Stove suggestions

[mmocken]

you could also make a penny stove

http://www.csun.edu/~mjurey/penny.html

[Joanna]

Those canisters are damned hard to find. I really resent it.
I'm going to jettison the butane stoves and go back to my Coleman.

[scatter]

Check the yellow pages for a restaurant supply store. They sell the butane cylinders at a good price. Never had a problem finding them that way.

[daveb]

Here is a couple links of a few stoves.
http://www.rvpartscenter.com/ProductDet ... CategoryID

http://www.nextag.com/More-Categories-- ... 6z5---html

I really like the looks of the Wedgewood but pricy.
DaveB

[Velogeo]

We use a JetBoil for... boiling, mostly water for coffee. We also use one of the Coleman propane stoves hooked via a long hose to the propane in the van. I deleted the propane system when building the van but have found out that two half size propane tanks tuck snuggly into one of my cabinets where Rob installed the sub-woofer. I usually carry a small green propane bottle in case we want to set up the stove on a picnic table or the like and the hose won't reach.

I've seen the butane bottles at GI Joe's (they're only in the northwest, I think), Sportman's Warehouse, and REI. I'd bet Cabela's has them as well. I'm sure someone would have them locally.

[EMrider]

Originally Posted by scatter

Check the yellow pages for a restaurant supply store. They sell the butane cylinders at a good price. Never had a problem finding them that way.

That is where I've found the butane canisters too. Bought about 15 of them and was surprised at how inexpensive they are. Their service life seems pretty good too. We've got two of the SMB butane stoves and have been very happy with their performance for very basic cooking.
R

[Greggd]

Of the two fuels Propane is the more user friendly , and will give you better performance overall . The only advantages to butane are it's cost and the fact that it exerts less (psi) on the the tanks interior . Most of the disposable Propane tanks that we have all purchased contain only 20% to 40% propane with the balance made up of Butane . Below are psi examples for the two fuels
Propane at 100 degrees F = 196 psi
Butane at 100 degrees F = 37 psi
Propane at 70 degrees F =127 psi
Butane at 70 degrees F = 17 psi
Butane looses the majority of it's efficiency at a temperature of 15 degrees F
Propane is good down to minus 44 degrees F
British Thermal Units BTU's are
Propane = 21,548 BTU's per pound
Butane = 21, 221 BTU's per pound
Propane weighs in at 4.2 pounds per gallon
Butane weighs in at 4.8 pounds per gallon
Snow camping always required the use of White gas or Kerosene as the disposable canisters were of no use at altitude and cold .
Greggde

[DUKCSUN]

I found the butane SMB stoves to be inadequate at sea level and totally useless at altitude. It wouldn't even boil a pan of water for pasta at 10k.

I use a JetBoil for boiling water primarily for coffee and hot coco. Aside from the LED headlamp, I consider the JetBoil to be one of the best new products for outdoor enthusiasts in the last decade. I wish I had it when I was peak-bagging.

I also use a Coleman Fold-n-Go propane stove. Folded up it fits nicely into the side-door box with a couple of canisters. I also bought the carrying case for it which limits the amount of rattling that might happen. I like it because it has one of the highest BTU outputs of any portable stove, it has two burners and its portable so I can cook out on a table outside which is what I definately prefer to do.

I also use 2 non-stick splatter guards (do search on non-stick folding splatter guard) as wind screens when cooking outside and they also fold up to prefect size for putting in the Fold-n-Go carrying case.

Works for me.

[John and Dana]

Bryan,

Maybe there is a problem with your cook top. We have the butane cook tops and at low elevation they boil water much quicker than our Coleman propane stove. It takes less than 2 minutes to boil water for our morning coffee, about 32 oz. We haven't been to 10,000 feet yet but camped at 4200 and didn't notice any appreciable difference in the performance of the burners.

We found the best prices for the butane on ebay we bought a case for about $2.00 per can including shipping.

John

[scatter]

We also use the little butane stoves and love 'em. They cook so hot and fast it's scary. Much more so then the couple of propane stoves we have. Used the butane at over 10,000 feet and they were still great. I agree that butane is not very good at really cold temps, but when it's that cold we're sitting inside with the espar running and both the stove and occupants are toasty.
But then you're right, JetBoils are really cool....