Which Backpacking Stove You Should Buy and Why
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
― Hippocrates
Introduction
The big three in terms of backpacking gear are your shelter, pack, and sleeping insulation. They are named as such for being the three largest items you carry with you and offer the most opportunity to reduce the base weight of your kit. If you have not read my previous posts, the base weight is the weight of all non consumable, non wearable items in your gear. Due to the typical focus on base weight and not total weight, food and cook kits are, in my opinion, overlooked as an area of optimization for pack weight and trip enjoyment. Cooking, eating and cleaning will take up a significant portion of the time you spend on camp chores.
Camp chores are all the things you must do to set up, maintain, and pack up camp each evening and morning
The quicker you can get through camp chores the more time you can spend relaxing at camp and reduce the amount of time it takes to get back on the trail. In this article I will go through the pros and cons of different stove and fuel types, review use cases for different stoves, and go through data I collected on each of these stove types to help you choose the stove that is right for you.
Elements of a cook kit
A backpacking stove is one part of the cook kit that you will take with you on your next backspacing trip. In addition, in order to actually cook your food, or if you’re like me to boil the water to re-hydrate your food, you will need to bring or find fuel to burn and a container to cook in. The main trade offs with different combinations of each element are: convenience, efficiency, boiling time, weight/size, availability of fuel and use-ability in bad weather conditions.
Stove Classification
Backpacking stoves are generally qualified by the type of fuel they consume and the first point of differentiation I will discuss here. Each fuel source has its positives, negatives, and specific use cases that are reflected in part in each of the stoves that consume. The four types of stoves I will go through below are alcohol stoves, Gas canister stoves, solid fuel stoves, and bio-fuel stoves
1 - Alcohol
Alcohol stoves are stoves that run on denatured alcohol. Denatured alcohol is just ethanol, the type of alcohol found in wine, beer, and liquor with additives to make it poisonous to humans if it was consumed since ethanol is age regulated in the United States. There are a few different kinds of these stoves, the main types being pressurized and non-pressurized stoves. Basically, the alcohol is either poured into an non-pressurized well in the bottom of a stove and then lit or it is poured into a container that is then pressurized and functions similarly at this point to a gas canister stove.
Non-Pressurized Alcohol Stoves
Pros - Can be very lightweight and in many cases made at home from used cans. They run on a very cheap fuel source that is also lightweight and easily accessible. You could even run these stoves on high proof grain alcohol bought at any liquor store if need be. Set up and tear down time is relatively quick.
Cons - Run cooler and therefore takes a longer time to boil water than a pressurized stove or gas canister stove. Will not light in colder temperatures since it is the alcohol fumes you are burning and in colder temps they do not evaporate off as easily.
Pressurized Alcohol Stoves
Pros - Take a shorter time to boil as they can run hotter and are easier to regulate. Are one of the most reliable stoves in colder temperature and high altitudes since you can adjust the pressure inside the fuel bottle unlike gas canister stoves which can struggle in colder temps. Quickly boils water and can accommodate larger pots and pans easily when trekking in larger groups.
Cons - Larger in size and heavier in weight. Require specific denatured alcohol fuel or risk clogging the system with the additional ingredients present in alcohol designed for human consumption. Set-up and tear down time is longer than other types of stoves.
2 - Gas Canister
Gas canister stoves are stoves that use a burner and gas canister that operate similar to a gas cooktop you may have at home. Attache the burner to the gas canister, turn on the gas, and light it. Overall, these stoves are most user friendly while still offering a large amount of control and convenience while operating. Gas canisters come in 3 main standard sizes, 100g, 227g, and 450g depending on how many meals you plan on cooking for your trip.
Pros - These stoves are easy to set up, cook with, and take down. There are even complete cooking systems sold that maximize the efficiency of the gas you bring and can boil enough water for a dehydrated meal in under a minute. You can customize the size of the stove, gas canister, and pot to the needs of your trip.
Cons - You only have 3 sizes of gas canister and it can be hard to tell how much fuel you have left. While most stores that cater to hikers carry fuel, it is not as abundant as fuel for an alcohol stove. Canisters do not function well below freezing or at very high altitude as the pressure is not adjustable and the gas mixture separates as it gets colder. You can compensate for this by adapting an inverted system that runs on canniserts turned upside down but this will add weight and complexity that can be better used in just switching to a pressurized alcohol system.
3 - Solid Fuel
Whereas the stoves we have considered thus far run on gas, or liquid, solid fuel stoves are stoves that use solid fuel cubes oten made from a petroleum base. Each cube is individually packaged and you simply bring as many as you need to cook your food. If you want to save on weight you can even unwrap them beforehand to have less waste to carry out with you. Like gas canisters, solid fuel is stocked at most outdoor locations.
Pros - These are the simplest stove to set up and get going. Even if you lose the stove and have the fuel you could make a functioning replacement with rocks and sticks you find around camp. Most are also lightweight and little extra weight to carry once fuel is used unlike canisters or gas bottles.
Cons - Hard to control temperature and may require several cubes if it is cold, windy, or you are looking to cook a lot of food. Cubes once lit can be put out and re-used but are also messy and can stink up your gear. Like non pressurized alcohol stoves, cook time is longer than other stove types.
