Gas stoves and bottle advice

[ross2503]

Can anyone tell me how long camping gas canisters last for? I saw then being sold off today for £2.50 in Millets (it looks to me like they are closing down, the shops are almost empty when I go to Millets these days). I only want to carry a single burner and a gas bottle to boil beans, fry etc. Anyone made toast using one?

 

[johnboy]

How long is a piece of string....

You Need to know the amount of gas in said canister normally in grams say 190 grams.

The gas consumption rate of the stove in grams per hour which is normally for max power or the high setting.

Then devide the amount of fuel Available by the consumption rate for an approximate idea of how long a canister might last for...

Obviously using it on less than maximum means the fuel supply lasts longer....

 

[lannyman8]

i take a small compact gas stove and a normal (middle) size screw in gas canister, it lasts me a weekend of brewing up and boil in the bag meals, but i always take a spare and a bck up system just incase the burner unit breaks, a hexamin stove is good for that, taped up chucked in the bottom of your bag, they only cost £3.99 for stove and one lot of fuel...

all depends how much its used though, outside temperature etc etc etc....gas in quite poor in cold weather i find, it reduces the power outlett when really cold / freezing...

hope this helps a bit..

chris.

 

[Robbi]

something like this would do you Ross, and you can get the refills in the pound shop ( no affilliation with seller etc )

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PORTABLE-CAMPING-STOVE-CARRY-CASE-FREE-8-GAS-REFIL-/110436297938?pt=UK_SportingGoods_Camping_CookingSupplies_ET&hash=item19b6842cd2

 

[redandshane]

For a well priced lightweight single burner using easily available gas cylinders probably the ones you saw in Millets you cant beat one of these http://www.winfieldsoutdoors.co.uk/...ding-gas-stove-p-gas064-c-not-applicable.html

 

[Shewie]

A 100g cart will do me 12L of boiling water in my Jetboil, that's the manufacturers claim but my first full cart did 11L so they're probably right if I'm more frugal.

Like Johnboy said there's too many variables to give an exact figure, if you picked up something like the MSR Pocket Rocket or Go Systems equivalent, you'd get a weekend out of a 100g cart if you kept the brews to a minimal

Some stove makers will give a figure but it can only be approximate, 150g of gas per hour of constant burning etc

 

[ross2503]

Right, I didn't realise there were differences between stoves in how much gas they used. I suppose then it could work out more economical to buy one that is more efficient in the long run. What is considered the best in this respect?

The gas consumption rate of the stove in grams per hour which is normally for max power or the high setting...

 

[ross2503]

That doesn't sound too bad. I had to look up what a Jetboil was - pricey! I just had a look at some stoves too on Amazon and a couple of other places. They seem generally to burn around 330g/h. £6 for 220g cartridge so that's 1.5 cartridges for an hours continuous burning or £9 per hour. Quite pricey actually if you were to use it to boil water to have a wash with each day and to cook a meal. Hmm... something to think about.

Thanks for your replies

A 100g cart will do me 12L of boiling water in my Jetboil, that's the manufacturers claim but my first full cart did 11L so they're probably right if I'm more frugal.

 

[ross2503]

Nooo.. that's way to big to carry around, I need it small and very light, I'm looking at something like this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coleman-F1-...BQ/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1330014073&sr=8-25

something like this would do you Ross, and you can get the refills in the pound shop ( no affilliation with seller etc )

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PORTABLE-CAMPING-STOVE-CARRY-CASE-FREE-8-GAS-REFIL-/110436297938?pt=UK_SportingGoods_Camping_CookingSupplies_ET&hash=item19b6842cd2

 

[Paul_B]

coleman F1 is a good burner and quite efficient for a simple can top stove. Avoid the Coleman cartridges though as they run out quicker in normal use IME. Primus or Optimus gas cans or even MSR are probably the best. Some of these are actually three component gas mixes but the others are two. Primus is two component but I have found to last longer with my primus stove than most of the others and they are not too badly priced in a wide range of outlets.
BTW I believe Millets sell those rather plain blue gas cans that claim to be propane/butane mixes. If I'm right they are the same ones you can get in the likes of Yeomans and the more budget or family orientated, independent camping shops. Unfortunately the mix is not good and IME they burn off one component of the mix and then you get very bad performance. One year I had a few cans from primus, one from coleman and a large one of these cheaper, no-brand cans. The cheap can was bought as a large can for car camping which was what I was doing. It was a very warm and sunny June and the can had only been used the summer before for one or two brews but it couldn't even get 500ml of water to boiling point!!! The can went icey around the base and the stove spluttered to a stop. It was a 450g canister (IIRC that was one of the larger cans available, after 250g and 100g cans) so it really should have had some power to it. It was not down to cold weather as it was well into the 20C, in fact it was probably during the hottest days of 2010 experienced in Skye. Certainly enough to evaporate propane and butane in the mix.

