Which portable stove is the best?

[Quixoticgeek]

Fuel. It's a key part of the stove choice. So what are the options:

• Meths/Alcohol - The theory is that this is plentiful and can be bought everywhere... In theory... In some areas you can pick up meths in the local supermarket, but I've never seen it in a UK supermarket. The only place I can find it locally is hardware shops. Outside the UK, I found IPA in the medical section of a Spanish supermarket. In Luxembourg I found it was sold out in the supermarket in Wiltz at the start of a journey, but then didn't see another shop for 65km until I reached Belgium... Is it available in the average village shop where you are? Then you have the issue that the flash point is above 0°C, so you'll have to warm the fuel up before you can ignite it. Sure you can put the bottle inside your jacket to warm it up, but it's a faff...
• White Gas/coleman fuel - This is the clean unleaded petrol that they recommend you use in stoves like the MSR Whisperlite or the Primus Omnilite. I've only ever seen it for sale in outdoor shops. Aspen4 is another option, but it tends to only be found in specialist chainsaw type shops.
• Unleaded Petrol - Ubiquitous, you can pick this up at any petrol station, but you will get shouted at if you turn up with a MSR fuel bottle, until they realise it does say "for fuel use", then you come up against the "minimum sale 2L". I've filled half litre bottles at petrol stations before, even tho they claimed minimum sale 2L. The additives in unleaded also tend to gunk up stoves, tho I've not had any issue with this myself.
• Diesel - Everything mentioned above regarding Unleaded, but harder to ignite...
• Kerosene/Paraffin - Where to buy it... Hardware shops... and... oh, and you'll have to buy 5L of it.
• Avgas - In far flung corners of the world, you may be able to get to it, or if you have access to aircraft... But it's not exactly on the shelves in Wilko...
• Gas - This comes in two standards of container - Camping Gaz and threaded standard - your stove will only take one of them, tho you can get adapters. The claim is that you can buy this everywhere, which you might be able to in some countries, but I've never seen it for sale outside of outdoor shops in the UK or the Benelux. Then you have the issues with gas mixes, too much butane and you won't be able to burn it properly in winter on an upright stove, but you can get some use out of it in remote canister stoves.
• Biomass - Sure it works, but it's not always fast in many stoves, tho you can get a quick cuppa out of a kelly kettle. A jetboil might get you a mug of tea in ~2 minutes, but your average biomass stove is going to take upwards of 20mins. In theory biomass can be found everywhere... except say parts of iceland... or the northern tundra...
• Hexi - Stinks, gunks up, and is expensive to use in any quantity... But you can't really screw it up...

But with all these fuels and stoves you then have to consider the political element. You can't have a biomass stove in most of Australia. Bits of California have banned the use of meths stoves. Norway bans fires in wooded areas during summer...

Choosing the best stove is not simple task. It all comes down to "it depends".

J

 

[ged]

Oh, I dunno that, Ged. If you have the alcohol tube fitment, they burn pretty well.

However, for bomb-proof reliability, the basic 111 paraffin is just about unbeatable. Safest fuel too, imho. Certainly I'd never use petrol in my tipi (8 man) but am comfortable using paraffin, with the usual disclaimers about ventilation and common sense. Actually, alcohol is probably the safest fuel, but it has only 50% of the thermal efficiency of paraffin.

No, you're right, they burn, er, blue enough with meths but as Rik says they're thirsty, and in my experience you can never get as big a flame so they're just slow - especially for my favourite pancakes.

I've only ever had one squirt burning fuel out of the safety valve, and that was running on meths. :yikes: All right, yes, I over-filled it.

I've had petrol ones squirt burning fuel out of everywhere else of course.

Agreed on the safety of the fuel, but although paraffin tends not to ignite when it escapes I'd still be wary of confined spaces. I'd settle for running one under a tarp with at least one open side though.

 

[Andy BB]

Meths gets a bad rep in cold weather, but I've used it happily on many occasions in serious sub-zero conditions. Easiest way is to either use a wick-based stove, or make a temporary wick out of tissue to get it going. Insulating the burner from the ground/snow etc helps too!

 

[ged]

... Bits of California have banned the use of meths stoves. ...

Strictly speaking it's stoves that don't have a positive shut-off that are banned in certain fire risk areas. You'd be OK with a 111T running meths as it has a shutoff valve for the fuel.

 

[mrcharly]

• Kerosene/Paraffin - Where to buy it... Hardware shops... and... oh, and you'll have to buy 5L of it.

J

Not entirely true. It is sold as 'lamp oil' in 1litre bottles in many shops (including garden centres, hardware stores and sometimes cookware shops). Lamp oil is usually 'deoderised' kero. It burns with less soot and less smell than the blue kero.

