Liquid Fuel vs Gas Stoves

yup, msr xgk, works absolutely anywhere, in any temperature and almost any wind. grunty as hell.

Hutt valley tramping club still provides white spirit fuel to use on its trips. It also mainly does communal meals. Rangiora tramping club has banned the use of anything other than gas. They expect everyone to sort their own food. When I moved I had to go out and buy a new stove

Whisperlite - love it :) Not the product; the name - a marketing triumph! One person I walk with has one and all conversation stops when it's in use - almost painfully loud. As for 'lite', it weighs 4 times my gear. Back in the day, I used (still have it) an Optimus 8R shellite burner - blue metal box, copper fuel tank. Haven't used it in 20+ years. These days, I use a FireMaple FM-117/8 remote cannister gas burner (it's a hybrid of titanium parts weighing 98g - I can swap in a pre-heat tube if expected temperatures are below zero).

Whisperlite isnt loud Dragonfly is loud. I wasnt allowed to use it on club trips if we were using huts Xseries msrs are loud as well. 8rs were loud but not as loud as the loud msrs A trick with your remote canister stove if it has the preheat tube when its cold is to turn the canister upside down after its been running a few minutes. Then liquid gas comes out of the canister and boils in the preheat tube allowing the stove to work to a few degrees colder. That will get a isobutane canister working down to -10.

@bernieq : What's the story with the [Fire Maple Titanium stove](https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/sports/camping/cooking-food/single-burner-cookers/listing/3416095521?gclid=CjwKCAiArOqOBhBmEiwAsgeLmVPsWKv-5MJiYvcc6pxghSHWSjIQwBQ-spwQyUiTzed41Xg5zMJrgxoCrxwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds), when I look at it, it seems not to have a pre-heat tube, although there seems to be a [stainless steel version](https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/sports/camping/cooking-food/single-burner-cookers/listing/3416095059?gclid=CjwKCAiArOqOBhBmEiwAsgeLmVVEAGtO5m8Ed_UD-MSCGP9MmNdxUmmHfbuyCZOneJz1uhT1BhLgiRoCEHQQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) with a pre-heat tube? Does the pre-heat tube version work with the canister inverted? It looks like the titanium version has an adaptor to one of the skinny 220 g canisters, though on it's side one of those canisters would be feeding liquid fuel to the stove I guess.

True geeves, the 8R (aka choofer) was loud - don't think I've had the 'pleasure' of a dragonfly but I can understand why a club might ban them. Ian_H, the sole idea of the preheat tube is to allow inversion of the cannister so that, below 1deg, you can burn butane/propane mix rather than just the propane (which will deplete very quickly). Not sure what the adaptor is all about in that trade-me link. The 117T doesn't have a preheat; thethe8 does. I have a collection of parts from 117T & 118 and can mix & match. 98g without preheat, my hybrid is about 135g with preheat & the straight 118 was 150g (now 156g from your link). I prefer a remote cannister - easier control, safer in the vestibule.

Thanks, Berineq. Think I'll stick to my little 60 g Kovea Titanium on top of a gas bottle for most uses. (Though I do understand the sense of the higher heat output of some of the liquid fuel stoves for big groups, and did use a Whisperlite international on kero on an 8 week trip in western Nepal a long time ago) I used the little Kovea camping in the snow at 1700 m in the middle of winter down here, water bottle was rattling the whole time but fingers weren't sticking to metal. (So presumably -10 C or so) It did OK, chuck the gas bottle inside the jacket for a bit while sorting out other stuff in the tent before screwing the burner head on, then melting snow and cooking didn't cause any problems. My impression is the Himalayan climbers use gas at places like the South Col, I'm curious what the Trans Antarctic skiier/sledders use nowadays?

Remember height increases effective vapour pressure and lowers boiling point. Same stove and canister at the same temperature at sea level would of just said Nah quite quietly

I guess my impression is that if you start with a warm gas bottle, it doesn't get cold enough in the time it takes to cook, and a bit of a foil windshield can direct some heat at the gas bottle provided the burner head doesn't have a plastic knob. Also hands around the gas bottle make quite a difference if pressure is dropping because of cold. You need to be careful of course with a windshield around the burner, too much heat to the bottle could go spectacularly wrong, but easy to monitor by frequent touching and or seeing/hearing if the burner is going too well. I've always used the cheapest butane mix I can get, Mitre 10 or Warehouse, had few problems in the cold with a bit of pre-warming the canister.