I received my new stove the other day. It is from Terra and uses the remote fuel system. I have never used a canister stove before so I bought a can of fuel and tested it.

It was cold in the garage, around 36 degrees. I have a stainless steel pot that I measured out for 22 oz. and drew a line on the side of it. I figured 20 oz was what my coffee cup size was so it was a good number to start with.

We timed the stove to boil 22oz. of ice cold water around 3:30 minutes. We then proceeded to count how many boils we could get out of it. Instead of just letting the stove run until it ran out of fuel we actually dumped and re-filled the pot each time, turning on and off the stove.

We ended up with 30 cycles.

I love coffee. I purchased a coffee cup with a builtin French press for my August trip. It holds 18oz.

I also plan on dehydrating almost all of my meals (2 people) and using boiling water to re-hydrate. Basic oatmeal breakfast, dried soup mix lunch if it's not too hot outside and a re-hydrated bagged meal for dinner with a few fish frys thrown in on the fire if weather is good.

Our trip will run 5-6 days depending on weather. I'm nervous about not taking enough fuel. I think I will be taking 3 cans of fuel for sure. You can see the size of the can in the picture. Not sure how big it is. It was around $5.

Anyone have an idea on possible fuel consumption? Really trying hard to single portage.

Thanks!

I regularly go out for two week trips with one other person. Our food situations is remarkably similar to yours, oatmeal and coffee in the morning, a lunch at noon, and a dehydrated home made meal at night. The only difference is that we don't fire up the stove at noon. Our lunch requires no cooking.

Now that you know that, I regularly take two of those canisters on a trip. We will usually get to the second one about 2 days before the end of the trip, so 12 days into the trip. Depending on how many fish frys you do, you should be fine with 2 canisters.

Also, if you do run out of fuel, you always got a fire option. In fact, that is how I would do the fish.

I use a similar stove. You can buy one size larger canister. Also I never use my stove at full throttle. It really burns through the fuel at max open.
Tom

I too have have similar usage and would say two canisters as shown would be adequate for the usage you have planned. Never have gotten close to running the second canister out. Think you will like the ease of use canisters offer.

I couldn't tell from the picture exactly what size, brand, and blend of fuel you tested with. As tumblehome said don't turn it up full blast to boil it. You'll also want a windscreen to minimize loss of efficiency.

I use an old JetBoil Sol to boil water on solo trips. I use JetBoil or MSR (or similar) isopro canisters. They usually tell you 30 minutes for a small canister with 100 grams of fuel net weight (~3.5 oz. of fuel). My experience is I usually get a little more depending on conditions - I go in Sept. On an average day I heat 8-10 oz. of water 3x. Two are for coffee, which I don't bring to a boil and the other is brought to a boil to rehydrate my dinner. I figure 90 seconds to boil, 60 seconds hot enough for coffee. That's 3.5 minutes burn time a day divided into the 30 minutes for a small canister is ~ 8.5 days. I usually get a little more - I've had them last between 9 & 11 days - but use the 30 minutes for 100 grams of fuel + 10% to figure how much fuel to take. That gives me a little margin. I do monitor the stove and fuel usage closely on a trip - putting the water on immediately after lighting and turning off as soon as hot enough.

You just need to know how many minutes it takes to boil the amount of water you're going to boil on the trip with your stove and fuel under real world conditions X how many times you'll do that to come to the total burn time you need. In your garage test , you got about 105 minutes burn time out if the canister if I read you right. Just assume 90 minutes - now how many minutes burn time will you use on the trip? I'd go conservative the first couple of trips, but 90 minutes per canister x 2 = 180 minutes of burn, divided by 6 days would be 30 minutes per day . . .

Can be surprised on how fast some setups will boil. Many talk up PCS set for how fast they are but I've done repeated 16 oz. cold start boils under 2 minutes on a simple Pocket Rocket. Use a heat exchange aluminum pot (aluminum heats up faster and boils quicker than steel), on a Windpro with a good windscreen and I've regularly done a quart at or below 3 minutes. I do have a couple of "oriental stoves" similar to the "lander" style you pictured.

