Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Canister type stoves work poorly the closer you get to freezing, and really poor much below that. If you want your morning coffee, keep your canister in your sleeping bag at night so it is warm in the morning. Or, you can put some warm water in a pan and set the canister in the water to keep the canister from getting too cold while you cook. If your lighter is butane fueled, it works better if it is warm, like it would be in your pants pocket. If it was me, I would be using a liquid fuel stove run on coleman fuel or equivalent.
Not entirely wrong, but there are other options. If you're using a classic upright canister stove, they really do start to have problems below freezing. Especially with a less than full canister, you can have a lot of problems actually cooking. However, you can use a canister stove designed to work in liquid feed mode, something like the MSR Windpro or the Kovea Spider.
I've had problems with my upright stoves below 30 degrees or so. But I've taken my remote canister Kovea Spider down to the single digits without problems. It's personal preference, but I think remote canister stoves are so good at the moment that there isn't much reason to use a white gas stove in the states. Unless you're burning gasoline because it's the only fuel source, or melting tons of snow on a mountaineering expedition, canisters just work so well.