Filters and Stoves

[billymitchell90]

Hey guys I have a stove and im ready for an upgrade its a gas stove from halfords the kinda ones you see everywhere! Massive space taken up in the bag with it. Any recommendations please for decent priced cooking stove and takes up little room?

Also the same for filters although I have never used one. Any help much appreciated.

Billy

 

[crosslandkelly]

Hi Billy, Welcome and enjoy. You could try one of these, http://www.theoutdoorshop.com/showP...=28721736193&gclid=COfvvtzjobgCFQTMtAodCxcAGQ, or one of these, http://www.theoutdoorshop.com/showP...=28721736193&gclid=CKiYs9bkobgCFefKtAodX1gAqw. There are cheaper versions of both available.

 

[rg598]

As mentioned above the Pocket Rocket is a great canister mounted stove. There are a lot of similar ones. If you are using it during winter i would go with a remote canister stove like the Kovea Spider: http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/2013/02/kovea-spider-kb-1109-long-term-review.html

As far as filters, I use the Sawyer Squeeze filter: http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/2012/03/sawyer-squeeze-water-filtration-system.html It is light, small, and gets the job done. Another way to go is water purification drops or tablets like Aqua Mira.

 

[petrochemicals]

if the size of the current stove is the problem, then this is is an exelent alternate.

m.gooutdoors.co.uk/coleman-pefectflow-one-burner-propane-stove-p262645

this is also a heads up for everyone at 4.99 to go. Propane is far superior to all but liquid fuel stoves, but with none of the hastle. Fill the cannisters yourself too i've heard.

As for water treatment, there are various, suggest you go through the pages. Some can fail and allow viruses, chemicals are 100% reliable but they taste bad, some only remove sediment but are good for boiling water, so its a bit more complicated!

 

[crosslandkelly]

I think I'm off to Gooutdoors in the morning, cheers for the heads up.

 

[billymitchell90]

Nice one guys thanks alot. What do you reckon will be better for cooking aswell as heating up water ? Are the pocket rocket gas refills expensive ? Ive seen a few pump filters that look good but to be honest I am unsure of what water is safe and what is not.

 

[rg598]

Propane is a good fuel in that it will function in very low temperatures without any preparation, but on the downside it is very heavy because it requires thick canisters. The stoves that come with it are also heavy. It is almost never used for backpacking because of the excessive weight. There is just no comparison in terms of weight to a IsoPropane stove like the Pocket Rocket, etc.

 

[rg598]

Nice one guys thanks alot. What do you reckon will be better for cooking aswell as heating up water ? Are the pocket rocket gas refills expensive ? Ive seen a few pump filters that look good but to be honest I am unsure of what water is safe and what is not.

Gas canisters run about $5 each in the US. How long they last depends on how much you use them. You can certainly cook on these stoves. If you want to focus on more serious cooking, get a variant with a wider burner head like the Primus Power Cook: http://store.primuscamping.com/backpacking-stoves/single-fuel/butane/primus-power-cook-new/ Any of them will cook fine however with the proper pot.

As far as filters, any filter with pore size of 0.2 microns or smaller will filter everything down to and including bacteria. Filters generally do not remove viruses unless they incorporate some type of chemical treatment. In most western countries viruses are not a problem. The Sawyer filter I linked to above has pore size of 0.2 microns, and is very light (3 oz). Chemical treatments that use Chlorine Dioxide (different from chlorine) have no taste that I can detect. They easily kill viruses and bacteria, but have a harder time with larger parasites like giardia. The downside is that they take time to work, and do nothing to remove silt and other particles.

 

[David Morningstar]

*puts on stove nerd hat*

I am a fan of remote cannister stoves because your pot is much lower to the ground and is often supported with a wider footprint. This makes for much more stable cooking. Being closer to the ground also makes windshielding much easier. This is very important for gassies because they have silent burners with low flame velocity and it is easy for the heat to be blown away from the pan or even for the flame to be blown out entirely.

Some, but not all, remote cannister gassies can run with the cannister upside down, feeding liquid fuel to a vaporizer loop heated by the burner flame. These can work down to much lower temperatures but conditions need to be below freezing before this becomes a necessary feature.

