Luke Breaks Down the Soto, Jetboil Chubby.....AKA The Petker

[Yellowknife]

Ok, further followup. My son and I were hanging out tonight and decided to do further experimentation (he's four, and loves running the stopwatch and measuring things) Under idealized conditions (indoors, no wind), I can improve fuel efficiency considerably by either A.) turning stove down to half throttle, or B.) using a wide pot.

Using the SOTO and the 1.3L Ti pot, I consistently boiled 16 oz in 3:10 using just 7g of fuel at about 1/2 throttle (keeping in the flame pattern inside the pot diameter)

Using the SOTO and a wide 2.5L MSR Blacklite pot, I boiled 16 oz in 2:10 using the same 7g of fuel. I could run about 7/8 throttle with this pot. This pot is both faster and more very fuel efficient, and I use it regularly for 2+ person trips.

Of course those numbers aren't that realistic for alpine field conditions, but it does show that operator error can waste a lot of heat into the air. I'm sure the Jetboil pots are both more wind resistant and fuel efficient, but with proper use a standard stove can do ok.

Yk

 

[Nick Muche]

Are you guys running the stove, boiling water and then weighing the canister before and after?

 

[Yellowknife]

Yes

 

[luke moffat]

Are you guys running the stove, boiling water and then weighing the canister before and after?

Correct, weigh and record canister weight, boil water, record canister weight after fuel usage.


YK,

Interesting stuff. I wonder if I could increase the fuel efficiency of the SOTO with the jetboil by not running 'er wide open under the jetboil Sumo cup. 18 grams for a 4:40 3 liter boil seems good, but even going to a 6 minute boil for 3 liters would be fun to see if I could get the usage down to even 5 gram/liter. Fun stuff to think about, but the weather is getting too nice to get too much into this. Just happy to know that Soto/Sumo upgrade wasn't in vain.

BTW your 4 year old is destined to be a engineer as well it sounds like!! Cool stuff!

 

[Yellowknife]

..... Fun stuff to think about, but the weather is getting too nice to get too much into this.

Amen. I've been seeing quite a bit of sunshine the last few weekends and am headed out for a cabin trip with the whole family on Friday. Spring bear trip coming up too. I've used the stove enough to know how long fuel lasts in the field, and that's all I really need to know.

Enjoy your spring trips.

Yk.

 

[Rucker61]

Which Soto stoves are compatible with this DIY mod?

 

[snowcamoman]

I have the newer SOTO Windmaster and it works. The older OD-1R works as well as the Snow Peak Litemax.

 

[Slim Jim]

Luke, what did you use to notch the bottom of your Sol pot to hold the stove?

 

[Slim Jim]

Never mind Luke, I used my bandsaw and it worked great. I was able to notch it deep enough to get the stove level with the bottom of pot. Thanks for the idea because the boil time with the titanium pot was using way to much fuel

 

[luke moffat]

Never mind Luke, I used my bandsaw and it worked great. I was able to notch it deep enough to get the stove level with the bottom of pot. Thanks for the idea because the boil time with the titanium pot was using way to much fuel

Glad it worked out for you. Modding a new Sumo cup out to accept the 4 supports of the larger pot support for the wind pro Soto as the new 3 supports of the wind pro is much smaller than the older SOTO 3 support so the larger one with be nice.