When big game hunting in the fall I usually leave in the dark, stay out in the bush all day and do not return to camp until after dark. I often sit a stand in the morning and evening and still hunt or scout during the middle of the day; this is easier on my aging body, lets me get closer to nature and allows me more time in game country.

I like to have something hot to drink with my lunch and have been trying a couple methods to heat water with. I want an easy, covert way to bring 500ml (16oz) of water to a boil because sometimes I use local untreated river/lake water.

I started with a small campfire but it was noisy collecting the wood and I thought the smoke may scare game. I then tried my Snow Peak Giga canister stove, worked great but it was noisy and the canister was bulky to carry in my daypack. I used an Ezbit type solid fuel stove for a couple years but disliked the fishy smell and got tired of the goo on the bottom of my containers. So this year I tested some alcohol fueled stoves with mixed results.

I first tested GreenHeat Gel which I bought from Workwear Canada. I did not have a proper burner plate so I formed a cup from an aluminum military windscreen and hung my thin walled SS Billy Can from a lashed branch.

The setup can be seen below.


I also tested the GreenHeat at home in my garage using a folding tin stove, tinfoil burner plate and GSI cup with a lid.

I found the GreenHeat easy to use and it lit quickly but one packet did not have the heat to bring the water to a boil, it was OK as I had used potable water from camp. The hot chocolate I made that day taste great and helped warm me up to go back in the treestand. Two GreenHeat packets would have got the water boiling for sure.

I then moved on to liquid fuel alcohol stoves, but I will have to post those results later as tomorrow is an early work day and I am beat.

A terrific stove comparison website is Zen Stoves , lots of quality information.

Mike

Thanks a lot for posting your hands-on experience.

I don't see a lid in there.... do you use a lid? If not, you should. Boiling without a lid means you loose A LOT of heat due to the increased evaporation from the hot water. Trapping that steam beneath some barrier reduces this heat loss significantly. (Lots of steam in the pot means less evaporation => less energy used to making steam, more energy used for heating and boiling)

A little piece of alufoil is as good a lid as any.

The next alcohol stove I tried was a Trangia Burner fueled with methyl alcohol (Heet or fondue fuel). I carried the stove filled with fuel but the o-ring seal leaked a little so I put it in a plastic bag. Since then I have found the correct amount of tightening (compression) to keep the stove from leaking.



This time I used the Tringia burner, under a homemade wire pot stand, tinfoil wind break and GSI cup with makeshift sheet aluminum lid.

This set-up worked great, lots of heat that was easy to set-up and control. It took about 8 minutes to boil 500ml of water.

At home I tested the Trangia burner with a larger pot and 1 litre of water, like I was going to heat an MRE or stew. This set-up brought the water to a boil in about 12 minutes, and there was still enough fuel in the stove to heat another 500ml of water for a hot drink.



This is an excellent stove to make a meal, but just for coffee it was a little heavy, the seperate pot stand was bulky in my pack and there was a risk of the stove leaking fuel.

Moving on to gelled canned alcohol in my next post.

Mike

In my garage at home I used a small gelled alcohol fuel tin under a wire mesh pot stand to heat 500ml of water in the covered GSI SS cup. This test only brought the water up to "Hot", no matter how long the gelled fuel burnt I could not get it to boil, OK for use with a safe water source. Maybe the larger Sterno cans would do better?



I then tried a liquid fuel "Cat" stove that I had built years ago with instructions from the internet. It is just a small cat food tin with 2 rows of holes punched around the edge with a paper punch. Alcohol is put in the bottom of the tin and lit, the pot sits on top of the can and the flames emerge out of the holes, very simple.



Using 1.5oz of fuel this stove heated 500ml (2 cups) of water to a boil in about 9 minutes with a small amount of fuel left over. It is very light and needs no pot stand but requires fuel to be carried in a seperate bottle and has only one heat setting.

I think this will be my new field coffee making stove.

Comments, experiences and recommendations on these and other stoves are most welcome.

