Stoves, my stuff!

I am a stove junkie too, have several and depending on my day, which one I pack:). My Jet Boil is HOT to cook with, meaning it burns food very quickly, even with my "scidplate defuzer" on it! Very convenient, however. My Peak1 is much more friendly, but gas is messy to deal with. I trend towards the better cooker this trip, messy gas and all "Peak1". At least it has better control over heating food items/dinner. My others are same as JB, HOT! May pack my Sterno, cheapie heat stove too. What ya'll cook with??? I eat more self meals nowadays, off one burner and find it rewarding, once mastered:). ANY TIPS? Dry backpacker meals are NOT all created equal, but find the best ones and smile, quite good! Buying small quantity at grocers is not always easy, BUT butchers at the meat counter are friendly enough most often to take care of you:). Chicken(cooked) is easy and makes good Ceasar Salad at camp. Gotta buy the salad in a bag, eat soon. Wrap cold items in a towel in saddlebag(insulate), lasts much longer to get to camp, stays cool:). No ice cream:(. Costs? Not much better than restaurants but I am GSGiant, Off The beaten Path too often:), need self food! Fish too:)Randy:thumb

Sheesh!

Wife and I camp most of the time while on the road for 2-3 months at a time. We cook most of our own food. My stove is the same one IÔÇÖve had for more years than I can to remember, a Svea 123. Burns white gas/Coleman fuel but in a pinch will burn tank gas (preferably without the ethanol). IÔÇÖve never had an issue finding fuel, just finding it in smaller (than gallon) quantities. A quart of fuel will last us about two weeks, cooking two meals a day.
Since weÔÇÖre on two bikes, we have the advantage of more storage and the ability to carry a small ice chest so can refrigerate stuff for a couple of days at a time before we need more ice. Opens up many options, food wise. In addition, the extra storage means we can buy enough food to last two, sometimes 3 days.

Ditto on the SVEA...Swiss handgrenade! I bought mine in !968! Still the bomb it always was!

My light weight stove is a cat food tin believe it or not. It uses alcohol from the auto parts store and weighs all of 2 oz. Cooks a pot of water as fast as my Sven or other stoves. Great thing is it fits inside of my 1 quart cooking pot and pan set-up. Oh, it cost nothing to boot.

and I'm a gas stove junkie. I have an Optimus 8R, Svea 123, MSR Whisperlite, and an MSR Dragonfly. I don't find them messy, but I may have low standards. Some simmer better than others, the Whisperlite is probably the worst. I have an anti-scorch plate for low and slow cooking. I also have an Outback Oven for when I want to get fancy.

Perhaps the neatest stoves are canister stoves, they simmer well and have the advantage of being allowed, w/o fuel, on airplanes. Their downside is that they don't work as well for winter camping unless you're at altitude. Those that take the "Camping Gaz" brand canisters are the best bet for world travelers, as this brand is available almost everywhere. The downside is that you are stuck with empties, they take up more space than the cooking equivalent of white gas, and it can be tough to tell how much fuel is left in a partially used canister.

Alcohol, Sterno and solid fuel (eg Esbit) are the lightest, simplest and least expensive, but have the lowest heat output so will take the longest to boil water and may not be up to big pots of chow. The interwebs abound with plans for making alcohol stoves out of cans, aluminum beer bottles, etc.

After Coleman bought Gaz and stopped selling cartridges for my much loved 470 stove (and lantern) in the US I went on a hunt to replace it. First I bought a Jetboil, but returned it as I wasn't a big fan - with these you either love them or don't, might pay to see in which category you fit. Back to REI where the excellent folks then brought out and let me test 7 cartridge stoves all at once. They made an impromptu class out of it, boiling water on each, running a fan to stimulate wind, pretty much letting everyone have a hands on experience with the pluses and minuses of each. I chose the MSR Pocket Rocket:
[url]http://www.rei.com/product/660163/msr-pocket-rocket-backpacking-stove[/url]

It stores tiny in its own protective case, is a snap to use and works exceedingly well. One thing I loved about the Gaz was how adjustable the flame is, the MSR has that as well, unlike most others whose adjustable sensitivity was either full on afterburner or off. I picked up a few of the low, wide cartridges For stability's sake but even with repeated use last year have not finished off the first (+1 for the flame adjustability...). Final bonus, it is only $40 :)

All I ever do is boil water and the Jet Boil is wicked fast, packs tiny, and is perfect for that. If I was really gonna cook, I'd use something else, but that just isn't gonna happen on a bike trip.

