What stove do you use?

[icemancometh]

I agree corvus

That's why I'd like to see one of these new Windpros as maybe the lines on them are more flexi/better oriented/whatever for inversion. I always feel I have to hold both the stove end down with a pot and the can end down to make sure the whole thing doesn't end in one big bang...heart is in the mouth a lot of it. Which is why the Reactor still wins out for idiotproofness!

[gmrza]

With respect gmrza that can inversion is anything but safe unless it is fully stabilized so perhaps a warning as such or deletion of that pic would be appropriate .
corvus

Point taken, I guess some people may not realise that the obviously studio-lit photo makes no attempt to be a reflection of a use in the field...

[Nuts]

Just arrived, same as the old windpro as jim says (but with the swivel connection block). Perhaps not having to twist the line will extend the life.

[Nuts]

With respect gmrza that can inversion is anything but safe unless it is fully stabilized so perhaps a warning as such or deletion of that pic would be appropriate .
corvus

Point taken, I guess some people may not realise that the obviously studio-lit photo makes no attempt to be a reflection of a use in the field...

Iv'e been trying a few different can stands. tbh ive had remote stoves where the can has been in all sorts of pecarious positions. Once burning it seems to make little difference to the flame even moving them lit. Stands to reason that it would take a leak at the can end to be dangerous, i dont think there is the weight in the components to stress the connections that much. His can will fall over.. thats about all??

I still dont like the new windpro stand with it in hand jim a careless foot will crack it i'm sure..

[corvus]

With respect gmrza that can inversion is anything but safe unless it is fully stabilized so perhaps a warning as such or deletion of that pic would be appropriate .
corvus

Iv'e been trying a few different can stands. tbh ive had remote stoves where the can has been in all sorts of pecarious positions. Once burning it seems to make little difference to the flame even moving them lit. Stands to reason that it would take a leak at the can end to be dangerous, i dont think there is the weight in the components to stress the connections that much. His can will fall over.. thats about all??

.

Nuts with the tall cans if they fall over and land the wrong way a major flare up is possible.
corvus

[gmrza]

With respect gmrza that can inversion is anything but safe unless it is fully stabilized so perhaps a warning as such or deletion of that pic would be appropriate .
corvus

Iv'e been trying a few different can stands. tbh ive had remote stoves where the can has been in all sorts of pecarious positions. Once burning it seems to make little difference to the flame even moving them lit. Stands to reason that it would take a leak at the can end to be dangerous, i dont think there is the weight in the components to stress the connections that much. His can will fall over.. thats about all??

.

Nuts with the tall cans if they fall over and land the wrong way a major flare up is possible.
corvus

The whole idea of running a long butane can inverted to get a liquid feed is probably really just of academic interest anyhow: if you want to use the stove in cold weather, you should be using a good propane/butane mixture anyhow. I would not advocate the use of long butane cans in any situation where your life depends on your stove working. (Those who think you can take chances with stoves and fuel in extreme environments should read Joe Simpson's book "Touching the Void".)

[tandata]

I got my Primus Omnilite Ti on Wednesday. This is my first stove.

I spent all of Thursday driving around trying to find a store selling shellite. The list of stores that do not sell it:
-Coles
-Safeway
-IGA
-711
-Shell
-Rays Outdoors
-Target
-Big W
-Kmart

Bursons could get me a 20 litre drum for $70, but I don't need that much yet and wanted to test it out with a litre. So I ended up going to Bunnings despite knowing they are over-priced. $8 for a litre! I will definitely be getting the 20 litre from Bursons when it runs out. 20 litres will last me a years worth of cooking every day, so I am set if the power ever goes out for an extended period of time.

So, after I picked up the shellite I had a go at working the thing. I probably should have used a timer of sorts, but everything seemed to get along rather quickly. It primed so fast that I thought it was broken, but I just couldn't see the flame for the daylight. I cooked myself a cheese sandwich, turned out OK. This thing is at least 100x better than the electric stove elements in the kitchen. I wonder if it's possible to replace all four of them with four of these...

I had another go at dinner time. Again, I should have measured time. I got a few litres of water on to boil, cooked some dried pasta. Then cooked a cheese sauce on it. The cheese sauce took FOREVER because I didn't cut the parmesan in to small enough pieces (the cheddar melted at least 15 minutes before the parmesan). I am estimating a 40 minute burn time for dinner. I weighed the fuel before and after, and I used 50 grams. That's about 60-65mL of shellite. I didn't have the wind shield up.

I think all up, with 300mL of fuel, the whole kit weighs about 710 grams (including wind shield and the Primus tool). Someone on the net said his Pocket Rocket weighs 302 grams including a full gas canister. I dunno if I am anal enough to think of the small weight difference as being entirely significant for the benefits of the Omnilite, but I've never used a Pocket Rocket, so what would I know?

