I have not used these cans before. Two guys - seven day trip - base camp - lots of fishing. How many 8oz cans would you recommend?

Short answer: 2, assuming that you will have just one single-burner stove. You will likely only use one can. The 2nd is a backup.

Long answer: it depends on how much cooking you'll do.

To give you an idea of my isobutane use for 2 people during a week-long trip:
I heat water for breakfast coffee and quick oatmeal. Sometimes breakfast is eggs or pancakes instead of oatmeal. Lunch is not a cooked meal. Dinner is usually made by boiling water for rehydrating and cooking dehydrated food, but sometimes dinner requires some extended use of the stove for simmering or boiling (depends on the brand or type of food). Once or twice a week, I fry fish fillets.

My stove system is very efficient (the original Primus EtaPower remote-canister stove with a windscreen and a pot with an integrated heat exchanger), so your results may vary depending on your stove, pots, amount of cooking you'll do, wind, etc.

There are a lot of variables, so it's hard to say. Go with two. There are things you can do to use it more efficiently. What stove are you using it with?

For another reference: I use my JetBoil Sol to heat water for coffee - maybe average 2-3 a day - and boil for a dehydrated dinner that is rehydrated in a cozy, sometimes known as "boil and dump". On a 2-week solo I would take one 8-ounce can and not use it all.

Things I do to conserve fuel and increase efficiency:

The JetBoil is somewhat wind resistant and I usually set it on the fire grate protected by the rocks that usually are built up around. I've read that they are more efficient at about 1/3 of full blast and I aim for that instead of full blast like I used to. I also monitor it - I don't light it and let it burn while I get things ready and watch it to turn it off as soon as the water boils. That takes about 90 seconds. I don't heat it to a rolling boil for coffee. Fuel usage is also slightly affected by ambient temperature.

I weigh them before the trip and after the trip to calculate how much is left and how much I used, and how, what, and how long I used it. I usually use about 3-3.5 grams per "boil". So for 14 dinners and 35 coffees, I'd use about 175 grams, which would leave 55 grams in a 230g (8 oz.) canister.

Your usage will differ. TMI . . . ?

boonie and Ausable
Thanks for the insight on usage based upon how you utilize that type of fuel can. It sounds like my planned usage and what you described will be very similar. One variable will be frying fish (depending on what we catch of course). We will hopefully do some cooking on the fire provided there is not a fire ban during our trip in early/mid June. We will be using a Soto Windmaster single burner stove. I was figuring on 2 cans for sure. My goal is to be very efficient when it comes to packing and weight for this trip. Do not want to carry any extra crap we do not need; hoping we can manage to trim it to 2 packs.

Just tossing in my own experience. The amount will depend on gear used and cooking style, but one thing I've come to accept, the amount used in ounces is almost identical between canister fuels and pressurized liquid fuel stoves. With any of my liquid fuel stoves 8 to 9 ounces will do for a week. With canister stoves an 8 ounce can will do. I will over estimate or round up for wastage but this comparison has worked for me.

butthead

Roger that butthead. Appreciate it

I have been on your exact same trip and got into a 3rd can. For me I would much rather have one more canister with me than worry about conserving fuel. A big fish fry on a rainy day can eat a lot of fuel fast.

Youbetcha. And we plan on frying some fish. Got my wheels turning

If you fry a lot of fish . . . ? I don't know how much that will take. Buy some and test at home before you go. BTW, I always test each canister at home before the trip.

Great observation.

with out using a camp fire. i think your at a solid 2 small cans, for 2 people. its going to depend what your pots are made of and if they reflect heat {S.S} . i think i came up with 8 to10 boils quick cooks, with a 110gram can, for 1 person. your not going to exactly double it for 2 people, maybe a additional 1/2.

you need to factor in the larger pots for 2 people. i think you need3. or a 220 and a 110.
you need to use and measure your time of cooks and how many.

oil your valve threads before you leave. ocasionally tthey get tough to thread.

not all stoves are created equal. i think my svea hold s about a 1/2 cup fuel, probably good for a weekend. but i would still take a pint. it s a canoe trip not a backpacking trip. you can afford a little luxuries.

boonie and blackdawg9
Great tips and thoughts. I am making notes and going to use your advise. This will be my first trip I will fully outfit myself minus the canoe. I have to get one rented in town. I'm really trying to cross all my t's and dot the i's. It is just me and my best friend I've been wanting him to go for 20 years. Hoping for an awesome trip to carry us into the next one. I lose sleep thinking about the trip and the planning. Thanks everyone! Cheers!

