Originally Posted By: JerryFountain
HJ,

Thanks for another exciting wink episode!! I enjoyed it very much. This one my wife may like as well, because I am not interested in rushing out to buy one (unlike the Borde) Thanks also for letting me look at another view. I always thought of the Reactor as a solution looking for a problem. But, then, I have spent much of my working life in high alpine or arctic conditions. Even in summer I have always taken a liquid fuel stove, but that is mostly for fuel availability issues. The thing that first got me to buy an XGK was the fact that I could use fuel from the aircraft (80 then 100LL from the piston engines and "kerosene" from the turbines) when white gas or coleman fuel were not available (both are common in the north). I only had to carry some empty bottles. Since I almost always went commercial air to the region, not having to look up fuel was a great advantage.

During winter, I never even tried anything but liquid fuel in the field. I will say that a propane grill does not work very well at -40 - then most are not wanting to grill at that temp (some think I am a little strange). The natural gas grill worked fine but the gas lines were buried and well above 0 F.

Respectfully,

Jerry
Hi, Jerry,

Thanks for sharing your very practical experience. My trips, even to Canada, seldom get below -9.

By the way, you're talking about next week's stove, the XGK. The XGK (well, it's immediate anscestor the model 9) is the stove that started the great outdoor stove revolution of 1973. More on that in this week's blog post.

Your thoughts about fuel for the XGK point out a very important issue: The "pragmatics" of stoving. The best stove in the world won't work if you can't get fuel for it. Particularly in remote area or distant lands, something like an XGK that can burn darned near any petroleum product known to man -- and get away with it -- is something not to be dismissed.

There was another thread on the forums recently about what stove would be good for a serious disaster. My vote was the XGK. It's packable if roads are out. It's simple. It's tough. It's truly multi-fuel.

The late author, Colin Fletcher, relates a story where he grabbed the wrong fuel for his XGK. He grabbed a combination of automotive gasoline and oil intended for his lawnmower. He discovered his mistake miles from any trailhead. With trepidation, he ran his XGK on it. For a week. The XGK ran, not as cleanly as normal but without any serious problems. Fletcher writes that he doubts any other stove would have been able to do that.

HJ
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Adventures In Stoving