Stoves What do you use

[Penguin]

Thanks for the advice on the piezo ignition TWF, will have a look at it later tonight and give it a brush up on the pointy bits and see if that helps some.

My Piezo on the Kovea broke on the second outing. One of the plastic walls is weak and if you happen to push at a slight angle - oops - crack. Silvia Helios lighter works really well to start.

What material are people using for homemade wind shields????

[corvus]

Not fully field tested but the Foil containers that you get with Woolies "boned mini legs of Lamb " look as if they will be perfect when cut to size so watch this space.
Also thinking that removing the Piezo and just taking my Helios could reduce weight

[Penguin]

Any vego options for the foil??

[corvus]

Be nice and you may get the arsenal end of the container ,sans blood of course

[norts]

Mine is made from a disposable baking dish from the local supermarket. I keep mine rolled around a water bottle.

Roger

[johnw]

My stove is a gas Kovea X1 Solo. Nice cheap, reasonably lightweight stove that has proved reliable so far and seems economical on gas.

http://www.kovea.com/product_view.php?b ... 000&pno=13

We also have a Trangia set. While I'm fond of its simplicity and self-contained-ness, now find it's heavy and bulky compared to the gas setup. Typically "cooking" is limited to boiling water for rehydrating meals, soup, coffee etc. Gas stove and small billy is all that's needed.

Made a windshield partly via recycling. In the office where I work (IT), I found an empty, robust cardboard box that had been used to house a network interface card or some similar piece of gear. It folded out to a concertina shape that looked compatible with my stove and gas cartridge. Trimmed the unwanted bits and covered it with ordinary kitchen alfoil, sticky taped around the edges. Not the prettiest solution, but has worked for a couple of years with some occasional patching up. One of these days I'll get around to making a better version from a foil baking tray as others have mentioned.

I also use a heat shield that sits on the collar of the gas cartridge. It's just a disc with a hole in the middle made from a cheap foil stove guard from Woolies supermarket (care needed to avoid melting piezo ignition if using such devices).

[shanehugh]

Had a good look at the piezo ignition on the kovea this afternoon and it seems that although the spark is firing everytime (working as intended), the ignition rate is very haphazard. Sometimes boom!!! first try then other times its up to 10 or more tries to get it to ignite. Its got me a bit baffled now so it seems a good backup starter option is called for just in case end up starving

[whiskeylover]

has the gap changed on it? I don't know much about these ignighters but I know that with spark plugs the gap has to be right or the petrol will not ignite . Maybe the spark is not big enough .If the gap is too big the spark won,t be strong enough to bridge the gap but too small a gap and the spark won't be big enough to ignite so this may give you something to look at .may help may not

[Joe]

Increasing the gap will indeed create a bigger spark. This is extract from another site on that:

"wires separated about 7mm apart you get a spark between the two sharp ends of the wires. Very roughly, that's 21,000V, assuming 3000V per mm."

Thats regarding a BBQ lighter...which is same. So upping the gap from the pointy bit to the koveas body will help marginally...but there will be a point where that cancels out and it no longer can ark.

[rcaffin]

It folded out to a concertina shape that looked compatible with my stove and gas cartridge. Trimmed the unwanted bits and covered it with ordinary kitchen alfoil, sticky taped around the edges.

Very clever! Compliments.

I also use a heat shield that sits on the collar of the gas cartridge. It's just a disc with a hole in the middle made from a cheap foil stove guard from Woolies supermarket (care needed to avoid melting piezo ignition if using such devices).

Radiation shield - very good idea in hot weather or with a large pot.

Cheers

[rcaffin]

Had a good look at the piezo ignition on the kovea this afternoon and it seems that although the spark is firing everytime (working as intended), the ignition rate is very haphazard. Sometimes boom!!! first try then other times its up to 10 or more tries to get it to ignite. Its got me a bit baffled now so it seems a good backup starter option is called for just in case end up starving

I have seen something similar with piezo ignitors on some stoves. What I found was that sometimes the spark was inside the cover over the piezo unit rather than up at the tip - where it should be. Bad design imho. However, reducing the gap at the tip often fixes this.

