How do you save cooking fuel wt...for those that do want a heated meal?

[Dogwood]

Seeking less commonly discussed techniques. This is in the UL Forum for fuel wt saving reasons.
I'll:
1) Obtain water that is warmer. What? Don't take icy water for heating cooking water. Consider taking water from south facing sources. In summer this isn't as great a deal. Not hard measuring water temp with a cheap trail thermometer
that's included in something like a ABC watch
2) Pre warm water inside pack or on outside pack pocket with gear, clothing insulating it
3) Pre soak meals
4) Opt for food that cooks faster. Opt for pepe, ditalini, pastina capellini over large shells, rigatoni, penne, linguini etc. Opt for ready to eat jerky rather than cooking a thick raw beef teak with a large bone.
5) Pre cook and dehydrate longer cooking needed foods like quinoa although quinoa can also be pre soaked to cut cook time.
6) Mix in no cook meals into a trip or segment. Some meals can be eaten hot or cold or eaten at a tepid temp. Particularly, during warnmer treks don't always eat a heated B-fast. More and more under hot hikes I go totally no cook B-fasts.
7) Do not excessively let water boil in a rage. Heat up water some and let food soak in it to finish off cook time.
8) Put lid on pot
9) Pot cozy and of course use a windscreen even if made from found natural materials
10) Carry only enough fuel based on length of fuel needed for trip or for segments between resupply. Harder for gas canisters but no need to always take an entire bottle of inexpensive HEET for a solo weekend alchy stove trip.
11) Adjust the size of the alchy fuel container needed for your situation. Why carry 12 - 18 oz containers that is likely heavier than a 2 oz container if the 2 oz container carries enough fuel for your hikes? This is just referring to the container wt which is why for shorter trips an alchy stove can often reduce fuel wt over other type stoves like isobutane which are in 4 oz cans(just fuel) PLUS THE WT OF THE CAN.
12) Boil water/eat HIGH! Takes less energy since lower atmospheric pressure means water boils at a lower temp. Take the lower H2O temp into account accepting you'll be eating food at a lower temp. In other words, maybe opt for foods that don't require a high sustained temp(long simmer) to cook. Boil and let soak in the heated water.
13) Consider mixing in cooking with found fuel with carried fuel ie; warm water over a small very contained warming/cooking fire
14) Don't make cooking meals so complex that it requires extensive cooking times.

What do you have to save fuel wt?

[ggreaves]

Use a fuel efficient stove. There's nothing better in real-world conditions than an MSR Reactor or Windburner. Real world conditions mean that there's a breeze. These stoves are impervious to wind and will use the same amount of fuel to boil water on a calm day as in a gale. They're also pressure-regulated so they get every drop out of a canister.

[AllDownhillFromHere]

Its a trade between the weight of the stove and the fuel. A heavy fancy stove still weighs the same at the end of your trip, while a dinky gas or cat-food can stove weighs almost nothing. You start with less fuel on the high efficiency side, and more on the low - on day1 of your trip it might weigh the same, but on dayX, carrying the lighter but inefficient stove means your pack is lighter.

[Dogwood]

Can anyone discuss efficiency of alchy stove fuel types that are readily available in N. AMERICA compared to yellow HEET to possibly save fuel wt?

[Dogwood]

Its a trade between the weight of the stove and the fuel. A heavy fancy stove still weighs the same at the end of your trip, while a dinky gas or cat-food can stove weighs almost nothing. You start with less fuel on the high efficiency side, and more on the low - on day1 of your trip it might weigh the same, but on dayX, carrying the lighter but inefficient stove means your pack is lighter.

Is that accurate for any length trip?

[lonehiker]

Seeking less commonly discussed techniques. This is in the UL Forum for fuel wt saving reasons.
I'll:
1) Obtain water that is warmer. What? Don't take icy water for heating cooking water. Consider taking water from south facing sources. In summer this isn't as great a deal. Not hard measuring water temp with a cheap trail thermometer
that's included in something like a ABC watch
2) Pre warm water inside pack or on outside pack pocket with gear, clothing insulating it
3) Pre soak meals
4) Opt for food that cooks faster. Opt for pepe, ditalini, pastina capellini over large shells, rigatoni, penne, linguini etc. Opt for ready to eat jerky rather than cooking a thick raw beef teak with a large bone.
5) Pre cook and dehydrate longer cooking needed foods like quinoa although quinoa can also be pre soaked to cut cook time.
6) Mix in no cook meals into a trip or segment. Some meals can be eaten hot or cold or eaten at a tepid temp. Particularly, during warnmer treks don't always eat a heated B-fast. More and more under hot hikes I go totally no cook B-fasts.
7) Do not excessively let water boil in a rage. Heat up water some and let food soak in it to finish off cook time.
8) Put lid on pot
9) Pot cozy and of course use a windscreen even if made from found natural materials
10) Carry only enough fuel based on length of fuel needed for trip or for segments between resupply. Harder for gas canisters but no need to always take an entire bottle of inexpensive HEET for a solo weekend alchy stove trip.
11) Adjust the size of the alchy fuel container needed for your situation. Why carry 12 - 18 oz containers that is likely heavier than a 2 oz container if the 2 oz container carries enough fuel for your hikes? This is just referring to the container wt which is why for shorter trips an alchy stove can often reduce fuel wt over other type stoves like isobutane which are in 4 oz cans(just fuel) PLUS THE WT OF THE CAN.
12) Boil water/eat HIGH! Takes less energy since lower atmospheric pressure means water boils at a lower temp. Take the lower H2O temp into account accepting you'll be eating food at a lower temp. In other words, maybe opt for foods that don't require a high sustained temp(long simmer) to cook. Boil and let soak in the heated water.
13) Consider mixing in cooking with found fuel with carried fuel ie; warm water over a small very contained warming/cooking fire
14) Don't make cooking meals so complex that it requires extensive cooking times.