Anyway, here's my sandwich!

[corvus]

G'day tandata,
Full 230g gas 364g +pocket rocket in carry case 118g = 482 g give or take a gram or two I may add that Shellite is not the most user friendly of fuels both in odor and volatility plus as you have found it is not as freely available as other fuels.
Enjoy your Omnilite till you buy another stove
Nice looking toasted sanger
corvus

[Stew63]

I got my Primus Omnilite Ti on Wednesday. This is my first stove.

I spent all of Thursday driving around trying to find a store selling shellite. The list of stores that do not sell it:
-Coles
-Safeway
-IGA
-711
-Shell
-Rays Outdoors
-Target
-Big W
-Kmart

tandata, I bought the Primus Omni Fuel about 5weeks ago and it's GREAT, took 2 goes to get the priming just right then perfect! I don't know why you have so much trouble finding Shellite I can find it everywhere!
Mitre10, Bunnings, Woolworths (my Woolworths), HardWareHouse, Anaconda etc. etc. all sell it and many sell it in the choice of either 1litre or 4litre containers. (My local Rays Outdoors also sell it)

Last edited by Stew63 on Sat 31 Mar, 2012 7:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

[corvus]

tandata and Stew63
As a stove collector (freak ) I am intererested as to why you bought this type of stove when there are others less fussy to use to choose from
corvus

[tandata]

I went to Aussie Disposals tonight and they have shellite for a buck less than Bunnings. The people at the stores (including Rays) had no idea what shellite is! But it's redundant now that I know I can buy it from stores like Bursons (assuming Repco et al will have it too).

corvus- can you recommend a fuel better than shellite for the stove?

Oh, post review! You wrote a post before I hit reply. Handy.

I chose this stove because of the choices of fuel available. If I can't find shellite and I am in a squeeze, I can use petrol or other types of fuel. If I am not allowed to use liquid fuel, then I can use a gas canister. And it's not that heavy compared to the other options. Oh, and the cost of fuel is a lot lower. And I am not throwing out gas canisters all the time. I think that's the reasoning I followed.

[Stew63]

corvus,
The reason I bought the Primus was that I wanted something that I could run both shellite and gas canisters on. I'm a shellite person from way back, I actually like the smell, so just tradition I guess. (Occaisionally I might use Jet A1 fuel too)

I also prefer using shellite when backcountry skitouring and the temps occaisonally drop to -5C. I've used gas canisters in subzero temperatures and I found the performance of gas really drops off compared to shellite, throw in a howling blizzard and the reliable heat from the shellite is the clear winner for me - gas just doesn't cut it in the very cold.

Fuss? Once you have mastered using the stove (ie. pumping the fuel bottle and priming the stove) there really is no fuss at all. Out of the box it took me 2 goes to work out the best priming technique.

Now that I'm getting my kids out hiking I feel the option of being able to using the butane gas canisters is a safer one when they are cooking.

The price, I was able to buy the Primus OmniFuel brand new from eBay (USA) for ~AUD$120, there's no way I'd pay what the shops are charging here in Oz! (AUD$300 ~ $400!)

When I look at some of the gas stoves like the JetBoil, Primus ETA etc. to me they look very unstable and precarious with the centre of gravity sitting so high! You have ~1litre/1kg of boiling water sitting up so high atop a lightweight stove unit sitting atop a gas canister which lightens as it empties - all waiting to topple over! The Primus OmniFuel stove has a low centre of gravity (as do most liquid fuel stoves) and the weight and design of the pot holders on the Primus unit makes it quite stable especially when using my Trangia saucepan/kettle/frypan type set.

That's just me though - I love my Primus OmniFuel

Cheers

Last edited by Stew63 on Sat 31 Mar, 2012 7:41 am, edited 6 times in total.

[corvus]

G'day all ,
Gas is better in my opinion cleaner easier to carry and no stink or enormous Flare Up:lol:
corvus

[Stew63]

G'day all ,
Gas is better in my opinion cleaner easier to carry and no stink or enormous Flare Up:lol:
corvus

Gas is slightly cleaner to burn but then you've got to carry out and dispose of the canister when you've finished! So not so clean in that respect.
If recycling there's energy required to recycle each canister not to mention the energy required to manufacture each disposable canister.
Liquid fuel you just keep refilling your own fuel bottle and it's just as easy to carry a fuel bottle as a gas canister - so that's a non issue.

I have perfected the art of priming and never get 'enourmous' flare ups - but of course you do have to be careful.

Last edited by Stew63 on Sat 31 Mar, 2012 7:55 am, edited 5 times in total.

