Quote Originally Posted by Starchild View Post
Part of the problem is the fuel is cold, and holds the cold through thermal mass and evaporative cooling. The fuel is 'protecting itself' from the heat much like a ablative heat shield on a spacecraft reentering the atmosphere as fuel evaporates and that forms a protective and insulated layer limiting runaway evaporation. This is good when you use the stove in the conditions that it was designed around, however outside those temperature ranges it works against you.

In that you are just getting less fuel to evaporate to burn till the fuel warms up, but with that stove the fire is outside the stove, so much of that heat (radiation and convection) doesn't heat the fuel, which is usually a feature, not a bug.

So the fuel must be warmed up, or the stove modified to work better in the cold. Suggestions: Perhaps priming it by letting it burn openly at first, or hovering the pot above the fire instead of placing the pot down on top, letting it center burn for a while before placing the pot down and then using the ports. Another suggestion would be placing it in a shallow dish and putting fuel in that dish to ignite first may help. Perhaps a copper strip could be used as some use with a canister stove where part of the strip would go under the can and then bend up through the flame at one port.
When it's below 50ish I always use a primer disk. My disk is like super heavy weight aluminum foil. When I'm ready to boil, I will put as much fuel in the stove as I think all need to get a boil.Temp and how much water I'm using dictate the amount. Usually .75oz to 1 oz.. then I put around half a teaspoon fuel (maybe less) in the disk. One match lights them both. I then slowly (10-15 sec)lower the Kettle down to the stove. If it is cold like 30 down to around 20, I may have to hold the pot just over the stove for 30 - 40 seconds. I put the wind screen so it hugs the Kettle(1/4 inch all around). Some time I'll put a small twig or two under the screen, to add air flow upwards.

I had to figure how to make this stove work in the cold, because I had no plan "B" and really did not want a cold supper. I know there are faster, more efficient methods out there. This stove is one of my favorite pieces of gear. Weight of 1qt Kettle, under disk, stove, wind screen, matches (in an old school steel holder) Mini-bic, 12"x12" MSR towel and stuff sack = 10.8oz