What do you have to save fuel wt?

All of this takes a simple thing and makes it complicated. I simply take 1 oz. of fuel (usually Heet) per day. I can normally get by with 3/4 of an oz. but I use the other 1/4 oz. to clean hands or, don't tell anyone, to clean my spoon. I believe in the KISS principle.

[Dogwood]

Lot of this stuff becomes instinctual or workable rather than a hassle for gramweenies. If it's too complex not wanting to add any fuel wt saving tips than respectfully you shouldn't be commenting since the thread is intentionally in the UL Forum to avoid such negative wt saving judgments.

[Leo L.]

...
12) Boil water/eat HIGH! Takes less energy since lower atmospheric pressure means water boils at a lower temp. Take the lower H2O temp into account accepting you'll be eating food at a lower temp. In other words, maybe opt for foods that don't require a high sustained temp(long simmer) to cook.
...

With all respect, I think this will be contraproductive.
When you have food that requires a certain amount of heat to be cooked through, it will take much more time (and much more fuel) to finish on lower air pressure than on higher.
That's the exact reason why the pressure cook pot got invented decades back: To save time and fuel.

Up to my understanding, a perfect wind protection will provide the greatest fuel saving by far.
For my desert hikes I'm using an Esbit stove, and when afraid of running low on fuel supply I add local material to the Esbit if possible.
The local material can be anything from twigs to dried camel droppings (which work amazingly well).

[cmoulder]

Use Esbit and instantly cut your fuel weight by 50%.

Twig fire between a couple of rocks and cut fuel weight by 100%.

twig_fire.jpg

[MtDoraDave]

Although I'm probably not "ultra light", one thing I started doing to save fuel is to put the water in the pot, put the knorr in the pot, put the tuna in the put, THEN start the stove. No need to bring the water to a boil first before adding ingredients then bringing to a boil again. Of course I keep the pot covered. Once the mixture comes to a boil, I stir it and turn off the stove, and wait.

I also don't turn the stove all the way up. Having the flames shoot out past the edge of the pot does no good. My stove is the GigaPower, and the flames tend to shoot out rather than up - so I adjust the fuel to about half throttle. It may take a bit longer to boil, but It seemed to have saved fuel over when I used to always turn it up to full blast. Perhaps one of you guys/gals with a digital scale can test this theory.

Also, as mentioned, I quit eating oatmeal in the mornings. Less for fuel savings really than just because 10 minutes down the trail I was always hungry again - so I tried pop-tarts for breakfast on this last trip, and they worked better for 1. fuel saving, 2. time saving, and 3. I didn't get hungry for about an hour down the trail.

[AllDownhillFromHere]

Good ideas on pre-mixing up all the food, and certainly turning it off once it boils helps. Of course now you're on the dark path to doing "cold soak" meals, which ... take some getting used to.

What I started doing with my oatmeal is just cold-soaking it with 2-3x water, and then drinking it like a smoothie when I stop for Second Breakfast.

[cbxx]

Re: "12) Boil water/eat HIGH! Takes less energy since lower atmospheric pressure means water boils at a lower temp. Take the lower H2O temp into account accepting you'll be eating food at a lower temp. In other words, maybe opt for foods that don't require a high sustained temp(long simmer) to cook. Boil and let soak in the heated water."

I have found that some foods do not cook at altitude because the boiling point of water is to low. We are talking about serious elevation here. Bring foods that only need warming up.

[Dogwood]

Use a fuel efficient stove. There's nothing better in real-world conditions than an MSR Reactor or Windburner. Real world conditions mean that there's a breeze. These stoves are impervious to wind and will use the same amount of fuel to boil water on a calm day as in a gale. They're also pressure-regulated so they get every drop out of a canister.