[tandata]

I can prime it with a very small flame, I read the directions carefully before I used it the first time. Just one quick squirt of fuel and you are ready to rock. It seems confined enough that I would almost consider cooking in my vestibule. But I wouldn't, because it also seems terribly unsafe regardless of my misleading thoughts. This was actually one of the reasons I got my Hubba Hubba, I wanted a second door in case the tent caught fire and I could have another way out! Not with the intention of cooking in it, but with the idea that my mind wanders and these thoughts of camping doom pop in to my head. My friends do like big fires.

Once it is cooking I don't notice any stink. It seems reasonably clean in my mind. Seems like drinking water from the tap (shellite) vs. buying bottled water (gas). Probably the worst analogy(?) ever, but I can kinda see it working.

I didn't factor in working in cold environments, because really, I avoid them. But it is good to know that this really is the most multi-purpose stove you (or perhaps just 'I') can get.

[Strider]

Horses for courses I guess

I recently purchased a FMS-116T. Very happy with it, and especially the weight saving (425g with canister)

[Tilleyman]

Used a Trangia 25 successfully for many years (I was nominated stove carrier for our group of three!) it did work well and silently, albeit s-l-o-w-l-y.

Then moved to a SVEA 123R Shellite stove for individual use... several trips to NZ South Island in April May just at the start of the winter snow.
Getting Shellite was a bit of a problem even in NZ... either not available or was available in a minimum 1L bottle... W-A-Y too much to carry, so i had to decant into my 500ml Trangia fuel bottle and leave the rest as a 'gift' at the nearest backpacker's to each walk's start point.

Then had a major problem with the airline, when flying home.
Got called out from the departure lounge to accompany an airline security official down through the bowels of the airport to where they were screening all baggage hold items.
X-ray scanners had picked up the SVEA stove, and some high-sensitivity sniffer device had picked up a hydrocarbon smell, even though I had emptied both before the flight.

Not good enough said security!
So I had to unlock my pack, take everything out and unscrew the caps to show them.
Aha! Now they really pressed the issue because of a TINY amount of Shellite left in the bottom of each container.
I had to rinse both out with water in the employee bathroom (accompanied of course) bring them back to the scanner guy, get them tested, re-assemble everything and repack.
Nearly missed my flight because of this debacle...

SO, from then on have used gas cannister stoves... first a very neat collapsible burner (no manufacturer stamp, but well made in Japan, looks like a Kovea) from a Kathmandu sale.

Last purchase was a gas adaptor for my Trangia 25.
Branded a Trangia accessory (but beautifully made by Primus) it transforms the whole Trangia experience by using the best of both worlds... the stability, heat efficiency and windproofing of the Trangia stove set with the convenience of gas.

My initial concern about using the gas cannisters (I've used Snowpeak, MSR or Kovea) in sub-zero conditions was allayed after putting the whole assembly + Snowpeak cannister in the freezer (-20C) overnight to test.
It lit first time, and after a short period to get the preheat tube hot enough I inverted the cylinder slowly and cranked it up to a full roar... burned smoothly, even though everything was caked with melting frost.

Brilliant piece of kit, should have got one much earlier

[corvus]

G'day all ,
Gas is better in my opinion cleaner easier to carry and no stink or enormous Flare Up:lol:
corvus

Gas is slightly cleaner to burn but then you've got to carry out and dispose of the canister when you've finished! So not so clean in that respect.
If recycling there's energy required to recycle each canister not to mention the energy required to manufacture each disposable canister.
Liquid fuel you just keep refilling your own fuel bottle and it's just as easy to carry a fuel bottle as a gas canister - so that's a non issue.

I have perfected the art of priming and never get 'enourmous' flare ups - but of course you do have to be careful.

I love my Shellite stoves SEVA 123 and Optimus Explorer 11 multi fuel (not gas) but have decided that as I am not likely to be in seriously cold (well not below -10 degrees) for most of my walks that a Gas Stove with a heat exchanger fills the bill for me, FMS100T remote canister is my beast of choice now .
Other than the fumes from Shellite fueled stoves (it was bad the other weekend from a Whisper lite in Oakleigh View Hut) I have no beef with whichever stove anyone uses
corvus

Last edited by corvus on Sat 31 Mar, 2012 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Explorer_Sam]

When we go camping, we carry a 25 series Trangia but it's simply too big and heavy to carry on an overnight or multi-day hike so we carry a mini Trangia with us between 2 people. I don't believe we've ever had any problem with either of them. Great stoves.

Explorer_Sam.

[40725359]

Hi there,

I'm wondering how people go when you're cooking for 3 mouths? Do you cook three seperate meals, or can you get a wider stove and pot?

Advice?

Thanks.

