Canister stove alternatives?

[OhioHiker]

I started a WTB tread looking for Dragonfly. User Peakbagger filled me in on a lot of good info about that particular stove.

I think that model might be a more than I need. It’s usually just me and daughter hiking.

Anyhow, I don’t mind my canister stove, it is just slightly frustrating estimating how much fuel is left.

I am just looking for some alternatives that are easy to use and fast. I’ve tried the DIY alcohols stove and found that to be slow and tedious.

[MuddyWaters]

Anyhow, I don’t mind my canister stove, it is just slightly frustrating estimating how much fuel is left.

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If you only boil, not cook/simmer, its easy to keep track knowing how much you use per boil at given valve %open.(mark it). In fact, pre planning eliminates need to track it.

For instance i get 22 boils out of small cannister. I plan to leave in hiker box somewhere when get close, and buy another .

Cannsters Can be floated in water to see fuel remaining. Msr is marked for this.

You can weigh at post office in towns too

Or....bring very small digital scale, maybe 4 oz.

Fuel management is a required part of hiking, if u use fuel. Cannister is really easiest form overall.

[Feral Bill]

If you want white gas, you can get a Svea. Look for the older model without the built in cleaning needle on Ebay. Very simple, very easy, works for a lifetime with minimal care. I got mine in 1968. It's still going strong. This: https://www.ebay.com/itm/vintage-SVE...oAAOSwcN1ajcsj

[OCDave]

...For instance i get 22 boils out of small cannister. I plan to leave in hiker box somewhere when get close, and buy another .....

Another option is you could take resposibility for your own garbage. "Pack it in. Pack it out" sort of thing.

[Coffee]

Another option is you could take resposibility for your own garbage. "Pack it in. Pack it out" sort of thing.

Plenty of low budget hikers are happy to take canisters from hiker boxes even if they are good for only a few boils. I leave partially used canisters in hiker boxes routinely and buy a new one. It is not "garbage" to donate things to hiker boxes. A completely used canister? Yes, that's garbage, but not one with even a small amount of fuel left in it.

[Starchild]

Plenty of low budget hikers are happy to take canisters from hiker boxes even if they are good for only a few boils. I leave partially used canisters in hiker boxes routinely and buy a new one. It is not "garbage" to donate things to hiker boxes. A completely used canister? Yes, that's garbage, but not one with even a small amount of fuel left in it.

I would say it depends on how much fuel is left. There is no point leaving a canister which only has 30 seconds of burn time, plenty of reason that can boil 5 quarts (and there are plenty of these). Where that line is will be subjective. Is one really, practically, leaving many pieces of trash on the off chance that perhaps one will be taken, and if so is that really helping someone, or is it promoting a scavenger lifestyle.

[MuddyWaters]

Another option is you could take resposibility for your own garbage. "Pack it in. Pack it out" sort of thing.

Leaving partial cannister in a hiker box is "packed out". Businesses sponsoring hiker boxes dispose of everything not used periodically. If its empty, it gets punctured and garbaged. Good places with hiker boxes have puncture tool there too, which is required to throw away.

[Starchild]

Know your stove and you will carry less fuel. Most hikers, including AT thru's only need the smallest ones. Many can get by with partly used canisters. For weekend trips I often use the ones that have 25% or less fuel remaining.

As this is for you and your daughter (2 people), canister stoves really hit the sweetspot. Alcohol will be slower and you will carry more fuel weight and for all but shorter trips more overall weight at the start.

But perhaps a wood stove would be the ticket. You would need a backup method such as alchy stove, and 2x the amount of fuel for backup purposes as there are 2 of you, but they do cook fast, with 2 people the workload is distributed and it can be satisfying to tend a fire and fun to hang around/bonding time.

[Starchild]

Leaving partial cannister in a hiker box is "packed out". Businesses sponsoring hiker boxes dispose of everything not used periodically. If its empty, it gets punctured and garbaged. Good places with hiker boxes have puncture tool there too.

You obviously have not seen many hiker boxes, not uncommon to see items from last year's thru class. More often then not in many places a hiker will trash it, not the owner. Do the right thing, trash the trash, don't trash the boxes and have others clean up after you.

[MuddyWaters]

You obviously have not seen many hiker boxes, not uncommon to see items from last year's thru class. More often then not in many places a hiker will trash it, not the owner. Do the right thing, trash the trash, don't trash the boxes and have others clean up after you.

A partial cannister isnt trash. Its a very sought after item by many.

Hiker boxes are commonly disposed of at end of season. And even cleaned out multiple times during. You might not think they are, but ridiculous amt stuff no one wants would build up until they resembled garbage can more than hiker box. Very frequently enterprising hikers take it on themselves to clean out and sort the hiker boxes. Ive seen it done more than i could remember.

Im the guy thats alway leaving good stuff from resupplies because i usually hike faster than planned. Mountain house, snickers, tuna packs, etc. And watch the vultures descend.

[HooKooDooKu]

I started backpacking with a white gas stove, and used to think it was the better way to do because I could place only the amount of fuel I need in the fuel bottle.

Since that time, I've come to appreciate the simplicity of the canister stove.
1. Typical canister stove + canister with too much fuel is usually lighter than white gas stove + fuel bottle with just enough fuel.
2. Ease of operation (you don't have to keep pressurizing the fuel bottle).
3. You can purchase fuel in small quantities (MSR white gas is expensive, and Coleman fuel at Walmart is by the gallon).

