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backpacking stove

M

mizzou

Diamond Member
Looking at the MSR Pocket rocket or Reactor Stove.

Just want something decent for backpacking, any input?
 
Dunno about those, but I've been happy with my Coleman gasoline stove. Small, and uses easy to find, non-proprietary fuel.
 
lxskllr said:
Dunno about those, but I've been happy with my Coleman gasoline stove. Small, and uses easy to find, non-proprietary fuel.
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link? Looking for something that will fit in a backpack. I have the big briefcase Coleman Stove 🙂
 
It all depends on what kind of stove you want. Do you want an actual stove with burners that you can cook with a pan or skillet? Or do you want a rocket stove type that is just meant to boil water which you add to pre-made meals in a pouch?
 
I still use a Svea stove, circa 1968, for camping. The beauty of it is simplicity. Just open the valve, dump gas on it, and throw a match at it. Lights every time, no pumping, no fuss.

Wiki page on Svea 123 stove

P1090636.jpg
 
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I run a pocketrocket.

Good stove and good power. Only draw back is when it's cold make sure you sleep with your iso butane canister or you wont be eating.

Goodluck

edit: Regarding- Reactor Stove (i think the functionality of this stove is very limited therefore I would pass.)
 
onza said:
I run a pocketrocket.

Good stove and good power. Only draw back is when it's cold make sure you sleep with your iso butane canister or you wont be eating.

Goodluck

edit: Regarding- Reactor Stove (i think the functionality of this stove is very limited therefore I would pass.)
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is white gas easier to light in a cold environment? I didn't know that would be an issue with butane
 
mizzou said:
is white gas easier to light in a cold environment? I didn't know that would be an issue with butane
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White gas - cheaper, no cold weather problems, no questions of disposing or recycling the containers, no problems packing out the exhausted containers, you can fill the fuel bottles with just the amount needed, no worry over whether the fuel can is too close to empty so an extra full can is needed, higher heat output

Isobutane - easy to light (either just a match or the included piezo lighter), extremely light (as little as 2 ounces plus the canister of fuel, which means less than most white gas stoves including the pump), very compact (whole stove plus a small canister will fit inside a small cookpot), clean burning (no cleaning unless you spill the soup), no fuel spills (leaks just evaporate and blow away

ripped from trailspace.com
 
mizzou said:
oh man, that is a nice looking stove!
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Optimus bought Svea and still makes the stove. I don't know what tweaks have been made over the decades but it looks relatively unchanged.

http://www.amazon.com/Optimus-Svea-C...dp/B000XZ5FDY/

I've used it in downpours, in winter at -20F, for backpacking, for car camping, it just works. It is also unbelievably freaking loud. It looks like there is an optional "quiet" burner insert for the stove now but the original puts the jet in gas jet.
 
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IronWing said:
I still use a Svea stove, circa 1968, for camping. The beauty of it is simplicity. Just open the valve, dump gas on it, and throw a match at it. Lights every time, no pumping, no fuss.

svea123.jpg
Click to expand...

FYI got a security callout on that link -

The link you are accessing has been blocked because it contains spyware. The name of the spyware is: Spyware.Exploit.Misc.MU.www-personal.umich.edu
 
Kaido said:
FYI got a security callout on that link -

The link you are accessing has been blocked because it contains spyware. The name of the spyware is: Spyware.Exploit.Misc.MU.www-personal.umich.edu
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Thanks! I'll go find another image and edit my post. Done.
 
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I spend most summer weekends backpacking and mountain climbing. The two stoves I own right now are exactly what you mentioned - the pocket rocket and the reactor. It helps that MSR is a local company here and their customer service is awesome.

However they are two stoves on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum. The pocket rocket sacrifices performance for weight and the reactor sacrifices weight for performance.

In the warmer months where I'm only using a stove to heat food for meals I bring the pocket rocket to save on weight. Weight is king when you're backpacking. When I bring this I usually bring some kind of other device for water treatment. It takes forever boil water but if the weather's okay I don't really care, I'm doing other things while I wait.

