[pct-l] stoves

[Eric Lee]

Sherry wrote:
>
I purchased a stove through wal-mart that burns white and regular gas.  Darn
things weighs a lb.  But I am concerned about finding canisters of fuel
while I am out there and I know where ever I go there is gasoline.  Now I
keep reading articles about having to prime white gas burners.  Just what
does that mean?
>

White gas stoves can be tricky to use, especially the cheaper models.
Depending on the model, they often have to be hot in order to efficiently
vaporize the fuel for the jets.  The way you get it hot is to pour a bit of
fuel into the priming cup/basin/whatever, light it, and let that warm up the
primary mechanism before you light the jets.  Not every model requires this
step.  The pump is to pressurize the main fuel bottle which is what forces
the fuel through the jets.

White gas stoves are heavy, have lots of moving parts that are prone to
failure or clogging, and are prone to fireballs and no eyebrows if you mess
up the priming.  Their primary advantage is that they put out a ton of heat
and are good for very cold environments where you have to melt a lot of snow
or for large groups.

Most long-distance hikers use either canister stoves, alcohol stove, or
solid-fuel tablet stoves.  Canister and solid-fuel stoves are simple to use
but it can be a little tricky to handle resupply, as you noted.  Alcohol
stoves are also pretty simple to use and it can actually be easier to
resupply alcohol than gasoline along the trail.  Most gas stations will
probably have Heet, which is a gasoline additive that's almost pure alcohol
and many people burn it in their alcohol stoves.  (I think you want Heet in
the yellow bottle if I recall correctly.)  And many resorts that you'll pass
on the Oregon PCT won't have gasoline pumps but will have alcohol available.
And you can build a nice alcohol stove out of soda can for free (a web
search will give you lots of links).

Gasoline also presents some difficulties that you might not have thought of.
You're technically not allowed to pump gas into a non-approved container
(i.e. a regular gas can).  Depending on how closely the station attendant is
paying attention, you may not be allowed to pump gas directly into your fuel
bottle.  You also can't count on siphoning out of a automobile gas tank
since most cars these days have anti-siphon devices installed.

If you want to use the white gas stove, make sure you try it out several
times beforehand so you're comfortable with how it works.  Learning to use a
white gas stove on the trail is a recipe for forest fires.  :-)

Eric