Light weight wide burner stove?

[OhioHiker]

I like having the option of more than boiling water. The pencil flame of my pocket rocket makes it hard to “cook”.

I think a larger head burner would help even the heat out in the pan/pot

Does anyone have experience with the Optimus Crux stove? REI specs show OT to be the same weight as the pocketrocket2

Any pictures of a size comparison would be awesome.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200429/2c7f29a8f08f7ed567c21aeb6fba5cc4.jpg

[Cheyou]

What pot are you cooking in ?

[OhioHiker]

What pot are you cooking in ?

I use sea to summit alpha pot. I have a few different sizes depending on who I am hiking with.

[nsherry61]

For a slight weight penalty, I'd be tempted by the Pocket Rocket Deluxe. With its pressure regulator it should have much better simmer control than than the Optimus along with more wind resistant with cupped burner.

Good luck.

[zelph]

so many :D

https://mk0backpackinglqilgm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/canister-stove-reviews-all-stoves-1456x971.jpg

https://youtu.be/yUtHODRdVZ0

[nsherry61]

What an awesome image!
. . . I don't see an original Pocket Rocket in that image. Given it was the best selling canister stove for about a decade, that's pretty funny.

[OhioHiker]

so many :D

https://mk0backpackinglqilgm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/canister-stove-reviews-all-stoves-1456x971.jpg

https://youtu.be/yUtHODRdVZ0

Looks like a Crux next to a wide head pocket rocket in there. Seem to be about the same size?

[zelph]

Flame spread on msr superfly looks good

https://classiccampstoves.com/attachments/1329257397-7-jpg.56664/https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQqQlovQmkW6AT-HaRJlB4gAJOWyWmSIlUZAyaMr1nMJ6GnPObB&usqp=CAU

[SoaknWet]

I bought a what was called a scorch buster that you put 9n the stove first, it spreads the heat more evenly, and has little bumps that hold the pot above it maybe half inch. No more burn food in the bottom of pot. Works with every stove I've used it on. Exactly you could make one with any type of lid and 3 or 4 screws to lift the pot up.

[OhioHiker]

I wanted to report back. I ended up getting to Soto Windmaster with the Triflex stand. I love it! Crazy lightweight, packs incredibly small, practically boils water faster than i can open my instant coffee packet!

[zelph]

practically boils water faster than i can open my instant coffee packet!

Faaaaaaast, I want my water to boil the fastest ever:D I want my instant coffee packet to have an instant open zip:D

Just kidding:p

[camper10469]

im looking for a small pot with a heavy bottom disk to distribute the heat more evenly.

[nsherry61]

Two thoughts:
1) Whatever pot you choose, make sure it's aluminum. A thin aluminum pot will diffuse heat better than a thick titanium one will due to aluminum's extraordinarily high heat conductivity.
2) The idea of the "scortch buster" a few posts back might be a good option also.

Good luck and have fun.

[OhioHiker]

im looking for a small pot with a heavy bottom disk to distribute the heat more evenly.

MSR makes a series os Stainless Steel pots that seem fairly thick but they are heavy. Also Stanley has some too that are more affordable and possibly easier to get. Ive seen them at Walmart and Target. Again not very light. Either option are very high quilty at should last you a long time.

Other than that, I think Aluminum is the sweet spot! Light weight, great heat transfer, pretty sturdy and fairly affordable.

I use a S2S Alpha pot, I think it is 1.2L its more squaty. I feel like in my engineering mind, a shorter wider pot will boil more efficiently than a tall skinny pot given your using a wide burner.

[camper10469]

I bought a what was called a scorch buster that you put 9n the stove first, it spreads the heat more evenly, and has little bumps that hold the pot above it maybe half inch. No more burn food in the bottom of pot. Works with every stove I've used it on. Exactly you could make one with any type of lid and 3 or 4 screws to lift the pot up.

this is exactly the answer I was looking for but missed that post... thanks.

Id rather have the option of even heat, rather than a hot spot when cooking foods. For boiling water, yeah a hot spot is great from that Pocket Rocket or a Giga Power stove that can boil water really fast.

[cmoulder]

Comparing *thin* Ti and Al there is virtually no difference.
More than a decade ago I got pretty interested in stoves and efficiency and did a fair amount of quality testing, i.e. using thermometers and timers and data sheets for recording results, occasionally producing a graph.
One of the graphs depicted controlled burns with Al vs Ti, using identical stove and windscreen and pots as similar in size as I could find, and the results were remarkably consistent.

46583
Again, this is for the typical thin material found in lightweight pots made for backpacking, and I strongly suspect this would not be true with heavier, thicker materials.

So IMHO you can choose your pots based on price, shape, cool factor or whatever other parameters you wish, but heat conductivity ain't one of 'em! :)

[Odd Man Out]

im looking for a small pot with a heavy bottom disk to distribute the heat more evenly.
The Olicamp XTS pot has a heat diffuser toe capture and spread the heat. I like it a lot

[zelph]

Comparing *thin* Ti and Al there is virtually no difference.

So IMHO you can choose your pots based on price, shape, cool factor or whatever other parameters you wish, but heat conductivity ain't one of 'em! :)

Long live the Kmart Grease Pot and the Fancee Feest stove :-)

[a_gunslinger]

Ive never used anything but pocket rocket 2 and BSR ($15). Both fine, stuck with Pocket Rocket - for no particular reason.

[Starchild]

....practically boils water faster than i can open my instant coffee packet!

I remember this with my Jetboil, I needed to get things set up before I lit the thing as the water would boil so fast that often if i didn't, I wouldn't be ready in time.

[Time Zone]

Comparing *thin* Ti and Al there is virtually no difference.
....
So IMHO you can choose your pots based on price, shape, cool factor or whatever other parameters you wish, but heat conductivity ain't one of 'em! :)


Awesome graph, cmoulder! And yeah, thinness makes up for the lower conductivity. So it's mostly price vs. weight, as with so many other things.

I did notice that Al pots seemed far more rigid in the stores than the thinner Ti ones. There was also a quip about Ti superiority that stuck with me, perhaps said tongue in cheek, but it was something along the lines of, "Your Al pot may not last 300 years; it may only last 30!" And if our leisure hours had a price tag, we'd no doubt be spending hundreds of dollars trying to figure out if an extra $30-$50 in pot cost is worth it.

But as you say, heat conductivity - in a practical sense, boil times - isn't a deciding factor. Other things may be (even heating, price, weight, durability, etc) but not boil times.

I also agree with the prior poster, Jetboils are amazingly fast. They're also pricey ... but time is money, right? Or is it not in leisure time? I guess everyone has to make that call for themselves in some way, usu. implicitly.

[nsherry61]

Just to weigh back on on this Ti vs Al thing. Heat transfer to the the liquid may be similar in Ti vs. Al for the purposes of backpacking pots. BUT, the significantly higher thermal conductivity of Al spreads the heat out across the bottom of the pot more effectively than Ti and thus has a less intense hot-spot under the flame, which I think is one of the primary concerns of the OP.

For the purpose of hot-spot avoidance, given a similar thickness of material:

Metal Thermal Conductivity
Aluminum 120-200 W/m-C, depending on the alloy
Copper 280-380
Titanium 15
Stainless Steel 17
Cast Iron 55
Silver 418

So bag those Titanium pots and let's start all using silver! :banana

[zelph]

The MSR Reactor is a nice wide burner:

46706

[Trail Money]

Just bought a BSR to pair up with a Titanium pot. Trying to condense my cooking gear and allow it all to nest in one pot. Experimenting with the little things right now!