How much fuel to bring?

Questions about equipment and supplies to bring on a trip (including reviews).

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johnhens
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How much fuel to bring?

Post by johnhens »

Good article from MSR on how much fuel to bring.
https://thesummitregister.com/stoves-10 ... d-i-carry/
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by DonNewcomb »

If you'd like to get overwhelmed by details:
http://zenstoves.net/
Particularly:
http://zenstoves.net/StoveChoices.htm#Efficiency
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by pyrowaves »

It looks like the original MSR article is gone. Any chance anyone saved it? I'm trying to figure out how much fuel i'll need for a trip in June.

Thanks!
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by thesneakymonkey »

pyrowaves wrote: Thu May 10, 2018 10:45 am It looks like the original MSR article is gone. Any chance anyone saved it? I'm trying to figure out how much fuel i'll need for a trip in June.

Thanks!
Check the MSR website they still have articles up.

I can try to give you a best guess. How many days are you going for? How many people? And which meals do you boil for?
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by Base654 »

It has been a while since I read the article Johnhens posted, but I think this is the one. it is at least close.

https://thesummitregister.com/stoves-10 ... d-i-carry/
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by pyrowaves »

thesneakymonkey wrote: Thu May 10, 2018 11:02 am
pyrowaves wrote: Thu May 10, 2018 10:45 am It looks like the original MSR article is gone. Any chance anyone saved it? I'm trying to figure out how much fuel i'll need for a trip in June.

Thanks!
Check the MSR website they still have articles up.

I can try to give you a best guess. How many days are you going for? How many people? And which meals do you boil for?
Thanks I'll check their site.

3 people, approximately 10-12 meals each that we'll boil for. I've got a JetBoil I borrowed(haven't used before) and we'll probably have at least one more similar stove, MSR brand I don't know the exact model.
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by thesneakymonkey »

10-12 meals per person? Wow that's a lot of boiling!! I would say 2 of the 8oz canisters (1 for each stove), should do it. The jetboil is quick and the MSR whatever it is will be too. Here is a good article for you: https://thesummitregister.com/stoves-10 ... d-i-carry/
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by pyrowaves »

thesneakymonkey wrote: Fri May 11, 2018 4:15 pm 10-12 meals per person? Wow that's a lot of boiling!! I would say 2 of the 8oz canisters (1 for each stove), should do it. The jetboil is quick and the MSR whatever it is will be too. Here is a good article for you: https://thesummitregister.com/stoves-10 ... d-i-carry/
We'll be hiking Sunday through the following Saturday. 10-12 was on the high end. 6 dinners, and 4-6 breakfasts. Some of the meals we have will be shared/supplemented with other items, Getting weights and everything finalized in the next week or two so I wanted to get an estimate on fuel.
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by MAWalker »

REI has posted a couple of good videos about this in the past few months on YouTube - how to measure canister fuel, and how much to bring.
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by backwoods doc »

My experience: a 7-day trip for two, boiling water/cooking pasta for 2 meals a day, plus frying fish once or twice, uses just over one 8 ounce isobutane/propane canister of fuel.

Best rule I've heard on this: If you take one canister, you'll run out of fuel. If you take two, you won;t need the second.
2018, 2019, 2021 (all inland lakes by canoe); 2022 X2 (RH and WC); 2023 HC
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by booyah »

We recently went to the isle with two people, 6 days, two stoves, with two fuel types.
One canister stove, one alcohol stove.
I'm partial to hot meals, we probably averaged 2.5 hot meals a day, plus coffee in the morning and hot chocolate in the evening.
Add in hot water for some bathing, and dish washing. Long story short if it didn't require temp control we used the alcohol stove for it, if it did (IE simmering, or pancakes) we used the canister stove for it.
We burned 6.4oz of canister fuel (checked after we got home) and about 12 fl oz of alcohol (about 8oz in weight).

Next time I think I am just bringing the alcohol burner and being a little more efficient in how I use it, there was a good bit of time where we had our "small campfire" going where it kept burning until the fuel was gone as we'd already boiled our water. Since I was also carrying another full canister (13oz) plus the not quite empty (6.6oz) one. Nice thing about alcohol is the container is almost weight less once the fuel is gone (1.7oz plastic flask).
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by johnhens »

booyah wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2019 7:24 pm We recently went to the isle with two people, 6 days, two stoves, with two fuel types.
One canister stove, one alcohol stove.
I'm partial to hot meals, we probably averaged 2.5 hot meals a day, plus coffee in the morning and hot chocolate in the evening.
Add in hot water for some bathing, and dish washing. Long story short if it didn't require temp control we used the alcohol stove for it, if it did (IE simmering, or pancakes) we used the canister stove for it.
We burned 6.4oz of canister fuel (checked after we got home) and about 12 fl oz of alcohol (about 8oz in weight).

Next time I think I am just bringing the alcohol burner and being a little more efficient in how I use it, there was a good bit of time where we had our "small campfire" going where it kept burning until the fuel was gone as we'd already boiled our water. Since I was also carrying another full canister (13oz) plus the not quite empty (6.6oz) one. Nice thing about alcohol is the container is almost weight less once the fuel is gone (1.7oz plastic flask).
Good trail info, thanks!!! What kind of stoves did you use?
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Re: How much fuel to bring?

Post by booyah »

Canister was an older Coleman peak 1 design, pretty standard really
Alcohol was a photon stove with only a few jets used in a Sterno Inferno (I LOVE THIS SETUP).

I hope to do a decent write up on the sterno inferno at some point and its use with alcohol stoves. Its a bit of a game changer for alcohol setups, at least for me.

About a million billion years ago (ok 13 years ago), I did a video on the photon stove on a just budding site called youtube...



Update
Ok, os I got off my butt last night and did this. New photon style alcohol stove, and sterno inferno boil test, weight vs canister stove, etc

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