I'm near convinced that bbq lighter fuel, frequently sold from petrol stations, is usually 'lamp oil'. Possibly a slightly lighter fraction. Sometimes it has alcohol in it, which wouldn't be fun in a kero stove.

Has anyone tried burning white spirit in a kero stove? The characteristics are very similar to kerosene (flashpoint and hydrocarbons)

 

[rik_uk3]

Not entirely true. It is sold as 'lamp oil' in 1litre bottles in many shops (including garden centres, hardware stores and sometimes cookware shops). Lamp oil is usually 'deoderised' kero. It burns with less soot and less smell than the blue kero.

I'm near convinced that bbq lighter fuel, frequently sold from petrol stations, is usually 'lamp oil'. Possibly a slightly lighter fraction. Sometimes it has alcohol in it, which wouldn't be fun in a kero stove.

Has anyone tried burning white spirit in a kero stove? The characteristics are very similar to kerosene (flashpoint and hydrocarbons)

The BBQ lighting fluid sold in Wilkinsons and B&B is just clean paraffin, burns very well. Lamp oil is fine in wick lanterns but easily blocks the vaporiser in Vapalux lanters (as I found out the hard way). White spirit will work, certainly in simple classic Primus stoves but it stinks...same as diesel fuel.

If you don't use a lot of Coleman type fuel petrol lighter fluid is clean naptha. You can get the 133ml tins for a quid and thats perfect for the likes of the 123/8 range of stoves which hold 120ml

 

[sunndog]

Julia, thanks for that. i think i'll stick to the fancy feest type for now....i just like it and don't find fuel use to be a major issue up to now



As a side note on multi fuel stoves.
When i was burning half a gallon or more of unleaded a week on my dragonfly it did start to gunk up quite a bit. I found a manual clean and then running a can of lighter fluid through it a great way to blast all the carp out

 

[ged]

... When i was burning half a gallon or more of unleaded a week on my dragonfly ...

Crikey! What were you doing with it? Half a gallon would usually last me a month!

 

[sunndog]

group use in winter. It was the only stove in use cooking three full meals a day and many, many brews. Thats stuff like stews in 5ltr pots and even dutch ovens....for nearly six weeks
That dragonfly sure earned its keep. all on the original pump, thats still going strong

 

[chopmonkey]

That's an awful lot of carp

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[Chris the Cat]

Meths gets a bad rep in cold weather, but I've used it happily on many occasions in serious sub-zero conditions. Easiest way is to either use a wick-based stove, or make a temporary wick out of tissue to get it going. Insulating the burner from the ground/snow etc helps too!

Absolutely my experience too.

C.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

That's an awful lot of carp

Would you care to elaborate on that ?

J

 

[sunndog]

Would you care to elaborate on that ?

J

I was thinking the same thing

 

[chopmonkey]

Would you care to elaborate on that ?

J

Quoting the post...

"When i was burning half a gallon or more of unleaded a week on my dragonfly it did start to gunk up quite a bit. I found a manual clean and then running a can of lighter fluid through it a great way to blast all the carp out"

I had visions of a gallon of unleaded a fortnight fish cookery marathon, clearly involving deposits of carp. That's an awful lot of carp...

I'll get my coat

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[Quixoticgeek]

Quoting the post...

"When i was burning half a gallon or more of unleaded a week on my dragonfly it did start to gunk up quite a bit. I found a manual clean and then running a can of lighter fluid through it a great way to blast all the carp out"

I had visions of a gallon of unleaded a fortnight fish cookery marathon, clearly involving deposits of carp. That's an awful lot of carp...

I'll get my coat

There was me thinking you were euphemistically alluding to the possibility that one or more of the contributors to this thread was talking from their rear...

I apologise for thinking such of you.

Fish and chips for dinner?

J

 

[Imagedude]

I'm not a fan of meths but it can be made to work in the cold, I've used it down to -32C.

 

[petrochemicals]

Taking into consideration...

• Weight of the stove
• Physical size
• Fuel Type
• Efficiency
• Purchase cost
• Durability
• Ease of use

which is the best portable stove available?

Trangia burner, its silent clean, simple bombproof, it simmers wonderfully, the large flame dispenses with the problem of hotspot. You can cook a perfect fried egg on stainless with a runny yoke with no extra fat after the bacon,without I sticking, the food doesn't burn very easily.

That far out ways the problems with it of slow start up, difficulty lighting when cold, fuel being possibly hard to find and expensive. I isn't fast (I think this is an advantage though) it isnt particularly fuel efficient (30g of meths a boil) it isnt brilliantly light, the burner itself weighs more than a pocket gas stove, and a good windshield and potstand makes it an average weight stove. Liquid fuel also can be a problem as it can leak, and being in an open burner can spill if its hit. Its not easy to adjust the flame in comparison to other stoves (still a lot better than hexi).

Still worth it though.