Hi everyone, this is going to seem like a nerdy post, but I had a rainy weekend with nothing else on.....
I will be doing the OLT in late September with two other guys and I am having trouble determining which sort of stove I should bring and therefore how much fuel to bring with it. I would like some advice on this and comments on the test I did below.
I have an MSR Pocket Rocket and an MSR Whisperlite. I got the Whisperlite to use in the snow but started using it more than the Pocket Rocket because refilling the fuel bottles with Shellite suits me better than buying new gas canisters. However I have only ever used either of them for a maximum of two nights in a row, for a maximum of 2 people, hence my uncertainty about how much fuel I will need.
Our menu will generally be something like the following:
(All for three people).
1. Tea/Coffee #1
2. Breakfast - Porridge (Bag of quick oats, not the tiny instant sachet kind, so some cook time required)
3. Lunch - flatbreads, cheese, salami, etc.
4. Tea/Coffee #2
5. Dinner - Either instant noodles or the Freeze-dried packaged meals, or alternating every second night.
6. Tea/Coffee #3
I performed the following test with the Whisperlite at home to simulate a day's stove use (Sydney in August, so I would need to allow more fuel for colder weather). This was all using the heat shield, a 2L MSR "Base" pot, and allowing over an hour between tests to allow the stove to cool completely so that I would have to prime it again properly the next time. I simply measured the volume of fuel at the beginning and end of the test to get the amount used.
1. Tea/Coffee #1Water Quantity: 3 x 450mL cups = 1,350mL
Burn Time: 5 mins
2. Breakfast - PorridgeWater Quantity: 750mL (one metric cup each) plus half cup of oats
Burn Time: 3 mins, 30 secs (including boil plus cook time)
3. Tea/Coffee #2Water Quantity: 3 x 450mL cups = 1,350mL
Burn Time: 5 mins
4. Dinner - Instant NoodlesWater Quantity: 2,000mL (full MSR pot)
Burn Time: 6 mins, 30 secs
(Freeze-dried meals usually only require about 1,500mL or less, so they would use less fuel than the noodles).
5. Tea/Coffee #3Water Quantity: 3 x 450mL cups = 1,350mL
Burn Time: 5 mins
Total fuel used: 200mL per day = 1,200mL Shellite
Total water boiled: 6.8L per day = 40.8L Water
Total burn time: 25 mins per day = 150 minutes
So this would require us to carry, at a minimum 1 x 887mL fuel bottle and 1 x 325mL fuel bottle, and that doesn't allow extra for the coldness factor or any extra needed in emergencies.
Does this test seem to correlate with people's experience on here? Is that really how much fuel I will need? It does seem a fair bit more than the table I found in MSR's article here:
http://www.cascadedesigns.com/msr/blog/stoves-101-how-much-fuel-should-i-carry/ which states 1.3L of water per ounce of fuel for the Whisperlite, which comes to 32 ounces. Their biggest bottle is 30 ounces (887mL) so I would still need an additional smaller bottle. Does this mean I am not operating the Whisperlite efficiently.
On the other hand, the link above states 2L of water per ounce of fuel for the Pocket Rocket (which comes to 21 ounces, so I would need 3 x 8oz (227g) canisters. This seems like it would be lighter.
So if I assume that my test was valid and I haven't been screwing up my calculations, the choice is between:
a) MSR Whisperlite Stove = 410g (packed weight)
1 x 887mL MSR Liquid Fuel Bottle + 207g bottle = 1,094g (using 1mL = 1g, it's probably less)
1 x 325ml MSR Liquid Fuel Bottle + 79g bottle = 404g (again using 1mL = 1g)
Total = 1,908g
b) MSR Pocket Rocket Stove: 119g
3 x 227g canisters = 3 x 374g (gross weight) = 1,122g
Going by all this, I should go with the Pocket Rocket for weight efficiency. I am fully aware that there are many areas above where I could have screwed this all up. I would be grateful for any thoughts or advise any of you have on this!