How to turn a beer can into a camping stove

[ckkalyan]

Pocket Rocket?! Looking good and brewing strong - piping hot, black coffee on a cool morning, what?

Mark, what is that menacing and Large, Red Vehicle in the background?

Don't tell me - it is the Suzuki Samurai in it's new garb with the turbo-diesel??

[xl_target]

Mark,
That looks like the county snowplow.

[Mark]

It used to serve as a plow, now it is just mainly used as a dump truck. Around the roads here they have found the smaller plow trucks to be faster apparently. However, the plow hitch makes the best place to brew a quick cuppa so I'm glad they left it on!

[ckkalyan]

It used to serve as a plow, now it is just mainly used as a dump truck. Around the roads here they have found the smaller plow trucks to be faster apparently. However, the plow hitch makes the best place to brew a quick cuppa so I'm glad they left it on!

Good One Mark

[VishyB]

Very informative thread!

Thanks Motorpsycho, XL_Target, Mark and others.
Loved the info on the site
http://zenstoves.net/

Regards,
Vishwanath

[xl_target]

About a month ago, I went on a hike with a friend to a nearby State Park.
It was a beautiful warm day on Saturday but during the weekend a weather front moved in and when we woke up in the morning (Sunday), it was 36 deg. F with a stiff breeze blowing through the campsite..
I rolled out of the sleeping bag and was really looking forward to some warm breakfast and piping hot cup of coffee. Brrr! it was a little too cold to be sleeping in a tent and a bag that was only rated for 50 deg. F.

So I pulled out my trusty Coleman stove and my friend pulled out his Jetboil stove. I had him heat the water for the coffee while I tried to saute the onions and sliced mushrooms for the omelettes.
The little Coleman stove tried valiantly but all it could do was heat up a little patch in the center of the frying pan. So we ended up with barely warmed mushrooms and onions and eggs scrambled together.
With the cold, the gas pressure in the cylinder was low and the cold wind made it tough to heat the big frying pan.

In the meantime, my friend's little Jetboil kicked some... erm...derriere and took names. We had boiling water for Coffee in a little over two minutes.
Which was a good thing because I'm grumpy when I can't get a cup of coffee in the morning.
When my daughter and I went on our big hiking trip last year, we met up with some people who had a Jetboil and they were done with their supper before we had even started to get ours warm.

So anyway, I made up my mind that before I go on my next camping trip, I'm buying a freakin' Jetboil.
Hiker use Jetboil stoves because they are light and they boil water quicker than a frat boy can chug a beer.
Mostly they are used to heat water for beverages and for dehydrated meals but because they are so efficient, they use smaller amounts of fuel for each boil.

So I hop on the Internet and... umm, they have about 15 different choices.
Besides that I like to cook breakfast and my daughter likes to cook real meals on the trail. We don't really care for the dehydrated stuff that much.
So after doing some research,I bought a Jetboil Minimo.


A Minimo in RealTree. Why Camo? That's what the store I bought it from had in stock.

When I brought it home I wanted to try it out so I was showing my wife how it all worked.
I put about half a cup of water in the pot, lit the burner and cranked it to the max.
The kitchen filled with the sound of an F4 Phantom in full afterburner. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little but the Jetboil sounds like a mini jet engine.
It was literally about fifteen or twenty seconds and the half cup was at a full rolling boil. Wow!
We will have to see how it performs when the temperature drops below freezing.


image from here
The Jetboil Sol on the left and the Jetboil Minimo on the right. When packed all its parts fit inside the 1 liter cup.


image from here
One of the secrets to Jetboil's efficiency is the heat exchanger that allows the pot to be so efficient.

A decent review: Here

Video Review of the hardware:
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]

[Commonwealth_of_PA]

I know someone who can make a marijuana bong out of a bear can.

I haven't heated or cooked anything while "camping" since the early 80s before I joined the military. And we didn't have smokeless heating bags or hexamine tabs the time I was in so everything was always cold.

I still eat all cold food when camping and bring cold rice and beans or soup lunch when traveling for work.

[dev]

I have an ancient primus stove. Haven't used it for camping but it was used for cooking for a year before we got a gas connection. If I am driving somewhere then this is what I would still carry. As the fuel will last for months. More than any holiday trip I would get leave for.


Regards,

Dev

[brihacharan]

Thanks xl_target for sharing your experiences....
Made interesting reading
Hope the onion/mushroom omelette turned out to be yummy
Briha

[xl_target]

Dev,
There is nothing as convenient as one of those pump up Primus stoves when one requires a portable stove.
They can run on LP gas, Petrol or Kerosene. When I was growing up, I think every household in India had one.
I actually looked at them but they are way too heavy for backpacking. I already carry way too much kit.

This year I determined to slim down my load. I got a new sleeping pad, sleeping bag and now a stove and cookware, among other things.
I've lost about ten pounds off my last years loadout as I was also carrying a bunch of stuff that i didn't need.

Brihaji,
I will definitely keep you in mind when I next make a mushroom Omelette.
I will let you know how it goes.