Personal Cooking Systems, Jetboil,Primus,Msr Reactor and Regulators

[petrochemicals]

Hello,

I am looking into personal cooking systems, regulators and the like and would like some real world experience. I have been trawling the internet and find it impossible to believe,

for example someone has managed to boil 0.7l of water from 33¤c/0¤c to boiling on six grammes of gas with a Jetboil, which when you consider it takes 0.85g of gas to do the same with 100ml is near 100% efficient in sub zero windy conditions. Also there are claims of 12 litres per 100g of gas which also seems to be pushing towards the 100% mark if from a low start temprature. Are people just getting confused between 500ml boils and a litre or getting mixed up between 200g of gas and a cannister weighing 200g. And even though regulators work are they more dependant on whether you use isobutane rather than butane.

I know that heat exchangers work but with an ordinary 500ml pan and stove I boil 8 half litres per 100g as others do, and a 300% increase in efficiency seems well worth it, as I boil the equivalent of about 8 litres a day just for cooking and hot water for myself.

I have also read accounts of people notching the cannister each time they boil a 500ml ammount and people managing around 25 half litre boils per 220g cartridge, still significantly better than my 18 boils per 220g
Thanks

 

[rg598]

There are just too many variables, both external and in terms of the particular stove system being used to make any meaningful comparison. There are stove forums where people go nuts over minute details in boil times, but ultimately, none of the stove systems are significantly different when it comes to fuel use. Jetboil is efficient, but not enough to make any significant difference. The MSR Reactor is very good against wind, but not as efficient. Of course, Jetboil is much more effected by wind. At what temperatures are the tests being done? What fuel mix is in the canisters. The MSR ones are much better at low temperatures than Jetboil, etc. After going nuts trying to do all those comparisons myself, I just decided that it didn't matter to me. There are stove characteristics that matter much more to me than whether I can boil 13 or 14 litters of water with one canister.

 

[Shewie]

I've regularly managed 11 litres from a 100g cart in my JB Sol Ti, I have enough confidence that I can pre plan to allow for extended trips.

 

[petrochemicals]

Contrary to everything I have read ,I think I would really like to know is pcs efficiency in poor weather - the average british day ie cold rain. If it boils 8 litres per 100g in the average British day it is TWICE as efficient as mine, and will be well worth it as I do like to have luxury of hot food and drinks, if I wasn't going to use it alot I would not be bothered and would take something else. The weight isn't a concern. It has struck me that as conditions deteriorate PCSs increace in efficiency as compared to other stoves.

Also, do the regulators perform as said, all the way to the bottom of the cannister, or is it largely due to whether isobutane is used

 

[petrochemicals]

scientifically speaking , 100 g of butane or propane can only boil just under 12 litres of water from 0¤c , or just under 16 litres from 25¤c. The probability of 100% efficiency is 0%. If you boil 3x500ml a day from 25¤c you would never supass 8 days from a 100g cartridge, even if all of the energy was used to heat the water. If my ultralight pot acheives 4l boils in the bad weather and 8l in the good weather, and jetboil achieves 8l and 12l boiled, it will far better pay to have it in bad cold weather. Fair weather stove use has never been a problem.

 

[petrochemicals]

finally found the advanced search option on this site. There is alot of good info actually, you ought to be proud of yourself. Anyway I've found the info I was after, thanks for the input

Anyway some fantastic figures quoted even hear.

" A 100g cannister will boil approximately 15-20 x
500ml of water (depending on conditions). If you
can make 15-20 x 500ml of boiling water last 7
days, then that's how long it lasts."

i'll have to call nasa !

Followed by a quote Stating 15 to 20 cups, now a USA cup is 250ml or half a pint !?!

Also the msr reactor boils 500ml from 4g of gas, asuming that the water started at above 50¤c, lets say in the desert in the middle east, you would have thought they would have taken ice cubes , lots of water, and perhaps a salad or two, perhaps left the heating device at home, as well as the sleeping bag, tent, base layers goretex ..........

 

[petrochemicals]

for posterity, a regulated jb sol , on snowpeak iso at -5¤c/20¤f.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=75bIGibpXAU&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D75bIGibpXAU&gl=GB

a good test done by a skilled man in real world conditions.

Findings :

propane only use below freezing even though its isobutane too

twice the fuel use 20g a litre

 

[Bumbler]

I do not bother with cooking times. It takes some time to set up as well. My trangia takes 10 minutes to boil water. My multifuel primus stove takes 1:30 minutes to do the same job. But it takes 8 minutes to set it up, pump up the pressure and prime it (the times are not real, just examples as I can't remember waht the actual times was.

Another thing is those heat exchange kettles. Never ever use them inside a tent. They increase the output of CO2 from your burner 20-30 times. While a burn without the kettele is virtually CO2 free, at least there is not enough CO2 for it to be harmfull in a closed environment like that, when you put a heat exchange kettle on, it cools the flame so much that you get an incomplete burn and co2 output increases darmatacally. This is according to the Noirwegian Defence Reseaerch Institute.

Multiple Olympic Medalist Vegard Ulvang, was a victim of this on his expedition to the south pole.

Oh and those butane canistyer things...no good in sub -zero. Hence I got myself that multifuel thing. I can burn Butane in summer and kerosene or gasoline in winter on it. But of course there is no law against owning 3-4 different systems to be put to good use according to what you are out on