Cookware/Stoves
 

I'm planning a cross country tour in September across the southern tier of the US, and I have little to no experience with cooking stoves, as all of my camping eats have been previously prepared with a campfire and stick/coathanger with an occasional bun.

Any preferred stoves/equipment to use?

Thanks

Regarding stoves, I think there are two general categories:

Alcohol stoves:

- Very lightweight and simple. You can make one yourself. 1/3 the weight of a PBFS. Smaller too.
- Flame weak enough to simmer
- Easy to clean
- Quiet
- Cheap

Petroleum-based fuel stoves:
- Some models can burn several different kinds of fuel (white gas, kerosene, gasoline etc)
- A given amount of white gas boils 50% more water, twice as fast as the same amount of alcohol - less fuel to haul
- Only some higher end models permit simmering
- If a model uses a fuel cartridge, it needs to be returned for recycling when depleted

I have a MSR XGK EX usually running on unleaded gasoline. It boils two liters of pasta water pronto.

There are a myriad of options available and everyone is going to have their own preference.

Mine is the MSR Whisperlite with part of the MSR Alpine cookset. This is what I take with me on longer tours. For short tours I use a Kelly Kettle or a Trangia stove.

Aaron:)

I am a minority, I use a wood burning stove. I use a one liter pot and sometimes a small wok on short trips.

As for my woodburning stove, I love ot but most of my travel is in Michigan and surrounding states. I would not use one out west due to fire danger. I also have a MSR whisperlite for when the fire danger is high.

Mr. Jim, I've noticed you mentioned your wood burning stove before. What model do you have? Where did you get it? Can you grill on it, or is it only to be used with pots?

I think my biggest concern is the availability of the canisters should I purchase the petroleum-based stoves. I appreciate their efficiency, however, while travelling the southwest, I fear the nearest Home Depot or REI will be too far to justify the purchase. Am I wrong?

I've checked out the penny stove instructions, and I'm wondering if anyone has had any success with it, namely what fuel they were using?

The penny stoves use denatured alcohol. You can buy HEET gas line antifreeze(alcohol) in the yellow bottles at just about any auto parts store and many convenience stores. The gas stove I linked to doesn't use canisters but has a detachable fuel bottle. Mine will burn white gas (Coleman fuel), kerosene, and unleaded auto fuel (not too much problem getting that!...yet).

Aaron:)

I usually just carry a Triad http://www.rei.com/product/761903 or an ESBIT if I have fuel tabs laying around. I think I may upgrade to that MSR whisperlite though. What is the ratio of burn time to fuel quantity usually on the whisperlite?

quinoa

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

if you didn't already know

For many years I`ve used one of those multi fuel Colemans with the little fuel tank integrated into the stove (Model 442?), though only the last part of that time was as a bike camper, and I loved it. Still love it. The only problem I`ve had was when I threw a pork chop directly on the pot support out of necessity- it wasn`t pretty. I`ve heard they need to be cleaned out frequently if you use gasoline though I used mine with gas on a few isolated occasions and didn`t notice any bad effects.

About two weeks ago, I took my first trip with a homebrew alcohol stove and I`m sold! I doubt I`ll ever carry my Coleman again on a solo trip. For two people, maybe two alcohol stoves, more than that, and it`s back to the trusty old Coleman. Mine was even simpler than the penny stove- just an empty 3 oz can with two rows of holes punched around the rim. That`s it, really! It`s so simple I didn`t think it would ever possibly work, but it worked like a champ on a four day trip and, being so stinkin simple, I can`t imagine a way for it to fail. Well, if I stepped on it, it`d be a gonner for sure- have to watch out for that. One downside is that I can`t use this stove until it`s light enough to see well. The Coleman I can light by Braille. An advantage to alcohol that was implied, but not mentioned directly is that HEET comes in 12 oz plastic bottles. Try finding 12 oz of white gas on the road.

Butane cannisters never turned me on. I never tried one, so maye they`ve got their nice ponts, but I don`t like the idea of fuel that comes only in sealed cannisters. If you go out for a weekend and don`t know how much you have left, do you just go and cross your fingers? Drag a whole extra with you just in case? Take a brand new one and leave the partial at home with a growing collection of partial tanks? Maybe it isn`t that complicated, but I don`t want to mess with them.

[ If you go out for a weekend and don`t know how much you have left, do you just go and cross your fingers? Drag a whole extra with you just in case? Take a brand new one and leave the partial at home with a growing collection of partial tanks? Maybe it isn`t that complicated, but I don`t want to mess with them]


Use a postal scale to weigh the cannister before cooking/boiling water once. Weigh it after. Weigh an empty cannister so you know what the fuel weight is in a cannister. Keep all your partial cannisters wtih a label for how much is in it. calculate how many days a trip will be, how much you plan on cooking. grab the cannister with the right calculated weight. it sounds complicated but is pretty easy.

I generally use a DIY alchohol stove for longer trips. my stove, pot, windscreen, scrubber, spork thingy, and one of those zipplock disposable/reusable containers with a lid for a bowl/leftover storage weight in at 1 lb 8 ounces. 11 oz of that is fuel, so its a pretty good weight. I mostly use it for tea, Miso soup, and emergency dinners when no grocery store has presented itself that day. I use Heet or denatured alchohol.

Burn time (white gas) per 600ml / 20 oz. of fuel 110 minutes and Water boiled (white gas) per 1 oz. of fuel 1.3 liters.

I can prolong that by depressurizing the fuel bottle slightly. I found on average I ran the stove about 20 minutes a day if mainly using it for boiling water. So I always figured and average of week on a tank of fuel.

Aaron:)

This is the one I use.

