View Full Version : Stoves
moonnsun
10-22-2003, 10:33
Hi. I am just curious what stove all of you would recommend for the long hike? I have looked at a few and liked some but before i buy i figured i would ask the opinions of the people who have already done the thru-hike.
Blue Jay
10-22-2003, 10:57
Click on the "Gear" forum under "Stoves" there is a good explaination there and on past forums. It appears that most thrus use alcohol stoves made from empty cans.
moonnsun
10-22-2003, 16:26
yes i saw that forum....but i figured i would just ask anyway
You'll get lots of opinions and reasons. I use an alcohol stove and can't recommend anything else for long distance hiking. That being said, people with far more trail miles than I use Whisperlites (or similar stoves) or Pocketrockets (or similar stoves). I hiked with a guy this summer who loved Esbit tablets. Zip stoves work well also.
Briefly: An alcohol stove is free and weighs close to nothing. You'll build it (and a pot stand) yourself and be able to take some pride in your work. It won't break unless you step on it. Denatured or methyl alcohol is very easy to come by, perhaps easier than cannisters or white gas. It is this way south of Damascus, at least.
Its main downside is that it doesn't throw off much heat, so meals take longer to cook that with other stoves. This might mean your Mac and Cheese is ready in 15 minutes, rather than 8 minutes. When it is very cold out, you might wait a few minutes longer.
icemanat95
10-22-2003, 23:54
If I were to do a thru-hike today, I would probably go with an alcohol stove. I have a Brasslite Turbo II that is beautiful and works wonderfully.
But, I did my thru-hike with white gas stoves in 1995. I used a Coleman Peak 1 Apex stove from Georgia to Gorham, New Hampshire at which point, frustrated with the difficulty of replacing the proprietary o-ring that Coleman chose to use to seal the pump to the bottle, I bought a Whisperlite International (sShaker jet) to finish the hike. That's my go-to stove for trips from about October through April in New England. In cold weather, hot food and hot drinks are a major morale booster and nothing brews up faster than a Whisperlite. Alcohol doesn't cut it in full on Winter conditions either, melting snow and boiling it up for drinking water would burn an awful lot of alcohol.
I owned a canister stove once upon a time. The disadvantage of that particular stove was that you really had no idea how much fuel was in the canister and when it would run out, so you needed to carry extras. It was also far less stable than a white gas stove and heat output was far lower.
For three season hiking though, the alcohol stove does the job well enough and does it with very low weight and bulk, that's worth something. They do take some practice to figure out so you don't use more fuel than you need. If you end up using too much fuel to get the job done, the weight advantage begins to slip away from the need to carry too much extra fuel.
moonnsun
10-23-2003, 21:10
thanks...You are giving me a lot to think about....I was considering an alcohol stove however I live in the Adirondacks of NY and it gets pretty cold up here and ive heard alcohol stoves dont work great up here unless its sumemr time so i wasnt sure how they worked on the trail
SImply putting the fuel in your pocket for 10 mins before lighting an alcohol stove is usually good enough. Once it gets going, there is no stopping an alcohol stove;).
I have used a preheat tray with my stoves, and it works fine in the cold (below 30deg)
Brian MacMillin
Future Thru Hiker 2013
Kerosene
10-27-2003, 13:22
As a section hiker I prefer a canister stove, but if I was doing a thru-hike I would definitely go to alcohol since it is easier to acquire, manage, and dispose of as the weeks go by.
a while ago i was reading about alchohol stoves in the gear section and there was a fantastic link to a site where a guy had written out detailed instructions for building your stove and pot stand and for a pot cover that aided in simmering without using more fuel- of course i didn't mark it because i was sure i'd be able to find it again- right, of course i can't. does anyone know what i'm talking about???
i realized after posting that last message that my request was insane because there are only about a billion sites that might fit that description. i'll just keep hunting. :rolleyes:
asmtroop3
11-17-2003, 14:10
i realized after posting that last message that my request was insane because there are only about a billion sites that might fit that description. i'll just keep hunting. :rolleyes:
great how to stove site (http://hikinghq.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&sortfield=lastpost&sortorder=&forumid=42&pagenumber=1&daysprune=1000&x=13&y=11)
Try this
i realized after posting that last message that my request was insane because there are only about a billion sites that might fit that description. i'll just keep hunting. :rolleyes:
How about this site? (http://www.brasslite.com/)