Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting How much fuel

I am headed out for 7 days and 6 nights. I plan on boiling water for oatmeal and instant coffee in the morning and a mtn house meal at night. Elevation is between 3000' and 4000'. I'm new at this and I had planned a few overnighters first but this opportuninty came along so I want to make sure I have enough. Is there a guide in how many cups of water a 3.5 oz can of fuel will get you. Thanks for any help!

Look up the manufacturer of your stove, they will likely list a burn time for X amount of fuel in the specs.

Then boil water a few times and time it, not just once, but average, using your set up outdoors when it's windy, calm etc. Using a windshield and sheltering your setup from the wind increases efficiencty.

Then do the math and figure out what you need.

An example is the MSR Whisperlite Universal, has a burn time of 75 minutes for a 8 oz canister of ISO Pro fuel. It takes me roughly 5 minutes to start the stove, get the stove hot and burning right and boil 2 cups of water. That is the outside time, don't ever plan on perfect timing and conditions every time, think max limits. It will actually boil in 3-1/2 minutes.

So that means I can get 15 5 minute burns from it, so the math says I can boil 2 cups of water twice a day for 7 days plus one spare from one 8 oz fuel canister.

Thanks I will do that. This is what I found on the web site:

�Boiling Time: 2.10 min
�Burn Time: 59 min on 100 g
�3.5 oz gas cartridge

I'll burn a few times but I'll double the boiling time at least.
Thanks again

There are lots of variables and this is anything but scientific but with an MSR Pocket Rocket, I can get 15-20+ "boils" out of an 8 oz IsoButane canister. That's 12-16 oz per.

I carried one 8 oz canister on a backpack hunt in Idaho last October at around 8300 ft. I did about what you described , instant oatmeal, coffee, dehydrated meals at night. I had 4 breakfasts and 4 dinners with several additional cups of coffee etc., so around 12-15 uses. I had a little fuel left in the canister when I came out.

I don't know what you are describing with a "3.5 oz can" of fuel, but whatever stove/fuel combination you have, it may be worthwhile to sacrifice a can of fuel for research to find out what YOUR gear does.

Keep in mind, if you use isobutane mix, when you start dropping much below around 20� performance is going to suffer, the propane will want to burn off leaving the butane behind. My canister slept in the footbox of my bag at night.

Beware burn time/specs from the manufacturer. I believe they may be a bit "optomistic" at times, and don't take into consideration altitude, temperatures (air and your water) and wind. As elkhunter said above, shielding from wind is important for efficiency.

There is a forum member on here, HikinJim that has a great site with lots of stove info:
http://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com/

Hope this helps.

Extend your fuel by constructing a pot cozy.
Here's a link but several DIY videos are available on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVlVLt2iOPc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

What kind of stove?

A small 100gm can with my Soto and a Jet Boil pot will last me and my wife 4 days, a big can will last about a week. Same amount of cooking you describe but for two.

Pocket Rocket will last about half as long.

Wisperlite with a 20oz bottle of white gas will last us about 8 days same usage.

How's butane work in the cold?

Poorly.

FUEL CONSUMPTION
The �Rule of 4s� is an easy way to estimate how much fuel you need to carry. It states that one large canister of Isobutane fuel will last four days for two people and 4 ounces of white gas fuel will be needed for one person per day. In my experience it�s close but not perfect but still a good easy tool. I�ve been able to stretch one 8 ounce canister of Isobutane for almost four days for two people and ran out on the last morning. Four ounces of white gas fuel is probably a little more than one person would use based upon the following exercise.

I used an MSR Whisperlite and an MSR Dragon Fly. I filled the fuel bottles with 8 ounces of fuel, brought 8 ounces of water to a rolling boil, then I measured the amount of fuel that was left. I did this twice for each stove. Taking into consideration the fact that our tap water is probably a little warmer than creek water, I arrived at the conclusion that it takes about 1 ounce of white gas to boil 24 ounces of water.





Breakfast = 44 ounces of boiled water required per person
2 mugs (12 ounces each) Cocoa/Coffee = 24 ounces water
3 packs Oatmeal = 12 ounces water
Hot Wash Water 8 oz.

Dinner = 44 ounces of boiled water required per person
2 mugs (12 ounces each) Cocoa = 24 ounces water
1 Mountain House Pro Pak = 1 1/2 cup = 12 ounces
Hot Wash Water 8 oz.

It would take a little over 3 � cups of fuel to boil 88 ounces of water. So using those quantities of water, the Rule of 4s would have you carrying a little extra fuel. I don�t have a problem with that. A quart of white gas fuel should be enough fuel for one person for eight or nine days. I think I would double the amount of fuel if I was planning on boiling snow for water.

In this scenario, thirty-two ounces of water is used per meal for hot drinks and to wash the cups. If you eliminate hot drinks, hot breakfast and washing dishes then all you do is rehydrate freeze-dried for your evening meal and you eat out of the package, then you could get away with a lot less fuel. All you would need is about half an ounce of white gas per day per person to boil 12 ounces of water for your evening freeze-dried meal.

KC