I tell you this because IME it is always better to pay a quid or more for a Primus or Optimus / Crux or MSR canister over the truly cheap ones.

 

[ged]

Can anyone tell me how long camping gas canisters last for? I saw then being sold off today for £2.50 in Millets (it looks to me like they are closing down, the shops are almost empty when I go to Millets these days). I only want to carry a single burner and a gas bottle to boil beans, fry etc. Anyone made toast using one?

When my wife and I were living in caravans (many years working away, different countries, all seasons) we reckoned on about one 4.5kg bottle per month would do all our cooking. So think in terms of 150g per day for two people doing a cooked evening meal and sometimes a cooked breakfast. Probably not a lot a lot less for one person doing the same. We would normally have electricity so water for hot drinks would be heated with electricity. If you're brewing for drinks with gas the usage will go up alarmingly. If we used the gas 'fridge in the summer it would be more like one 4.5kg bottle per week. The 13kg bottles were a lot cheaper per kilo of gas then, no idea what it's like now. I think the 100g canisters have always been exorbitant by comparison and I wouldn't use them except in something like a Jetboil. I certainly wouldn't want to use one to make toast but it can be done with a simple plate-style thing with a wire rack, I have a couple of these:

http://www.singersoutdoors.co.uk/catalogue/toaster-4-slice-to-go-on-gas-cooker-wynnster-p2743.asp

Oh, and fuel for a hobo stove is free,

 

[johnboy]

They seem generally to burn around 330g/h.

Which stoves were you looking at that were quoting 330g/h?..

 

[ged]

...I just had a look at some stoves too on Amazon and a couple of other places. They seem generally to burn around 330g/h. £6 for 220g cartridge so that's 1.5 cartridges for an hours continuous burning or £9 per hour. Quite pricey actually if you were to use it to boil water to have a wash with each day and to cook a meal. Hmm... something to think about. ...

I make that around 3kW so that's probably not too far off if it's a reasonably big flame. The Optimus, Primus, MSR, etc stoves are all in the 2.5kW - 3kW region.

Incidentally even petrol at the pumps (with road fuel duty) is about two quid a kilo, and roughly the same calorific value as liquified gas. So ten times cheaper than 100g gas canisters at two quid each.

 

[ross2503]

If you're brewing for drinks with gas the usage will go up alarmingly.

[/URL]Oh, and fuel for a hobo stove is free,

Do you mean if you use continually then you get more usage out of it than using it in short bursts?

 

[ross2503]

Which stoves were you looking at that were quoting 330g/h?..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coleman-F1-...BQ/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1330014073&sr=8-25

Gas outflow 330g/h? Is that the same thing?

 

[ross2503]

coleman F1 is a good burner and quite efficient for a simple can top stove. Avoid the Coleman cartridges though as they run out quicker in normal use IME. Primus or Optimus gas cans or even MSR are probably the best.

I tell you this because IME it is always better to pay a quid or more for a Primus or Optimus / Crux or MSR canister over the truly cheap ones.

This is really useful information, thanks!

 

[ged]

Do you mean if you use continually then you get more usage out of it than using it in short bursts?

No, I just meant you'll be using it a lot more if you're making a lot of drinks as well as cooking. I'd always rather use an electric kettle anyway as they're more convenient but buying bottled gas is a lot more expensive. One kWh of electricity for a kettle costs fifteen to twenty pence at the moment and pretty much all of it goes into the water you're heating. One kWh from one of those 500g canisters in your Amazon link costs over 90 pence, and about two-thirds of it will do nothing even on a calm day if you're using a simple pan. So it will cost about twenty times as much to heat that hot drink. That's just boiling a kettle, it just goes to show how much harder things become when you leave civilization.

 

[ross2503]

No, I just meant you'll be using it a lot more if you're making a lot of drinks as well as cooking. I'd always rather use an electric kettle anyway

I won't have access to electricity so I have to use gas.

 

[ged]

No, I just meant you'll be using it a lot more if you're making a lot of drinks as well as cooking. I'd always rather use an electric kettle anyway as they're more convenient but buying bottled gas is a lot more expensive. ...

I won't have access to electricity so I have to use gas.

I understand that, that's why I said

... it will cost about twenty times as much to heat that hot drink. That's just boiling a kettle, it just goes to show how much harder things become when you leave civilization.

If you think it's tough now, perhaps you'll think differently when you're living off the grid.

 

[Satyr]

Just a quick one to throw in - to make toast heat a frying pan with a tiny bit of cooking oil rubbed over it and then put a slice of bread on it and push down with a spoon/spatula, let it bown and flip it and repeat. Nice easy way to make toast without burning your finges trying to hold a piece of bread close to the flames