Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Looking for a stove

Sorry, didn't read your link on the Soto, maybe it will fire up in the cold but I'll never buy one 'cause you can't safely rig a windscreen on the sucker, just like every other inline cannister stove. I've noticed it's a tad windy where I travel, can't speak for you and your locale.

"Maybe it will fire up in the cold"? Whats it take for you to eat some crow? I post a video of a frozen inline canister and my own inline Soto fires up fine when frozen at 5degF.

As for wind, I usually manage to find some kind of windbreak:


Btw, it was plenty "cold" that AM, canister inline (SP Giga) worked just fine like it has on other "cold" mornings:


MtnHtr

Both a canister and alcohol stove will work fine in those conditions.

MtnHtr,

how well does it work at -20?

(Not being a smarta$$ here, just curious.)

Never taken a canister down that low so can't vouch for that low a temp. The lowest I've taken my Giga was mid teens with some wind chill, pulled the canister out of the pack, got behind a deadfall and cooked up some cup o noodles.

And canisters work fine up on Everest and Denali, ask Ed Viesturs. They keep their canisters warm and have no issues, some even pack MSR Pocket rockets.

I think for Pastor Dan's needs a canister would work just fine, especially the new Soto Micro or a remote canister setup like the MSR WindPro.

MtnHtr

Unless he wants something to tinker/ mess around with, Yes, a can stove is probably his best bet.

At above 20 degrees- then yes a canister stove works great. That's what I usually carry on a day hike or light overnight.

Canisters worked fine at high altitude well before regulated canister stoves were introduced. The air pressure at high altitude is significantly lower which in turn lowers the vaporization temperature for the canister fuel. If I remember correctly, atmospheric pressure is about halved from sea level to 18K ft.

Where's your windscreen, or do you just drag that stump around?

Where I hunt God has usually left a good selection of take_a_knee's windscreens around for me to use!

Not true at all:

SP Giga Windscreen


Or just make your own: Homemade windscreens

Never used one though, plenty of rocks and logs where I hunt.

MtnHtr

No way is that thing of yours effective, it leaves a huge gap from the top of the screen to the pot's bottom. That Ti bowl in your link might actually work though, thanks for posting that.

Like I posted before, I don't own or use the OEM SP Giga windscreen. If wind is an issue where you hunt (with no cover or natural windblocks) then consider a MSR WindPro, it has great reviews and comes with windscreens.

You might want want to re-think your earlier post on melting snow.


They're using inline canister stoves to melt snow in the Himalayas:

Melting snow at Camp 1 on Mt Everest

Ed Viesturs will stash his canisters in his sleeping bag all the way up to the final summit. Him and his pard will melt snow 3-4hrs a day just to rehydrate at those altitudes using canister stoves. Fwiw.

MtnHtr

Not many places windier than where I hang out along the Rocky Mountain Front here in Montana. That said I prefer a canister stove. Have tried most all of them and prefer the Soto by far. I use it both with the JetBoil pot set-up like Luke did or just a regular pot.

I can always find something to shield the wind, a few rocks, behind a big tree, my pack, etc. Not perfect wind screens, but still way more time effecient than alcohol, esbit or anything but white gas which I greatly dislike because of the fuel that needs to be carried.

I have many times gone to various versions of alcohol burners and always come back to either a canister stove or a wood burning cone stove like this one I made:



Of course my first prefrence is a wood stove inside a tipi. That way you have heat, cooking and cloths drying all in one.

Alcohol stoves have one main advantage that makes them so popular with thru hikers, you can buy fuel at any drug store, hardware store, gas station etc.

Yes, and the Caldera Cone/Clone (like your Ti-Tri clone in your pic) is the best of the lot, IMO. Wood, alcohol, or that stinkin' esbit will heat your food, you pick.

MtnH, I already have a Windpro, it's my two-person, not-too cold stove. Viestur is a beast for sure, who am I to second guess the greatest living mountaineer, but that stove setup of his looks a tad tippy to me.

Not tippy, mountaineers prefer to hang their stoves when melting snow (which takes up a good deal of their time) in 4 season tents, it keeps their tent warm and less chance of knocking it over. They prefer to hang both liquid and canister stoves in properly vented 4 season tents. Should add the Jetboil is pretty popular it seems among that group. And again, they stash their canisters in warm places before they use them.



MtnHtr

@ MtnHtr & @ ..Knee -- In my opinion, the JetBoil Sol Advanced or Sol Ti solves the probs discussed. Among other stoves, I've got the original JetBoil PCS, a Soto OD-1R and a JetBoil Sol Ti.

1st, the Sol has a built in regulator, like that of the Soto OD-1R. The fact that the JetBoil used in MtnHtr's video was a PCS, which doesn't have a regulator, is the reason that the Soto performed so much better in the cold temps. Compare the Soto to the JetBoil Sol & the Soto loses it's advantage.

2nd, the JetBoil Sol Advanced & TI have the "Flux" heat exchanger which does help deflect a substantial amount of wind. This is where the JetBoil gains the advantage over the Soto.

If you're interested, I'll see if I can set up a side by side comparison of the stoves. I'll set them both on canisters nestled in some ice on my counter for a "wind free" compairison & then I'll do the same outside on a windy day. I haven't uploaded videos to youtube in the past so it might be a while.

I just did a side by side video of the Jetboil SOL Ti against the Soto OD1R on boil time, at 6,000 and 11,500 feet in elevation... I will post up the link to the video, but I would say that all the issues I had with the original Jetboil have been taken care of and it will be going in my pack this fall.

Cool, look forward to seeing your results.

@ reaper --- can't wait to see it!

Should be a great comparison. And a Whisperlight killer too (sorry, just had throw that in )

MtnHtr