alcohol stoves

I used to like my MSR Dragonfly for exactly that reason. It could boil a litre of water in 5 min flat then be turned down so the water stopped bubbling even on the bottom of the billy. I ignored the complaints from party members about the noise but when people camping on the other side of the river started complaining as well I upgraded.

My whisperlite is just that, whisper quiet and lite :)

I now have a chinese clone of a whisperlite and a coleman 505b as tramping stoves. Neither simmer quite as well as the dragonfly though but at least they dont require ear muffs

Used a meths stove for my entire trip in NZ just been. Really enjoyed it (it was a Trail Designs Ti-tri system) - got loads of funny looks. Benefits: - Very light (especially towards the end of the trip, as the only weight is the plastic bottle holding the fuel). - Easy to have exactly the right amount of fuel for a trip of any length (e.g. an overnight would only need a tiny bottle of a fuel, if you were using gas you'd have to carry a whole 450g can of it). - More eco friendly (meths is [or rather can be] a renewable resource, LPG isn't). - The particular stove we had can also run on hexamine and wood. If we ran out of fuel we could've used wood, and I had some spare hexamine too. This is a major plus if going anywhere with dry twigs available I think. - Quieter Disadvantages: - A bit slower than gas to cook (the Ti-tri thing I had is more efficient than a naked alcohol flame, so was not as much of an issue. 1.5L of water would take 10 mins to get to a boil, give or take). In terms of lighting the stove, I had a metal stake which I dipped into the meths [from the stove], lit with a lighter, then dipped back into the stove to light it. In terms of cooking with it, I had a metal ring I could put over the stove which starved it of oxygen (so it burned a lot less hot). I used this for simmering (the ring is called a simmer-ring). If I wanted to put out the flame, I would cover the top with the pot, and the flame went out. I knew that my stove required 36mL of meths to boil 1L of water so could get the amount of meths pretty bang on and not waste much.

The latest whisperlites dont simmer at all well. Some wet between the ears graduate or bean counter designed those control valves. The other advantage of alcohol stoves is the smell. Being the party in the hut that doesnt stink the place out with whitespirit stoves getting started in the morning is priceless. Re performance in temp/pressure, we do generally take the whisperlite on snow trips. However i have managed with the trangia from time to time. The trick is to first warm the lighter in your pocket (else it wont go), then find a suitable tube of paper or a stick that will be able to hold a flame near the fuel for about a minute, as the fuel needs to be warmed enough to vaporise. Then of course the stove will take maybe an extra few minutes to get up to temp and do much. Once going theyre fine. According to wikipedia, water boils about 1 deg C lower for each 300m of altitude. So expect longer cooking times in the mountains here.

My $1 cat food tin with holes punched in it does the job nicely. :)

Upgrade it to a $2 beer can with holes. Half the weight of a steel cat food can. The stove used by the 2 French trampers at Triangle hut was a design I hadnt seen before. A 300ml V can cut in half then the top slightly squashed and forced into the bottom. Fill through the tear tab and light. Once flames start at the join balance the pot (in this case a large stainless steel cup) on top. Worked brilliantly. He reckoned it primed quicker than the type with holes.

Might have to try the v can version. Sounds promising.

If anyone has a decent amount of skill at fabricating things you might want to look into the eCHS system that tetkoba created. You have to piece together how to make it from the various videos etc, but its made from redbull cans and seems to be fuel efficient while also offering lowish boil times. Bit more complex than some other burners though