Best Winter/Cold Weather Stove

Zack – you need to define the type of use you envisage, snow melting, solo, duo or large group, cooking style, fuel preference etc or you will end up far more confused than you started. Without more info “best” is meaningless.

Some history, and maybe some not-so-ultralight suggestions:

In the really old days the favorite winter stove, particularly for groups, was the Optimus 111B (white gas, big tank w/pump).  It was (is) a roaring powerhouse, and it weighs multiple pounds.  But it can melt prodigious amounts of snow quickly, and can handle enormous pots for large groups.  I still use one for kayak camping with large groups.

Alternatively, the Optimus 00 kerosene stove was the standard winter stove where white gas was hard to find, this stove was also the standard on all Himalayan expeditions I understand.  You need to prime it with alcohol to get the kerosene to light.  This stove doesn’t weigh that much, it might still be a decent choice for winter, if you can find one that doesn’t cost a fortune.

I recall the Svea was hard to light in really cold weather, you had to preheat everything and keep it insulated from the snow.  I never used the optional Svea pump, I heard it marginally helped in cold weather.  The same is true for the Optimus 8R, maybe the optional pump helped.

For years I used a Coleman single-burner stove with preheat tube and built-in pump in the winter, it worked great.  Sometimes I used a fire paste to preheat the tube.  Coleman still makes some version of this stove, a dual-fuel model if I recall.

Don’t forget the remote canister stoves where the canister is designed to be inverted. Caffin has a couple good articles.

When I found out they were going to discontinue the Simmerlite I bought 2 more for a total of 3 and while excellent it has one irksome flaw—it’s nearly impossible when cleaning the fuel wire cable to get the blasted thing reinserted again.

This problem was discovered by me of course and by a guy here on BPL—read his quote—

I once saw a problem with the cleaning wire in the fuel tube. The wire is made from twisted wire cable commonly referred to as aircraft cable. I have never heard of or seen this problem except in a SimmerLite I saw this summer.

After the cable had been removed as part of the cleaning procedure, it could not be pushed back in. The cable had lost some of the temper that maintained the wire twist and when pushing it into the fuel tube, the friction from pushing the wire around the bends caused the wire to untwist slightly and expand, increasing the friction until it could not be pushed any further.

If this happens in the field, the stove will still work without this wire inserted or with the excess wire you could not push in cut off with wire cutters, if you carry them. Make sure you leave some wire extending out so you can remove the cut wire when you get a replacement. To use it this way, pump less pressure into the fuel bottle than you ordinarily would. Removing the wire reduces the restriction to fuel flow and MSR recommends less pressure in the fuel tank to compensate. (MSR will replace any defective part for free and even mail it to the post office of your choice. Just call them when you get to a phone.)

This blurb is from

https://backpackinglight.com/msr_white_gas_stove_maintenance_advice/

I pulled a long trip last winter and like an idiot I didn’t take the time at home to clean the fuel cable so the stove clogged up in the field and took forever to boil up water.  In the tent vestibule I pulled out the cable—easy enough—cleaned it thoroughly—but dangit I never could get it all the way back into the stove as it had 2 inches sticking out where the cable connects to the stove pump.

So I used my hiking pruners and cut the cable off and fired up the stove—well away from the tent of course.  It worked!  I kept using the mangled stove for the next 10 days of the trip.

Ah yes, the MSR XGK, I forgot about that one.  Also a great winter stove, mine never simmered too well but that wasn’t what it was made for.  Worked great.

The only problem I ever had, and it was a dangerous one, was a nick in the o-ring sealing the metal fuel tube where it entered the stove burner.  I did all the pre-lighting checks, no leaks.  But when I lit the stove fuel leaked past the o-ring.   Quite fortunately the stove was on a slight incline so the fuel ran away from the burner and I saw it before it ignited.  Had it gone the other way towards the burner and ignited there would have been an inferno, possibly deadly when the flames got to the full fuel bottle, as it likely would have generated an enormous fireball.

Lesson…carefully maintain all liquid fuel stoves, check and recheck before use!

Best quiet, winter alcohol stove is the Mega Starlyte paired up with a wood stove as the pot support:

Lowest temperature you have used your alcohol stove

<p style=”padding-left: 40px;”>Anyone else use Esbit in winter? I double up for snow melting or make tiny stick fire, single tab for coffee/oatmeal.</p>
Not best for speed- that’s ok, I’m not in a big rush.

best for simplicity and safety- I’m a fan.

I disagree that alcohol (and Esbit by extension) is a solid winter snow-melting stove. A couple of years ago when Dan was being the camp host down south, his daughter sent me a Mega Starlyte to test and report back. After testing at my home (5440′ elevation) and again in the mountains at 8300′, I found that the stove wasn’t very acceptable to me for winter snow-melting. My reasons for this:

1. It took quite a bit of alcohol (~ 3 fl. oz.) to melt 2 liters of water from snow, and it took quite awhile to do so.
2. The extra weight of the alcohol required made it a bit heavier than my regular canister stove setup with a Moulder Strip.
3. Alcohol is quite a bit slower to melt snow, and its efficiency drops as the elevation increases and the temperature decreases.

As Jon Fong says, my 2c

took a handful of twigs and roughly about 6 minutes for 2.5 cups water to boil.

That set up there weighs just over 8 ounces with 6 quick tinder tabs, 4 storm proof matches, a mini bic lighter, an MSR collapsible spoon and MSR collapsible fork.. And yes, it all fits inside that 600ml pot, with a cuben fiber stuff sack 😍 works for me !!