Unless you are mountaineering or camping in snow, you probably don't want a reactor. They boil water at a ridiculous rate - faster than any device on the market by quite a bit. This transforms camping in snow where you have to melt tons of water, or when you just want to boil water for tons of people. It's awesome when you're freezing cold and you want to jump into your sleeping bag - the last thing you want to do is spend an hour boiling water on a crappy stove. They are just too much for regular backpacking trips though.

It all depends on how you want to use it. A big factor is if you want to do anything other than boil water. I cook a lot at home but when it comes to backpacking, I go for convenience. Most stoves have trouble holding a simmer and its hard to find a lightweight pan that distributes heat well enough for sauteeing.

Another popular option is the jetboil. It's a canister design similar to the reactor, but it's lighter and slower. If it's just for 1-2 people in the summer it's a great option. I think they have a frying pan for it too.

I would avoid anything but the isobutane canisters. They are just way more convenient. I would say at least 9/10 people I backpack and climb with use the canisters. The colemans people are recommending are a bit ridiculous for backpacking - isobutane canisters are way lighter and easier to deal with than the heavy 16oz propane canisters.

I suggest browsing through REI.com to get an idea of what's out there and how people rate different products. There are also lots of backpacking forums that have great tips and reviews.
 
KillerCharlie said:
The colemans people are recommending are a bit ridiculous for backpacking - isobutane canisters are way lighter and easier to deal with than the heavy 16oz propane canisters.
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Listen to this man, he understands the difference between "backpacking" and "car camping"

Anyone who is recommending coleman's for a backpacking stove is not a backpacker, but likes breaking his back in the process. (dont get me wrong, coleman offers lightweight options, but you can't compare the performance of the MSR vs a Coleman.
 
What happened to the old Sternos? Did not take up space and no problems in the AM. They worked well!
 
IronWing said:
I still use a Svea stove, circa 1968, for camping. The beauty of it is simplicity. Just open the valve, dump gas on it, and throw a match at it. Lights every time, no pumping, no fuss.

Wiki page on Svea 123 stove

P1090636.jpg
Click to expand...

I love the review I just read on that stove:

http://www.backcountry.com/optimus-svea-stove

Have two 123's. The first one acquired in 1970.
While winter camping in the Adirondacks about half way up Blue Mt. in '72 my buddy blew it up.
They do need to be finessed for use at -20 and a 25mph wind (hey, later that night it fell to -40 and the wind kicked up to about 40mph, I have no idea what the wind chill was) and my friend was not experienced using one in those conditions.
He got too heavy handed priming it and did not open the valve enough to vent the building pressure.
Soon it was enveloped in flame and sounding like a 747 on takeoff, we could no longer go near it. Then the tank started blowing up like a balloon and we headed for cover.
The emergency pressure release valve, a solder plug in the middle of the cap finally melted and blew out, at which point we had a 15' geyser of flame spouting up at a 45 degree angle that melted my aluminum windscreen/cook set into a puddle of slag.
My buddy looked terrified that I was going to flay him alive. I was just happy that no one was hurt, no other equipment was lost and he had another stove and cook set in his gear.
Once the stove cooled pliers were needed to remove the blown cap. A replacement cap, the original brass windscreen installed and new load of white gas and she was humming along again as our second burner 1/2 an hour after armageddon.
Never had any further repercussions from that incident and she still roars 40 years later. Except that all those sharp creases and folds were blown out resulting in a very fat and balloon like Svea with approximately a 20% greater fuel capacity.
When my health made me hang up my backpacking boots and car camping with the family became my milieu, I went for a second Svea 123 knowing I can depend on her through thick and thin.

Please do not use stoves in tents, had this happened in our tent even if we escaped burn injuries nighttime conditions were deadly. We were well equipped for -20, even -30. When we unpredictably encountered wind chill conditions in the area of -85... Well, just to survive we had to pull out all our spare clothing to supplement our Holubar Royalight sleeping bags (anyone remember Holubar? Pre-Eddie Baur Holubar.) in a three wall expedition tent and still came closer to Brokeback Mountain than either of us cared to.
 
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