UL fuel efficient cook system

[AK Troutbum]

So I’ve been messing around for a while now trying to put together the absolute lightest, most efficient cook system, but also wanting something that I think will provide many years of use and not break the bank. Well, I think I did it! Total wt. for this system is just under 6 oz., and it will bring 16oz. of 45° water to a rolling boil in under 2 minutes, using 5 grams of fuel.

When I include everything (mini Bic lighter, spoon, and 100gr. fuel canister), the entire system comes in at just over 13 oz. Not bad for a complete cooking system that should be able to cook two meals a day for a 10 day hunt. I spent $39 on the pot and stove (shipped), took the handle off the pot, then used the lid and sleeve off an old JB that I had.

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[justinspicher]

What type of meals and beverages are you able to produce with 16oz of water?

 

[wildwilderness]

Please tell the components! I need to lighten up as well

 

[Jaypy]

 

[sneaky]

What type of meals and beverages are you able to produce with 16oz of water?

Most of the mountain house meals take 16oz. Now, doing a meal and a beverage out of 16oz... that's a party trick I think

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[drmatara]

What are the components you used?

 

[justinspicher]

I figured your meal plan was pretty basic, MH or ramen. I was just curious if you did more than that.

 

[fatlander]

You have links to the pot and stove?


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[Dirtydan]

I tried the BRS with my Toaks 550 a couple times but went back to the Pocket Rocket II. Pot kept sliding off the small pot stands and the boil time is a bit longer with the BRS. Always tinkering trying to lighten the load.

 

[JohnB]

Tell me more. I've used a BRS and Olicamp but could go a little lighter.

 

[AK Troutbum]

This has been a work in progress for a few years now and I’ve used multiple pots and stove combinations, like a half a dozen of each, in the process. It was easy enough to find a lighter pot/stove combo than a Jetboil, but nothing I came up with could compete with the efficiency of the JB. The way I figured, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense having a system that was lighter than a JB, but nowhere near as efficient, and I’d just have to carry more fuel. It wouldn’t be a problem if the hunt was just for two or three days, because any canister fuel system would work just fine using a small (100 g), fuel canister. The problem is, I never go hunting for just two or three days. I only go on a few hunts a year, but I never go on a hunt that is less than 10 days and many times they are upwards of two weeks.
I decided to just focus on putting together an ultralight canister fuel system because I like the simplicity of the canister, and I didn’t want to mess with Sterno or alcohol.
With a bunch of testing from many different stoves (Pocket Rocket, PR2, BRS, JB’s, a couple different Soto’s, etc.), I came to the conclusion that the stove itself didn’t really make any difference in regards to the overall efficiency or how long it took to bring said pot of water to a boil, all the stoves would bring the water up to boil very quickly, but they would all fail miserably when compared to the efficiency of the JB. Even the JB stove became inefficient, when coupled with any regular aluminum or titanium pot. And like I said before, efficiency was my main concern, as I really don’t care if it takes two minutes or four minutes to get the water boiling. Although, in past tests I would include the time as well because some people want to have that info.
So, it quickly became evident that it is the pot design that makes all the difference. The heat conduction “fins”, on the JB pots are ingenious (I think JB came up with that design, but I’m not certain), and although they do add some wt. to the pot, they easily make up for it in efficiency. The neoprene sleeve on the JB also helps with efficiency and easily makes up for its wt. penalty, plus I like the built in heat indicator.
So, I could have just taken one of my JB pots and coupled it with my favorite UL stove, and called it good. The problem I had with that was, I felt that the JB pots are all unnecessarily big for my application, and I really didn’t want to go about cutting it down, then having to file the sharp edge and find a suitable lid, etc. I also wanted to do this on the cheap, and destroying a JB seemed counter productive to that idea.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, someone on here had mentioned a cheap pot that was exactly what I was looking for, only it didn’t come with a neoprene sleeve, and the lid was way too heavy. I bought the Sterno pot on Amazon for $24, and in order to get free shipping, I just went ahead and ordered another BRS stove for $15.
The BRS is hands down my favorite stove. It’s very inexpensive, waaay lighter than the competition, just as efficient as anything else, and so far, has been very reliable. I’ve been using the same BRS stove now, almost exclusively, for the last 5 years without any issues whatsoever.
I bent the feet on the BRS, to make it easier for the stove to fit up into the pot, and fit more stable in between the fins, and I also went ahead and did some cutting and stitching on the JB sleeve to make it fit the new pot. The JB lid is not perfect fit, but it stays on ok and it’s fairly light wt.

In the past I’ve pretty much only eaten Mountain House, and 16 oz. of water is the most that any of them use, so that’s what I’ve looked for in a pot. Just this past season I started taking Peak Refuel, which most use 8 oz. of water, and some even less than that. I’ve stocked up on several hundred dollars worth of Peak and, I think going forward, this will be my preferred meals, so based on that, a canister of fuel should go much farther.
My typical stove uses in the past have been about 24 oz. of water in the morning for a MH meal and coffee, and approximately 32 oz. in the evening for another MH and a hot drink. Going forward I expected to cut that down to about 11-16 oz. morning, and 19-24 oz. in the evening.
Here are a few pictures of what each of the items weigh individually.