Thanks, Mike

Swampdonkey...years ago we used a piece of aluminum roofing valley to make a three sided potstand/wind break.. very short burner (we used paraffin/cardboard in a shoe polish tin)and carried an extra 1/4# block of paraffin... folded flat and very little weight...I used one for several years without any noticable metal fatigue from folding/unfolding... would something like this for a stand/windscreen work to decrease your bulk problem?

For this sort of usage, I would recommend a Trangia stove. They are fairly cheap (around $11 or so), reasonably light (3 oz unfilled), and very sturdy (brass construction). They can also carry their own fuel supply - enough for about two boils or so. Just be sure the o-ring in the cap is intact.

I carried one of these in my SAR kit for years. They are perfect when you want something reliable and rugged that will boil water with little or no attention or fussing. Used with a basic windscreen and lid, they will boil about two cups of water in four or five minutes.

One is tucked away in my car even now.

Thank you very much, SD, for the analysis and photos.

I wonder what the weight comparison is between these setups and a JetBoil -- which weighs 14 oz minus the fuel canister.

The JetBoil cup is designed to hold a small fuel canister as well as the burner. I sure like mine -- boils water in a jiffy and is so compact.

Have had the original JetBoil for a few years -- for car camping it's my go-to for morning coffee and evening cocoa. Just bought the new "Flash" version and will be keeping the old JetBoil in the car from here out.


The FluxRing heat exchanger captures 80% of the flame's heat – about twice that of most canister stoves. One 3.5 ounce (110 gram) canister of fuel can boil up to 12 liters of water, which means less fuel to carry. It's also fast – two minutes to boil 16 oz. of water for cocoa, coffee, instant soup or a freeze-dried meal. Easy push-button starter. Compatible with any standard threaded fuel canister. Burner and a 3.5 oz. fuel canister nest inside the pot.

I've futzed around with a lot of stoves in my day and settled on the Mini-Trangia alcohol kit (obscured by my windscreen here) as my "emergency" cook kit. I find the squares of roof-flashing awesome as wind screens. These are galvanized sheet metal but you can also get lighter aluminum ones. You only need the flashing on the windward side and you can leave the lee side open to manipulate the burner, pot, whatever. I always use the pot lid upside down--it's much easier to remove with the pot lifter and you can simultaneously warm things in the lid if you like.

Thanks for all your comments folks,

MostlyHarmless - I had no lid in the first GreenHeat Gel set-up but did in the 3 tests in my garage, I still could not get it to boil. You are correct that a lid really helps boil times, often I just use tinfoil.

LesSnyder - You are right that a windbreak is critical for use of a mini-stove outdoors. The very thin military windscreen that I used as a lid in Image #2 will probably become the windscreen for my Trangia Burner and Super Cat Stove.

Hikemor and Sotto - I agree with you that the Trangia Spirt Burner is a great little stove and will be the one I carry when lunch involves actual cooking and not just boiling a small amount of water. I was lucky to find just the burner for sale at the MEC store in Toronto for $12.00. The one listed on the website includes the potstand and pot/lid for $31.00.

Dagny - The JetBoil system looks very interesting and efficient on fuel. The difference is in the weight and bulk in my small daypack. The Super Cat Stove weighs only 1/4oz (0.25oz) as it is just a mini-aluminium cat food tin with holes punched in it, a very simple unit with lots of thought behind it.

The Super Cat stove was developed by Jim Wood as seen in his website here. It takes about 5 minutes to build a Super Cat with a minimum of tools.

Please keep the ideas coming,

Mike

Interesting, SD, and thanks for information and pictures.

I recently picked up a Wetfire stove. Weighs less than half an ounce and is made of titanium. I’ve only tried in once on a dry day with no wind, the results were good. After doing some reading about the soot problem, I did wrap the pot in foil as well as the stove and that did save a major clean-up as it got covered with soot. And just for an experiment I used a cube of Esbit fuel tab rather than the wet fire cube. I had boiling water in approximately 5 minutes.

The stove is small enough to fit in my fire making kit that I keep in a Witz container

http://www.ultimatesurvival.com/camping-hiking/WetFireStove.php

I have a snow peak giga stove that I really like, however, it does require toting a canister.