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Hello, I'm Martin, the great outdoors fanatic. I go out in the woods or up in the mountains as often as I can. Due to a foot injury that I obtained during my latest outing I am stuck in my house for a couple of weeks so I decided to make this website to kill some time. Being a well experienced backpacker I have decided to dedicate this website to the topic of camp-stoves. Next time I injure my foot I might make a website about tents, water filters, or sleeping bags, who knows. If you like this website please don't break my kneecaps if you run into me in the woods so that I will be stuck here again making outdoors websites for your enjoyment. |
Having many years of outdoors survival experience I tend to favor low-tech stoves that will never ever let you down. If you have a working stove you will be able to survive the absolutely harshest conditions. If you have the latest high-tech-super-BTU-ultra-light gizmo from a trendy outdoors store in a big city you will die when things get rough.
Important things for me in a
camp-stove are:
An unreliable
stove will leave you both angry and hungry out in the woods. This is
especially important if you are bringing kids or women with you. They are
much more sensitive to hunger than guys.
RELIABILITY
LIGHT
WEIGHT
You're
going to be carrying your stove up the mountain so it's gotta be light.
Keep in mind that most of the weight is not in the stove but in the fuel.
A heavier stove that burns less fuel is often better than a light stove
burning much fuel.
FUEL ACQUIRING
CONVENIENCE
Don't get a stove that
screws on to some type of gas
container. Cunning manufacturers change thread size standards on gas containers periodically and
geographically so that you will be forced to buy
a new stove every time they change sizes or you go backpacking somewhere far from home.
Stoves that run on liquid or solid fuel do not have this problem, they
also tend to be more reliable.
Unimportant things for me in a
camp-stove are:
A common attribute that manufacturers like
to bragg about in their advertising is thermal output or how long it takes
to bring a quart of water to a boil. It makes absolutely no difference if
it takes one minute
or ten minutes to bring a quart of water to a boil, there is
no hurry. Only a complete idiot would choose a camp-stove based on how long it
takes to boil a quart of water. The
size of the stove makes no difference
as long as it will fit inside or strapped on outside your backpack. Only
the weight matters.
THERMAL OUTPUT (COOKING
SPEED)
SIZE
Other issues to keep in mind when selecting
a camp-stove:
As a very experienced backpacker who has used
every camp-stove imaginable I must say that the price of a camp stove
has very little to do with how good a stove it is. Most of
my favorite types of stoves cost less than $40, some can even be
made at home by a skillful handyman.
PRICE
TERRAIN
If
you are doing a lot of backpacking in forested areas you might
want to consider a stove that runs on wood that you can gather on
site eliminating the need to bring fuel. These types of stoves weigh a bit
more than other stoves but since you're not bringing any fuel, you actually
end up carrying less weight. If you are backpacking above the tree line or
in the desert you would want to carry a liquid fuel
stove.
SEASON
If you
go backpacking in the snow with cross country skis or snowshoes like
I do you should not use a gas stove. Gas stoves are very
temperamental in freezing temperatures, the gas gets harder to ignite the colder
it gets which can have tragic consequences since it is in the cold that
you really need a stove you can rely on. Use a solid or liquid fuel stove
in the winter.
Types of stoves that I use and recommend:
I bought this stove from a website called trailstove
. Best purchase I ever made, whoever invented this stove
should get some kind of award. Just put some sticks in it, light it, and
blow some air into it with the blow hose and you can cook on it. It
is slower than a gas stove to cook on but who cares, there's no hurry. You
have to blow a bit harder if the wood is wet but it's not a major problem.
A handful of small sticks cooks dinner easily. This type of stove is
the best possible choice if you are going to the woods. The best part is
that you don't have to carry any fuel so you are carrying less total
weight even though the stove weighs almost a pound. If needed you can
stay out forever
with this stove.
WOOD POWERED
BACKPACKING
STOVE
ALCOHOL
POWERED
CAN
STOVE If you are going where
there are no trees such as the desert or above the tree line I recommend
you bring an alcohol stove. You can make one of these yourself with a
couple of empty beer cans and some super glue. Here is a website with a pretty good description on what to
do. It runs on any type of alcohol, I use high concentration 98% rubbing
alcohol available in any supermarket. Again, just like a wood powered
stove an alcohol stove is slower than
a gas stove.
With these two types of stoves you will be completely covered under any circumstances. If you are going on a high risk hike it is a good idea to bring your wood stove along even if you are going to the desert or above the tree line. You can always find something to burn in a wood stove anywhere you go.
Please send me an e-mail if you have any comments or questions: martin@pikpuk.com
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