Discovery in boil times

[colonel r]

I am a freezer bag cooker and only need to boil water. I had been using a Trangia. I really like for the ability to cap and store the remaining fuel.

However, my cook set weighted in at about 15 ozs but I felt I could go lighter. I am a self confessed gram weenie.

I bought a blue mini and started experimenting. No matter what I did I could not get 2 cups of water to boil with this stove using my Snow Peak Ti 900 ml. I could put just over an oz of fuel in the blue mini but the water would only rise to 170 degrees at the end of the burn.The Trangia would boil 2 cups, albeit slowly. I never measured the fuel consumption.

Thinking too much of the flame and heat was escaping up the sides of the Snowpeak; I bought the famous grease pot (I bought it from Amazon and it is pre-blackened). The base diameter of the Snowpeak is 3.5", whereas the base diameter of the grease pot is 5.5".

The results of my back-porch testing show with the blue mini and grease pot, I can boil 2 cups using just over half an ounce of fuel in about 4 and a half minutes.

With this stove and a lighter cup, I cut the total package to 10 ozs, less fuel.

grease pot
blue mini and priming pan
Al wind screen
long handled Al spoon
firescout fire starter
GSI insulated cup
freezer bag cozy (DIY)
pot tongs
Ti lid for grease pot (DIY from Ti foil)

This allows me to loose 5 ozs for very little money and get faster boil times in the exchange. I just have to be careful how much fuel I put in the stove as it all must burn out and none can be recovered.

The grease pot has too much volume and I wish I had a clever way to cut it down an re-roll the edge. It probably holds 4-6 cups of water and I would never need more than 3.

I told my son if my pack keeps getting lighter, I was going to have to put rocks in it to keep it from floating off.

Col R

[Rocket Jones]

I went from a grease pot to the GSI kettle and improved my boil times and cut down on the amount of fuel I use per boil, but it did cost me a couple of ounces, which evens out. One unexpected bonus is how much easier it is to pour boiling water with the real spout of the kettle vs the grease pot (not to mention the real handle vs. my home made bail).

Someone did some experimentation and found that with a properly fitting windscreen, you don't lose as much heat up the side of a narrow pot as you would think.

[Fiddleback]

FYI, you don't have to boil water for FBC'ing. Or more accurately, all the home dehydrated meals I've tried have reconstituted well without boiling water or water that achieved boiling temp (not accounting for elevation).

In my own kitchen tests my set up rarely achieved a max temp over 185° and of course, there was some rapid cooling in the pour into the baggie. Still, after an 'appropriate' time in a cozzie the meals were all fine...piping hot, in fact. Likewise for on-the-trail results but I have no temp measurements.

Presumably, the lower non-boiled temp of the water increases the reconstitute time by (a couple?) minutes. And that's the trade off...burn more fuel, possibly wait longer to achieve boil or get the water to the food at a lower temp.

My set up is the typical soda-can stove (a la Tin Man) and a Primus tea kettle (my favorite piece of gear) that total 60z. Three-quarters of an ounce brings two cups of mid-50's temp well water to a near boil at home. While water on the trail may be colder and breezes may be limiting factors I haven't noticed any significant extra alky consumptionon the trail.

The point after all this rambling -- you don't need a rolling boil.

FB

[Miner]

Yeah, you don't actually need to bring your water to a full boil. Just the formation of several bubbles on the bottom of the pot is often hot enough to rehydrate your food; especially if you use a cozy of some sort around your freezerbag as it cooks to hold the heat in. A greasepot or even the 900ml pots are too big if you only boil enough water for a single meal at one time. I normally use a 550ml to 600ml pot for my FBC and it provides more then enough water for any meal I had on my PCT thru-hike. I rarely use more the 0.6 fl.oz of fuel in my alcohol stoves.

Personally, I could care less how fast a stove boils as I am over how much it weighs and how much fuel it uses. It isn't like a few more minutes will really matter at dinner.

[Spokes]

I decided against a grease pot since all the ones I ever saw at my local retailers had the rim seam rolled toward the inside of the pot instead of the outside. That little flaw is a great place for food debris to collect and putrify over time causing a health concern.

Your experience may vary......

[jeffmeh]

The Stanco grease pot has the rim rolled outward, but I have seen those of which you speak and I would avoid them as well.

For 3.8 oz., after replacing the lid knob with a binder clip, it works pretty well.