stoves, especially for Tomsie
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 10:38 pm
Well we were going a bit off topic in the bothy bag thread.
Now it's confession time. we have a large variety of stoves in our loft.
for a fixed base camp involving a car, I have to say I love my dutch oven. this goes over a campfire or charcoal, weighs about half a ton (I exaggerate slightly but let's say I wouldnt want to carry it more than about 100 yards) but you can roast bake and everything in it. It's a cast iron pot on legs with a close fitting lid with a flange so you can put coals on the top. we have had bread, pot roast and so on.
I also have two Storm Kettles mostly used for brewing tea on the beach. they are very efficient and work on driftwood, dead stems of nettles, all sorts. not useful on top of hills as there is generally not enough fuel.
For more lightweight camping the choice really is between meths or gas. Some folks have multifuel stoves and I would love one but they are relatively expensive and I can't justify it. One day maybe.
Meths is more reliable at lower temperatures, as long as it can be kept out of the wind. the best way to do this is probably a Trangia - very reliable and you can cook properly on it but bulky and heavy - or a Caldera cone - very light, slightly bulky, only really for boiling water. We got the caldera cone from Ultralight outdoors on the web, but their shop is near us and is a treasure trove of delights! they come in lots of sizes to fit different pans, we have two, one for an MSR titanium kettle and one for an Alpkit Mytimug. the main disadvantage of meths is it is not very controllable, and therefore more dangerous to use inside a tent if the weather is pants. It is also slow.
Gas is more controllable but is not very good in frosty conditions as it doesnt flow as well. Also it can be difficult to tell how much fuel is left. There are very lightweight stoves available and we have several - the oldest is a camping gaz dating from the sixties which I only keep for sentimental reasons! the ones we use most are the MSR pocket rocket and another MSR one we bought in the USA and I can't remember what it is. there is a huge choice out there to suit all budgets from the super fast jetboil type to the simple screw onto the canister type. there are pros and cons to different types but they are generally faster and more controllable than meths. we estimate you need about 30g of gas per person per night for a multi day trip involving several cups of tea and a dehydrated dinner.
hope that helps, no doubt rudolph will add corrections !
Now it's confession time. we have a large variety of stoves in our loft.
for a fixed base camp involving a car, I have to say I love my dutch oven. this goes over a campfire or charcoal, weighs about half a ton (I exaggerate slightly but let's say I wouldnt want to carry it more than about 100 yards) but you can roast bake and everything in it. It's a cast iron pot on legs with a close fitting lid with a flange so you can put coals on the top. we have had bread, pot roast and so on.
I also have two Storm Kettles mostly used for brewing tea on the beach. they are very efficient and work on driftwood, dead stems of nettles, all sorts. not useful on top of hills as there is generally not enough fuel.
For more lightweight camping the choice really is between meths or gas. Some folks have multifuel stoves and I would love one but they are relatively expensive and I can't justify it. One day maybe.
Meths is more reliable at lower temperatures, as long as it can be kept out of the wind. the best way to do this is probably a Trangia - very reliable and you can cook properly on it but bulky and heavy - or a Caldera cone - very light, slightly bulky, only really for boiling water. We got the caldera cone from Ultralight outdoors on the web, but their shop is near us and is a treasure trove of delights! they come in lots of sizes to fit different pans, we have two, one for an MSR titanium kettle and one for an Alpkit Mytimug. the main disadvantage of meths is it is not very controllable, and therefore more dangerous to use inside a tent if the weather is pants. It is also slow.
Gas is more controllable but is not very good in frosty conditions as it doesnt flow as well. Also it can be difficult to tell how much fuel is left. There are very lightweight stoves available and we have several - the oldest is a camping gaz dating from the sixties which I only keep for sentimental reasons! the ones we use most are the MSR pocket rocket and another MSR one we bought in the USA and I can't remember what it is. there is a huge choice out there to suit all budgets from the super fast jetboil type to the simple screw onto the canister type. there are pros and cons to different types but they are generally faster and more controllable than meths. we estimate you need about 30g of gas per person per night for a multi day trip involving several cups of tea and a dehydrated dinner.
hope that helps, no doubt rudolph will add corrections !