nickw

Trangias are sweet, I have a (2) person one I've used on multiple tours....but they are difficult to pack and take up a lot of space. Have never quite found the perfect place to stash it. I think a custom rack / frame mount would be cool for a nested Trangia set.

Kinda slow though, takes me a good 20-25 minutes to get bfast / coffee setup in the morning, but much better than the Jetboil Apollo rocket taking flight - mission control we have a go for coffee...

chrisx

clean hands



learn how to cook on a fire
the food tastes better

bobwysiwyg

Not sure about that choice..

Aushiker

and those same people will drive to trail head ...

Aushiker

Whilst they are good, I find them "huge" and heavy in comparison to other alcohol based options which is the reason I gave mine away years ago. Today my single person alcohol setup consists of:

• Toaks Titanium 850ml
• Trail Designs Toaks 850 Fissure Cone
• Zeph Starlyte Modified stove

This plus my cup/mug, spork packs, matches etc packs into the pot with one part of the cone wrapped around the outside. I then put the whole kit plus my fuel bottle(s) (300ml Coke bottles) into a Salsa Anything Bag which goes on my front fork. I have spare room in the bag for other bits and pieces if needed. My kitchen complete weighs in at around 300 grams (includes fuel bottle but no fuel).

The complete kitchen including the fuel for 10 days is in the black bag on the right fork in this photo:


Pink Lake [not] by Andrew Priest (Aushiker), on Flickr

and this is an photo of the stove in use:


Trail Designs Toaks 850 Fissure Cone Stove System by Andrew Priest (Aushiker), on Flickr

J.Higgins 

I know that this is not a thread to argue the merits of carrying a stove vs not, but after 30+ years of backpacking with a stove, and now bikepacking without a stove, the freedom I feel from being stoveless is immeasurable.

Aushiker

I don't think I could give up my cup of tea but

J.Higgins 

Well, I feel you for sure. At first I missed my hot cup of coffee just to pry my glued-up eyelids open, but after a while, I got used to cold instant GOOD coffee like Starbucks. I'd fill a water bottle with water and toss in a packet of coffee and I was good to go. From being military and rough jobs since then, I've gotten used to cold coffee and cold meals. Sometimes I rather prefer cold leftovers to warmed. Its all a state of mind, yes?

Aushiker

I might give it a go on a weekender, not sure I am as tough as you to do it on a week + ride as yet

Carbonfiberboy 

I've been using liquid fuel stoves for decades. I'm using the best I've used so far, a almost identical precursor to the Optimus Polaris Optifuel. Very reliable, very efficient. 1.25 liters cooks twenty 2-person elaborate meals. That said, stoves like this are probably most suitable for longer tours. I meet Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers every year on the trail. They all use canister stoves. However they resupply about every 4 days and mail ahead fresh canisters, so no shopping necessary and they never run out of fuel. It's different on the road. Pump gas works fine in a stove like an Optimus. Easy to drain from gas station hoses if necessary.

My wife and I have done annual 10-day backpack trips for the past 40 years or so. In that application, there's no question that liquid fuel works better. Less weight and especially less volume. We also use the same stove when bike touring. Our total load for 2 people for luxurious camp touring is ~44 lbs. including tools and spares.

BTW, I've never seen a PCT thru-hiker with an alcohol stove, besides which they are banned during times of high fire danger, when liquid fuel and canister stoves are allowed.

BikeLite

Hikers do thru hike with alcohol stoves.
https://zpacks.com/adventures/pct_gear.shtml

staehpj1

Over the last 50+ years I have used just about every type of stove imaginable.
Gasoline is probably the most available on the road, but stinks and is kind of a pain to deal with. Naptha is available fairly frequently, but not in as small of quantities as I'd like to carry. Kerosene is less available and stinky. Propane is mostly available in big heavy tanks.

Iso-butane works out pretty well. I have not found it as available as some claim in some parts of the country. Before someone says all walmarts carry it, I'll add that I have stopped and a series of walmarts before and not found any. This was some years ago, so things may be better, but I think that is some places it still is not widely available. I do like my Pocket Rocket type stove and use it on some types of trips.

For me the most used choice is my home made alcohol pop can stove. I buy the 12 ounce yellow Heet bottles which I have found to be widely available. If for some reason they aren't available, any paint or hardware store has denatured alcohol, but I have never failed to find yellow bottle Heet. These burners don't excel at simmering, but I find that I can do okay cooking with them.

BTW, I too am puzzled about the flap over the waste of the butane cylinders when most fuels come in some kind of container that needs to be recycled or disposed of in some manner. This just isn't an issue that is only for the iso-butane canisters. Most other fuels come in some other kind of plastic or metal container.

