which ones have people tried?
any you found useful/useless?

which ones have people tried?
any you found useful/useless?

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How portable?

Personally, I take a "Temba" butane stove camping with my kids. It is small lightweight, self igniting, and strong enough to do most anything for a small group.
These are the units that are always on sale at Longs or DQ. ---On sale you can get a stove and 3 cans of gas for $20.
The gas cans last a surprisingly long time.

The only down side is it does not do well in windy conditions. You gotta have a really good way to block the wind if you are outside.
It is excellent for home emergency cooking if the power goes out. For 20 bucks, you can't go wrong.

portable meaning not as big a big webber


that's the exact kind of info i was looking for, oldfart
personal picks/pans
specific models people have tried
the one you showed seems the most common and easy to get

i would also like info on the smaller backpack/rocket stoves

================
How portable?

Personally, I take a "Temba" butane stove camping with my kids. It is small lightweight, self igniting, and strong enough to do most anything for a small group.
These are the units that are always on sale at Longs or DQ. ---On sale you can get a stove and 3 cans of gas for $20.
The gas cans last a surprisingly long time.

The only down side is it does not do well in windy conditions. You gotta have a really good way to block the wind if you are outside.
It is excellent for home emergency cooking if the power goes out. For 20 bucks, you can't go wrong.

Optimus svea if you wanna go super portable.  Basic, rugged, tried and true!

The stove that Old Fart mentions are great.  Handy for tailgating, beach, camping etc....

For smaller stoves the Rocket stove is not backpack portable but you can take it anywhere like a small grill.  Burns very hot and uses most bio-fuel.  Fuel consumption is low compared to say cooking over an open fire, but you ain't roasting a pig over it. 

For backpack sized there are quite a few store purchased compressed fuel burners.  However a good soda can stove and some cheap HEAT or similar for fuel will work well.  The soda can stove in the picture with 2-3 ozs of fuel will boil 16 oz of water in about 5 mins.  That is the amount of water that many dehydrated food packets take.  Very light, portable and cheap.  I also picked up a Coghlans fold up stove for under $10.  Folds flat, light, fits well in backpack. 

Here are the set ups.  The Rocket stove was made a bit overkill from leftover ductwork, but it can be done on the cheap with a coffee can and a couple of standard soup cans. 

These are cool.  I see lots of them during the fall months on Forest Fires, http://www.jetboil.com/  I have one but basically just use it to boil hot water.  Most I see use it for coffee.

Back when I was an honest working stiff I shelled out for a MSR Whisperlite International. Glad I did when I had the cash, but its not a perfect stove.

As portable as it gets: its a pretty hardcore backpacking stove. Has a set of jets so you can burn darned near anything in it - I use gasoline because its cheap. Dirty, but cheap. I clean the stove with rubbing alcohol, which is also cheap.

Pros: This kind of stove KICKS out the heat. Boiling water is a breeze. Its also very lightweight and small: the whole deal (minus the fuel bottle) fits inside my cookware. Its pretty efficient with that fuel, too.

Cons: Dirty when used with gas. Need to have a bag to pack it in so you don't get everything else wicked sooty. And pretty much the only thing you can do with it is boil water: there is no simple way to lower the heat from full blast and cook with anything resembling finesse. Its also loud.

Its designed for people who are using hot water to rehydrate dehydrated backpacking food. Its also good for boiling water to make it safe to drink should you need to. I tend to use it to heat up Indian food packets (heat and eat) when I'm camping and make coffee. I have made bacon and eggs with it... takes constant attention but it can be done.

mahalo

that's great
looking forward to hearing more opinions

Back when I was an honest working stiff I shelled out for a MSR Whisperlite International. Glad I did when I had the cash, but its not a perfect stove.

As portable as it gets: its a pretty hardcore backpacking stove. Has a set of jets so you can burn darned near anything in it - I use gasoline because its cheap. Dirty, but cheap. I clean the stove with rubbing alcohol, which is also cheap.

