when the vortex hit the first time and it went down to -12 in Minneapolis i went to a local park where i take photos for the Park Service and fired up and ran this "orange Box" stove.
i had the cart in my parka pocket and used the peizo lighter on the stove and it worked just fine to boil a small pot of water it what seemed normal time.




i did run this cold weather Gaz photo before but i guess the message is don't give up on it.play around at home with different stoves and see what works.

you people are making me cold with your sub zero temps and snow. Have you considered using trioxane in cold weather? While on the subject does anyone know if one is supposed to use red or yellow HEET in a CAR stove? I saw it on clearance at way-mart today.

DW, I am not sure what you mean by a car stove, but I understand that yellow Heet is the preferred fuel for alcohol stoves.

Hikermor
My bad. CAT stove. I thought it was yellow but was not sure, Four bottles for four dollars.
Thanks.

Yellow Heet should be just fine in those terribly complex and expensive CAT stoves (I have one myself). Heavy, too, aren't they?

LOL, Haven't made one yet, so not sure how well it will work, but I have an empty cat food can ready and waiting to be c0nverted. I have read that HEET is rather sooty. Tried 90% isopropyl alcohol in a tiny can using my el cheapo Esbit knock off. Can't say that I was impressed with the performance.

Denatured alcohol is what I use and it burns nicely. Easy to stay lit and burns clean.

Can't find it here 6Pac. I was using 90% isopropyl alcohol in the little burner that came with my swiss mess kit (The lid was cracked so can't carry it with alcohol in it. I was a bit disappointed in it's performance. Someone suggested grain alcohol but all I could find was Everclear, and it was to expensive to be used as fuel.

Rather than use isopropyl alcohol, use a Trangia or Tatonka Alcohol Stove burner with some commercial Bio-ethanol. A Trangia Triangle is also reasonably lightweight and provides a good windscreen and support for a Trangia or Tatonka alcohol burner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLiRg2_zBtk

To improve efficiency use something like a Primus EtaPower Pot with the built in heat exchanger on the base of the pan. I use a Vango PowerEx Kettle and will improve fuel usage by about 30% and reduce boil time considerably.

I can also use the Trangia Triangle with Gelled Bio-ethanol by replacing the Trangia burner with a cleaned out aluminium dessert can from a French RCIR ration pack (weighs around 5 grams). It is a perfect fit to act as a burner using gelled bio-ethanol such as Firedragon or Vango F4 fuel. This setup will boil 500ml of Cold water in around 4 1/2 minutes.

A couple of things you could try with you cannister stove starting with the easist:

1) Put the cannister in your pocket or next to your body initially to warm it up.

2) Use a small insulated pad under the stove in milder winter weather to keep it off the snow. I've heard of people sewing a kozy for their stove.

3) Use a charcoal handwarmer(s) under the stove or rubber band it to the side. You probably have handwarmers in your kit in the first place!

4) Put the cannister in a pan of water to warm it up. Even water right at 0*C will be warmer than the outside air and it will counteract the lowering of the cannister temperature as the gas is consumed and the internal pressure drops.

5) Use a wrap-a-round windscreen. They always say, "don't do this because it will overheat your cannister and it will go boom." Nonsense, when its -30*C with a little breeze, that worry is gone. The heat from the flame will reheat the cannister and help evaporate the gas. You can judge for youself by touching the top of the cannister, if you can hold you hand on it you are fine. If too warm then open up the screen a bit more. Just don't wrap it tight to the stove and you will be fine. If you are still not convinced, then add a circular bit of tinfoil under the burner as another shield to moderate the heat on the cannister.

I've got a Coleman X-treme from the '90s. I can't find fuel for it anymore but luckily I anticipated this and have a stock of about 12 cannisters. It works pretty well in moderate cold, but I've never used it at -30*C. (When a local outdoors store renovated they threw out a whole box of these things, I told them I would take it off their hands... but alas I just missed out on it.)