at 0425 hours, looking at my stoves, debating which one to take on todays woods ramble, growing ever tired, pulling one stove out, then the other, putting it back and thinking, no need fuel canister for that one, hows about this one, no need alky for it., on and on and on...choice is one thing, but sometimes its a pain in the proverbial s

aaaaaanyways, finally decided to the kelly kettle for todays woods ramble...........




now to figure out which knife to take.......

oh gawd :grumpy:

Stove: a concept fed to you by outdoor recreation suppliers that you need to pack a modern kitchen with you in backcountry, so that you spend hundreds of dollars on multiple systems trying to find the most convenient way to cook your food using an unnatural fuel source.

Fire: A chemical reaction caused by the combustion of naturally occurring fuels such as wood, which can be utilized to cook food and boil water.
Hmm. A strike anywhere match dipped in candlewax costs me about 1/4th of a cent. I'll leave you to your devices...

 

[JCavSD]

Ha...that's amusing. Can totally relate. However, I've grown to like the sound of an isobutane stove. Triggers something in my head that says "coffee is on" and I get excited. Nothing like using a good old fashioned Pavlovian response to help in the selection of the "correct" gear.

 

[fujita yuji]

Love those tulip shape burner head generating lovely sound.

Here's mine.

 

[Bushman5]

Sure PAYYETTE! i could build a fire - depends where i'm going though! some areas have no fires allowed, others a fire would draw too much attention.......i prefer NOT being seen when i hike....

 

[Bushman5]

oh btw, ended up deciding to skip the stove all together and just bring my Nissan thermos prefilled with piping hot coffee..... :foot:

 

[Marcelo Cantu]

Sure PAYYETTE! i could build a fire - depends where i'm going though! some areas have no fires allowed, others a fire would draw too much attention.......i prefer NOT being seen when i hike....

ahem,.... Nude hiker :barf:

 

[Midnight Scout]

now to figure out which knife to take.......

Oh gawd :grumpy:

lol!

 

[dextersp1]

I don't see any gas canister stoves there - look at the brunton raptor and the brunton ib cookset; add a 100gm canister and you are packing lite.

 

[kgd]

Sure PAYYETTE! i could build a fire - depends where i'm going though! some areas have no fires allowed, others a fire would draw too much attention.......i prefer NOT being seen when i hike....

Very true. There are some areas where building a fire just isn't an option. Also, I love building fires as much as the next guy. Some might even think I'm a bit fire obsessed. However, I hate building a breakfast fire for cooking at my campsite. It takes up a lot of time to build just to heat up a little water for coffee and maybe oatmeal or eggs. By the time build up the fire, cook your food and then put out the fire, half your morning is gone. Clearly not the kind of thing I want to do when I have a day of activities to engage in and a schedule to follow. Camp stoves are perfect here.

I like cooking on the fire, but I usually reserve that for dinner or the occasional shore lunch where you are killing time to get over the afternoon lull in fish activity.

I admit to liking convenience on camp stoves.

I have an MSR whisperlite that seems to do well. Lasts pretty good on the fuel if you use it conservatively. Things I don't like. The fuel canister is bulky. Cons: There is simply no way to de-pressurize the regulator on the cannister. Tipping it upside down, even when mostly empty still results in spraying out pressurized fuel in the lines when opening it up. Also, needs to have the maintenance tool kit with it. When they do jam, you have to take it apart to get it working. This isn't overly common, but it has happened on occasion. The shaking wire insert added to declog the fuel nozzle never worked for me. Taking it apart and clearing the nozzle works every time. Another con - works with small pots but not very good for larger ones. Not the most stable legs in the world but it helps if you take time to stablize it before you light it up. Last con. They require a bit of a learning curve to start them. The need to fill the little nozzel warmer cup and light that first until fuel begins to vaporize is part of its design to ensure it works even under cold environment. A person not familiar with how to work one would probably never figure this out and then complain about how the stove set the ground on fire after overfilling the warming cup and trying to light it.

While that is a lot of cons - I like the stove. I would buy another of this type.

Coleman - single burner propane canister. These are cheap and convenient. Screw it on the propane canister and turn the valve and light it. Simple as pie. Works pretty good in warm temperature. Cons. Doesn't work well in below freezing temperatures (fuel jams). Another con is the high cooking platform created by the propane canister making cooking unstable. Much less stable than the whisperlight which is flat to the ground. Propane canisters themselves are bulky and you end up accumulating 1/4 full canisters in your garage and not knowing what to do with them (I now use it to make charcloth). I sort of view the coleman as a not very good stove but can be useful when you are toting other propane canister based accessories like a coleman lantern. To me it is more of a car camping thing. When I'm actually car camping, I'm more like to bring out the big multi-burner propane stove equivalent to Bushman's post. However, car camping solo this is easier to tote, faster to light and works well enough to consider for light cooking chores. Finally, those propane canisters can be bought everywhere from grocery stores to convenience stores and gas stations.

 

[Wandering_About]

I like my MSR Dragonfly. After having used the Coleman single-burner rig kgd mentioned, I like the Dragonfly quite a bit. Never had problems with cold weather and the Coleman burner, and we used it on some pretty darn cold morning. We have had one fail on us while in the backcountry. We had a spare that trip, fortunately.

 

[sandgroper]

anyone a fan of the jetboil?? my younger bro just got one?

 

[Helle]

I make it easy for myself I have one.

MSR Rapidfire, uses ISO PRO canisters, gets a week of use easily on trips. Simmers or boils. I haven't used it in extreme cold, no problems from mid 20's and up though. Never needed cleaning or parts. I bought two parts kits with it in '97, haven't need them.

I am in need of a good double burner stove for car camping next summer. The single burner just isn't cutting it with a family of four car camping.

 

[actiondiver]

anyone a fan of the jetboil?? my younger bro just got one?

I have a jetboil and love it. This thing is super efficient. I use it for coffee/coco, Mountainhouse, oatmeal and other similar just boil water stuff. At that is really excels. For cooking I would still prefer my MSR whisperlite Int.

 

[jca21]

i have the following stoves:

kovea moon walker - iso
snow peak giga stove - iso
trangia - alcohol
vargo - alcohol
home made pop-can stove - alcohol
bush buddy - wood/mixed combustibles
collapsible wood stove - wood only
homemade hobo stove - wood/charcoal
coleman - propane
coleman double burner - propane
usgi canteen stand - solid fuels
homemade portable bbq - charcoal


of those stoves i probably use the snow peak and the bushbuddy the most. if i'm out for the day and on a trail where there are more people i take the snow peak. if im out for a camping trip or trekking i take the bushbuddy.

 

[batosai117]

Great post :thumbup:

You had me cracking up through the whole thing, sounds just like my dad and I when we go fishing, especially if we take the boat

We wake up at the buttcrack of dawn just to leave at 9am because we spent forever staring at what to take

 

[BenchmadeBoy]

I have a jetboil and love it. This thing is super efficient. I use it for coffee/coco, Mountainhouse, oatmeal and other similar just boil water stuff. At that is really excels. For cooking I would still prefer my MSR whisperlite Int.

+1 for the Jetboil. Great for boiling water, one pot meals etc. Packs small, lots of use from one cylinder and works good in cold weather.

 

[jca21]

been looking at a jetboil as well. once i save up enough to build up an lbv i'll have to buy one since they pack down so small. how many Liters/Gallons can you boil on one of those suckers?

great thread bushman