Hiking stoves

Last night I decided to do a few experiments to test this, as its something I've also been wondering about.

My stove is nothing fancy, a very basic Campingaz model. I used a 1.2 litre aluminium kettle, and 500ml tap water at 17°C. The tests were conducted indoors, and a digital thermometer probe was used for temperature readings of the water temperature. The stove was weighed before and after each test to calculate the gas usage.

Test 1 - Full Power
5 min 26 to reach 97°C
Total gas used- 7g

Test 2 - Half Power
11 min 00 to reach 90°C ( I stopped the test as soon as the temperature stopped rising, 90°C was the limit for half power)
Total gas used- 7g

Test 3- 3/4 Power
7 min 29 to reach 90°C
Total gas used- 7g


I wanted to do another run on full power to time how long it would take to reach 90°C so that I could do accurate comparisons, but unfortunately my gas was running low, and I was unable to do another full power test.

At least though, I had 3 tests that all used exactly 7g of fuel

7g burned in 5:26 heats 500ml water to 97°C
7g burned in 7:26 heats 500ml water to 90°C
7g burned in 11:00 heats 500ml water to 90°C


These results definitely seem to point to the fact that quicker is better, or at least that there seems to be no advantage in using your stove on lower power to save fuel.

I should also mention that on my full power test, there were no flames escaping around the side of the pot. As mentioned earlier in the thread if this is the case, this could cause full power to be less efficient, so I guess this depends on the type of stove used.