Cheers

[johnw]

It folded out to a concertina shape that looked compatible with my stove and gas cartridge. Trimmed the unwanted bits and covered it with ordinary kitchen alfoil, sticky taped around the edges.

Very clever! Compliments.

I also use a heat shield that sits on the collar of the gas cartridge. It's just a disc with a hole in the middle made from a cheap foil stove guard from Woolies supermarket (care needed to avoid melting piezo ignition if using such devices).

Radiation shield - very good idea in hot weather or with a large pot.

Cheers

Thanks Roger . Good to read your input on BWT forums from time to time.

[grizz]

Sorry for the spam but I thought that I would mention that MSR stoves are 50% off @ Anaconda near the airport today. I'm not affiliated in any way - I was there to pickup a few bits and noticed that it was a good deal.
Andre.

[johnw]

Made a windshield partly via recycling. In the office where I work (IT), I found an empty, robust cardboard box that had been used to house a network interface card or some similar piece of gear. It folded out to a concertina shape that looked compatible with my stove and gas cartridge. Trimmed the unwanted bits and covered it with ordinary kitchen alfoil, sticky taped around the edges. Not the prettiest solution, but has worked for a couple of years with some occasional patching up. One of these days I'll get around to making a better version from a foil baking tray as others have mentioned.

I also use a heat shield that sits on the collar of the gas cartridge. It's just a disc with a hole in the middle made from a cheap foil stove guard from Woolies supermarket (care needed to avoid melting piezo ignition if using such devices).

I was asked by a fellow forum member for a photo of the windshield/heat shield setup I use with my Kovea X1. So here it is in case anyone else is interested:

Home made windshield and heat shield

Windshield and Heat Shield used with Kovea X1 Hiker stove.jpg (141.97 KiB) Viewed 14203 times

[Joe]

According to the GMA rep Kovea returns on those stoves are in the majority of cases because people use windshield and melt the igniter button And although I am sure John's heatshield (TM) is wonderfully effective all of the stove manufacturers warn highly against using windshield with bottle mounted stoves like that. Worth mentioning that I think.

[johnw]

According to the GMA rep Kovea returns on those stoves are in the majority of cases because people use windshield and melt the igniter button And although I am sure John's heatshield (TM) is wonderfully effective all of the stove manufacturers warn highly against using windshield with bottle mounted stoves like that. Worth mentioning that I think.

Yes, good point. I've heard that also but wasn't aware that Kovea or other manufacturers specifically warned against it. Hasn't been a problem for me (careful to monitor heat build up, and maybe I don't usually run it long/hot enough to cause damage?). But I did meet a guy on the Overland Track about 18 months ago who said he had melted the piezo igniters on 2 different gas/cartridge stoves when using a heat shield.

[Joe]

I find sitting splay legged wiht the stove close to my body and my back to the wind is usually enough anyway. and I can warm my hands while cooking this way too

[RobbieG]

Great discussion. Some fantastic stove work going on. We have used the one Optimum 99 "choofer" for the last 30 years. Got it serviced once and it still works perfectly (shellite)
More recently though been using a gas stove which I think is excellent. Cooking dinner in the quite is a revelation after the noisy Choofer. Bit concerned about the impact and waste of discarding a gas cylinder once they are empty (I hope they do get recycled)

[woka]

If you want the same heat shield used on MSR stoves, but don't want to pay $25-30 to buy it, just go to your local hardware and buy some aluminium flashing

[corvus]

This is a good product for safe use of a windshield on cannister stoves and it comes with a nice windshield ,downside it does weigh 200g.
http://www.legear.com.au/Brunton-Stove- ... 100695.htm
c

[geoffmallo]

I've also got a few too many stoves and am in the process of building an alcohol stove.

