Oliver S. Berryhill Blogs: How to Choose a Backpacking Stove and Pot

Trail Designs Caldera Cone Alcohol Stove

A lot of backpackers own multiple pots, stoves, and windscreens, because like other backpacking gear, there’s often no perfect combination of components that will fit all of your needs.

Here are some factors that you should weigh when selecting the components of your own stove system.

Do you plan to hike outside of the USA?
Do you need to cook in temperatures under 20 degrees?
Do you need to melt snow?
Do you hike at higher elevations?
Do you just need to boil water or do you like to cook complete meals?
How long are your trips?
How often can you resupply in towns?
How many people are you cooking for?
How windy is it where you’re going?
Does a sooty pot bother you?
Are you trying to shave every extra gram of weight out of your backpack?
Are you trying to assemble a very compact cooking system that take up minimal space?
How fast do you want your water to boil/cook?
How much are you willing to spend?
Do you only want one stove or are you willing to own a few?

Let me take a few example scenarios from my experience and apply these questions to them:

Section Hiking the Appalachian Trail

I typically Section Hike the AT between April and November for 1-2 weeks at a time.

Nighttime temperatures tend to be between 20 degrees in spring and autumn up to 80 degrees in summer.
I seldom sleep more than 4,000 feet above sea level.
For dinner, I mainly cook 1-pot solo meals, made around a soup base, that I add pasta and other ingredients too.
For breakfast, I like to drink sweetened back tea and eat pound cake or logan bread.
Weight and bulk are important to me, so I like to use my cook pot as a cup rather than carry a separate one.
I loathe pot grippers, so my pots always have foldout handles.
I usually camp in sheltered locations like an AT shelter or under a tarp, so I avoid stoves that produce fireballs.
I often cook with unfiltered water, so it’s important that I can bring it to a roiling boil to purify it before I cook with it.
I don’t need to resupply fuel on trips that last 1 week or less. On longer trips, I’ve found it difficult to find isobutane canisters in small towns along the east coast of the USA, although denatured alcohol is very easy to come by.
I hike on rainy days when the woods are wet.

Soto OD-1R Isobutane Canister Stove

Section Hiking: Stove & Pot Selection

On Section Hikes lasting a week or less, I almost always bring a SOTO OD-1R Microregulator isobutane canister stove with a small fuel canister for short trips and a large 220-240 gram canister if I plan to be out all week. My main cook pot on these trips is a much dented 0.9 liter Evernew Titanium pasta pot with a colander lid but I sometimes also use an Olicamp aluminum pot with built in heat exchanger coils that reduces the amount of fuel needed by about 40%.

The nice thing about my canister stove/post system is that it is very packable. The canister and stove slip into the pot and I use rubber bands to keep the lid on. It’s worth noting that my system is almost identical to a Jetboil Flash Personal Cooking System setup, except that I can mix and match it with other stove components from other manufacturers. I prefer the latter for flexibility since I hike in a very wide range of conditions, but if you only do 3 season hikes that are a week or less in duration, the JetBoil’s fully integrated stove-pot-heat-exchanger-windscreen is a very attractive option.

For longer section hiking trips that last more than 1 week, I bring an alcohol stove that burns denatured alcohol and the same cook pot. Denatured alcohol is very easy to resupply along the Appalachian Trail, even in small stores, while canister-based fuel is not. You can also find it in any hardware store, paint store, or Walmart.

The only downside with alcohol is when the weather gets colder because it takes more fuel to prime your stove. To prime an alcohol (or liquid fuel stove) you need to set fire to the stove for a few minutes, so it will be warm enough to vaporize the fuel. This just requires a little extra patience and room, to avoid setting your shelter on fire.

Unfortunately, alcohol stoves are very sensitive to wind and a windscreen is really required to use them. The best alcohol stove/windscreen system I’ve used so far is the Trail Designs Caldera Cone, which burns very efficiently. Trails Designs sells a wide variety of models including ones that stow completely in your cook pot like the Sidewinder or that can burn alcohol, esbit (solid fuel), and even wood, all using the same stove / windscreen setup. The latter can be a very attractive option for long distance hiking, since it’s legal to send Esbit tablets via the US Mail for mail drops.

Winter Backpacking in New Hampshire

I typically hike in winter conditions from December – March, mainly in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Nighttime temperatures range from -20 degrees to 30 degrees a night.
I seldom sleep above 4,000 feet above sea level.
For dinner, I mainly cook 1-pot solo meals, made around a soup base, that I add pasta and other ingredients too.
For breakfast, I like to drink sweetened back tea and eat pound cake or logan bread.
I bring a separate insulated cup to eat and drink out of so I can still melt snow while I’m eating.
I loathe pot grippers, so my pots always have foldout handles.
I always cook outside of my shelter, usually in a kitchen area that we dig out of the snow. Even then a wind screen is absolutely necessary.
I melt 6-7 liters of water from snow per day. Snowmelt does not have to be purified, but I like to boil it anyway so that it doesn’t freeze solid when stored overnight in an insulated container.
I never go on trips that last more than 3 days/2 nights.

Winter Backpacking: Stove & Pot Selection

For Winter Backpacking, I always bring a liquid fuel stove that burns super-refined white gas. Liquid fuel will burn in temperatures under 20 degrees and burns hot enough to melt snow. The effective limit of an isobutane canister is about 15 degrees (although I know people who claim to use them at even colder temperatures, however they won’t share the secret because they want to patent it.) Alcohol and Esbit stoves don’t cut it for winter backpacking because they don’t generate enough heat, and wood is sub-optimal because it’s hard to collect enough of it that is dry and not buried.

I use a MSR Whisperlite because it’s field repairable and has a built-in pot stand. For a pot, I am using an Evernew 1.3 liter Titanium pot with fold out handles. That’s proven a bit small and I will probably upgrade to a 2 liter pot within the next year if I can find one with built-in heat exchanger coils to improve fuel efficiency.

Bulk-wise, liquid fuel stoves tend to have a larger footprint than other fuel/stove types. While my Whisperlite stove, pump, and windscreen fit into my pot, I also need to carry a lot of fuel in a separate 22 or 30 ounce bottle. On the flip side, I never backpack alone in winter so it’s easy to share a stove between several people, as long as they all carry the same brand of fuel bottle.