Several pump stoves do also need to be insulatet from the snow. My Optimus 111 will melt down in the snow, tilting more and more untill the pot slides off and fills my boot with ice cold water. Easiest way to prevent this is to use a plate of wood under the stove. Earlier I used an Optimus Nova. Without a plate, it wold also sink into the snow when setting a pot on it. This is the worst disadvantage the way I see it. Filling white gas on a hot stove is a no go for me, 123 is a favorite for everything the tank is big enough for. Winter camping I want a bigger tank. There are no disadvantage with a bigger tank, more fuel in the stove, means less fuel in the bottles.
A US automobile license plate (expired, of course --or not -- just bring a screwdriver) makes a good solid base for a stove. Tom
Most stoves don't stay hot for very long in winter conditions, and so are quickly safe to refill. It's still a major disadvantage to have to refill while melting snow. The other issue is that the radiation of heat from the pot sides is not too much less that the rate the stove can pump heat into the pot's bottom. I was a much happier (winter) camper after I got my XGK. ....Arch
In winter or arctic conditions, efficiency is everything, as you need a lot of fuel to melt snow for hydration and cooking. A lightweight stove requiring more fuel is not a lightweight alternative after all. Other issues discussed above are the need to have a base for the stove to keep it from melting the snow underneath, and the fact that you need a bigger pot than normal, because it takes 3-5 litres of snow to make 1 liter of water. Ideally, a small but powerful stove and a highly effective enclosure to reduce conductive heat loss is what you need in serious sub-zero temperatures and windy conditions. I wanted a winterised, fully enclosed snow-melting and cooking kit based on a traditional kerosene stove (for its fail-safe ease of use and absence of pipes, connections and moving parts), but one that was not too bulky or heavy. Thus, I just made a contraption inspired by the British made kit that was used by Sir Edmund Hillary on Everest in 1953, see second part of the thread: Combining a Radius 21 with an Optimus spirit burner kit | Classic Camp Stoves You can see my inspiration, the original Everest outfit in all its glory, here: Primus on Everest 1953 | Classic Camp Stoves
Coming to this a bit late!! Nobody has mentioned if they use the correct method for melting snow. What you need to do is put a small amount of snow in the bottom of the pot and melt it to water, then add some more snow until it melts etc, etc. It is possible to melt an aluminium pot when trying to melt a whole pot of snow at the one time.
Hi Vegard+All: Some good suggestions here. In the Yukon the dog mushers use large sheath knives to slice off the top of a yellow HEET gas-line anti-freeze (methanol) bottle, then pour that into what is essentially a gigantic wielded Trangia burner, strike a non-safety wooden strikes-anywhere match, drop that in, fill the pot with compacted snow, and off they go... I have tried to miniaturize that, even using 4 Triangia burners, felt-filled larger burners, for a 6L pot, not much success. Whilst I have carbon-felt insulated a Trangia-25 and used that down to -35C, nothing beats an MSR Whisperlite, in my case the Internationale, and white gas for snow melting. One trick that you can do is to create a plastic, or metal ''stove board'', where you never dis-assemble the stove, it stays strapped together in one large assembled piece, with a metal or plastic plate under it so it does not melt into the snow. Both the Norwegian and US armies are using MSK XGK as snow-melters in the field. I wouldn't try using JP-8 winter Diesel in such a role, but on White Gas the MSR's do just fine... Good luck melting snow!
I have some titanium foil with carbon felt stuck on one side, it tends to slide if the surface it is on isn't flat, but still tends to slide downhill after a bit, can't always find a decent piece of bark or sticks to set a stove on to keep it from sinking into the snow. Duane
It is hard to beat a wood burning stove for heating and melting snow. I have a flat-pack titanium stove with a nice glass panel, that weighs in at around 2kg including the 3m chimney: But then again; in mountain terrain above the tree-line, or in true arctic conditions (where the geography or terrain in general is above the tree-line), a wood burning stove is useless. Next winter when I go skiing and winter camping, I look forward to testing my new Everest-kit:
For hiking with one or two people , maybe a Svea with the Tourist kit will work fine, but the thing to remember, melting snow takes a long time. A LOT longer than one might think to get even a couple quarts, if you haven't tried it. "I melted that much snow, and only got this much water??" Tank capacity is a bit limited, and it will get to be tedious on the ears running a Svea full tilt for extended run times. For my money it would probably be tough to improve on the Coleman Peak 1, the brown tank version called the 400, it has the highest if not the highest BTU output or near enough, and a reasonably large fuel tank and running time. And it's also quiet.
We had a morning this last week in the low 30’s, with some areas reporting Frost, and a few areas further north posting photos of accumulated snow… A sweater most mornings is quite welcomed…
I know many here on CCS will never forgive Optimus for its 2008-2010 debacle. However, I think the current Nova, as manufactured since the days of the recall, is a terrific stove. Its bayonet connection is much simpler than the complicated CEJN fitting and seems quite reliable.