1. MSR Reactor
- fast, efficient and great for long trips and cold weather. Good in wind. I use for 2 people. Heats water fast but don't use it for anything else

2. MSR Dragonfly
- got this for $50 from Anaconda when they were getting rid of MSR. Good for general cooking including great simmer control. Use for car base camping or short trips with gourmet food.

3. MSR Pocket rocket
- light but inefficient. Will be replacing this with a lighter alcohol stove in the future.

4. MSR Wisperlight international
- My first real stove. Many years of good service. Can be simmered if you pay attention and run the bottle with low pressure. Will be donating this stove to a friend now I have the dragonfly.

I've used the jetboil a bit and have been very disappointed with it. (http://mycampgear.com/2008/08/06/field- ... -pcs-stove and http://mycampgear.com/2008/08/25/jet-bo ... eld-review)

I'm looking very seriously at the Trail Designs Caldera Cone Stove for MSR Titan Kettle for my future lightweight 3 season stove (http://www.traildesigns.com/products01.html#caldera).

[Ent]

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[r3volution]

Jetboil PCS : My fast and light stove, only got it a year ago, but its pretty good for a quick way to boil water, like the MSR reactor its not a great stove to cook in unless you like cleaning a whole lot. However, for weighing about 600grams with a full fuel cannister, its easy to forgive its drawbacks.

MSR Whisperlite Int'l : Had an old MSR XGK for 10 years and recently upgraded to the whisperlite, which is lighter and a bit more efficient, not to mention folding up smaller. The whisperlite is an awesome stove and good for cold temperature stuff, I also tend to cart it if I'm cooking for more than one, I've not yet mastered the art of simmering with the whisperlite, but its certainly a bit better in that respect than the old XGK mark 1's. Only issue with the whisperlite is how heavy it is, about 1.4kg for the whole stove, pot + 300 mls fuel.

[ninjapuppet]

I had a 10 year old MSR pocket rocket, which did the job, but found it to be quite unstable. whilst cooking in the snowies, my pot tipped over in the vestibule and spilled food all over the tent and nearly burnt my $1000 tent! gave up and searched out other options.

Couldnt decide on which stove was best for my needs after reading conflicting reviews online, so i grabbed a few different systems: a trangia system, msr Reactor, MSR XGK EX, optimus nova, and a second hand whisperlite.



after a year of using them, heres just a brief quick run down:
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Trangia system
not my style since it doesnt get hot enough. but its a light and neat all in one package. takes too long to cook rice. never tried it in the field, just sold it after an unsatisfactory test it in the kitchen.

XGK
i'd take this to everest, but since i'm not going to everest, unlikely i'd take this anywhere below 6000m or without snow. its just like a jet blaster! wayy too strong, wayy too loud and cant easily simmer leaving my pots all burnt even at the lowest setting. i guess you can refine your techinique. methods like holding the pot further away, pumping less air into bottle, blah blah blah, but i cant be bothered when theres a better stove for the job. The build finish is probally the best out of all my 11 stoves and will probally out live my outdoor hobby. boiled 1L in 6 minutes 30sec (8 mins at 0 degrees snow)

reactor -
most expensive, but hands down, boils water the fastest. specs say 3 minutes, but i got 2 min 23 secs!
also gets the hottest, even more than the xgk due to the concentrated nature of the flame. worked faster than the xgk on snow at -3 degrees even tho its a canister? maybe because you dont need such a build up of pressure inside the canister to work well. neat package. if i only boil water/ snow, then i'd use this. its even faster than my electric kettle at home!