I used a Alocs JOS7 on a 11 day trip (solo) and used 1and 1/2, 4oz canisters. Take extra till you learn your consumption, or do some extended cooking with it at home.

butthead

Thanks for the input and info.

I had the stove turned up just so the flame would reach the edges of the pot. It is stainless steel so it heats up a little slower.

I do plan on cooking fish over a fire, even heating water if it works out that way.
I will not be taking any other size pot so 22oz. is about the max at one time on the stove.
I did pick up a decent frying pan with a folding handle for fish fries. It is 12" and a bit large for packing in the food bag but I will make it work. The fish fry will be well worth it. I could eat fish every night if given the chance.

Coffee is my biggest downfall. I love it as much as I love beer and I'm not taking any beer so the coffee quota just went up. LOL

I thought about purchasing another stove as a back up. They are very affordable. I fear all my add-ons will have me double portaging, which is what I don't want.
I really want to keep it super simple and not complicate anything so I have more time to just enjoy.

I pack a backup stove, Its a $8 ebay special. Ive used it some.....never because I had to. It works great and adds very little weight.

Yep, we pack two stoves as well. One is a Pocket Rocket and the other is a Soto Stove. The Soto is our primary one.

Yes, coffee is a big variable . . . :) I use the instant packets like VIA or other brands; I only take so many and enough fuel to do them all ;).

I just take a spare burner for my JetBoil (less than 3 oz., I think).

If one pot of water will rehydrate 2 meals - one for each of you - and you do that 3 times a day for 6 days, that's 18 times 3.5 minutes, that's 63 minutes of burn time. Plus 10%, call it 70 minutes. How many coffees? How much water? and how long to heat it? Add that to the 70 minutes for meals and divide by how much burn time you get from the canister.

I really can't imagine you'll need more than 2 if your test was realistic enough, you use a windscreen, and the above assumptions I made were accurate. And assuming you don't use more fuel making coffee than meals :)

And as others said, you can cook on fire if needed, which you plan to do some anyway.

Also your meal preparation plays a big part of fuel consumption. Look at the directions closely and don't assume. There is a big difference between a dry sauce mix/meal, a dehydrated sauce/meal, and a freeze dried sauce/meal.

As a general rule of thumb - a freeze dried meal is prepared by boiling water, adding to the bag, stirring it well, then letting it sit for 8 - 20 minutes. Your burner is only consuming fuel for 1 - 3 minutes per person. Some do require simmering, but most don't.

A dehydrated meal is similar to a freeze dried meal. Some do require simmering, more so than freeze dried foods.

A dry mix most often requires medium to long simmer times.

Think of a meal with rice for example. A freeze dried meal will require you to boil water for 1-3 minutes per person. A dehydrated meal, possibly the same or maybe a 5 - 8 minute simmer. A flavored rice packet however will take 15 - 20 minutes of stove time regardless if you are making 1 portion or 6 portions.

You want to make a soup or chili? Figure 20 - 60 minutes of burner time. When I plan my meals I consider - flavor, amount of prep time, amount of trash, weight, how many dishes I will have to wash, and fuel consumption.

I always bring 1 extra can in addition to what I think I'll need. There was one time I got a dud can with bad threads or maybe it was damaged in transport some way & I was glad to have the extra. That's just my experience. Cool set up. Good luck to you.

I test each canister I'm taking before I pack it; this also tests the stove burner too. I did find one bad one once and replaced with a good when packing.

Even when we single portage I make sure we have 1 extra can. It can be rainy and windy the whole trip making campfire cooking a pain. When single portaging we have found the biggest weight savings in food, clothes and fishing gear. Of course this assumes you have UL tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, dining fly, etc.... Don’t sweat 4 extra oz. of cooking fuel.