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[AK Troutbum]

Oh, and as a side note, the measurements on the side of the pot aren’t accurate. The 8 oz. mark on the pot is actually 9 oz. and the 16oz. mark is actually closer to 18 oz.
It probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference but just something I wanted to make note of.


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[Holmes]

This is awesome info, thank you!
I've done the same searching as you for a lightweight stove setup, but they all required me to carry more fuel due to inefficient heat transfer, completely negating any savings. I applaud your dedication and solution!
I, unlike you, boil a ton of water at a time though. I make dinner, breakfast, morning coffee, and next day's hot-drink all at once. So, I'm likely to stay with the huge JB pot, unless you know a better big option.

Bending those wings on the BRS Stove looks great though. I think I'm going to steal that idea.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I just did another 16 oz. boil but kept the heat a little lower, trying to squeak out a little more efficiency.
I used the same 45° water that I used yesterday and my boil time went from 1.5 minutes yesterday to just under two minutes today, and my fuel usage went from 5 g yesterday to 3 g today. So, efficiency went up significantly and boil time did not go up very much at all.

Wt. before the test.

Boil time.

Wt. after the test.

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[AK Troutbum]

This is awesome info, thank you!
I've done the same searching as you for a lightweight stove setup, but they all required me to carry more fuel due to inefficient heat transfer, completely negating any savings. I applaud your dedication and solution!
I, unlike you, boil a ton of water at a time though. I make dinner, breakfast, morning coffee, and next day's hot-drink all at once. So, I'm likely to stay with the huge JB pot, unless you know a better big option.

Bending those wings on the BRS Stove looks great though. I think I'm going to steal that idea.

The 32 oz. Olicamp pot (it easily holds 37oz.), may be a better option for you.

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[AK Troutbum]

I tried the BRS with my Toaks 550 a couple times but went back to the Pocket Rocket II. Pot kept sliding off the small pot stands and the boil time is a bit longer with the BRS. Always tinkering trying to lighten the load.

I had the same issues when I used my titanium Toak’s pots and ended up going with this little stove, simply because it had a wider footprint and was just as efficient as the PR, but also quite a bit lighter.

I can’t remember where I bought it, but I bought two of them and they ended up only costing $6 each, shipped. In the end, I liked the BRS footprint better than the other stove, but neither were ideal.
The BRS on the right.

BRS/Toak’s 650 pot.

The other one (unknown brand).

The way the foot prints are on the MSR stoves is a little better, but they are also quite a bit heavier as well.

The footprint on the Soto Amicus stove is the best with four points of contact, but it’s also a bit on the heavy side as well.

The way the BRS stove fits into the fins of the Sterno pot, is ideal and, as far as I’m concerned it’s the best thing going, short of having a system that locks together.

I have absolutely no loyalty to any of these stoves, as far as I’m concerned they are all Chinese crap, but we aren’t making anything in the US that even comes close, so we have to work with what’s available to us.

In regards to the couple of heavier stoves with the push button start mechanism, I do like it, but I’ve heard of them failing, and I always carry a mini Bic lighter anyway, so that’s kind of a moot point.


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[sneaky]

The 32 oz. Olicamp pot (it easily holds 37oz.), may be a better option for you.

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I wonder what that would weigh cut down? Maybe take it to a little over 16oz in capacity. Hmmmmm.... not an expensive pot to hack either.
Maybe with a Ruta Locura carbon fiber lid....

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[AK Troutbum]

I wonder what that would weigh cut down? Maybe take it to a little over 16oz in capacity. Hmmmmm.... not an expensive pot to hack either.
Maybe with a Ruta Locura carbon fiber lid....

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IDK, but there’s probably no reason to do that since Sterno makes pretty much the exact same pot in the 16 ounce version. RL doesn’t make the carbon fiber lids anymore.


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[Holmes]

The 32 oz. Olicamp pot (it easily holds 37oz.), may be a better option for you.

excellent!
Once I put a neoprene jacket on it, the weight savings won't be "huge" over my Jetboil MicroMo, less than 1/4lb.....but seeing how much I spend to shave that much weight off my rifle (or worse, my skis or bike!) this seems like a low hanging fruit improvement.
Thank you.

 

[thegoosano]

Nice work! Looks like a great setup. Have you done a wind test? It seems like that’s where these types of stoves really suffer and lose fuel efficiency at an extreme amount.

At a certain point what you’re cutting in stove component weight can mean you’re carrying more fuel on longer trips, giving a negative return in the end. I had that issue with the stove peak lite Max stove. I switched to the Soto wind master and now can carry half the fuel in longer 5-10day trips.

Not saying that’s what you’ll experience and I really hope not. But a test in 10-20mph wind with and without a wind screen would be an awesome follow up!


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