Good for above tree line observed used by more than a few in the climbing mountaineering crowd. Even the 1 L pot is a 8.1 oz. Wind is something that is definitely not a constant in real world conditions. When windy a 20 g foil wind screen, found rocks, behind a tree, a shallow hole, or other sheltered spots, etc can be often be used. Perhaps, adding any of that to the MSR Reactor adds efficiency so you have a pt. THX. I'm trying to keep an open mind here but can't keep from questioning things based on my own varying conditions on various hikes.

[KDogg]

Switch to a fuel efficient stove. When I switched to a Jetboil my fuel use went way down. This, however, was all negated by the state of PA being completely out of the small size fuel canisters during my thru. Everybody was hiking with the giant sized canisters which threw all weight considerations out the window. It's not always in your control.

[Dogwood]

Re: "12) Boil water/eat HIGH! Takes less energy since lower atmospheric pressure means water boils at a lower temp. Take the lower H2O temp into account accepting you'll be eating food at a lower temp. In other words, maybe opt for foods that don't require a high sustained temp(long simmer) to cook. Boil and let soak in the heated water."

I have found that some foods do not cook at altitude because the boiling point of water is to low. We are talking about serious elevation here. Bring foods that only need warming up.

# 12 is iffy as it depends on a few things like what one is cooking, actual heat output needed to raise water and/or(?) food to a temp, etc. I knew when it was posted some would rightly bring up your pt which is why I thought I already mentioned it? THX

[Dogwood]

Switch to a fuel efficient stove. When I switched to a Jetboil my fuel use went way down. This, however, was all negated by the state of PA being completely out of the small size fuel canisters during my thru. Everybody was hiking with the giant sized canisters which threw all weight considerations out the window. It's not always in your control.

Unless some thing is new about JetBoil designs certainly non Jet Boil fuel cans can be used in the JetBoil system despite JetBoil's marketing that they have special fuel. After research some other iso blend fuels are more efficient for some conditions in a jet Boil stove while being less expensive.

[Traffic Jam]

Snuff the alchy stove once water is to desired temp and retrieve excess fuel with an eye dropper.

[Dogwood]

"Although I'm probably not "ultra light", one thing I started doing to save fuel is to put the water in the pot, put the knorr in the pot, put the tuna in the put, THEN start the stove. No need to bring the water to a boil first before adding ingredients then bringing to a boil again. Of course I keep the pot covered. Once the mixture comes to a boil, I stir it and turn off the stove, and wait."


Waiting to stir the food until the mixture comes to a boil can result in burning the food to the bottom of pot or coagulating the food like a Knorrs Noodles side into globs.


"I also don't turn the stove all the way up. Having the flames shoot out past the edge of the pot does no good. My stove is the GigaPower, and the flames tend to shoot out rather than up - so I adjust the fuel to about half throttle. It may take a bit longer to boil, but It seemed to have saved fuel over when I used to always turn it up to full blast. Perhaps one of you guys/gals with a digital scale can test this theory."


Good pt. Used a SP Giga for a few yrs with a smallish diam Ti pot so have been doing that for quite a while. I wonder sometimes how much fuel it saves though? Any tests?

"Also, as mentioned, I quit eating oatmeal in the mornings. Less for fuel savings really than just because 10 minutes down the trail I was always hungry again - so I tried pop-tarts for breakfast on this last trip, and they worked better for 1. fuel saving, 2. time saving, and 3. I didn't get hungry for about an hour down the trail."


Will not give up oatmeal in the morn on cooler weather hikes for it's over riding pros though - cheap, versatile, nutritious, adaptable to many added ingredients, can be eaten cold or hot, can be added as a thickening agent to masked potatoes for example, adaptable as a dinner/snack/Bfast

[Dogwood]

Snuff the alchy stove once water is to desired temp and retrieve excess fuel with an eye dropper.

Good one. Some alchy stoves hold the fuel but my guess some evaporation can occur?

[Dogwood]

Use Esbit and instantly cut your fuel weight by 50%.

Twig fire between a couple of rocks and cut fuel weight by 100%.

twig_fire.jpg

It seems from what I've seen and read on shorter trips(and based on how/how often/what one cooks like if you're just boiling 1.5- 2 cps of water) Esbit may save some grams that can add up to ozs compared to some alchy fuel stove usage. There are cons to every system though and Esbit has some too. I'm not so keen on Esbit for a LD hike of 3 wks or more if buying Esbit along the way isn't available as even if only boiling 1.5-2 cps of water per day using 3/4-1 amount of a 14 g Esbit back to carrying up to 21 oz of fuel. Admittedly my usage is very limited. The smell made me nauseously sick. Thread on Esbit with many detailed posts that I learned much. https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthr...it-stove/page3