Stoves

I thought I would try out a new alcohol stove and compare it to the Bud Lite stove I already have, as well as against the canister stoves I have.  I have heard many good things about the Fancy Feast stove and found a DIY version on YouTube. 

I put together this new stove which was pretty easy and wanted to try it out.  The Bud Lite stove I have is also a DIY stove and works well at boiling water.  I did a pretty un-scientific comparison and found the Fancy Feast stove works really well. 

I boiled 2 cups of water in my Imusa pot with cover.  In the alcohol stoves I used 1oz. of denatured alcohol.  

The results were pretty similar.

            Bud Lite stove:            Priming time: 2 min.

                                                 Boiling time: 8 min.

                                                 Total burn time: 8:30 min.

            Fancy Feast stove:       Priming time: 0 min.

                                                 Boiling time: 7:30 min

                                                 Total burn time: 10:30 min.

Both stoves did a nice job but I like the fact that the Fancy Feast stove does not need time to prime.  I was able to place the pot on the stove as soon as it was lit.  The Bud Lite stove needs time to heat up, I need to wait for flames to start out the holes, before placing the pot on.  Both stoves are very light, weighing 1oz for Bud Lite and 0.9oz for Fancy Feast. 

The canister stoves are tried and true, both work well and boil water in almost half the time of the alcohol stoves.  I used a MSR Pocket Rocket and a Primus stove. 

They are easy to set up and light and have the ability to simmer more so then the alcohol stoves.  If you need to do more than boil water, the canister is probably a better choice.  The results for the canister stoves were;

            MSR Pocket Rocket:    Boil time: 4:30 min.

            Primus Stove:               Boil time: 4:15 min.

The canister stoves are heavier which may help with deciding which stove to bring.  The Pocket Rocket weighs in at 3oz. and the Primus is the heaviest at 7.5oz.  I like the flame pattern of the Primus stove, it seems to cover more surface area on the pot then the MSR, but really didn’t seem to make a difference in boil time.  The MSR comes with a hard plastic case while the Primus comes with a draw string bag.

All in all, any of these stoves will do a good job on the trail.  I think it is nice to have options for each trip and to customize my cook kit to the trip I’m going on.  I also enjoy playing around with different gear choices and DIY projects.