optimus nova: now this is my new favourite
i preferred this over the nova+ due to the stability issue of the nova+ when turning the knob. nearly as powerful as the xgk, much more quiet, can actually simmer without a phd in stovology, and folds down small. build quality is nearly as good as the xgk but looks plain ugly (who cares). easy shake to clean the jets, and dont need to change jet with different fuels unlike other multifuel stoves. this reason alone, i rule out the whisperlite to take with me on my next trip. the case it came with is very good quality unlike the crappy msr pouches. boils 1L - 6m 15 sec

after buying all this, i found that i could actaully get a stabilising stand for my pocket rocket. this thing simmers fantastically, and i can heat up marshmellows and grill squid!. I also tested a cheap $10 chinese copy from a friend purchsed from ebay, which was nearly identical to this.
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CONCLUSION:
so $1000 later, and 1 year testing all these stoves, i find myself going back to the pocketrocket + stand. then i got an msr 2L pot with grills on the bottom so it doesnt slide off. the cheap chinese copy is easily recommended for $10-20.

if doing a quick trip, want quick simple food where i'm only going to be eating freeze dried food or boil only - reactor for sure~! works great with the army Rat packs.

if i'm going overseas, where obtaining a certain fuel is questionable, then easily the NOVA.

hope helps some people make a decsion.
one thing bad about the canister, is that i have trouble estimating how much fuel i use, and how much remaining without scales to weigh it. with liquid, i know exactily i will need xxxmL for xxx hours of cooking and plan accordingly.

[Ent]

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[Mulga]

Trangia all the way for me absolutley love em. I have both the 25 and 27 sets. Bomb proof! I just used the 27 UL/HA in SI NZ for 2 weeks and it was an absolute champ.

Mulga

[Franco]

As for the "how much remaining fuel without scales to weigh " bit, (canister stoves) the easiest way I know of is to use Archimedes's principle.
In this case put an empty cartridge in a pot of water, mark the water level. Do the same with a full one. At this point you can work out a scale with whatever fraction you need.
Mark your cartridge with that scale and use the water immersion test in the bush.
Franco

[etrangere]

Bit of a stove collector

Coleman Dual Fuel 533
Companion Paraffin stove (antique)
Esbit pocket (emergency backup)
Kovea Camp 3 Titanium
Kovea Moonwalker
MSR Dragonfly
MSR Pocket Rocket
MSR Simmerlite
MSR Whisperlite
Optimus SVEA 123R Climber - just ordered today from Moontrails
Primus 2 burner 2255
Simon stove
Trangia 27-8 - with both gas burner and multifuel burner add ons
Trangia mini
Trangia open spirit stove

[dancier]

Bit of a stove collector

Coleman Dual Fuel 533
Companion Paraffin stove (antique)
Esbit pocket (emergency backup)
Kovea Camp 3 Titanium
Kovea Moonwalker
MSR Dragonfly
MSR Pocket Rocket
MSR Simmerlite
MSR Whisperlite
Optimus SVEA 123R Climber - just ordered today from Moontrails
Primus 2 burner 2255
Simon stove
Trangia 27-8 - with both gas burner and multifuel burner add ons
Trangia mini
Trangia open spirit stove

I don't feel so bad now after reading that list.

I've had a large Trangia for many years but recently bought a campingaz 270 and mini Trangia.

[jimbo42]

I've gone through various stages:
1. Trangia -style cooker with a base, but using billies; gave up; too many problems with overflows snuffing flame; and runs out of fuel before you finish cooking; and fuel is too heavy
2. MSR whisperlite; older model was a pain; constantly clogging up the jet; and having to clean it out; flare - ups, singed eyebrows, inability to simmer. Changed over to shakerjet and this made a huge difference; stopped using this when I went walking in Tassie and the UK and needed a stove that I could light in the tent annexe in foul weather without setting fire to the tent
3. Gas canisters; I got a Doite titanium from Anaconda; works brilliantly; except on Coleman canisters. I use this all the time now; it has a self-igniter, but I never trust this and use a BIC lighter all the time.

Note: when you are staying in a Youth Hostel, look in the "free food" bin; you often find gas canisters that other trekkers have had to leave behind when leaving to catch a plane.
I have a bagful of mixed-use canisters now; just weigh them up, and mark the number of days use left on each one. Then select from the bag to make up the trip needs.