Aushiker

Roger Caffin who is a scientific type with a bit of a serious interest in stoves has put together a guide on fuel efficiency which might be of interest. You can find it at FAQ - Fuel Efficiency - technical details

His conclusion is of interest I think here:

"For a short trip of 5 nights the lightest stove path (so far) is a small cheap gas stove. It can also be nearly the cheapest: just slightly dearer than the fabled Pepsi Stove. The petrol and kero stoves seem to be both heavier and dearer than most of the rest. But for a longer trip of 14 nights the alcohol stoves are at the heavy end of the weight range. Why is this so? Because the fuel is so very inefficient and heavy. Reducing the weight of the stove to zero cannot overcome the fuel weight penalty."

linus

It was rare to see when I hiked. If you are on PCT, the most of them use canister stoves. When you like to cover 20km+ a day, you don't want to fiddle too long for your meal to cook. Also it's heavier in a long run to carry alcohol stoves so maybe that's why.

revcp 

Bone simple is what I like, bike touring/packing, canoeing, backpacking, winter camping. I alternate between Trangia alcohol and Svea white gas, and typically carry an Emberlit twig stove with both (which doubles as a "base" for the Trangia).

fantom1 

I wish I were as easy to please as you. I'm jealous.

fixedweasel

I have three different stoves depending on where I am and what the purpose is...................

1) Hinged wood stove for when fuel is plentiful. The smaller version ($10) can easily boil anything you need very quickly, packs down flat/small and is very light. The large version ($16) can handle any full size cook wear and can actually help throw a little heat to keep your hands warm in the winter. I take that one on long(er) hikes with my wife. It does pack down flat, is not hinged, and is a bit heavier. Not for the Ultralight guy.

2) BRS Ti folding gas stove ($10). This thing is fantastic and a terribly light (25gm) head that will pack small with your canister inside your cooking gear. Great flame, heats wicked quick but mind the footprint as it might not give it for a large(r) pot.

3) Fancy Feast DIY Alcohol stoves with carbon felt lining. I've made a few of these and they work GREAT. super light, super cheap and hey.........you get to do another DIY project! Got 3 small "shampoo" containers at the Dollar store and bring a couple to hold my fuel. Downside is it has a small footprint but can easily take a Toaks medium sized mug/pot. These are a far superior design compared to other DIY ETOH stove with the holes methinks.

jefnvk

I've got one of these: https://www.optimusstoves.com/us/us/...he-cook-system

The head unit is smaller than my multitool. It boils 1L of water in two minutes, give or take a few seconds. While I can't say I've gone to truly remote places, I never had an issue finding isobutane canisters in Michigan or Montana (and that was going on 15 years ago) or Iceland. No mess fiddling with fuels, filling bottles, etc., just screw on and light.

I really don't see the need for another stove, unless I really was headed to an undeveloped location where motor fuels were the only realistic option.

JohnJ80

I have an optimus stove that will pretty much burn any liquid or butane without having to change jets plus it will simmer. Works great. When I looked at this when I bought my stove, the choice was either carrying around extra jets for multi fuel stoves, or they didn't simmer. This to me seemed the best choice for fuels, for simmering and cooking flexibility at a very slight weight penalty.

I also have a Solo Stove that basically works off of tinder so you don't have to carry any fuel. But I haven't tried that camping yet. This would be very light since you don't have to carry any fuel.

In general, I don't really like butane. There's the empty canister problem, they are kind of bulky etc... even all of that is kind of irrational. But I really do like the ability to use any fuel with the stove I have - the fuel problem just disappears and becomes a don't care issue. FWIW, the last trip I used this stove on was with butane and that worked fine but I did wind up throwing away an almost full canister prior to boarding the plane.

Tourist in MSN

Life is too short to eat bad.

Tourist in MSN

When I went to Iceland, I brought a liquid fuel stove which was a hassle cleaning it so it did not smell, I did not want TSA to confiscate it. I have heard that some TSA inspectors will confiscate any liquid fuel stove they see if it is not in new packaging.

So, I brought a small butane mix type stove as a backup in case my liquid fuel stove was confiscated. Liquid fuel stove was not confiscated, but I found so many partially full butane canisters on free shelves at hostels or campgrounds that I used the butane stove a lot without ever having to buy any butane.

Photo is of one of the half full free canisters I found on a free shelf in Iceland. I brought some food from home, thus the photo was cooking up some chili brought from home, but the tomato sauce (empty can in photo) was bought locally.

I commented above that such canisters are usually a mix with mostly butane, canister in photo labeled 80% Butane, 20% Propane.

JohnJ80

Iceland was actually the last trip I took and that I was referring to. And I just took the stove but left the fuel bottle home and bought butane cartridges when I got to Iceland. TSA can be a problem. If they aren’t, they’ll find a way to be one.

A nice feature of the Optimus Optifuel stove I have, and that was handy in Iceland where it was frequently cold, was that you can flip the canister upside down for cold temps to get the most out of it. We found that helpful for exactly those reasons. That’s something you can’t do where the stove uses the canister as an integral part of the stove for mechanical support.

J.

indyfabz

+1.

Penne with house-cured chorizo, scallions, fresh garlic and zucchini.

Tourist in MSN

Yeah, when the cannister is in the normal position with valve on top, all of the fuel that enters your stove was evaporated while in the canister, thus once the canister is down to about a third or half full, the canister cools rapidly while you are using the stove and that drops the pressure. But when you use the canister with valve down like your stove allows, there is very little evaporation of the fuel within the canister and the canister does not suffer any where near as much evaporative cooling.

In post 25 above, I commented that you can put your fuel canister in a warm water bath in a shallow pan, in some situations that could be a hassle or if you do not have a spare flat pan it may be impractical. But your stove design gets around that.

Maybe I finished off your canister for you when I was there?

Tourist in MSN

Now I am hungry. I might have to eat supper a few hours early.