Pros: This kind of stove KICKS out the heat. Boiling water is a breeze. Its also very lightweight and small: the whole deal (minus the fuel bottle) fits inside my cookware. Its pretty efficient with that fuel, too.

Cons: Dirty when used with gas. Need to have a bag to pack it in so you don't get everything else wicked sooty. And pretty much the only thing you can do with it is boil water: there is no simple way to lower the heat from full blast and cook with anything resembling finesse. Its also loud.

Its designed for people who are using hot water to rehydrate dehydrated backpacking food. Its also good for boiling water to make it safe to drink should you need to. I tend to use it to heat up Indian food packets (heat and eat) when I'm camping and make coffee. I have made bacon and eggs with it... takes constant attention but it can be done.

Cheapest stove I've ever used is a twig stove made from 2 coffee cans.

1) Cut a coffee can down to about 3.5 inches tall or so. (I used that size because it fits inside my cooking kit - you can use the whole can if you want but there are better designs for that.)
2) Snip the cut rim every inch or so and fold the edges down.
3) Use a can opener (the kind that punches a triangle) to punch 6 or 8 vents along the bottom and top edges. They have to line up with each other because....
4) Use 3 or 4 of those pairs of tabs to make your raised cooking surface by....
5) Drilling or punching holes in the top and bottom tabs and
6) Inserting 4 or 5 inch nails in them.
7) Cut the bottom off another coffee can by cutting it about 1/4 - 1/2" from the bottom
Give the same treatment to the raw edge, leaving a slight rim
9) Set that on top of the nails to make your cooking surface.

Without the top on, build a little fire in the can or transfer some coals over from your campfire.

You don't really need the can bottom for the cooking surface but it helps to keep your cookware from getting hella sooty.

Put your pot or pan on the top (or directly on the nails if you don't mind the soot) and cook away. Feed the fire twigs in the space between pan and the top of the can that is created by the nails.

Cheap. Kinda fun.

Pros should be fairly obvious. As long as you have stuff that's burn you can cook. I sometimes use homemade "fire starters" to just cook with. Toilet paper tubes stuffed with dryer lint, saturated with parafin and cut into discs.

Cons: Yeah, pretty fiddly. You have to constantly tend that little twig fire. Its also pretty sooty - best to cook with a lid on your pot/pan unless you like catching floating ash in your food. Pulls the nails out and put them inside top pack it down a bit smaller - but its ~really~ dirty so you need a bag to put the whole deal in.

I made mine with 6 air holes and 3 sets of nails. I'd do it with 8 and 4 the next time: more stable.

.

I don't think this is the same stove that clshade was talking about but here is a rocket stove built out of cans. Haven't built one yet but have heard great things about them.

These are cool.  I see lots of them during the fall months on Forest Fires, http://www.jetboil.com/  I have one but basically just use it to boil hot water.  Most I see use it for coffee.

I've had my Jetboil setup for years now. I have the cooking pot and a couple of the cups for the system. Boils water in about three minutes. Also have a french press for the cups to make coffee fast.

.

I use the Coleman PowerPack 1-Burner Stove.  It is a camping stove similar to oldfart's, but uses propane which is cheaper than the cans of butane.

 

The little butane stove that I spoke of previously is on sale this week at Don Quijote.
It is not exactly the same brand but looks to be the same product. The gas is on sale too.
Total cost for stove and 4 cans of gas is LESS than $20 (then add tax)

I'm headed on down there to get groceries now. I'll go check it out to see if it is the same thing.

mahalos OF
i have to check if it's the same as the cassette feu
i have a really old one of those
need extra fuel
may get that other one that uses the coleman propanes as a backup that takes a different type of fuel

dave/mojo said to get the cheap MSR one from sports authoritah

The little butane stove that I spoke of previously is on sale this week at Don Quijote.
It is not exactly the same brand but looks to be the same product. The gas is on sale too.
Total cost for stove and 4 cans of gas is LESS than $20 (then add tax)

I'm headed on down there to get groceries now. I'll go check it out to see if it is the same thing.