This will be an in-depth look at some commonly used and affordable backpacking stoves for those of us on a tight budget. I will go over everything from the solid fuel cubes and sterno type gel fuels to the DIY and store bought Trangia alcohol stoves and last but not least the canister stoves and fuels. Please LIKE, Comment and SUBSCRIBE! Starting off with the solid fuel cubes/tabs These tabs will typically burn for about 7 to 11 minutes but take twice as long as an alcohol stove to boil 2 cups of water...which is what I typically do for a meal. You get a better flame if you set them up right and better boil time for that 2 cups of water if you use 2 tabs at a time. Several companies make these solid fuel tabs like...Coghlans, Esbit and you can pick up some Hexamine from army surplus stores. There's also a ton of stoves out on the market made exclusively for these tabs like this Esbit cook set or the Esbit Ultralight folding stainless steel pot stand which is made for multiple fuel sources. With this plate inserted it will take the tabs or a small alcohol stove. If you take the plate out, it works with the Trangia alcohol stoves and their clones or use it as a firebox and place it in or around the coals of your fire to set your pot on. This pot stand serves to block the wind, holds your fuel up off the ground and holds your cook pot at the optimal high from the flames to get the best boil time. It's also compact, very light. This particular piece is my most versatile piece of kit considering its many uses. When you're done just simply pull the panels apart and store it flat in your pack. Alcohol Stoves These are my personal favorite. From the DIY penny stoves and open top stoves to the Trangia and its clones from Solo and Esbit. These stoves will take a wide variety of fuels from Denatured Alcohol and Grain Alcohol like whiskey to Metheyl fuels like this Heet gas line anti freeze and our least favorite option...rubbing alcohol. With all of these alcohol stoves you'll want to use a wind screen to protect the flame from blowing out. With penny type stoves you'll want to add a pot stand like this hardware cloth to prop the pot up to the optimal height for the flames to be efficient which is usually about 1.5 to 2 inches. With open top stoves you can just put the pot directly on top of the stove and of course always use your windscreen. The best fuels to use with these types of stove is gonna be the denatured alcohol or this heet in the yellow bottle. They will burn very clean and hot. This rubbing alcohol isn't as efficient, takes a little longer to boil and leaves black soot on your pot and windscreen. Out of all of these the Heet is gonna be the least expensive and all of these can be purchase at a gas station or a big name store like Walmart. The Sterno or gel fuels These stoves are my least favorite but are still a great stove with at least a 2 hour burn time. I'm not gonna open it up for this video but the gel inside can be lit very easy and placed in a grill enclosure like this one that Sterno makes. This blocks the wind and gives you a pot stand or grill surface to put the food directly onto. This can also be used as a firebox by placing small sticks in here, light it and close the door. When you're done just put the lid on your stove and fold up the pot stand. These are better suited for car camping because of their weight and size but that can easily be remedied by using some hardware cloth as a pot stand and some tin foil as a windscreen. It just sits right inside this rim on the top here. You'll want the hardware cloth to be 1.5 to 2 inches tall to get the flame closer to the pot. Now throw on your tinfoil wind screen. When you're done...just cap the stove, wrap the pot stand and windscreen around it and pop it into your cook pot. Now it's compact and ready to go backpacking. Canister Stoves When it comes to canister stoves there are too many options available to show in this video. So I'm just gonna talk about this $6 canister stove from Amazon and 2 types of fuel. Canister stoves are favored for multiday trips because the canisters can hold a lot of fuel and the stoves are very efficient at using that fuel. You can boil 2 cups of water in about a minute and there's no way to accidentally spill your fuel. These stoves are also very good at simmering or going full blast for a quick cook time. The stove itself can be very small and nest inside your cook post along with the canister. Today I'm showing the Jetboil Isobutane/Propane fuel mix and the Gasone Butane. Thanks for watching guys. Please LIKE, Comment and SUBSCRIBE! Till next time, I'll see you...On The Trail! Music by: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Exhilarate and Take the Lead Tags: Affordable backpacking stoves, affordable camping stove,

• published: 03 Mar 2014
• views: 6586