New stove

Hi.

Have an Optimus Crux but fed up with guessing how much fuel I have left in each gas cannister. And partly used cannisters are gathering at home. I'm afraid they might take over.

What would you recommend instead? A meths burner (like the Caldera Cone (which will fit my snowpeak ti pot) or a mulit-fule like the new Omnilite (it works with parrafin: does it work with meths)?

What about a mini wood burner?

2 cans take up too much room really. And you still have to carry the empty cannister back with you (and what do you do with that?)

Include a little history in your walks. Pecsaetan - Ancient Derbyshire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire - http://pecsaetan.weebly.com/

Bedouin wrote (see)

Have you tried weighing the cans to see how much fuel is left? Should be able to tell you if its got enough for what you need. I find gas easier than messy meths

Meths is "messy".

Not in my experience it isn't. 

Include a little history in your walks. Pecsaetan - Ancient Derbyshire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire - http://pecsaetan.weebly.com/

Well, the meths option is certainly a  much cheaper way of trying another fuel type compared to buying a multifuel stove.

You like the smell so that's a bonus.

No guessing  with Meths as once you know the fuel consumption of your setup you can need only take quantity of  fuel needed. e.g. 120ml does me for a weekend trip (2 hot breakfasts 2 backpacking meals and a couple of cups of a hot brew with each meal).   If I'm on a leisurely trip where I expect to make brew stops, or in winter I'll take a bit more.

Like other meths heads, I've tried(made)lots of meths stoves and found that the most efficient and stable system is Cone based. (My setup).

If you want really cheap  and don't mind  a 'Blue Peter' approach, then make your own stove     (Zen Stoves is a good site for info)  and a Cone Clone

I have just made the same transition for much the same reasons. Bought one of these: http://www.packafeather.com/xlstove.html. The full set up cost me about 30 delivered.

Have used it on a one week trip so far and love it.

Jacob

I had a look at that site a while back.  Quite impressive stoves.  Would you say the 'cookability' is as good as claimed? 

Depends what you mean by cookability...

The xl stand and windscreen combo is VERY stable, so much better than my old gas set up. Boil times for 2 cups did seem around the 6-8 minute mark (never timed it). Didn't strike me as ridiculously long despite being used to gas.

The 'feathering' works but isn't instant...needs time to settle after any adjustments, so still getting used to that, TBH. Did do some simmering and it worked wel after fiddling.

Its largely thin aluminium and light weight, so needs TLC...but its a nice piece of work.

JacobW wrote (see)

Depends what you mean by cookability...

I mean as in 'suitable for cooking on' as  opposed for just boiling water or heating at one or 2 speeds only- like most meths stoves

i.e. does their claim stand up?  fully adjustable so you can boil, fry, simmer and bake.

even with esbit apparently 

- useful for longer trips where real cooking would be useful to make a change from hot water only or just a quick simmer type meals.

JacobW wrote (see)

The 'feathering' works but isn't instant...needs time to settle after any adjustments, so still getting used to that, TBH. Did do some simmering and it worked wel after fiddling.

I guess time will tell.

i use a pocket stove which is wood, esbit and meths. the trangia meth stoves fits nicely inside and they all fit in the trangia mess tin with a wind shield, esbit and fire steel its so chilling useing meths as i've been  converted from gas.

Yeah, i really only tried flat out boiling and gentle simmering. These two settings covered my cooking needs for the week. I was able to transition between these with greater ease than the old trangia set I had when I first started backpacking (a couple of turns of a knob rather than removal of pot and repeated burning of ones fingers). I'd say very fine adjustments in output will require a little practice to achieve consistently, but I have 5 months backpacking in south america coming up to practice.

http://evernewamerica.com/ECA268.htm

This looks good.