IMHO, the only down side to a canister stove (compared to white gas) is that it can have issues at cold temperatures (in which case, I take my old white gas stove).

As far as managing canisters, all you need is a cheap digital kitchen scale.
I've already determined how much my canisters weigh when full and when empty (or at the end of usable life).
After each trip, I simply weigh the canister and write the weight on the canister with a sharpie.
It doesn't take long before you start to learn that you use on average X amount of fuel per day.
So before each trip, I simply pick up a canister that I know has more than enough fuel for the expected length of my trip.

For my extended trip on the JMT, I used a JetBoil. Found it to be much more efficient than my other canister stoves and got many more days out of a canister than I though I would (hit the Whitney portal with a full canister I never used).

[KDogg]

You are basically leaving problematic trash in the hiker box when you leave a "part" empty canister in the hiker box. I put "part" in quotes because 99 times out of a 100 the canister is empty. At the end of the season the people responsible for supplying the hiker box now have a bunch of empty canisters they have to dispose of properly. This is just dumb. They are not desirable unless you are a trail bum who has spent all your money on beer. Any of the outfitters you purchase a new canister at should be able to recycle your empty canister.

[MuddyWaters]

For my extended trip on the JMT, I used a JetBoil. Found it to be much more efficient than my other canister stoves and got many more days out of a canister than I though I would (hit the Whitney portal with a full canister I never used).

I tend to only use cannisters in places i fly to, so theres no partials laying around my closet. On jmt, i used precisely 1/2 of a small cannister, left the partial at the whitney hostel hiker box. They had a few because people flying home had to leave them. But others eager to take them too.

[MuddyWaters]

You are basically leaving problematic trash in the hiker box when you leave a "part" empty canister in the hiker box. I put "part" in quotes because 99 times out of a 100 the canister is empty. At the end of the season the people responsible for supplying the hiker box now have a bunch of empty canisters they have to dispose of properly. This is just dumb. They are not desirable unless you are a trail bum who has spent all your money on beer. Any of the outfitters you purchase a new canister at should be able to recycle your empty canister.

Not my experience.

Many an AT hiker has used only cannisters from hiker boxes all way to maine.

You have to empty them first, by venting to atm if not empty. Before anyone can dispose of them Which is unsound practice. Hence.....let others use them first if they want.

Section hikers leave almost full cannisters. People that switch to alcohol leave full cannisters. People that brung too much fuel leave full cannisters.

Disposal is simply holing them with tool and tossing in trash. Not a big deal if empty. A problem if not. If you have too little to be useful, vent it and hole it and throw away.

[Starchild]

...
You have to empty them first, by venting to atm if not empty. Before anyone can dispose of them Which is unsound practice. Hence.....let others use them. ...

Better to burn them out then to vent them.

[QiWiz]

If you want to stick with canister, you can (at home or on trail) set the control to the setting you like to use and time how long it takes to heat the volume of water/food that you like to use and either weigh the canister before and after to see how much fuel that took, or time the burn time for the whole canister.

If you are not in such a hurry, you could play with wood stoves, alcohol stoves, Esbit stoves, or stoves that give you more than one option (these are easier to find than you might think). It might take you at most 10 more minutes to cook your meal; not a big deal IMO; YMMV.

[ggreaves]

get a 4 oz titanium firebox nano. Fuel is all around you - don't carry it or pay for it. for the very rare time you don't feel confident to get a twig fire going (which is almost never - even after rain), keep a couple esbit tabs in your pack. Practice a bit - once you get the hang of it, you won't want to carry canister stoves around anymore.

[Coffee]

A partial cannister isnt trash. Its a very sought after item by many.

Yep, and anyone who has spent any time amongst "hiker trash" knows that already ... no point trying to convince someone looking for an argument.

[BuckeyeBill]

For the longest time I used a white fuel stove and never had any problems with it. Then the various companies started making canister style stoves and as time went on they were building them lighter and lighter. One disadvantage is they tend to not work well in colder temperatures because the design is not suited for inverting the canister to feed liquid fuel to the stove. I do now own a MSR Pocket Rocket and the new Pocket Rocket 2.

Now some of the companies are building multi fuel stoves which allow you to use canisters, white gas, gasoline, kerosene, diesel and jet fuel. The biggest disadvantage everyone will say is it weighs too much. I have a MSR WhisperLite Universal in my gear inventory because I like to get out in the colder weather and can rely on it to burn so I can cook hot meals. It will burn white gas, kerosene and canister in both gas and liquid form. It weighs around 15 ounces, but if you are going to use white gas or kerosene you need to carry a fuel bottle as well which will add 1.6 to 5.6 plus the weight of the various fuels. You will also have perform some maintenance on occasion.

You need to analyze your hiking styles and when and where you will be hiking to determine what stove will serve your needs the best. If you go with a stove that can use a canister, I would recommend using only fuel canisters made by the stove manufacturer as I have seen many people strip or cross thread canisters by other manufacturers. They look the same but the soft metal is easily damaged before you realize it.

[Time Zone]

get a 4 oz titanium firebox nano. Fuel is all around you - don't carry it or pay for it. for the very rare time you don't feel confident to get a twig fire going (which is almost never - even after rain), keep a couple esbit tabs in your pack. Practice a bit - once you get the hang of it, you won't want to carry canister stoves around anymore.

Sounds great, but how do you handle the soot? Seems like it would eventually get on everything as you re-pack, etc.