Stoves

[Oudezijds Voorburgwal]

...I was talking to an officer from the RAOC who told me that they had several containers full of gaz canisters but were surprised that no one had asked for them. The Army never was any good at getting it's left hand to talk to it's right.   

That made me chuckle. Unbelievable. I was once camping (30 years ago) about 40 miles from London and ran out of Gaz, I couldn’t find a small disposable 206 cylinder anywhere, wasted most of a day searching. So ended up eating and paying a fortune in the local pub. I bought a petrol stove upon my return, and it’s still going strong. Love the blog by-the-way
 

[Oudezijds Voorburgwal]

I had a Colman Peak 1 - but I am not familiar with the brand in the bottom loink for the gasoline stove.  I'm not sure I'd like an unknown brand with pressurised petrol - there's too much to go spectacularly wrong.

I do know what you mean, you must respect petrol, it can get out of hand very quickly indeed.I wonder if any government bodies test these things?

 

[scott_allore]

Windshields are even more important with meths stoves than gas stoves in my experience.

Same, it's like night and day with wind.  If I think I will have trouble finding a calm spot to cook, it's the MSR all the way.

[Butchersboy]

As a side query, what's everyone's experience with the brs 3000t stove?? I have just purchased one and was hoping to take it on a 7 day long trip. Being as its so cheap I wondered what the reliability was like ?!

[fernman]

Bought my BRS3000-T ten months ago, and I love it for its simplicity and its lightness.
It seems a tad fiddly to open out the three arms because they have to be done in a sequence otherwise one gets in the way of another, but you get used to it. My 550ml (approx. 1pt) titanium pot sits on it well, with no problems.
Before you screw the stove onto a gas cartidge you need to check that the folded-up on-off lever is turned fully off, because if it isn't gas is going to escape. You'll only make that mistake once!
My stove needs screwing onto the cartridge quite firmly - the difference is that you're screwing it down the thread on the cartridge, unlike a more conventional stove which has a flat plate with a flat sealing washer and screws down only as far as the ring on the top of a cartridge.
For such a tiny stove it is more powerful than any I've had before.
Edited to add, I always keep it in its little green drawstring bag to help protect it from damage and to keep it free of bits of detritus.
Edited again to add that I only use it to boil water, nothing else.
 

[zuludog]

I got a BRS stove for a Christmas present. I've given it a brief trial in my kitchen, but have yet to use it for real, though it seems OK

I have a couple of hose connected stoves, but I've planned a couple of backpacking weekends in March, and I realise that the only cooking I'll be doing will be boiling water for brews and MRE or AFD meals. So I thought I'd try the BRS.
The weather could still be a bit chilly, especially in the morning, so I'll keep the stove & cartridge screwed together in the sleeping bag with me. I'll put on the little stuff sac, just like a hat, to cover the sharp edges

I have a couple of friends who use this stove, and the opinion is that they're OK as long as you don't use a pan bigger than 1l. As most 1l pans only have a working capacity of about 750ml anyway, you should be OK. That will be quite adequate for the 'cooking' that I've described

[Litehiker]

I have a cone stove, the titanium Sidewinder by Trail Designs. It has a dedicated 3 dup pot that precisely fits the cone for high efficiency. Usually I burn ESBIT tablets in it using an aftermarket BEGET tray to catch all the liquid residue for greatly extending burn time.  This stove is also excellent for many types of alcohol stoves.


This stove is also my winter snow melting stove B/C I always camp below the tree line where finger sized dead branches are really available for fuel. I bought the optional Inferno "gassifier" kit that burns much of the initial gasses given off in the initial combustion. The high heat produced by the gassifier Inferno insert requires the stove be made of titanium sheet. Using the wood burning mode saves carrying a lot of petrol fuel for that purpose.


This stove, even with the wood burning Inferno kit, is very light and when rolled up for storage it takes up little space.


TIP: I carry the fishy-smelling ESBIT tablets inside a coffee bag, the type made with an aluminized mylar lining, to keep he smell contained.


For very cold winter conditions I use my MSR Whisperlite Universal stove in white gas (petrol) mode with a remote fuel bottle.
For some 3 season backpacks I use a Brunton CRUX canister-top stove, somewhat like a Pocket Rocket.


Eric B.

[Owen]

Trail Design stoves are hard to come by over here, there was one company selling them but they've stopped sticking them, probably due to the duty issue.


