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Meths Stove advice
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When I twiddled me spreadsheet at work, 3 days was definitely heavier for meths.

I use dehydrated meals that you just bung boiling water in, so in one day I only have to boil enough water for brekkie coffee, meal and evening coffee. Very economical on gas.

So you could argue I'd need less meths.

Actually my original post was because I was genuinely thinking I could make a useful weight saving on short trips by using a meths stove. I was really quite surprised to find that any saving is really quite small (given the extent to which alcohol stoves are "hyped"). That, the cost, and the fire risk to my beloved tent, means its out for me.

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Zubald, in all honesty, I think the fire risk with a Caldera Cone is much less than a gas stove.  It is well contained within the very stable cone windshield.  If you have a light stove, they sit on top of the gas and can be quite top heavy, hence more risky.

IMHO the bottom line is that for the last twelve weekends in this lovely nation of ours it has rained on a Saturday night, therefore you have to be happy that you can cook in your small tent with the stove you have brought, therefore for the tiny weight disadvantage between a lightweight gas stove and a meths stove the advantages of taking a gas stove are numerous compared with that tiny weight loss. Save weight elsewhere and save yourself from burning down your tent and enable a brew in 3 minutes instead of ten and don't get that horrible meths smell on your hands.

I've seen so many people using meths and gas and done so my self and everyone who actually gets out there regularly and gets out in good and bad weather ends up going back to using gas.

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i agree that gas has significant advantages such as the ability to simmer , and more importantly being able to turn off the flame easily and quickly, I think what led me start this thread was the appeal of a small meths stove was similar to when i used to use multi fuel stoves when i first started backpacking years ago , the little ritual of primng ,pressurising  and the little quirks of the stove, but i agree Jamie gas is much safer in a tent porch .
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It's horses for courses, each has it's pro's and cons. Knowledge and experience will dictate which stove to pack - trying, testing, learning is what makes backpacking fun. Learning the hard way isnt fun but who said it was going to be easy?

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> If you have a light stove, they sit on top of the gas and can be quite top heavy, hence more risky.

Yup; a small stove on a 100ml gas canister will be far less stable than a Caldera Cone.

Even the paper prototype Caldera Clones are enormously stable, and practically impossible to knock over with a pan installed.

There's an argument that if you knock over a meths stove, you'll spill the meths which will cause a fireball.  However, if you knock over a Caldera Cone, the burner, since it isn't attached to the cone, would remain in place.

Having seen what my Pocket Rocket does when turned on its side, I know I wouldn't want to knock it over in a tent porch...

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By the way, you can get white box stoves from freezerbagcooking.com for about a tenner and they only charged me US posatge for sending it to the UK.

I'm not sure any cooking in a porch is very safe. 

An influence on my decision to buy the WBS was to reduce the amount of waste I create by using gas cylinders.

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I've got a set of legs from primus that fits a 380g cartridge and Bob at BPL does a set for the smaller ones - improves stability no end.

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Baz, looks like the Primus one must fit a couple of canister sizes.  22g is a good weight. 
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Cap't it's the same. And worth the 22g for the stability! Sadly the 100g sized cartridge doesnt clip in...
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Must be 380 & 220g, then?
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I've got the Primus 22g support.  It really is an excellent piece of kit; absolutely mandatory for top screw on burners.  All gas stove weights should include this as it makes the whole package so much more stable.  It fits the medium/large gas cans really well, clipping on and staying put.  On the small cans, it doesn't fit quite as well, but still well worth having.
Paul Cummings wrote (see)
I've got the Primus 22g support.  It really is an excellent piece of kit; absolutely mandatory for top screw on burners.  All gas stove weights should include this as it makes the whole package so much more stable.  It fits the medium/large gas cans really well, clipping on and staying put.  On the small cans, it doesn't fit quite as well, but still well worth having.

Just use  tent stakes.
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Cap't I guess so.

Mike that's fine if you dont need them to hold your tent up, unless you've found a cunning way of doing both

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Cunning way of doing both: use standard tentpegs to hold your tent up, and make special lightweight pegs to keep the canister upright.  As the strain on canister pegs will be much less than that on tentpegs in a blow, they can be less substantial.  

Cut a 4" (10cm)  length from a wire coathanger and bend it into a hairpin shape.  Weighs about 3 gms per peg.

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I use special light weight tent pegs to hold up my tent, but I get the idea. A couple of bits of bent coat hanger is cheaper and lighter than a shop bought one and fits any size cartridge.
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Having just come back from three days canoeing down the River Wye using  a white box meths stove, and my friends using a jet boil and pocket rocket, i would have to say that gas is a better option, even using a pot cosy with my titan kettly thing, both gas burners seemed more economical over the five days i camped. That is not to say the meths stove is no good, far from it but i feel over a longer period (3 days+) gas is better.

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White Box Stove and Titan kettle is not a good match; too much heat goes up the side, missing the pan.  In my first tests of the WBS, I didn't get 500ml to boil at all on 20ml of fuel.  The red bull burners would do that with ease in under 7 minutes, and go on boiling for a couple of minutes more.

Gas is twice as energy dense as meths.  So it will always be a trade-off between fixed weight and consumed weight.  A simple case of linear programming.


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