Pocket Rocket and fuel canister, about how many times can you boil 1/2 L of water?

[skylark]

I am wondering if anybody could estimate how many times they could boil 1\2 liter of water with a pocket rocket. There are different size fuel canisters, one example size is 220g.

[fiddlehead]

If you are careful (bring water ONLY to a boil to cook your mac & cheese and then let it sit for 20 minutes and only have one cup of coffee in the morning, then you can probably get 5 days out of the smaller canister. (also learn to listen to the sound and when you hear the sound change, the water is probably hot enough for your coffee, no need for a rolling boil)

I've never carried the bigger ones.
I've also built fires to cook when I ran out, or times when I took some half-full canisters out with me, or, when I am cold and want to heat up a water bottle to put in the bag with me at night.

[nsherry61]

Fuel usage depends greatly on the wind conditions. In good conditions, you should be able to bring to boil about 5 liters of water with a 100 g cartridge. I'll let you do the math on the 220 g version. ;-)

If you are in cold weather, the larger cartridges start working very poorly after they are partially used, so using multiple 100 g cartridges is best when it is cold.

[meat803]

I found on my thru hike that that these things last a very long time. At first I was concerned about resupplying with fuel but it was never an issue. A large can would last about 150-200+ miles using it to boil 2 cups on average 2 times a day and still have a lot left. I left many ,many 1/3 full cans in hiker boxes. I would buy another when can was getting low and leave it for hikers with limited funds. The key is to use time to cook food and not continuous boiling. Heat to a boil, cover and let sit while you set up tent or do other stuff. after 15-20 minutes whatever you cooked is done and at a temp reasonable to eat. I mainly cooked rice sides,ramen, oatmeal, tea, and coffee. My only time I was worried was at Baxter in the Birches. Didn't see the need to buy another as I was about to get on a plane and head home. My can was running on fumes but still managed to get 2 more meals and coffee to boot. Even if you run out, another hiker around will have one and let you get a boil off their can. in a pinch ramen can be eaten dry or you can even let it sit in room temp water and it will be dehydrated in about 30 minutes without any heat applied.

[PAHiker]

Best to do your own math on this using your own cooking system. Weigh a fuel caniater (full or partial, does not matter for this). Boil your 1/2 liter water and weight the canister again. Subtract the end weight from the start weight and you now know how much fuel your cooking system uses per boil. Divide the listed fuel weight of the canister by the amount you use per boil and you now know how many boils per canister you will get. Temperature and wind conditions will have an effect on your boil times so leave room for variance.

[skylark]

Thanks, I have not used the pocket rocket much. My alcohol stove takes a little over 1 fluid ounce per burn, so maybe 10 burns from a bottle of HEET. The pocket rocket with 220 g canister is heavier but it sounds like it will be better over a longer period of time. I will look for the 100 g canisters.

[Singto]

I've found it unnecessary to bring water to a rolling boil for most dehydrated foods. As mentioned already, heat only to certain point for coffee etc and I carry 3 Esbit tabs as a cooking/fire starter back up when hiking.

[kibs]

In the 6/29/2015 Backpackinglight forum posting, they show you how to accurately weigh the residual fuel in your canister by using your hiking pole as a counter weight--Very Cool

[bigcranky]

Wind is a huge factor, even a very light 2mph breeze is enough to kill much of the efficiency of the stove (all the heat blows away). Anything you can do to block the wind is a big help. The size of the pot relative to the flames is also a factor -- a wide flame pattern on a tiny mug will waste much of its heat.

I don't know about a Pocket Rocket. I tested a Coleman F1 Ultralight and a Jetboil last year, in "real world" conditions (i.e., on the trail while hiking) as well as in my backyard. The Coleman was the second most efficient stove in the BPL tests a few years ago -- it's a little blowtorch. I consistently used ~15 grams of fuel to cook dinner with the Coleman, and ~5g with the Jetboil. Guess which one we took on the Long Trail?

It's a really good idea to take your stove outside and measure your fuel efficiency for the way you cook. Get a scale that measures in grams (the food scale that's widely available at Amazon for about $20 measures up to 11 pounds in tenths of an ounce and grams, and it's very useful for hikers). Once you figure out how much fuel you use for coffee, breakfast, dinner, cleanup, whatever, you'll know how long the canisters should last.


(EDIT: "Anything you can do to block the wind" does NOT include cooking inside your tent, nor wrapping the stove and canister in a tight 360-degree wind screen. )

[Heliotrope]

Haven't tested it scientifically but I typically get about 8 meals out if one small canister with my snow peak lite max stove. I typically boil 2 C water for bag dinners or simmer 1 minute quick polenta. Love the speed of making meals this way.


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