I did try one, it was very tall and used a beer can as a pot.



I didn't get on with it, it was very delicate, so much so it had to be kept in a plastic tube to stop it getting squashed. It was also very fiddly and messy and used up huge amounts of meths (alcohol). I thought it a bit of a gimmick and got rid of it. I suspect a lower wider design would have worked better. It also needed some way of putting out the burner without using up all the fuel in it, as the trangia's do. 

[Litehiker]

Hi Owen,


My TD stove is much lower than the beer can stove in your photo. I decidedly am not of the "beer can persuasion" for cooking. Sometimes SUL people get a bit carried away with the "Super" in SUL gear with things like beer can cookers.


My Sidewinder is a low cone and has a 3 cup pot that is wider than it is tall which is the most efficient ratio for utilizing heat. And 3 cups is just about perfect for one person who sometimes does actual cooking, like spaghetti, etc. as opposed to merely boiling water to pour into a freeze-dried food bag. Like the French, I "Live to eat", whereas many backpackers, like the Russians, "Eat to live". So I use "Freezer Bag Cooking" as much as possible. Sarah Kirkconnel has written two good recipe books on FB cooking. Well worth looking into and besides the better tasting food is costs a lot less than FD food.


As well I take a small plastic bowl and plastic cup with measuring marks and these conveniently nest inside my pot. I take a long handled Lexan spoon and a little Gerber lockblade knife as my only utensils. I have absolutely NO titanium utensils, cups or pots. The Sidewinder stove cone is my only ti gear and it's necessary to withstand the intense heat of burning wood in the gassier insert. I feel that ti utensils, mugs, etc. are an affectation, just as are backpacks with no internal frame or hiking poles whose straps have been removed. There is cutting weight sensibly and then there is slavishly cutting absolutely necessary items like pack frames and pole straps. The discomfort of abandoning these latter two is not at all worth the tiny amount of lower weight. END OF RANT.


BTW, other stoves I've collected are my original SVEA 123 with SIGG Tourist cook set and an MSR Wind Pro for car camping so I can use the Wind pro and the Whisperlite Universal side by side and have two burners.


At one time, in the days before I saw the light and had my UL conversion, I had a nice MSR Dragonfly which was a totally adjustable liquid fuel stove (petrol & kerosene). But it was just too heavy so I sold it. I baked with it and surprised camp mates with cakes and pizza.


One reason I converted from a 7 1/2 pound Dana Terraplane pack to a 2 1/4 pound Osprey EXOS 58 pack and other lighter gear is that upon moving from Pennsylvania to Nevada I was suddenly backpacking above 10,000 ft. Here the air is "a bit thinner" and light loads are necessary to compensate for less O2.

Eric B.

[Maggot]

I was asked by a friend last week if I wanted a stove his brother has in the shed and was chucking out.  Well, I couldn't let it go to the tip so I said of course!


I now have a Coleman Peak 1 dual fuel stove.  It is old, but bloody hell, what a great bit of kit.  I did loads of Googling on fuel, and have plumped for Naptha, which is used a panel wipe, and cost me £13 for 5l from the local auto-factors as opposed to 1l of Coleman fuel for about £8-£10!  It burns hot, clean and is excellent value.


It's a bit of a blast from the past, but will certainly be getting some use in the coming months.  As it's a bit older it lacks the auto-ignition that has become widespread, and is a bit of a pump/prime/pressure maintaining faff, but I think may well become a well loved bit of kit.

[richardh1905]

Interesting tip about naptha, maggot.

[sussamb]

We like our msr pocket rocket 2.

https://www.msrgear.com/pocketrocket-2

After much deliberation this is the one I've gone for 

[April]

After much deliberation this is the one I've gone for 

I hope you like it as much as we do 

[sussamb]

Out of interest how do you light yours?  Matches?  Firestick?  Piezo electric?

[zuludog]

 SUSSAMB    At the risk of going O/T, this is what I use for lighting my stoves - hose connected and cartridge top gas stoves

A disposable plastic lighter and a firesteel as reserve
Firesteels are surprisingly tricky to use till you get used to them; search on YouTube
I keep them in my cutlery bag

I have an extra reserve in my first aid kit - a small packet of windproof matches that came with a British Army ration pack, bought from a surplus store
I use my first aid kit for day walks as well as backpacking trips, so if necessary I could light a fire on a day walk