I cook with a trangia alcohol stove when camping.

[img]http://smbc.snafu.org/trips/2011/0827-gardnerville/p-20110826-1818-0132.jpg[/img]

I never heard the can trick before. Good one on the cheap. The REI story and test is a good one too. They are quite good there, my experience too. I carried a cooler and it worked quite well, but cumbersome I found after a few days. One bike. It fit inside my Jesse bag. Kind a dedicated the one bag to food prep, cooler,water and all else. Easiest to fix food is the freeze dried stuff, ONLY some of which is great. Fresh is nice, but requires planning well and time factor shopping, eating soon after. Not always money saving thing to do, but satisfying many times over. Randy:thumb

I camped for years with my uncle's WW 2 Coleman GI gasoline stove. Whoever stole it from my picnic table at a rally should have it blow up in his face.

I replaced it with a MSR Whisperlite internatinal, multi fuel stove. I loved all aspects of the stove, especially the fact that I could tap the fuel line on my Airhead for a fuel refill. This eliminated carrying large containers of fuel.

Several years ago I was captivated by the Jetboil system. I have a love hate relationship with it. Instead of a simple bag for the MSR, I now have to carry a bulky Jetboil, a Jetboil skillet and a few fuel cylinders. I also carry a Coleman one burner unit to make a quick espresso.

Stoves are like bikes, find one you like and stay with it. All have plusses and minuses.

Sorry to hear about the theft, that kind of thing is quite rare but it does happen. Looks like eBay has a bunch of the B46 and B47 stoves, a bit pricey though.

My preference for separate stove and pots as opposed to the Jetboil was more driven by my diet than anything else. When I bought the Jetboil I was happily used to buying Mountain Home freeze dried meals, and simply boiling water for coffee and another pot to pour into the freeze dried food bag. Voila, dinner. About that same time I realized (with the help of my Doc) that I needed som pretty radical changes in my quite poor diet.

If you look at the nutritional panel of the backpacker meals they are perfect for someone who has just hiked 15 miles over mountains with a 40-pound backpack - lots of convertible carbs and sodium. Not good for someone who was already carrying around a pretty generous energy reserve and whose exertion of the day was hoofing it from the gas pump to the soda fountain for a big gulp.

So I changed my diet, stuck to it and slowly but surely lost about 20% of my body weight (with about 5% more to go before I hit my ideal weight). This means basically fresh meat and vegetables, both things near impossible to cook with the Jetboil without added accessories, the use of which I found the MSR simply did a lot better both in packing size and function.

I bought a neat double wall insulated cooler roll - basically you unroll it, fill the two pockets on one side with ice and the inner pocket with food, then roll it up and secure with its Velcro straps. Will hold a carton of egg beaters poured into a heavy duty zip-loc baggie, a couple chicken breasts marinating in another baggie, broccoli, asparagus and turkey sausages in the size of a 2- liter soda bottle and keep it all quite cool for a day or two. If I keep it in my clothes bag liner and use frozen chicken and ground beef, a bit longer. Kind of a PITA to transfer food into the ziploc baggies in a market parking lot but it only takes 5 minutes.

This works for me, what is important is to find what works for you. The Jetboil and backpacker meals (which have vastly improved over the years and are unfortunately delicious these days) works well for many. For me, I needed my cookset and a very adjustable flame in a compact size and the MSR filled that need with aplomb.

Congrats on the weight loss. That is impressive, especially as we get more "set in our ways".

Any more info on the cooler roll?

TIA

scott


I bought a neat double wall insulated cooler roll - basically you unroll it, fill the two pockets on one side with ice and the inner pocket with food, then roll it up and secure with its Velcro straps. Will hold a carton of egg beaters poured into a heavy duty zip-loc baggie, a couple chicken breasts marinating in another baggie, broccoli, asparagus and turkey sausages in the size of a 2- liter soda bottle and keep it all quite cool for a day or two. If I keep it in my clothes bag liner and use frozen chicken and ground beef, a bit longer. Kind of a PITA to transfer food into the ziploc baggies in a market parking lot but it only takes 5 minutes.

I've been using a Trangia stove since my Scouting days- compact and comes with a small kettle, two pans and a lid you can use as a frying pan. It will burn meths or isopropol alcohol which is readily available in drug stores, Walmart etc.
Swedish made and no pressure pumps or moving parts to fail either.
Scoobs.

I love my SVEA 123 that I bought in 1981. Nice to see so many people who use one on here. It's the BMW GS of backpacker stoves. I just rebuilt mine. It's so much fun to use.