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colem...id=2010&brand=

I removed the heavy pot/pan holder thing on the top and made up a lightweight do-hickey to rest my campware on. Even so, it's probably a few ounces heavier than most stoves, and that football sized fuel bottle is certainly not light. But you can find those fuel bottles anywhere and they seem to last forever. It's a very clean system and burns hot and burns well if there's a little wind. It's just a basic propane burner, hard to beat for efficiency. Plus it's cheap, like $20 at Walmart.

I have a couple of other pack stoves, but this is the one that I usually take because I get tired of always having to hunt for fuel for my other, lightweight, expensive stoves.

I use a Bush Buddy. Very cool. I've never tried grilling on it, but it works for toast.

They are reliable and fuel is very available. That said the canisters are heavier than I am willing to carry. Still I love my propane stove for canoe or car camping. Mine is the Primus Grasshopper.http://www.dslretorts.com/Paladin/im...per_stove_.jpg

For bike camping I would consider my Pocket Rocket perfect if fuel were more available. http://cascadedesigns.com/images/pro...cketrocket.jpg

If solo and I don't want to bother with mail drops for ispbutane fuel i use a pop can stove.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...x-Canstove.jpg

It is here: http://www.zzstove.com/sierra.html

I have a the one pictured and also an older model, I do not have the windscreen and have never had the need for one, even on the lake Michigan shoreline where it is always windy.

As for grilling, they make an accessory :http://www.zzstove.com/ws_g.html

Never tried it, I have grilled with mine two different ways. I once did a steak by sticking a couple pieces of coat hanger through some holes in the pot supports after getting some coal built up, didn't work well. Also have used it with a folding backpacker grill over the stove.

This one:http://www.campingsurvival.com/stursteelfol.html

Again ran the stove to produce coals then grilled, also a so so result it's not really big enough to build up a decent amount of coals. Now i have done hot dogs etc on a stick over the stove a couple times also, that worked better. I like the stove and it is decently stable with a one liter pot or a little bigger. We used a larger pot on a group trip and drove 4 large tent pegs in around the stove on the ground to support the pot and that worked very well.

As for boil time i don't remember the numbers but in college my room mate and I did this test. 2 first generation Zip stoves VS a MSR whisperlite and a coleman peakone stove. Both of them running white gas. Zip stoves were using firestarter sticks and pine cones. Challenge was to boil 2 1/2 cups of water. Wood stoves beat the gas stoves by a decent margin.

Ok now the downside, they black your pots. Lots of folks have tricks for this, soap the outside of the pot first etc. My trick is to wash the pot well afterwards (gets a lot of it off) and wrap it in a bandanna. Basically I think the downside is not that bad compared to buying and hauling fuel.

Any more questions let me know, this is one of those "best gear i ever bought" things for me.

sweetlou here's another one from www,backpackinglight.co.uk called the honey stove,looks a nice well thaught out bit of kit.

None.

Restaurants have food, gas stations or grocery stores have microwaves, city parks have BBQs, Campgrounds have fire rings, people have stoves you can befriend and in the meantime use a raw diet or steep your food.

True story,
We had a casual day, but this was our first meal and only meal.
A alcohol burner guy was cooking pasta at elevation 6000.
I ate my dinner which was tortilla P&Bs, green beans, and apricots. .5 gallon Milk with protein shake mix. (pasteurized milk can last a long time with out a fridge. )

He started the grass on fire and wasted a lot of alcohol because of the wind. He carried a fifth of fuel, and some cookware. It took him 40 mins to be able to eat, then another 20 to eat, and then another 10 to clean up.

I wrapped my finger around a tortilla and grab some peanut butter for my 4 tortillas. I was done before he even got to eat.

emm theres a lot of sense in that post ,make a lot of campers think about cooking or not to. well done wheel great post.

Stove free would be an option if it weren`t for coffee. If I don`t have guaranteed coffee in the mornings, I ain`t going!

Yeah, yeah, coffee comes from gas stations too, but just like there can be a shortage of BLM spaces in the East, out West you might occasionally be 100 miles between services and are very often at least half that distance.

I used to think along those lines, until after I got stuck a dozen times or so with no food in the middle of nowhere.

No offense, but that's inexperience talk right there... There's lots of places where there ain't sh** around to get stuff to eat, and it's nice to be able to boil up a pot of pasta at night, or oatmeal in the mornings. And, of course, there's the coffee thing. I don't even like to start breaking camp until I've had a couple cups down.

Alcohol stove made from 2 coke cans and windscreen from 3 beer cans

True dat! If you are going to be out for a day or two, then carrying a stove and camp gear probably makes no sense. However there are lots of places out west where the people are few and far between. Sure you can exist on tortilla and peanut butter. You can also ride in wool shorts and hair shirts but why would you want to:rolleyes: Maybe slap down a cactus on your saddle while you are at it. It's hard enough to tour without making life even less comfortable by existing on bad food.

I have been using an MSR Whisperlite for about 10 years now, and it has never let me down. It burns very hot, will boil quickly, it is fuel efficient, easy to use, and durable. The only down side is that simmering is somewhat more difficult, but not bad once you get it down, just put very little pressure in the fuel bottle. MSR also makes great cookware sets. They are all good but it depends on the amount of money you want to spend.

You can also go with a propane/butane stove like an MSR pocket rocket or something similar (I am just familiar with MSR not trying to be biased). The propane stoves are easier to use and lighter, but finding fuel can be more difficult, and then you have to throw the spent fuel containers away.

For all around use, a liquid fuel stove is hard to beat.

^^^^ Same experience with my MSR Whisperlite International. FWIW I can get longer burn times on kerosene but it is a mess to deal with, much prefer the white gas. I checked my records and my WhisperLite is still going strong after 17 years of pretty steady use. MSR builds good stuff and repair parts are available.

Aaron:)