How Much Fuel Should You Bring Backpacking? || REI

If you’ve ever wondered if you really need to bring more than one fuel canister, this video is for you. In it, Katie covers how to plan how much water you’ll need to boil on your trip, how to test your stove to see how many boils you can get out of a full canister, and how to use all that info to figure how much fuel you’ll need pack.

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[GregoryVeizades]

Really impressed that you mentioned the lack of stove Regulation. Not something the average shopper would know to think about.

[aaalllen]

Passing on some advice I got a long while ago: write the total weight in grams w/ sharpie at the bottom. Then at the end of each trip, do it again.

[BrettVano]

As a newbie, this video knocked it out of the park. And I was really surprised at the attention to detail on the variables in this. The team on this video really covered their bases.

[AdventureOtaku]

This is really a sensational video.THANK YOU for calling out the caveats! You hit them all! This was indoors, no wind, unregulated stove. The only thing you didn’t mention was water temp! If you are using filtered water from a stream it is going to be COLD which will affect boil time. Great Video, thanks.

[hoozurmama]

Very informative video. Sometimes REI stuff is too top level. I appreciate this one getting in the weeds but still making it very clear and concise.

[muskietime]

Well done. Right to the point, mentioned that there will be variables that impact “Real Life” and showed the math so users can draw their own conclusions.
Appreciate that this was not a “Sales Pitch” (heck, even used an older burner!).
Thank you.
Subscribed

[TheDataDispatch]

Sure it's under ideal conditions, but the test gives a nice baseline. Thanks for the video. I prefer to carry esbit so I can take just the right amount of fuel and not have to carry around empty canisters, but this is a great starting point for thinking about how many canisters to carry for when I have to take the old MSR.

[aok]

Thanks for talking in metric millilitres and grams. This is much more relatable for most of the world. Great vid, useful information 👍

[seaotter]

There's no need to go to a full boil for most rehydration cooking. If you stop when you start getting a couple of bubbles on the bottom it will be plenty hot especially when you use a coozy. Depending on the food, I have the stove on less time, maybe 25-30% less. For hot chocolate I only heat till hot to the touch.

[yjpmgfh]

This is a great video for helping kids learn division/ multiplication

[mattcero]

Very useful! I was about to do this on my back porch so thanks for saving me the effort. One of these will do 6 liters or about 25 cups of water. I can boil water for oatmeal and coffee and one of these will last me 12 days or 6 days if I have a dinner. Many thanks.

[kirkw]

So 27 min 30 sec to burn through 100 g of fuel with that setup. I'd be really interested to see a comparison of burn times and boil times for different burners and tanks. I'm also curious what position your valve was in, but assume it was fully open.

[southtube]

Great job....good info. Please look past the "could of" "should of" "would of" gang. Mileage always vary...we're adults. Thanks again nice job, good vid and awesome data.

[azclaimjumper]

Thanks to the G Works adapter, I always start any & all trips with a FULL canister of fuel. I don't have any partially empty canister laying around. When I return from a trip, I top of the canister until it is FULL.

[klaws]

video!!! If we could only have every video be this worthwhile. For this we can thank REI and cross our fingers for others to step up to the bar that has been raised. Until then…thank you REI for putting a ton of time and effort into a vid that was educational and enjoyable!

[legendofhyrule]

Math never makes sense to me. This was great. Wish I had a math teacher like you back in the day.

[jayy]

We need videos like this rather than comparing stoves. GD job 😍😍😍

[mrq]

Great video! The pot I use to boil water has a heat exchanger and it dramatically cut down on boil times. I always place the lid on the pot as well, which further cuts down on boil times.

[JohnFisk-OHS-]

As so many have said: Excellent video!

Probably the best take home message - do your own homework if you tend to be OCD and want to be prepared. The alternative is to risk over- or under-resourcing. Admittedly, you can probably live without a stove for an entire through hike, but.. ***shudder*** who would want to. Hot caffeine in the AM fuels human existence. Experiment in your backyard and have some fun.

Again, many thanks!

[FIA]

Huge difference between boiling cold water in winter and boiling warmer water in summer. Obviously wind and altitude also play a role. It's probably more reliable to keep track of how long you've used a particular container, since assuming that the stove is burning full on, the time per canister should be relatively reproducible. Once you know that you get X number of minutes of burner time from a canister, you can just time each boil on the stopwatch on your phone, and keep a phone note of time used for the canister.