Great advice Ausable and BH. I have a Pocket Rocket that I have only used on a few day trips. I have taken it on longer trips as a backup but never had to use it so was unsure of fuel consumption.

PeaceFrog -

If you have been using white gas how much would you take?

About 5 years ago I started keeping track of usage and weighing a canister before using - they can vary - and marking it on the bottom with a sharpie. Weigh it after trip and subtract the difference from fuel to find amount used/amount remaining. Then divide by number of boils to figure usage per boil.

I will email you a "canister gas estimator worksheet" I found online at that time and still use. You have to know your numbers to plug in though.

With my whisperlite stove. I would take a 20 and 11 fluid oz can. This should be plenty and more. Depends on wind screens.
With my svea i would take just the 11 fl oz+ plus full tank. Maybe a little xtra.
With my old coleman 442. Fill it up and maybe a 11 ounce. It should be close.

Bonnie
Great idea however my last trip was a party of 9. 5 of the 9 were young kids. I did not track the consumption and we did not fry any fish that trip. The trip my wife and I took we burned through an 11oz bottle an cooked on the fire grate as well. That was a 4 day trip.

Something I'll add is that a lot of fuel and cooking time can be saved by using windscreens and correctly sized pots and pans. A 1 liter pot is about as large as I like to use on a Pocket Rocket, something under 5 inches in diameter. A Whiperlite/Simmerlite/WindPro is good to 3L and 6 1/5 inches For larger pots I use my Dragonfly/Firefly with a silent cap on it. A tank/stove combo like PocketRocket/Coleman 442 can use a windshield but never fully surrounded and check on fuel tank heat buildup often.




blackdawg, that's a great example of different needs. I have to be out over 7 days to use an eleven oz. bottle of fuel, most I have ever taken was 20 oz. And I usually take either a WindPro canister or liquid fueled Dragonfly/Whisperlite/Simmerlite. I do travel solo so cooking for me alone.

butthead

i had to go back and check our old list on white gas.
we had 17 people, 2 msr whisperlites . i dont have a exact fuel bottle count. i think we had at least 6 -20 ouncers. we also had a zip stove, burning wood biscuits. over 7 days.

we used something like a olicamp S.S 3 to 6 quart pots. those sucked fuel. then used the stainless steel skilliet for fried eggs and bacon on english muffins. i thnk we did a fried cabbage and spam or sausage. or pasta alfredos and mashed potatoes. think we even fried calzones and fried brownies, like no bakes.
mornings would be coffee and oat meals and a couple breakfast bars. then you had clean up water.

when we were on the last day . we ran across another group begging for fuel. we had half a can left and at least 2 more cooks of chili and green beans. we were under a complete fire ban, besides the zip stove.

i know we could of saved a little more fuel, with different pot materials and differnt menus. lunches at the end with PBJ pitas and maybe coffee.

i have a 4 quart ice cream alunimun pot. i melt bees wax in. on my whisper lite. it will drain a 20 ounce fuel can. by the time its rendered down clean. the pots big and heav y and it reflects heat back into the generator , increasing fuel consumption. same time with a good wind screen. i can get my svea to do teh same work on a half to 2/3s cup of fuel.

Just another data point: For 3 people, we almost always finish a 16 oz canister on day 7, mostly rehydrating food but some cooking hash browns, pancakes, etc.

boonie: "BTW, I always test each canister at home before the trip. "

Hi boonie,
Any special reason for this? What's your experience with canister reliability? I only once had a bad canister and then the leak developed after some use, so home testing won't solve the issue.

I fully agree with your Jetboil numbers for average conditions, but low temperatures in shoulder season and especially windy campsites would low it's efficiency by a lot. I always carry a wood stove setup as an alternative. It weighs only slightly more than 100mg Isopro canister.

Well if it leaks on the test at home, I'm not starting out with it. That's all I can do - I can't predict what happens after that. But I've never had one leak at any time. Any thoughts on why yours might have developed a leak? I've heard of people who said they had to leave the stove screwed to the canister because of a leak . . .

Actually all of my trips have been in Sept., most the last half, sometimes a few days into Oct. Over the years, I've used it in a variety of campsites and conditions. And yes, it can be affected by temps and wind, so I do keep it sheltered as much as possible and the Jetboil is inherently more wind resistant than the average canister stove. I am intrigued by the MSR Windburner stove in that regard.