[Peaksnik]

Then had a major problem with the airline, when flying home.

Just the other week I was delayed at Jetstar check-in because my gas stove (FMT100) had to be examined. I had explained that there was no fuel cannister just the burner but this wasn't good enough. Great play was made by the check-in person sniffing the burner and then taking it away for further inspection. I then had to read and sign a form stating that I had taken necessary precautions including wrapping the stove in absorbent material. I now carry the stove in my daypack/cabin luggage to make the show and tell faster.

While I'm at it, I have been stopped at security, after after having passed through customs departure at Brisbane and enroute to NZ, for having a 60m climbing rope in a daypack. It was thought that the rope could have been used in a dangerous manner on the plane! Fortunately they escorted me back through customs to check-in so that I could have the daypack go in the plane's hold.

Imagine how ineffective it would be to attempt to tie up a few dozen passengers with a stretchy dynamic rope.

[anotherwalker]

I have been using the Trangia 27-8 (2 Duossal pots, kettle etc) for the last 10 years without any problems for both overnight bushwalking and car camping.

I then went to the mini Trangia and added an extra home made windscreen/shield of aluminium foil to increase efficiency, still not as efficient as the original windscreens though. And I take both the 800ml aluminium pot from the mini and the 1 litre pot from the 27-8 with me for overnighters where I have to treat water from rivers etc.

I recently purchased a Vargo Hexagon Wood Stove, I've tried it with wood so far, it boils 2 cups of water fairly quickly, but seems to struggle with a litre of water (maybe its the user requiring more fire making/cooking practise). I'm also going to try it with the trangia burner and if it works reasonably I will be using this as my main stove as it will be dual fuel Metho and wood Obviously I will only burn wood where allowed.

[hikin_jim]

Hi there,

I'm wondering how people go when you're cooking for 3 mouths? Do you cook three seperate meals, or can you get a wider stove and pot?

Advice?

Thanks.

When I'm cooking for three, I usually take a 1.5 litre pot. If it's just me, I frequently take an 850ml pot. I typically will take a larger stove for a group. A Kovea Moonwalker is a bit heavy, but it supports larger pots well. The MSR Windpro also supports larger pots well. I've got photos of both on my blog. Er, they're not great photos, but maybe they'll give you some idea.

I'm sure there are a couple dozen stoves that would suffice and that others here will have equally good ideas.

HJ

[Moondog55]

I have mentioned my recent purchase of a new MSR X-GK.
but recently I have been thinking about getting a new SVEA 123 and a replacement for the missing 111B the new Optimus "Hiker"

[gmrza]

I went to Aussie Disposals tonight and they have shellite for a buck less than Bunnings. The people at the stores (including Rays) had no idea what shellite is! But it's redundant now that I know I can buy it from stores like Bursons (assuming Repco et al will have it too).

corvus- can you recommend a fuel better than shellite for the stove?

Oh, post review! You wrote a post before I hit reply. Handy.

I chose this stove because of the choices of fuel available. If I can't find shellite and I am in a squeeze, I can use petrol or other types of fuel. If I am not allowed to use liquid fuel, then I can use a gas canister. And it's not that heavy compared to the other options. Oh, and the cost of fuel is a lot lower. And I am not throwing out gas canisters all the time. I think that's the reasoning I followed.

I recall seeing shellite advertised on Supa Cheap Auto's website as well - cheaper than Bunnings also.

I've always been a fan of liquid-fuelled stoves, but got a rude shock at the price of shellite on moving to Australia. For general use, I think long butane cans are the cheapest fuel, at $4 to $5 for 4 cans, they can work out cheaper than shellite, but 100% butane does not work in the cold. That said, most of my use currently is in warm(ish) weather, so butane is not a problem.

[mattmacman]

DIY Meth stoves
MSR Whisperlite international

[Bluegum Mic]

I use a packafeather XL metho stove which I love. Can control the flame and simmer. I also have a starlyte alcohol stove which is a great little stove. As for gas n cold stuff I have a kovea moonwalker

[Nuts]

I went to Aussie Disposals tonight and they have shellite for a buck less than Bunnings. The people at the stores (including Rays) had no idea what shellite is! But it's redundant now that I know I can buy it from stores like Bursons (assuming Repco et al will have it too).

May be overkill but you can buy it by the drum.. from your friendly local shell outlet Shellite is fine with practice, i'd agree with Corvus that it can get messy in the wrong hands if you overdo the priming.

[tele-whippet]

Used a MSR XGK for over 20 years, fanatastic unit but it eventually needed replacing.
Am now using an MSR Reactor, v pleased with it.

[maverick]

My kovea titanium is my workhorse stove, light and versatile. Also use a msr reactor and the new msr whisperlite universal