 there has been much debate over the merits/demerits of various type of stove from one that will boil several litres of water in seven seconds to others that take the leisurely time over such matters. obviously, the stove used will be chosen by its functionality for what you want to do with it. to grab some hypothetical numbers: stove a boils 500ml of water in say 2mins stove b boils 500ml of water in say 7mins will the super duper atomic powered stove a heat up a boil in the bag or reconstituted food any quicker than it's "poor" relation, stove b? my reasoning, but not tried as i haven't a garden for such experiments (YOU explain to the Angel that meths is the in fashion domestic fragrance of the year and will be released by glade in early 2009), is that such food requires a certain amount of time to reheat and that there will be bugger all difference (technical term) between "in the pot" to "in the mouth" time. well at least none worth worrying about. as i am of the "who cares how long it takes" brigade my personal experience is that heating food slowly ensures consistent heat in the "bits" (i.e. not sauce hot, beans cold) and this is best acheived by gentle heating with the added bonus of no burnt on bits - more or less put it on and forget about it. any ideas; bleedin' obvious holes in my simple logic; experiences?
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 Sounds pretty sound to me except for when making tea/coffee etc.
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 I'm with you on this one Parky. I couldn't care less if my water takes 30 seconds longer to boil than someone else. If i'm cooking my evening meal, then my walking is finished for the day, and i'm relaxing by my tent. I'm in no hurry to go anywhere. The only thing i'm interested in with a stove, is weight and volume. 
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 anywhere. The only thing i'm interested in with a stove, is weight and volume. And the noise the stove makes (or is that what you meant by "volume" ?).
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Although I've pretty much just agreed with you parky, personally I cant be bothered with the faff of meths when wildcamping unless its summer and a beautifull night etc. For widcamping its gas (normal burner type, not super duper jetboil type) for me and one of many homemade meths burners for a brew during a dayhike.
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On that note Frum its the Dragonfly for campsites for the 6.00am coffee 
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 The only place I can think of where it would matter is with squaddies, in them neeeding to brew up and have their scoff very quickly during a patrol break or on active service operations; when outside and behind enemy lines, or not being able to stay for very long in a single location, say for operational safety and security reasons. For the average joe camper or hiker it matters little as you say. Edit - apologies for my atrocious spelling right now. Feeing a little bit unnerved and shaked up by some nutter having a go at me, as I walked around to the corner store for supplies just now.  That kind of crap always unsettles me a little bit.
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| Edited: 23/07/08 18:44 |
 And the noise the stove makes  an added bonus of my Optimus Nova!
But I agree with the point - speed does seem to be picked up on largely by those who's camp cooking amounts to boiling water. It's far from the only factor.
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Another important factor, which some won't appreciate at present, is the aroma of food being cooked.
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 pmsl
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 What about when it's bloody freezing, dark and you're knackered from walking all day and you just want to boil water ASAP to add to a meal such as noodles or cous cous that doesnt require heating for any length of time?
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Just noticed your edit, Trev. Sorry to hear about your unpleasant encounter, get stuck into OM and hopefully the memory of it will fade away fairly soon
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What about when it's bloody freezing, dark and you're knackered from walking all day and you just want to boil water ASAP to add to a meal such as noodles or cous cous that doesnt require heating for any length of time? In those conditions, it's ease of use that would be high on my list as well.
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 It dosn't matter what it smell like, if you wear a blindfold you'll just about eat anything (or is that wear anything and eat the blindfold)
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What about when it's bloody freezing, dark and you're knackered from walking all day and you just want to boil water ASAP to add to a meal such as noodles or cous cous that doesnt require heating for any length of time? ......... and you go to attach the gas cylinder to the stove and get it cross threaded, while your mate has his meths stove up and running, .....
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DLTBGYD Trevor.
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Thanks MoS. Yes sure hope so. But still a bit worried about it all as this weird guy threatening me out there this afternoon obviously seemed to strongly believe I was DVLA, or something. So am a bit worried he will be trying to accost and thump me again if I'm unfortunate enough to meet him upon my future travels, around the corner to the local shop.
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| Edited: 23/07/08 19:00 |
Are you sure he didn't think you were BBC Trev ? Was he wearind a Tilley hat ?
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What about when it's bloody freezing, dark and you're knackered from walking all day and you just want to boil water ASAP to add to a meal such as noodles or cous cous that doesnt require heating for any length of time? Well what about it? How much difference does another minute really make? And if it's really bloody freezing I'd want a fuel other than gas! 
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Alright, in average UK conditions...
5 degrees above zero, gas wont suffer that much. Pocket Rocket will take 3 minutes to boil (maybe 4 or 5 if breezy and the canister is on its way out), meths will take 10-15mins.
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