from the stove during operation, an extremely hazardous condition. I always teach “click and lock, ready to rock.” Don’t light the stove until the catch arm locks into place with a click.8 Snap the pot support legs into place and put the stove on a suitable flat, insulated surface before lighting.
MSR Whisperlite White Gas Stove with Fuel Bottle, Pump, and Burner(Image courtesy of Mountain Safety Research)
Operating the Stove
Before lighting the stove make sure that:
The stove assembly has no fuel leaks.
The catch arm is locked and stove is properly assembled.
The area is clear of flammable material and spilled fuel.
Priming
The stove must be preheated or “primed” in order to operate properly. Insufficient preheating may result in flare-ups or poor performance.
1 Open the Control Valve and allow approximately 1 teaspoon of fuel to flow through the jet opening in the burner into the priming cup at the base of the burner. (Alcohol may be used as an alternate priming fuel to reduce soot buildup from the preheat process.) Note: Do not overprime. Do not fill the priming cup with fuel. Only a small amount of fuel is needed. Excess fuel can result in a dangerous flare-up.
2 Turn the Control Valve off.
3 Check for any leaks at the Control Valve, Pump, Jet, and Fuel Line. If leaks are found, do not use the stove.
4 Light the Priming Fuel.
5 Place the Windscreen around the stove. Make sure the pump and fuel bottle are kept outside the windscreen.
Turning the Stove On
1 When the preheating fuel has burned to a small flame or gone out completely, open the Control Valve gradually and light the stove at the burner. You should get a steady blue flame.
2 If the stove:• Goes out, turn the Control Valve off. Wait for the stove to cool and return to the “priming” step.• Burns with erratic yellow flame when you first start it, close the Control Valve and allow the stove to preheat longer. (Priming with a separate fuel source like a small squeeze bottle of alcohol is helpful here.)• Burns intermittently with yellow and blue flames, turn the Control Valve down but not off until the stove burns with a steady blue flame, then slowly turn the Control Valve up.
3 While the stove is in operation periodically pump the Plunger 3 to 5 strokes as needed to keep enough pressure in the Fuel Bottle.
Turning the Stove Off
1 Close Control Valve firmly. The flame will burn for 1 to 2 minutes as excess fuel in the fuel line is exhausted. Wait for the stove to cool before disassembling.
2 To remove the burner, unlock the Catch Arm, making sure that you are away from heat, sparks, or flame, and remove the Fuel Line from the Pump.
3 Keep the Pump assembled in the Fuel Bottle or, to be sure the Control Valve does not open by mistake, remove the Pump and replace it with the Fuel Bottle Cap. The fuel bottle will be under pressure, so hold it away from you and others as you open it.
LIGHTWEIGHT/ULTRALIGHT CARTRIDGE STOVES
Cartridge stoves and fuel weigh less than typical white gas stoves. There are a number of models that are light enough to creep into the ultralight category:
MSR Pocket Rocket For those times when you want a lightweight stove for cooking for larger groups, the MSR Pocket Rocket is one of the lightest cartridge stoves available. It sets up quickly and boils a quart/liter (1000 milliliters) of water in under 3.5 minutes.
JetBoil The JetBoil is an innovative approach to a lightweight cooking system. It merges a canister stove and burner with an integrated insulated cooking mug so you leave your pots behind. Unlike other canister stoves it has its own integrated windscreen and a built-in heat exchanger that captures heat typically lost with other stoves. This makes the unit more fuel efficient per canister of fuel. It boils 2 cups (473 milliliters) of water in 2 minutes.
Long-distance hikers have come up with the lightest weight stoves. A number of these stoves simplify the stove to its most basic element—the burner—losing the fuel bottle, pump, and fuel line. With this simplicity comes some loss of functionality. Don’t expect these stoves to let you control the flame to a low simmer; they are pretty much on-and-off stoves, whose main purpose is to do one thing: boil water. Some stoves provide a metal shield to move over the flame to block some of the heat as the “simmer control.” Here are some of the ultralight options:
Alcohol Stoves There are a number of commercial alcohol stoves on the market. The Trangia Stove from Sweden is one example and is generally sold as a stove/pot system (www.trangia.com). One of the benefits of the stove is its simplicity. It consists of a burner cup that fits inside a windscreen. Fill the burner with alcohol, assemble the stove, and light. Pro: Lightweight. No complicated parts to break or fuel lines that clog. Alcohol is available around the world as a fuel. Con: Not easy to adjust temperature. Limited burn time.
Aluminum Can Stoves—Alcohol Fuel These lightweight stoves are designed for small cooking loads—1 to 4 cups of water. It’s a boil-water-only stove. The stove is made from two aluminum cans, a smaller 12-ounce can soldered inside a larger 14-ounce can. These stoves are designed to burn alcohol only. You don’t get any lighter than this. You can find instructions for how to build this stove at the PCTHiker Web Site (www.pcthiker.com).
Esbit Tablet Stoves The Esbit stove is a folding steel stove. When opened there is space for a small flammable stove tablet about the size of a boxes of matches. Light the pellet and place it in the stove. Like other ultralight stoves it has only two cooking levels, on and off. One tablet will bring 1 pint of water (473 milliliters) to a rolling boil in under 8 minutes. You typically get 12 to 15 minutes of usable burn time per tablet. The Esbit Wing Stove is an even simpler, more compact, and lighter weight version.
Sierra Stove This stove burns twigs, bark, pine cones, and other wood as well as charcoal and other solid fuels. It has an adjustable speed fan that creates a forced ventilation system providing more efficient burning. It boils a quart/liter of water in about 4 minutes (www.zzstove.com).
We all have our favorite little things that we bring on the trail. Here are a few gadgets you might want to consider on your next trip:
LED headlamp One of my most indispensable items on any trip. An LED headlamp is lightweight, is easier to use in camp than a flashlight,
