Cheap light stove..

[Dev]

Hi there, I apologise in advance if a similar question has been already posted recently, I could not find any.

Basically I'm looking for a (fairly) cheap stove and saucepan/ frypan set. The lighter the better obviously, I have equipment, but more for car camping (butane cartridge) and I plan to do a bit more ultralight overnight trekking.

I was originally going to get a Trangia set, but then came across this on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/252415225535
I am happy to spend money on quality, but as I am just getting into it, I don't want to go all out and invest too much straightway. Once I get into it I will splash out a bit more

My question is, is this a good compromise, or worth spending a bit more for a name brand? And windproof qualities of design comment also appreciated.

Also is a butane burner better than alcohol powered stove? If so, some suggestions would be awesome. I have a preference for alcohol based because method is easy to get, cheap refills and no waste cartridges, but understand it's not as efficient?

New to this, thanks in advance for all advice

[whitefang]

If you want cheap and light, look up cat food can stoves. I've had success with them. With a wind shield made from foil I think the stove and wind shield came to about 30g.

[Bushman_Craig]

I have no direct experience of the cookset at the ebay link, but it appears to be a Chinese-made close copy of a Swiss META-50 stove. It could be the bargain of the century or it could be a flimsy and nasty waste of money.

It depends on how many you are intending to cook for, but I would suggest a Trangia Mini since it is compact and minimalistic, perfect for cooking for one, or for two in a pinch. I have used a Trangia Mini for the past 5 years off and on, and have had no problems with it. Trangia gear tends to keep its resale value better than some other equipment, so if and when you go to upgrade to something else, you'll find you can get a chunk of the cash back via ebay, here, gumtree, etc. to help finance your next purchase.

Aside from the burner and stand, the Trangia Mini comes with a good-sized (for one) cooking pot/eating bowl/boiling vessel and a frypan with a nifty spring steel set of spondonicles (pot grabbers).

As for windproofness of the Trangia Mini, it's good, but not great in high winds without a separate windshield. You can make your own out of aluminium flashing from Bunnings and a pair of small bulldogclips from Officeworks.

I would suggest alcohol over butane canisters. I no longer use my MSR Pocket Rocket or Jetboil Flash due to concerns about the waste inherent in the disposable canisters. Sure, you can recycle them with the help of a Jetboil "Crunch" tool, but the materials and energy which go into manufacturing the canisters is quite immense. The disposable gas canisters are something I no longer wish to support. Your own mileage may vary, etc. ...

Alcohol is a good, easy to buy, relatively efficient fuel. It's cheap, can be purchased in just about any hardware store, most supermarkets and some service stations. Its cold weather performance is better than a gas canister fuel, which means that in really cold conditions it takes a bit to get an alcohol stove to light and start jetting properly, but under the same conditions a gas canister stove may not want to light at all, unless you have special cold weather mix canisters.

[Eljimberino]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BRS-3000T-27 ... SwTA9X3nnv

[damoprz]

2nd the BRS-3000T, I got mine on Aliexpress, a good stove for ~$20 including postage.

[Orion]

The BRS-3000T is pretty flimsy though.

Twice now I've come across canisters that would not seal to the one I have. They were popular brands and the threads looked fine but for some reason when screwed on tight gas hissed out of the connection. Even when the canisters do seal there is invariably a small but annoyingly significant loss of gas each time the canister is attached or removed.

Recently on a trip I was building a wind shelter with a few rocks. One of the rocks tipped over and bumped the stove bending the flimsy aluminum pot supports. I really needed some sort of tool to bend them back and I didn't have one with me. But even if I had I would have been worried about bending them for fear they might just snap off. So for the rest of that trip my tall narrow pot stood at an angle, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

When I travel with the BRS-3000T I love the fact that it weighs so little (25g). Coupled with my ultralight 700ml pot, windscreen and mini lighter the whole package weighs just 80g. Of course a small canister weighs about 100g when empty -- the Achilles' heel of canister stoves.

But I also find myself thinking ahead about the possibility that the stove will fail. I don't worry about that when I carry my other, slightly heavier (88g) SnowPeak stove. That thing is bombproof. But with the BRS-3000T I'm constantly wondering what my food will taste like if I have to soak it in cold water.

Still better than an alcohol stove though, in my opinion.

[damoprz]

How did you make your windscreen? Is it an inverted cone with some holes in it, or something more complex?

[Orion]

Less complicated. It's just a small piece of doubled Al foil.

When it gets windy I try to construct something better out of rocks or whatever objects are at hand. If it's bad enough I cook inside the tent.

[jensnell]

Are you planning to cook in the stove or just looking for something to boil water in? I used a trangia for 5+ years but moved over to a jetboil minimo to cut down on weight and camp cleaning. I found with the trangia, my total cooking weight (including a bowl, mug and so on) was just shy of a kg. The trangia was also got really dirty from the meths, which was tough to clean on long trips with limited water access.

The jetboil weighs 400g, including the pot and base cup, which you could eat / drink from. There are lighter options out there obviously (as outlined by Orion above), but I find the jetboil to also be really sturdy and you can control the temperature, so if you want to cook proper meals in it, that's really important in my view. A jetboil will set you back $120+ though, so if you're not going to use it often, that could be a bit much..

Totally valid point from bushman_craig re the waste of the canisters though. I guess it's personal preference re how much that matters to you and if there's other ways in your life you could look to balance that out if it does.

[RonK]

Totally valid point from bushman_craig re the waste of the canisters though. I guess it's personal preference re how much that matters to you and if there's other ways in your life you could look to balance that out if it does.

I see no point fussing about an occasional gas canister unless you are prepared to apply the same principle to all aspects of daily life.

[Giddy_up]

+1 for the Trangia, only modification you can do is fill the centre of the burner with carbon felt. This prevents a catastrophic spill of fuel if it's alight and it will allow the stove to be lit with a single strike of the fire steel in below zero temps, thus making it bomb proof. It also means you don't have to wait for the stove to bloom, as the felt is like a wick and instant heat to cook with. The stove will bloom shortly after but is dependent on outdoor temps as to how long this takes.


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[SergeantMcFly]

Not entirely sure about where you plan to go and if those areas are Fuel Stove only but consider looking into Esbit styled cooking platforms. Sectionhiker has a great run down of one here http://sectionhiker.com/ultralight-cook ... container/ and its a pretty functional system if you're looking for super light weight and utility. Again, Fuel Stove only areas may present an issue with one like this, but could be a fun little backup at worst.

[Moondog55]

If you have no objection on environmental grounds then the wasp [BRS 3000] is the lightest stove I've owned that is also reasonable fast and efficient and any of the titanium or aluminium pots of around 900ml suffice for solo use
I don't use anything that small myself but you may well do better than me with stuff like that ; 900ml is my coffee cup size.
I do use a DIY hobo stove often tho and burn twigs to boil the billy, but that set-up weighs a lot more and takes up much more room than a 340g canister stove and folding windscreen and can't be legally used in some locations

[Orion]

...900ml is my coffee cup size.

That's quite amusing, thanks for posting that.

I imagine you as a kind of giant.

[Moondog55]

...900ml is my coffee cup size.

That's quite amusing, thanks for posting that.

I imagine you as a kind of giant.

Nah I just drink far too much coffee, when I got the MSR Titan kettle I was amused that my army kidney cup was the same volume 900ml