Showing posts with label cooking stoves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking stoves. Show all posts

30 Jul 2014

Wood Burning Stoves

I am not a great fan of wood burning stoves, but have a open mind. Brian Green's great blog site features a new product in this arena. Check it out at http://briangreen.net/2014/07/tato-element-makes-wood-burning-enjoyable.html
At 128 grams it could be worth thinking about if you were constantly outdoor-cooking with guaranteed wood supply. As an emergency kitchen it has merit, but if you carry a jetboil you need to carry a pot. Then one could argue, just light an open fire and hang the pot over it.
What do you think?

15 Jan 2012

Jetboil Sol Ti

My new Jetboil SOL Ti has just completed a 12 day hiking shake-down in the Nelson Lakes area. Gosh, these stoves are marvelous! Prior to this I was using a 900ml Evernew pot and MSR Rocket stove. Backpackinglight has a good weight comparison report on the Jetboil (but you must subscribe - well worth it), 
I discarded the cup and all up weight was 265grams - It boils 800mls in 2 minutes! Almost half the time of my MSR Rocket. The gas savings are incredible. Plus the bonus of efficient operation in the wind.
I took a 385g MSR gas canister for the 12 day trip and had about a third of the canister left over.
The Jetboil website states a 110g canister will boil 17 liters of water. I am basically boiling 300mls at breakfast (instant Backcountry porridge) and in the evening 500 for soup, 300 for freeze dried meal and 500 for tea/coffee. So let's round up to 2 liters a day - so for an 8 day trip I can easily get away with a 110 can of gas. This is confirmed from my 12 day trip with larger canister.
The 110 canister can also packs inside the cup, making the overall package very small - good for small liter light weight pack.
I also like the self ignition switch - no fiddling with matches/lighter. However, if I was solo, I would take waterproof matches.
One complaint - the handle is useless - however, because of insulation cover, you can hold the pot with your hands. I am going to cut my handle off.
If you are using the bigger 385g canister in huts, you could leave the canister support triangle at home. However, the canister support is a must if using the 110g canister, or larger one in un-level outdoor settings.