As a wildcard option you could try and pick up a Russian 'Primus Touristy' from the bay of evil. They are small, tough, cheap and powerful. It is a clone of the very highly regarded classic Optimus 8R. They run on petrol (gasoline) but it is best to run them on clean stuff like naptha panel wipe or Aspen 4T rather than the smelly stuff that goes in cars. This is mine on full song:

[video=youtube;Dpv7KTk6J4E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpv7KTk6J4E[/video]

 

[rik_uk3]

As Ross said, the Coleman canisters are too heavy for backpacking and not widely available.

http://www.wilko.com/camping/wilko-stove-compact/invt/0299806?VBMST=camping stove I seriously doubt this is any lower powered than the Pocket Rocket. The cans of mixed gas (propane/butane/isobutane) are widely available and will handle all but the very coldest winter in this country.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Camping-S...amping_CookingSupplies_ET&hash=item1c1b14b299 work very well, don't panic if you've not used a liquid fuel stove before, just leave the fuel bottle and pump at home and use cans of gas. If you look at the picture you'll see a tube across the top of the burner, this helps pre-heat fuel before it gets to the burner and ensures better operation in cold conditions; it also means you can invert (turn upside down) your gas can which will force all the gas including the butane component from the canister to the burner. Later on when you've practised safely using the likes of paraffin/Coleman/Aspen/panel wipe you may want to use liquid fuel on future trips. If I were you I'd go for this one or similar, it will last you years and you can burn so many different fuels that you'll never get stuck.

The Russian 8 clone is a cracking little stove but...small fuel tank, limited to one type of fuel and only about half the heat output. I remember buying those at two for €25 delivered from Germany...happy days

 

[kiltedpict]

That eBay stove Rik has linked to above is a great stove- it's now my main camping stove, using my flawed Optimus Crux for very minimal / lightweight stuff only.

 

[Gearpac]

Brunton talon. I have a few for sale. Great stove.
Better than the rocket. imho.

 

[petrochemicals]

propane isn't that heavy, IF you carry a litres worth of fuel. To begin with it's 16.6% lighter than butane per litre.

One litre of petrols in a 1 litre sigg 850g 1000ml

one litre of propane/butane mix in 3x220g cartridges - 1100g at 1100ml

and I quote :

"Contents (per cylinder): 465g propane, 1.17
litres
Weight: 395g" totaling 860g

they are not widley avaliable as rik_uk3 says even if you use plummers things, and therefore are only good if you are not walking/can guarantee a resupply.

Even if you use the a4 cartridges like billys halfords stove, one litre in 3x227g cartridges it still only achieves 960g, meaning going by volume , after adjusting for litre measurements propane wins, followed by butane a4, followed by petrol followed by lindal valve cartridges.

Plus they are reusable

I know that petrol has more energy per ml, but it has less per gram, and propane to butane is what I was looking at. Someone else can adjust for energy per ml if they wish.

Edit. Fishermen are converting to propane in england for the reason of pressure.

 

[rik_uk3]

The empty can is what I meant, almost 400g.

 

[petrochemicals]

well yes, nothing beats a 1.5l sigg, and 1.5l of parraffin/keroseine/diesil for energy to weight I'll admit.

Edit: totalling it up on an energy basis,you would need 2 propane containers to rival the 1.5l/1400g sigg you would need 2 propane containers weighing 1700g with all of the added disadvantages.

 

[rg598]

Yeah, the weight issue with propane is not the gas itself, it is the bottle. Because it vaporizes at such low temperatures (which makes it great for cold weather stove operation), it has to be contained under high pressure, which results in thick and heavy canisters; much heavier than those used to store butane/isobutane. If they can ever come up with an equally light way to store it, I think all stoves will switch to it.

 

[rik_uk3]

The tri gas mix canisters are more than enough for UK winters Ross, Calor now do lighter weight bottles for the 6kg and up range
http://www.calor.co.uk/outdoor-living/calorlite/ Fine for car/base camping I suppose.

 

[rg598]

The tri gas mix canisters are more than enough for UK winters Ross, Calor now do lighter weight bottles for the 6kg and up range
http://www.calor.co.uk/outdoor-living/calorlite/ Fine for car/base camping I suppose.

Absolutely. In fact, now with newer remote canister stoves, you can go to very low temperatures. They are used a lot on Everest above base camp. Propane would makes it easier, but is not necessary.