I do calculate a 15% margin for those variables. The numbers cited earlier were the trip last year with a 9/16 entry and 9/30 exit. The calculation was for 14 dinners and 35 coffees or 49 "boils" of 1 cup. There's some variability in those numbers - I sometimes use a couple of ounces more water than a cup, but don't heat coffee water to a rolling boil. So 49 x 3.5 = 171.5 grams. A 15% margin makes it 197 grams. So a 220-230 gram canister (8 oz.) gives me an extra 23-33 grams beyond the 15% margin, so a pretty safe bet for me.

So how much did I actually use . . . ? I used 175 grams. It was mostly pretty average weather except for the last few days.

If you carry the twig stove because you're worried about running out of fuel that's OK, but I'm not really worried about that. And twig stoves and alcohol stoves aren't allowed during fire bans, so I've always used the gas stoves. I drive a long way to get there and stay for a fairly long trip so taking a stove I can use either way eliminates a thing to worry about. If I were worried about a stove problem I'd just carry another 2-3 oz. burner.

But mine is very predictable - I never cook anything, just boil water. If I were going to cook stuff, I'd probably have a remote canister stove instead. Cooking stuff would be a lot more variable than my use and harder to get a good average. Everybody's use is different, the stove is different, how they use it is different - hence the emphasis on knowing your own numbers. You can't just use mine unless they turn out to be the same.

We have found that some canister, especially generic ones, will not work on some stoves because of slight differences in the valves. I think the pin that opens the valve on our pocket rocket would not open the valve on a few canisters over the years. The first time we found out on a trip, so we always test them first.

Thanks for the info, cycle003

I never ran out of fuel, but once when a 200mg gas canister leaked (probably, valve damage due to some tossing in an overstaffed pack). Jetboil cup can't be used on open fire and one has to bring a pot anyways. I carry Toaks wood stove that weighs just few ounces and fits inside Toaks 750ml pot/cup. Of course I do it only on solo trips, otherwise both the size of the pot and capacity of the wood stove are ludicrous.
Besides a wood stove is nice to have on rainy days if one can't use a fireplace. As a matter of fact I almost never put my tarp over a fire pit - can't accept a risk of damaging a tarp.

On our first trip with a canister stove (MSR Windburner), I measured our fuel usage pretty carefully, weighing before and after. 2 people, 3 nights. Coffee in the am, hot chocolate sometime during the day, a Mountain House breakfast and supper each day, one pancake breakfast, one fish supper, occasional heating to wash hands and face. Usage: 6.7 oz.

Even so, I still pack three 8-oz canisters to account for problem canisters or colder weather etc

schweady
After reading and studying everyone's input I'm pretty confident we will be taking 3 cans

primus fuel usage blog.

still beating this dead horse :)
yesterday i timed a simmer of 2 1/2 to 3 cups of cold tap water, to the bottom of the spout, in my msr titan mug [.85 liter]. on my much loved wet gas stove. it took 5 and a 1/2 minutes.

today i made some knorrs spanish rice, from 2 cups of water and you need to simmer for 7 minutes. that should give you at least 13 minutes , thats not clean up or a hot drink. i want to say a 1/2 cup of fuel will burn for just about 50 minutes on high or 110 at a simmer.

so 1/2cup of fuel in the stove and a 11 oz 1.37 c extra. i still need to watch my fuel usage. you factor in the cleanup time. for 2 people. or pick up another fuel can.

One thing some people do to conserve fuel is to make pot cozies and put the meal in there instead of the simmer time. I don't have experience doing that but should be pretty much the same as rehydrating in the pouch.

An aside for a shoutout to you, boonie: We're still using the insulated envelopes you sent -- 21 meals over our last 5 trips and none the worse for wear. A godsend for keeping the meal hot while rehydrating, and a great way to handle the hot meal pouch.

Glad they have worked out for you, schweady. They do keep it warm and allow you to hold it safely. They will last quite a while too. I was messing around the other day cutting some larger pieces up to make a couple of extras. Also trying to make a double layer 4-season cozy with a gusset bottom.

The pot cozies work great, but I found something that works better and if you like coffee a dual purpose item. GSI Javapress. The press and the mug are insulated, and can stack mug inside of the press for a double insulated container.
Coffee in the morning and a good steaming hot meal to end the day!

butthead