4 - Bio-fuel
The last major stove category is bio-fuel stoves. Stoves that use wood and other biological fuel sources, either found or brought, to cook with. The major advantage of bio-fuel stoves is that so long as you are in an area with bio-fuels, you have an unlimited amount of fuel to cook with. These stoves are designed to burn the bio fuel more efficiently than an open fire requires less fuel, burning hotter and cleaner with less soot, and to abide but rules many trails have against open fires in general for cooking or any other purpose. Some bio-fuel stoves are designed to efficiently burn the bio fuel by using a fan to help maintain the heat and also as a byproduct charge electronics you may have. We will dive into this more in use cases later in the article.
Pros - A near infinite amount of fuel available. Lightweight stoves and no need to carry fuel with you.
Cons - Hard to get a stove going if fuel sources are wet. Can take the longest time to go from setup to food if you include time to gather fuel. You still need an ignition source such as a lighter or fire stick unlike gas canisters which use electrode ignitors that can last much longer
What to cook in
What you are using as a heat source to cook your food is only as good as the container you use to cook that food or boil that water in. The vessel you chose to bring along with you will dictate what you can cook, how fast you can cook it, and how many servings you can make at one time. The choice of materials and size are also factors that significantly increase or decrease your base weight.
Several stove designs such as the Jetboil and Biolite offer proprietary, Integrated pots that maximize the convenience and efficiency of the stoves. In the case of the Jetboil stove, if you are using a pan or other pot a pot holder is included int eh kit that will allow you to use the stove on any container that will pit on it but will loose some of the efficiency of the stove that is one of its main selling points.
Steel pots and pans offer a very durable, cost efficient, though somewhat heavy option. Titanium, pots and pans are the gold standard as they offer similar durability to the steel pots at greatly reduced weight if you can afford them. There are some aluminum options that offer a middle ground compromise being not as expensive as titanium but also not as lightweight.
As long as the pot will be able to cook/boil what you want it to and will fit on the stove (some are too small to fit on stoves like the MSR Whisperlite) go with the lightest one you can afford. My preference is the 750ml titanium pot from toaks if I am not taking my Jetboil setup.
Food Choices
The stove you choose to adventure with should be selected based on the kind of food you plan on eating. I have friends that only bring food ready to eat in order to save time and therefore don’t need a stove or only bring a small one to brew tea as a comfort item. On the other side I have taken trips where I have cooked steaks for dinner and real eggs and bacon for breakfast.
For the most part, dehydrated food offers a great tasting, hot, convenient meal with no need to clean your pot afterwards. Just be sure to read the instructions on these meals before you set out on the trail. Some meals are heat and go while other require more than one pot, pans, or other items that will make it hard or impossible to cook if you do not bring them.
Stove Performance Comparison
Now that we have gone over all the different kinds of stoves there are, pros and cons, types of containers to cook in, and considerations for the types food you may way to cook with them, I will review how a representative from each performs.
Data Comparison
In order to understand the real world trade-offs between convenience and weight I took a representative of several different stove types and measures how long it took me from set-up to the moment 2 cups of water start to boil. I also measured the weight of each stove, the pot I used in the test, and 3 days worth of fuel (2 meals a day).
Weather Data Time of Test - 75 F, 29.80 inHG, 65% Humidity, 0.073858 lb/ft3 Air Density
Analysis
The fastest stove from pulling it out of your pack to having 2 cups of boiling water is the Jetboil Flash. If you can afford the extra weight it will be the most convenient and fastest stove to use especially if you are with a group of 3+ hikers. It is the stove I bring with me when I go on trips with a few other guys that allows us to distribute weight of group items like multi-tools, water filters, shelters, and stoves.
Taking longer to boil but offering a weight reduction of almost 8oz, the MSR Pocketrocket 2 and a 750ml titanium offer the most convenience at the lowest weight for a very light setup. This is my favorite stove to bring with my on 3 season (non-winter) solo trips.
The MSR Whisperlite (pressurized alcohol stove) is very quick to boil water but due to a lengthy, complicated setup time is not as convenient. That said, the main benefit of this stove is the ability to use larger pots and increased reliability in cold, windy, and harsh weather conditions. A true mountaineering stove that has its place and I woulnd’t be caught dead in the White Mountains in the winter without.
The Biolite stove was the easiest to setup but the most difficult to get going. If you bring some starter fuel and practice a lot this may reduce significantly but does not, in my opinion justify carrying a stove that weighs almost 2.5 lbs. If you need the added benefit of electrity generation, I would argue that you could bring a lighter stove setup and a solar panel and still save weight in your kit. I love this stove and have one in my emergency kit but think you should look elsewhere than here for a backpacking stove unless you have a very specific operational requirements.
Esbit stove
The Esbit stove is a great budget option if you want to save money for other gear. Costing almost $30 less than the lightweight MSR RetroRocket 2. It may take slightly longer to boil but is a great value and very reliable.
Alcohol Stove (non-pressurized)
Of all the choices I think this is my least favorite option. It is not any lighter than the lightweight solid and canister options and much harder to set-up and control. Only if you think you need to re-supply in very remote areas would I bring this stove.
Conclusion
There are a lot of great stove options out there and while its hard for me to know your exact situation, hopefully this information was helpful for you. If i only had one stove that I could use for the rest of my life I would have the Jetboil. It offers the most convenient, efficient solution and for me that is worth the extra weight.
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